Show I PLANS DEATH FIGHT t YALE MAN WOULD ADD THIRD TO I SPAN OF LICE rAf Dr Fisher Urges Insurance Companies to Educate People In Hygienic 11 If Conditions for This i Purpote a Sr l Now YorkThe span of human life 1 may be Increased one third by the application ap-plication of reforms now known to modern hygiene Tho statement was made the other lay by Dr Irving Fisher professor of i political economy at Yale and president i p E presi-dent of tho committee of eta hundred on national health Dr Fisher proposed the expenditure of money by life insurance companies y n In a campaign of education to Improve r Im-prove hygienic conditions throughout tho United States He gave as his justification for this suggestion the fact that practical application of all the reforms now known to modern hygiene would Increase l tho average length of life in America more than 16 yearsor over onethird i This decreased mortality ho said k would so lessen tho cost of insurance that tho returns to policyholders would bo many times more than the original expenditure Then too there would bo a vast economic gain to tho country In general by reason of tho t prolongation of the lives of trained efficient men Dr Fisher made these statements to a meeting of the Association of Life I Insurance Presidents which was attended I J at-tended by company executives medical medi-cal directors and actuaries as well rs physicians and others prominent in the present tuberculosis crusade The insurance men whom 1 have consulted as to whether It would pay life Insurance companies to engage In the savIng of lives have been unanimous unani-mous In their belief that the step would be a profitable one said Dr Fisher a A fall of the death rate always promptly follows sanitation Col Goergas cut tho death rate in Havana in two bringing it down to between 20 and 24 Tho Now York death rate responded at once to Col Warings r xti cleanstreets and that of Rochester to Dr Colors milk crusade And now it Is announced that the death rate of I New York Is 166 the lowest on record rec-ord Tuberculosis is known to bo preventable pre-ventable In my table It Is entered as 76 per cent preventable pneumonia as 46 per cent preventable typhoid as 85 per cent diphtheria 70 per cent According to the plans which J 1 have In mind the money which the life Insurance companies would Invest In life saving would not ho In hospitals hospi-tals or sanatoria but In the edura tlon of the public and especially their policyholders In health matters and the Joining In every legitimate way to Improve the public health offices and services In the municipalities states and the federal government Just as fire Insurance companies endeavor to secure In municipalities adequate lire protection so life Instance Inst-ance companies might properly endeavor en-deavor to secure adequate municipal health protection and they might likewise like-wise bring their Influence to bear to secure the passage of model health laws by our states In respect to slaughter houses pure food and other health reforms It is agreed by all competent Judges that there Is now a great and needless waste of human life and It Is obvious that tho financial weight of this waste falls largely on the policyholders I Dr Fisher suggested the committee of one hundred on national health as an agency through which tho education educa-tion for hygienic reforms could be conducted lie is president of that organization which is carrying on an extensive movement throughout the country to Improve living conditions Dr Fisher has been professor of political politi-cal economy at Yale since 1908 |