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Show Longer Life for Working Classes Has Been Gained New York. Longer life for the working classes in this country has been gained during the past quarter of a century as a result of public health activities, activi-ties, a report of the Metropolitan Metropoli-tan Life Insurance company shows. The expectation of life at birth for the industrial policyholders of this company crossed the 60 year mark for the first time in 1935. In 1911 the expectation of life at birth for this class of the population was only 46.63 years whereas now it is 60.25 years. Expectation of life at birth for the working classes is now almost as good as for the population as a whole, it appears from comparison of the life insurance figures with those of the United States registration registra-tion area. For the whole population, in 1934, life expectation at birth was 60.79 years. The gain in life expectation of the insured wage earners appears even more striking when compared with urban dwellers rather than with the population as a whole. This is a fairer comparison, the life insurance statisticians point out, because the insured wage earners live chiefly in cities. White males af age ten in the urban area of the United States gained 3.95 years of life from 1910 to 1930, while white male industrial policyholders at the same age gained 6.77 years from 1911-12 to 1930. At the same age white females in the industrial policyholder group gained a year more than those in the urban area of the United States. Credit Given Health Authorities. The gain in life expectation for the industrial class is all the more striking and encouraging because it was made during a quarter century cen-tury that included the World war, the devastating 1918-19 influenza epidemic epi-demic and the economic depression, each of which greatly afTected the lives and health of the population. Commenting on this, the life insurance in-surance officers compliment the health authorities of the country as follows : "Throughout this quarter century, and in the face of the calamities mentioned, those charged with the administration of our public health activities have maintained a scientific scienti-fic attitude toward their duties. Current Cur-rent discoveries in medicine and sanitary science have been applied as soon as they had demonstrated their worth. The results are undoubtedly un-doubtedly reflected in the highly j gratifying figures that have been quoted." j |