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Show U.S. Suicide Rate High Among Older People CHICAGO Two-thirds of the old people in the United States feel unwanted, a medical professor as- -serted at Northwestern University's Univer-sity's Centennial Conference on "Problems of An Aging Popula tion." "It is not accidental that th suicide rate for white North Americans Amer-icans high in general when compared com-pared to other countries is more than twice as high above the age of 55 as it is up to 55 (20.1 in 100,000 population as compared to 9.7). declared de-clared Dr. Erwin Ackerknecht, professor of the history of medicine, medi-cine, University of Wisconsin. Americans lack respect for the old, the speaker said, citing the tendency of children to remain seated in busses and street cars when older people are standing. Dr. Ackerknecht said the old folks condone this lack of respect for themselves. "They not only often participate in the brat idolatry idola-try of modern American society, but seem afraid to enforce the rising ris-ing of children for other reasons," he added. "This would imply public admission admis-sion of the fact that they are old," the professor pointed out, "a status for which apparently they have hardly more respect or sympathy than the rest of the group." The United States would do well to take a lesson from France in displaying affection and respect for elderly men and women, according ac-cording to statistics given by Dr. Ackerknecht. |
