Evening Star Newspaper, November 9, 1930, Page 95

BY IRMA BENJAMIN. iTTING it up at “40 or 50,” taking the hills of emotional strain instead of the levels of ealm Mving, speed- ing around dangerous curves, step- ping on the gas of mental and physical activities with ne heed $o the “middle @@e, slow up here” warnings are direct paths #o the precipice of self-destruction. The detour #igns may point to slower, more bumpy roaxds, Put they are, in the final analysis, the safer. “Man usually takes better ecare of his auto- foobile than of the human machine, for which $here are no spare paris,” said Dr. David Ries- fman, professor of clinical medicine at the Uni- persity of Pennsylvania. 'The ealm quietude ot this medical authority in the midst of a busy @ffice practice, the screnity of the background ot mahogany-paneled walls hung with exquisite the lack of the usual staccato touch of the proverbial busy American physician, all bespoke the very qualities for which Dr. Ries- man pleads in his earnest and scientific fight @gainst the ever-increasing menace of high Bblood pressure, with its alarming increase in “Our middle-aged Americans are leading a fremendously high-geared life,” eontinued the L . “Our death rate from hardened blood wessel disease is increasing everywhere in America, and especially among the moneyed responsibili'y of businesses of large proportions. He refuses to let down, even in his sports. Americans go m for competitive sport, which, if carried too tar, becomes & mental and emo- Slonal strain, rather than the physical relaxa- that outdoor sport should typify. Man have a hobby remote from his business, that hobby should not be cultivated with Same intensity as his business. It then de- #s own purpose. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 9, 1930 11 Detour From Speedway of American Lif ¢ “SOIII of the middle-aged persons who make up the largest proportion of cases with early signs of cardiac failure play golf to excess. The call of the game is for them almost irresistible. An authority on the subject cal- culated how much energy an individual ex- ’ walking at the rate of four miles an over a conventional level course of 6,000 York. At the speed of two would expend as much energy would serve to lift him a lif{tle more than ght of the same building, and since the golf courses are located on hilly tput of the energy to cover the Tk involved in practice and searching for the ball must ‘ there's ever so much more volved in the hunt for lost balls, one facetiously observe. This calculation does into consideration the extra tax upon the heart that in some persons at least is en- gendered by the intensity of competition. The one is purely physical, the other mental, or should I say emotional? The competition in business life is sufficiently devastating to the middle-aged constitution without adding to this through self-imposition an equally taxing com- Unzwillingness of the Average Business Man to Let Down a Bit When He Reaches Middle Age Is Cause of Many Deaths From. Heart Disease, Declares an Eminent Doctor-Philosopher. we must insute him against unemployment and in middle age.” is ‘we’?” he was asked. is a dificult question,” the doctor smiled. “Some day the industry, some think the State should provide non-employment in- surance. We have made remarkable progress in the conservation of child life, but we are man being shoved into his niche at the veyor, the man approaching middle age himself on with the whiphand of constant for the present as well as for the future. But that condition of efficiency of material handling cannot be ehanged, so we must find ways and means to overcome the results in the terms of personal equation. We must shorten of the artisan’s work each day, and important ing, far-seeing doctor-philosopher was tha$ his week. And, more Americans could cultivate a greater indive idualism—Iless mass psychology—and a more leisurely existence, they might make their life almost ideal. High-powered advertising and salesmanship defeat the individual taste and up mass standards. A premium is put upon in home mechanical devices, ‘rush hour on living, he works sanely, plays with an equal amount i