HERALD Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE
VOLUME 53 — NO. 48
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. 0. Box 100, TEMPLE, TEXAS
DECEMBER 1, 1965
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK NEWBORN LIFE EXPECTANCY AT 702-YEAR PEAK A child born in the United States during 1964 could look forward to an average lifespan of about two months past his 70th birthday, according to the Institute of Life Insurance. Latest government estimates indicate that average life expectancy at birth climbed back to the record level of 70.2 years, first reached in 1961. This represents a gain in longevity of about 23 years since the turn of the century. But much of the gain occurred during the second quarter of the century, when women's mortality due to childbirth had been largely overcome and when antibiotics and other new miracle drugs conquered many infectious diseases. Recent progress has been slow and slight. In the past decades, less than a year has been added to life expectancy at birth, and gains among mature adults has been even smaller. Further substantial progress is unlikely without breakthroughs against heart disease and cancer. In 1963 (the latest detailed figures), life expectancy at birth was 66.6 years for boys, 73.4 years for girls, and 69.9 years for both sexes. • • No matter what one's nationality, race, sex, age, or religion, everyone wishes to become or to remain happy. Definitions of happiness are interest-
QUOTES . . . Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up, and hurry off as if nothing had happened. • Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth. • • National Pickle Week a:nd Mother's Day are both in May. Fine thing! We devote 24 hours a year honoring our mothers and seven days celebrating a relish! ing. One of the best was given by a college president some years ago: "The happiest person is the one who thinks the most interesting thoughts." This definition places happiness where it belongs — within and not without. The principle of happiness should be like the principle of virtue: it should not be dependent on things, but be a part of personality. If the happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts we are bound to grow happier as we advance in years, because our minds have more and more interesting thoughts. A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view halfway up is better than the view from the base, and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands. Herein lies the real value of educa-
tion. Advanced education may or may not make men and women more efficient; but it enriches personality, increases the wealth of the mind, and hence brings happiness. It is the finest insurance against old age, against the growth of physical disability, against the lack and loss of animal delights. No matter how many there may be in our family, no matter haw many friends we may have, we are in a certain sense forced to lead a lonely life, because we have all the days of our existence to live with ourselves. How essential it is, then, in youth to acquire some intellectual or artistic tastes in order to furnish the mind, to be able to live inside a mind with attractive and interesting pictures on the walls. Happiness is made to be shared. • • INSURANCE COMPANIES HELP TEACH YOUNGSTERS MONEY MANAGEMENT Pupils in the early grades of an Oklahoma City primary school create their own posters and charts to help themselves learn about money and how families function as economic units. In New York City, a series of educational programs on personal finance brings local bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers, accountants, tax agents and other experts into high school classrooms throughout the metropolitan area. San Francisco elementary and high