RETIRING AGES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5029, 20 September 1926, Page 4

RETIRING AGES.

SIXTY YEARS OLD TOO YOUNG.

AN AMERICAN SUMMARY.

The Literary Digest (New York) summarises a, ll interesting discussion now going on in the 1 Amwicam press on the proper retiring age:—

Sixty years is too young—6s or 70 is a better age limit— accordingto President Coolidge, for allowing Government employees to retire from service and to become pensioners; consequently sponsors of Bills before Congress to liberalise the present system have raised their minimum to 62 for optional retirement, with graduations to 65 and beyond. This at once raises, the; question of when to retire, not merely from Government Civil Service, but from active duties in business and the professions. Most editors 1 apparently ta,ke pleasure in marshalling examples of successful careers beyond 60 and beyond the Biblical three score and ,ten. “Thiel truth is that men now know how to live, more sensibly, and longer, than they formerly did,” declares the Cincinnati Enquirer ; “it may not be possible arbitrarily to fix the age of ‘retirement,’ but it certainly is not 60 1 .” The Seattle Timesv in similar vein, remarks : “Men live in the open, live easily, Hve carefully, and extend the measure of their days. Need one add that tjie same is true of the other sex ? Fair, fat, and forty is no modern ideak The woman of 40 is likely to be mistaken for tlie sister of her eldest daughter. Released from the grinding drudgery of the home, she keeps young by maintaining an alert mind and a keen interest in the current events of the very interesting age hi which she lives.” We read in the Boston Herald : “It is regrettable that this matter must be handled anywhere arbitrarily. Many people are plenty old enough to retire at 60 ; others are perfectly efficient at 80 and beyond. It all depends. It is bad for the world to lose valuable services merely because of an arbitrary age. limit. It lessens the net product of human activities, as well as the usefulness, and so the happiness of a great many individuals.”