iv PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
ened. Authoritative statistics, as compiled for life insurance 
societies set the limits of human existence at an average age 
of 42 years. We were told in the Good Book that man’s hfe 
extends over three score years and ten. Consider the problem. 
By the time a human being is fifteen he has just begun dimly 
to take notice of his surroundings. On gaining his majority, 
he is supposed to be a man, but how many, before the age of 
35, have learned to observe correctly, or to think clearly 4 
Therefore, all that is left, according to the figures above set 
down, is a period of seven years, in which the greatest power 
of activity can be demonstrated. The French have a very 
trite saying that at forty a man is either a fool or a seer. This 
dictum was formulated in the days when science was as yet in 
its infancy. The effect of modern magnificent scientific 
achievement has been to condense into a short span of statis- 
tical existence al] the possibilities of the biblical length of 
life. 
Naturally, foremost in the category comes the develop- 
ment in our educational system. Formerly we were told that 
we went to school to learn ow to learn. Now our children go 
to school to learn once and for all. In a few years they are 
carried through a curriculum which, half a century ago, would 
have qualified them for some of the highest professions of the 
time. Now, before a youth is 16 years of age, he must display 
signs of capacity for higher realms of educational advancement, 
or else he must fall into the sphere of manual industry. This, 
you will all agree, is an excellent economy, because it is a 
saving both to the individual and to the State. The world 
cannot wait. The rising generation must quickly display its 
capacity to keep up in the great race of existence, or else 
it must fall back into the less rapid avenues in which moderate 
ability only is required. 
The same thing is observable in industrial avenues. No 
longer are years wasted in boys’ apprenticeships. Youths are 
sent into factories, where Titanic agents, called steam. and 
electricity, do all the hard work, and in one thousandth of the 
time. In this way artisans become mere feeders, and where, 
jn olden times, they would turn out only so much product, 
that is, capital, now they are able to turn out a correspondingly 
increased amount. Suppose that fifty years ago, a quiet- 
going bootmaker had been told that the time was coming when 
