Wage Earner's Life Span Extends Five More Years in '51 NFU' YORK The average ieny.tii of* life among American wa.ro earners and their families reached an all-time high of 68U years in 1951, a gain of five years in the past decade. Metropolitan Life In surance Company statisticians re port on the basis of the experi : encr among the company's indus . trial policy-holders. The statisticians forecast that. ! barring a major catastrophe, the average length of life for the American people will reach the ! biblical three score and ten be fore the end of the current decade Last year's gains were made in spite of the increase in male mor tality over 1950 at the main mili tary ages, the statisticians pointed out. and v.as due to the gain in longevity for females As a result, the difference in the average j length of life for the two sexes be-, i came greater than ever before, women having an advantage of about 5>a years in 1951 In the last 40 years the indus trial population has made greater progress m reducing its mortality than has the general population In 1911-1912 the expectation of life at bitth among industrial policyhold ers was 6'- years less than that for the population as a whole; now the two groups are on a par." the statisticians concluded.

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