Problems of
_older workers

og me at forty! Once again,
ety . ranks of the unemploy-
Ge eten, that ‘bitter exclama-
"1S being heard.

Bu

what about the workers of

’ 55, 60?

Old ag
Changes
Men 5.

€ brings slow organic
of many kinds; and most

instinctively adjust their
Ods of working to the phy-
Changes of which they may
M® conscious.

Sigal

et Pause slightly long-
4 job oa how best to tackle
Ways be hey may try out new
fay €conomizing physical ef-
at they would previously

ave , ng

2 €xpended without thought.
Iven 4;

‘a nN time, most experienced .

wi
: ill made the adjustments

Peded to ¢ .
old oe Cope with the onset of

Th: ;
io, eee Craftsman, left to his
“rely or never loses skill.

Wen ti
Of no ane’ Re gets into the habit

se) .
Wasting movements.

It j
Pace of 2° Pace that matters. The
S¥stem eee gang or a timing
Ut of es Operations may throw
4 man’ ar the whole process of
Adaptation to his age.

and < Problem is becoming more
fhe ie urgent as medical sci-
Ban, With increases the life
In % & consequent increase
in the .Umber of older workers
ountry’s labor force.

io OE sae

‘hi .

trade 8.2 auestion to which the

study, grjens Might well devote

Cal sneaisting the help of medi-

indugisetists in establishing an
Science of ageing.

AU teh
that “ters Ways a risk with age'
Sanding 4in habitual modes of
lite at the job, manipulat-
Warg ng, Stretching out or up-
€Xept a So on are beginning to
Pon Srp accumulative strain
UPs of muscles or joints.

We
that ae now are suspecting
Matic gn» Uiscomforts of a rheu-
thes, thritic type are due to
’ccumulative physical
Ceive x had been largely un-
y the operative him-

en a

nde ae is medically re-

oe a “light? or a
nie Ob, the. damage is
the truteady done: It ‘is ‘time
e Unions paid detailed

and critical attention to,the pos-
ture and type of effort the older
workers are required to adopt.

If they are habitually strain-
ed or awkward and leave an af-
ter-sense of local fatigue or dis-
comfort something is probably
wrong.

An ageing man may “overdo”
his effort to compensate for some
physical decline in- staying pow-
er or to avoid some such discom-
fort as occasional vertigo or
rheumatism.

Once again the posture or the
habitual movement may become
unnaturally strained and a new
series of ailments set going.

It is reasonable, of course, to
sit or move so that one may
avoid a painful or distressing
symptom; but we have to get
these symptoms treated at their
origin.

Where are signs of an increas-
ing healthy outlook upon this
subject among trade unionists,
scientists and medical men.

The anatomists, for example,
are beginning to say that the
machine must be adapted to the
man, not the man to the machine.

Do we know, they: are asking,
whether certain conditions of
strain or humidity or heat that
are readily borne by the young
can be as safely tolerated by the
ageing?

Trade unionists are beginning
to appreciate that they have a
chance of co-operating with sci-
entists in a common effort to
study the needs and interests of
older workers.

We can take it for granted, I
think, that most men and women
in their sixties are experienced
enough to judge for themselves
whether they wish to retire, or to
continue to work.

Beyond all doubt one of the
most important administrative
and industrial measures Wwe have
now to take is that of guarantee-
ing the older man a type of em-
ployment appropriate to his age,
his dignity and his standard of

- living. ¢

x

In a recent report on “Reasons
Given for Retiring,” the British
Minister of Pensions and Nation-

‘al Insurance concludes that by
the age of 65 some 10 percent of
all men are suffering from
chronic types of disability.

Another 14 percent admit that
they are by that age feeling the
effects of ill-health or strain, or
that they need a period of rest
for rehabilitation.

A further 11 percent say that
they are retired or discharged at
that age by their employers;; but
the report does not state in how
many of these cases the man was
retired. simply because he was
reaching the limits of his physi-
cal capacity.

. When we bear in mind the de-
gree of strain, intensity and re-
sponsibility that characterise
many industrial jobs today, we
can easily believe that at least
one in every five or six workers
are getting too old by their mid-
sixties to stand the pace; and this
is over and above the 10 percent
of men who will already have be-
come more or less chronically
incapacitated.

Even when men continue at
work after the age of 65, they
usually have to retire in increas-
ing numbers year by year.

Under the most favorable in-
dustrial conditions, not much
more than a quarter to a half of
their number could stay on the
job right through their later six-
ties and the evidence shows that
most of those who do so are men
of exceptional constitution.

But once we have really
studied the problem of adjusting
the machines and conditions of
work, to the men of more ad-
vanced years, there is little doubt
that many of their disabilities
and strains could be eliminated.

This represents the broad path
in an enlightened and progressive
policy.

It requires, however, the care-
ful work of men who understand
all the varied strains and stresses
ty. which ageing muscles, joints,
nervous system and sense organs
may too often be exposed.

Once we have taken these prob-
lems seriously, men will no
longer be-forced into premature
retirement or forced to struggle
on in the job under the burden
of a growing disability.

oe nuclear physicists are
working on an atomic power
plant of radically new design
in which the flow of atomic
particles is converted direct-

ly into electricity, according
to News-Facts, information

service about the Soviet Un-
ion edited by Dyon Carter.

“This méans there is no
steam boiler, no steam turbine,
no electrical generator. In
fact, there are no moving parts,
except small vacuum and cool-
ing pumps,” says the article,
carried in the April-May is-
sue.

The new atomic plant is ex-
pected to produce 500,000-volt
power, greater than the 400,-
000-volt plant at Kuibyshev
on the Volga, now the world’s
greatest.

The publication carries a
diagram illustrating the prin-
ciple on which the new atomic
plant is based.

~ “The new Soviet power de-
sign isn’t a dream,” says
News-Facts, revealing that the
Soviet Union is already using
atomic batteries ‘which run
radios for years, so the cost
per year is almost nothing.”

The article continues:

‘Used in a big power plant,
the same principle will give
electricity far cheaper than
engineers have ever dared to
think about, because most of
the costly equipment will be
eliminated. :

“As for atomic fuel, the new
Soviet design will get, from
one pound of atomic material,
the same power our best plants
now get from 2,000 tons of
hard coal. ;

“Tt’s well-known that ‘the
USSR is building high-power-
ed,,commercial atomic energy
plants.

“These are said to be of’
‘conventional design’ — uran-
ium makes steam, from the

Soviet atomic
power plants

boiler this steam goes to a
turbine which turns big elec-
tric getrerators.

52 APB ora ee, °

“Soviet scientists plan to
make such costly outfits obso-
lete. Their proposals are bas-
ed on an atomic battery which
they are using right now. Here
is how, it works:

“At the bottom is a layer
of atomic fuel (a very small
amount of Strontium-90).

“Electrons (atomic particles)
flow up into a bar of other
metal (which can be silicon).

“Still more electrons are
produced; they all flow up to
the top of the battery and
pass out through wires .

a flow of-electrons is actually
electricity.’* ‘

Pointing out that such tiny
batteries, u.ed in electronic
equipment, produce only a
micro-watt of power, the ar-
ticle notes that the big poweir
plants -will use a different set-
up, which it describes:

“A uranium bar is placed
inside .a conerete tube. very
well insulated.

“Around that is a graphite
layer; charged particles go
from uranium to graphite.

“So the uranium gets one
charge, the graphite gets the
opposite charge.

“It’s possible to’ bring the
charge up to a million volts;
but that would be hard to
-handle, so probably it will be
kept down to several hundred
thousand volts.

‘In any case the power just
keeps on flowing. It flows out
of two wires, one from the
central uranium bar, the other
from the graphite layer. Small
pumps will circulate cooling
fluid. Small motors will move
cadmium’ bars (to contro! the
flow of power from the uran-
ium). Otherwise, nothing
moves, the plant is silent... .”

SS

Atomic reactor at Canada’s Chalk River plant.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 13, 1955 — PAGE 9