International photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

September, 1929 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Three What of the Tears . . . Touf [This editorial is called forth by a member of our Local who complained to the editor recently that he was afraid of old age. — Editor's Note.] The man who lets the old age bogey get into his blood is lost. He is beaten before he gets a start. He is left at the post. Man power at every age is useful and I don't know anything more beautiful than a graceful old age. Here is an illuminating story of Hollywood's grand old man, the late Senator Cornelius Cole. Senator Cole passed away shortly after his one hundred and second birthday and we all know he was hale and hearty up to the last few weeks of his life. His mind was alert, his step elastic, his personality handsome and magnetic, his energy dynamic and his humor always on the job. Ask him a question about some person or event seventy-five years agone and he answered instantly without groping among the thought forms of the past. He was "all there." I had the honor of being a guest at the birthday party tendered Senator Cole on his one hundred and first anniversary and late in the afternoon I had an opportunity to talk with the Senator alone for a few minutes. "Well, Senator," I said, "how do you do it? 1 might make up my mind some day to want to live a hundred years and I wish you'd tell me your recipe for longevity." "Well, sit down here, young man, and I'll tell you the secret and you can pass it on to your friends. The first requisite is to get this firmly fixed in your mind and heart — old age is a MATTER OF CONSENT — purely and simply. "You can't keep the years from passing. An all-wise Providence has arranged that, but you can keep them from breaking you to pieces. That's your business. Never consent to old age and you'll never be old. Old age and multiplicity of years are two very different things. The former is a state of mind." The Senator knew and he demonstrated his knowledge in his own life. And when we have before us such careers as those of Chauncey M. Depew, Thomas A. Edison, Judge Gary, Charles M. Schwab, to cite a few examples known to us all, it is not difficult to conclude that the good old Senator was right. There is no war 'twixt age and youth. Both are a part of the Great Plan. Both are natural and needful. Let youth profit by the knowledge, experience and wisdom of age; let age profit by the energy, enthusiasm and enterprise of youth — so shall prosper the nations and so shall youth never grow old in the sense of weakness, dependence and unloveliness. When we write of these things we naturally think of success. What is it? all In Is it not the attainment of the individual's social, economic, artistic and professional objective — or of these combined ? Let no man be fearful because the years are passing. Oscar Hammerstein, when asked to name his slogan for success answered : "If at first you don't succeed fail, fail again!" If you do not succeed on the first thousand trials then on the thousand and first you will go over, the Treasure House within him every man old or young has the germ of success. Let him never weary of the search. It is the greatest of adventures. "All shall reach the sunlit snows." On this subject Henry Ford writes interestingly in a popular magazine for July. Mr. Ford begins by stating that if he could do so he would prefer to have all his employees between 35 and 60 years of age. "For then," writes Henry "we should have a stable and experienced force. We would not care how much over 60 the men were so long as they could do their work. "Under no circumstances would we have a working force made up of only young men. It is absolutely necessary, in order to get the work through, to have a solid frame-work of older and more experienced men who know exactly what they are doing. "It is not to be expected that a man of 70 will have as much endurance as one of 25. It is not at all necessary that he should have, for by the time a man has reached 70, he ought to have something a great deal more valuable than physical strength. "The records of the employment department show that the work that calls for endurance is best served as a rule by men who are 40 and over. Younger men seem to tire of jobs of this kind rather quickly and want to be transferred to lighter work. "Having lived a number of years is a great advantage to anyone if those years have brought a background of experience. It is usual to associate age with years only because so many men and women somewhere along in what is called middle age stop trying. They let themselves be old."