European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mandatory retirement on Gold Sarage Salev by Doug Willis associated Pressa per 38 years As master of a Small boat Harborn san Francisco Bay John Mackenhausen lost his City Job last May 1 because of a state Law re Quiring him to retire at 67. But now California is about to become the first state in the Union to abolish mandatory retirement for both Public and private employment and Mackenhausen is once again a Harbor master. He is working under temporary consulting contract until the new Law ending mandatory retirement becomes effective Jan. 1, and Pecan be restored officially to the payroll. I plan to be Here and i expect to get my old Jobrack said Mackenhausen. I have Good health and i d hate to retire. If i retire i m afraid i d probably just go downhill. I want to keep working keep Active keep  California Law gives employers two years to renegotiate Union contracts and change pension plans. It go Sone step further than a Bill approved by the . House of representatives and now before the  by organizations representing America s growing senior citizen population the National Council of senior citizens the Gray panthers the National coun cil on the aging the Federal Bill would raise from 65 to70 the age when employers May require workers to retire although Many pensions will still begin at 65 or earlier for those who Wisn to retire. That would be the first National change in the 65-year-old retirement Standard since the social Security system first set that age in 1935. The California Law and the congressional Bill which sailed through the House by a 359-to-4 margin and in slightly different form cleared the Senate have suddenly drawn Public attention to the major social changes that might result from the injection of thousands of elderly people into the work Force. The congressional Bill now goes to a House Senate conference committee to Iron out differences. President Carter while favouring the end of mandatory retirement at 65, has asked that no change be implemented for a year so the Impact can be  one seems to know exactly what might happen. A 1974 Louis Harris Survey indicated that one third of those aged 65 to 69 would work at least part time and that would add 2.8 million people to the work Force raising the unemployment rate to nearly 10 per cent and much More for teen agers and members of minorities. But the Senate committee on human resources says that Only 200,000 people or two tenths of one per cent of the labor Force would choose to work beyond 65 and the rest would retire on social Security and  Sears Roebuck study for the . Government concluded that one third of the 2.04 million people schedule to retire at 65 in the next five years might wish to work. If one third worked past 65 at Sears alone 20,000 Job changes would t take place and the company s hiring rate would decline 7 per cent even More for minorities and women. A Survey of 400 business executives by William , inc., found 65 per cent favor mandatory retire ment at 65. But a Field research Survey of a Cross Sec Tion of 1,034 californians of All Ages found 87 per cent better health care has increased the percentage of americans 65 and older. Fuelled what some describe As the new emphasis on human rights for the aged oppose mandatory retirement in part because of inflation. Twelve states besides California have Laws pushing Back or abolishing the retirement age. But these Laws apply either to private or Public employment not to both As in California. A thirteenth state Alaska has a Law similar to California a but a court suit has delayed its effective Date indefinitely. The twelve states Are Connecticut Florida Hawaii Illinois Iowa Maine Maryland Montana Nevada new Jersey new Mexico and South Carolina. Better health care has increased the percentage of americans 65 and older to a record 23 million 10 per cent of the population and this has fuelled what some describe As the new emphasis on human rights for the aged. Inflation is helping to bring older people into the workforce by pinching fixed retirement incomes and a social Security administration Survey reported that a majority of retired recipients say they Are healthy enough to work. A spokesman for a California Public Utility which has mandatory retirement at 65, said that he was opposed tothe retirement policy. I graduated from High school in 1932, in the de pression and it took 10 years to work through College. Then world War ii. I did t Start my career until i was33, and i married at 40. Now at 64,1 have children 16, 14 and 12. I m in goo health. I Don t want to retire and i can t afford to retire. Personally i think this Law is the greatest thing i be seen in  Britton Mcfetridge a legislative aide who worked on the California Law estimated that Between 5 and 25 per cent of the 50,000 californians who now retire annually at65 will continue working and that would add no More than 12,500 people to a work Force of 10.1 million. Mcfetridge said he is More inclined to believe the lower figure and most workers who did not retire at 65 would continue working Only two or three More years. The experience of the Federal civil service support this. Only 1.5 per cent of All civil servants have utilized a program that allows workers to continue after 65. But employers say those numbers Are deceiving because retirements create promotions As Well As new jobs. The Sears study concluded that each retirement produces one new Job and four promotions. That Domino effect was the main Point raised by Leon Ard Grimes the Only Black in California gov. Edmund Brownjr s Cabinet. Grimes argued strenuously for Brown to veto the California measures. With our concern about the High unemployment among Young people particularly among minorities How can we take the lid off let people stay on forever and Ever Grimes asked. Most people who have worked 40 years on the Job have worked up into some kind of supervisory position. It s not one Job for one Job. It s a new entry Job for an unemployed youth and it s promotion for minorities and women and others All up the  but Brown said he viewed the repeal of mandatory retirement As an Effort to liberate human Energy to the Benefit of All the  find it hard to understand a society that has a prob Lem with people who want to work. We cannot afford to squander the human Talent that presently languishes in the backwaters of our  says his studies show that 59 per cent of the nation s work Force is employed by firms that Don thave mandatory retirement plans and we can t detect much difference Between those firms and the 41 percent with mandatory retirement plans. He and others argue that a continuing trend to earlier retirement More than offsets the Small number who want to remain on the Job after 65.general motors for example says 89 per cent of its employees now retire before 65. At Dow chemical 92 percent of the retiring employees have quit at 62 since the age for full retirement benefits was reduced from 65 to 62.nearly half of those remaining on the Job after 62 retire at 63 or 64, Jack Jones a Dow spokesman  obviously Don t think the repeal of mandatory re 0 ten la Ano a tymm Tir ement will have much Impact on us Jones said. Wesee no problem with the  the . Department of labor says 82 per cent of the nation s 55-to-64-year-old civilian male work Force was employed in 1970. That figure had dropped to 76 per cent by 1975, and will decline to 70 per cent by 1990, a department of labor forecast says. All this suggests a  studies show that the 16-to-24 age group will decline from 25 per cent today to 21.9 per cent of the work Force by 1985 because there will be fewer of these Young people 15 per cent of the population. Meanwhile those 65 and Over will Rise to 11.7 per cent of the Popula Tion but if the mandatory retirement age in t raised they la be Only 2.7 per cent of the labor Force. And that Means too few productive workers supporting too Many retirees a Good Way to undermine retirement funds. Now there Are 100 employed for every 30 on social Security. By Early next Century the ratio will be 52 re tired for 100 at work. But will senior citizens work in Large enough num Bers to change this ratio that might depend on their salaries if the experience in los Angeles is a guide. Last april voters there repealed mandatory retire ment at age 70 for City employees. Among 18 employees who have turned 70 since that election 11 have remained on the Job. Shirley Roberts an aide to mayor Tom Bradley said the 11 who continued working were All in jobs ranging from $9,500 to $10,500 annually. She said the seven who retired had jobs ranging from $14,000 to $37,500. It s startling she said. The reason people Don retire is they can t afford  soviet Don t be in a hurry to live Shirali Muslimov who died at age 168. People aged 65 and older future increases and current employment projected population in millions sources Bureau of the census Bureau of labor statistics 34.12010 women 929,000 employed 44,000unemployed 12,106,000 not in labor Force 80,000unemployed.-. 1,766,000employed 7,356,000ik in labor Force by Christopher s. Wren new York times afew years ago a grizzled patriarch in soviet Azerbaijan look ing Forward to his 167th birthday was asked How he had manage to live so Long. I am never in a hurry Shirali Misli mov replied. So Don t be in a hurry to live this is the main thing. Then one must observe a regular daily regimen of course. I have been doing physical work for about150  despite some current american television commercials it is not Yogurt that has promoted longevity in the soviet Union specialists say but a combination of More Subtle factors that make up an Active yet uncomplicated life. The onslaught of modern times is reflected in a statistical drop of soviet centenarians from 21,708 in 1959 to 19,304 in1970, the last reported count though this is also partly explained by More accurate re cords. Now with the soviet Union s birth rate declining and a potential labor shortage ahead there is growing official interest i prolonging the useful years of average Citi Zens. At Kiev s Institute of gerontology Abranch of the soviet Academy of medical sciences researchers have been probing the secrets of Long life. Some of their conclusions sound deceptively simple. Those who live longest have had a simple Low fat diet and passed up cig areas and liquor but not wine. They started working Young usually out doors and continued into old age. And they have been made to feel socially useful both As a productive member of a closely knit society and a respected head of an extended family. The life Span of any biological species is programmed. For instance a Crow can live 150 years and a horse Only 30 years said Nikita b. Mankovsky Deputy director of the Kiev Institute. We consider that the average human life Span should be about 100 or 110 years. We also believe that this life Span should be socially  nowadays citizens of the unite states and soviet Union live 30 to 50 years less than their biological system can pro vide continued Mankovsky a vigorous White haired gerontologist. We have number of social and environmental fac tors today that limit the average human life Span. We can very easily shorten this life Span. But it is very hard to make  there have already been attempts to prolong life artificially. L. V. Komarov a biologist at the Institute of general genetics says he extended the life Span of common houseflies from 86 to 130 Days by feeding them magnetized sugar. At the Institute of chemical physics two scientists prolonged the lives of experimental mice by 10 months with compounds similar to Vitamin b6. Vladimir v. Frolkis a prominent specialist in Kiev used antibiotics to retard metabolic changes that cause  centenarians have been clustered not Only in the mountainous caucasus where they Are most celebrated but also in other Rural areas like Yakut a in Siberia Orthe poltava District of the Ukraine. Invariably they worked outdoors whether As shepherds beekeepers gardeners or carpenters. The Institute at Kiev found that they also ate More Dairy products and vegetables and less meat than russians in the cities. When i was in the United states i was treated to a Gin and tonic Mankovsky wryly noted. This is something that no doubt shortens  but he added that happily those living longest often drank dry wine. I think that the wine contains organisms vitamins and Micro element that stimulate the  such persons were also found sur rounded by Large families which Man Kovsky called very important because they enjoy the respect of  but he said the most interesting thing was that these Long living people began work at 10 or 12 years old and kept working until retirement at 130 years  one result has been a new look at the soviet pension system which permits men to retire at 60 years and women at 55. The readjustment from work to retirement has sometimes produced what soviet physicians Call pension  Zoya g. Re Yutskaya another gerontologist at the Institute in Kiev concluded that the need to be engaged in some sort of activity swell pronounced in the  revuts Kaya pointed to a number of pro Grams to keep pensioners Active including handicraft industries and Volunteer  Kiev a supervised exercise program was organized three times a week at local football stadium. Senior citizens who joined in subsequently visited the doctor less and had fewer chronic ailments. And in the face of a labor squeeze some workers May eventually been courage to stay on the Job longer. Mankovsky noted that the life Span of russians had More than doubled to an average 70 years since the turn of the Cen Tury. There Are at least 34 million people Over 60 and they have accumulated Vas professional experience he said. There fore the state is concerned with preserving these people to pass their experience on to younger  Page 14 the stars and stripes monday october 24, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15