The span of life in the U.S. is still lengthening. Based on mortality figures for 1947 (the latest year for which statistics have been compiled), the average life expectancy of a U.S. child at birth is 66.8 years, the National Office of Vital Statistics said last week. This is almost two years greater than the average for 1939-41. White women can expect to live 70.6 years; white men, 65.2; non-white women, 61.9; non-white men, 57.9.
In 1947 there were 267,026 fewer deaths than the U.S. would have had if 1940 mortality rates had prevailed. Pneumonia and influenza suffered the sharpest defeat: penicillin...