The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-19
Complete System of Hospitals on
Union Pacific.
Elaborate Plans Are Outlined
for the Benefits.
EMPLOYEES CONTRIBUTE
Then They Are Given Free
Care and Service.
Other Items Of General Interes
in Traffic World.

Denver, Col, June 19.-The Union
Pacific has outlined elaborate plans for
the establishment of a hospital system
over the entire system, and Denver will
probably be one of the points where
hospital for the use of employees ex-
clusiNely viii be built. 1t is proposed
to build new hospitals or buy estab-
lished institutions and look after the
welfare of the injured men or women
like no other railroad in the country
The finest equipment of the old and
the new world as well will be on hand
as first aids to the injured
The carrying out of the big plans
will be personally looked after by A. L
Mohler. general manager OF the road,
and Chief Surgeon Jonas of Omaha,
who will be in direct charge, and who
will be assisted by a staff of the best
physicians and surgeons in the coun-
try. Local practitioners in the smaller
towns where hospitals are established
will be employed, but in the larger
institutions exceptionally skilled men
of the medical profession will be reg
ularly engaged in the work.
The humane treatment and prompt
attention to injured has been one Of
the hobbies of General Manager Moh-
Ter. and the expenditure of vast sums
of money for improvements and extern
sions of the systems has prevented put
ting the present hospital plans into ell
feet. He has recognized that men have
because they have been compelled to
be hauled 200 miles in a few instances
before proper medical or surgical care
could be given them. Men have died
and families left dependent because the
right kind of care and the best has
been denied them.
The Union Pacific for years has dealt
with the local hospitals in all cities
where it has a few employees. The re-
suits have been far from satisfactory,
both to the management and to the
men. The latter have complained that
because they contributed 30 cents a
month to the road the hospitals looked
upon them merely as charity patients,
and in some instances gave them lar
less attention than they would have
received in a charitable institution sup
ported by a city or county. This one
fact had much to do with the determi-
nation of the Union Pacific to take care
Of its own men.
General Manager Mohler IS showing
the same broad spirit in the big hos
pital project that he did in the nego-
tiations for the construction of the Den
yer Union station. He has taken the
employees into the hospital plans and
it is more than probable that one rep
resentative from every big railroad or
ganization on the system will have
something to say about the manage
menr of the hospital. He wants to
please the employees and care for them
at the same time. He asked the men
to cite any objections they had to the
new plan and at conferences at Omaha
on the wage and schedule questions the
hospital system is to be threshed out
next WeeF.
The men now contribute so cents a
month and are given free care and
service at local hospitals all over the
system. The hospital department of
the road is self sustaining as now OPP
Grated and when the surplus is large
enough the company does not take out
the so cents but skips a month occa-
sionally. The workmen contribute an
average of IS a year and feel that it is