The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-10-04
CONE ACROSS
An Eloquent Appeal for an Impera-
tive Necessity

papers Iuab 0ts LUXE > uOSpILdl III IIldk
city viii be compelled to close on ac-
count of financial troubles.
Hospitals are necessity, and this
opens up an avenue of propaganda for
the establishment of state hospital
owned and operated by the state.
It is the duty of any state to care
for its INDECENT poor and its INDECENT
sick.
The establishment of general hos
pital to be maintained and operated
at the expense of the state of Flor
ida as part of its now wonderful
chain of state institutions would af
ford means of distributing the cost of
the care of the INDECENT sick of the
state of Florida throughout the entire
population of the state of Florida
rather than continue the present sit
uation of distributing the cost among
a few people year after year, not as a
matter of paying taxes, but as a mat
ter of private donation.
The establishment of state hospi-
tai for the general medical and sur
gical care of the INDECENT poor of the
state of Florida will in no wise be an
innovation for state hospitals are
operated elsewhere. particularly by
the state of Mississippi, which ope-
rates large hospital at Vicksburg,
Miss, same having been in existence
for good many years and having
been a great boon to the citizens OF
that state.
Physicians practicing in the remote
rural districts of the state of Florida
are often forced to care for cases ur-
der conditions which make recovery
absolutely impossible and places the
doctor at al great disadvantage. Ii he
could have the opportunity of sending
his cases, which under his own care,
can not get well. to well operated
state hospital, it would mean much
saving of life and elevate the status
Of the medical practice throughout the
state.
The rehabilitation of sick people
means a greater revenue to the state.
1t has been estimated by students
of sociology that the life of each in
dividual in the development of state.
not taking into consideration the eff
feet of losing one from the ranks OF
the bread-winner and in the end eff
fects upon his Immediate family,
amounts to not less than five thou
sand dollars.
A state hospital would decrease the
death rate in the state of Florida;
would increase the longevity also. 1t
would decrease the infant mortality
by virtue of giving to the helpless
babies of the state who need change
CT climate and expert advice of a
dietician the opportunity of coming
into a state hospital where they could
receive the proper nursing, care and
| the proper food which would enable
them to live.
The establishment of a state hos
lpital would be potent factor IN
checking the sperad of communicable
diseases in the state of Florida.
The establishment of a state hospi-
tai would do much in an educational
way towards the prevention and the
possible eradication of tuberculosis.
| About five hundred people have
died in Florida in the last two years
from cancer. These people could have
ibeen cured, had they been brought
into a hospital and operated upon al
/ a sufficiently early date. and ever
those who could not have been brought
lin for an operation could probably
have been cured, or, at least, have hat
their lives materially prolonged By
the application of X-ray treatments
Tor radium treatments.
The crippled children's service
Icould operate much more satisfac
itorily in state hospital than it is nov
Operating under present conditions
and it could be of a much wider scope
tThe results would be the correction o
4 ,ldefor1nities In children. A cripplet
Ichild whose parents are poor has a
!, least the right TO expect the commu
Unity and state in which he lives t
, give him the opportunity of straigh
limbs and the opportunity of an equa
-tbasis of competition with his felloy
il beings in the future aspects of hi
. life.
u Chronic invailds and chronic GRIP
pies are potential paupers. They ar
{ potentially and actually a constant an
{ permanent burden upon the state. !
) state hospital would do much to re
: llieve situation of this kind.
The Florida State Hospital for th
: Insane at Chattahoochee has to adni
! many people who are in reality nc
5 actually insane for there is wide
t lsrread sentiment throughout tn
f state of Florida to the effect that ON
t ling to the absence of almshouse
5 Ipoorhouses, county asylums and othe
: similar institutions it is no more tha
o fright and proper to send those VIII
o lare chronically invalided and aged
the state hospital for the insane ne
Ibecause they are crazy, but for th
reason that it is believed that theI