The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-27


 to Birmingham by the rapid growth of tbe city and it's splendid location, and on us, or so matching our contribu tion. as to make the enterprise pos sible And growing out of this confu- sion, or mainly out cf it, was an em- barrassment almost equally as great
 SETTLED IN ADVANCE
 everywhere our enterprise was spoken of as the hospital or the Baptist hospital and the question was heard on every hand, Where are you going to build the hospital or What ptace is going to get the Baptist hos pital? thus settling CT going far to- ward settling in advance by phrase one of the chief matters involved in our problem.
 "Every ono of us knew from
 the beginning that no one hospital,
 wheresoever located, could possibly
 meet the hospital requirements of
 the more than 24O,OOO white Bap-
 lists of Alabama and that the only
 thing to be done would be to cm-
 bark in n hospital enterprise which
 by wise locations would finally
 cover the state. Finally the con-
 vcntiOn itself instructed us to
 build 'at least one hospitaI.'
 We set faithfully about our task, spending our time in collecting in- formation about hospitals. especially hospitals among Baptists in othep states, and in hearing applications and Investigating places It was chiefly through the activity of our chairman. pr. Hobbs, that so valuable a fund of information could be turned over to the convention.
 "A pDlica tiOno xtare m oda to ,,c fr1r, Selma, Bessemer, Albany, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, with tentative propositions from some other places, as Montgomery and Gadsden. We heard them all carefully and pray erfully, and reached our final decision after the convention at Decatur, when we were made a board of trustees, and received new instructions, instructtS which were simply a part of our own report that the convention had adopted
 SELMA VS. BIRMINGHAM
 At our meeting in Birmingham on December 1t became definite that the final decision lay between Selma and Birmingham, and, late in the night after painstaking deliberation and spe- cial prayer the decision went to Selma. We were appointed with full power, and for such hospital as we felt at
  proposition for Selma was in our jHag- ment the best.
 sSeIma won the decision in
 straight, clean fight, and with only
 one dissenting vote. Tint vote was
 cast by our chairman, Dr. HobItu,
 who at once resigned. on the ground that 1t would not be cor-
 venient for him to be active in n
 building enterprise away from
 home.
 If Selma had been in any serious respect an unsuitable place, she would never had won our decision. The ad- vantages and disadvantages of every place were scrupulously and exhaus- lively canvassed. And with everything before us. and keeping our eyes on the geography of the state, and feeling that a hospital on this scale could never cut any figure in the great city of Birmingham of which our people there and throughout the state could be proud. we fixed our choice on Selma Every man of us is an advocate of a great Baptist hospital In Birmingham but we know that such a thing is not possible under the fund which we were appointed to administer.
 LOYAL AND LIBERAL
 "Our Baptist people in Selma are eul- tivated and aggressive From the be- ginning they have been loyal and liber- al to all the enterprises and institu- tons of the dendmination, and they have never before asked for anything at the hands of the convention. They fixed their hearts on this institution, and they were the first to make an application, They are unanimous for it, and their city is unanimous with them; and the physicians of Selma, an able and we'll recognized body of men, have been holding an extensive hospital scheme of their own in abeyance in the hope that ours might come. In Selma. a hospital on this scale would be highly respectable and useful and influential. And 1t would never go begging A hospital here would be available for the Judson.
 Tn addition to her own local medi- cal facilities. Selma's proximity to Montgomery would place what we have here under her hand, especially the extensive and ever-ready facilities of the health department of the state. And. quite unlike Birmingham with her eb00.000 Howard college campaign on hand, Selma has no other conven- ton obligation in her way
 ONE-FOURTH OF STATE
 "The convention instructed us to make a beginning. and in locating the hospital in Selma we were convinced we were making the wisest and best beginning of general hospital enter prise possible with the means availa- ble. Selma is the main city in a hos pitai territory which covers practical ly one-fourth of the mileage area of the state, populated by one of the most substantial classes of white people in the land. an area which is rapidly developing as . result of most whole some influx of substantial farmer class immigrants from the north and west and destined to be one of the most prosperous sections of the south.
 Tn this entire territory, though there are ppmerous prosperous vil- lages and towns, there is not a single town which could ever support hos- pital Qf any magnitude for years to come. leaving Selma without compsti- ton as hospital center The present hospltai territory of Selma comprises one-fourth of the mileage area of Ala bama, with population of 100000 ac- cordtng to the 1920 government census. In other words. Selma now is rendering hospital service to one-fifth of the to- tai population of Alabama, and with our hospital established 1t is reasona- Die to suppose that the territory win De so extended as to reach af lea at