The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-04-04

about those things as the publishers
of the papers. 1t is the same
psychology that affects people in do
ing a mail order business. The
things SO far away always look bet
ter and if they are obliged to send
the cash with che order, the goods
look more attractive and they are
more anxious to get them. If per-
chance, doctor makes some money
and accumulates some property and
if, by any one of the thousand
chances of the practice of surgery,
some accident shall happen, there
is generally some evil disposed per-
son ready to bring a malpractice
suit to try to get some of the Doctors
money or property away from him
while if the same thing happened in
city hospital the case would be
quickly forgotten, the people would
go back home and would not consider
bringing such a suit. If malprac-
tice suit is brought against country
doctor all the newspapers for 100
miles around make mention of it
while if it happens in city, it re-
ceives about four line notice in the
evening paper and is promptly for
gotten.
Big Purse, Long Journey
Just go to noticing how people do
and you will observe that when they
require hospital service, if they have
money enough to 60 to hospital at
Idaho Falls or Pocatello, they will go
that far; If they have more money
they will go to Salt Lake City; if
they have considerable money they
will go to Rochester, MINI. and then
the newspaper will publish with
flourish the fact that so and so went
to the hospital at Pocatello or Salt
Lake or Rochester. 1t is quite an
honor to be sick or have something
the matter with you and go to the
Mayo hospital They have country
doctors there from all over the
United States and run big institu-
tion and it is considerable satisfac-
ton to have your home paper say
that you have gone to what is con-
sidered one of the best hospitals in
the country. Plenty of people OBJ
ject to the mail order business in
merchandising, but they apply the
mail order principle in matters of
sickness and employing surgeons and
doctors. Merchants almost invari-
ably complain about people dealing
with mail order houses in matters of
merchandising, but If anything gets
wrong with their family, they take,
the mail order route and 60 to a dis
tant hospital. II a working man has
something wrong in his family and
a hospital is required, if he can af-
ford 1t he will send the patient away
to some city and say rather doggedly
that he does not propose to trust any
of these doctors around here. II it
Is farmer or stock man, he may be
criticising the people in the town for
not doing what they can to make
better market for the produce of the
country, but if he needs hospital SER
vice he rarely ever patronizes the
little hospitil in his home town; he
prefers the one in the city. Almost
invariably when person comes back
from city hospital he does lot of
boosting for the surgeon, who had
charge of his case. Besides being
grateful he feels perfectly safe in
telling people what a wonderful
doctor he is; for who is there who is
going to dispute it. That city is
good way off and the surgeon is one
of many and people will accept his
statements in good faith, while if
he had been cared for in the local
hospital and taken care of by the
country doctor whom. everybody
knows, he would say very little if
anything about it and if he told what
wonderful doctor he had, the state
ment would fall rather fiat and peo-
pie would say, "Oh, know him.
and once again it is to the doctors
disadvantage to be known.
You Are At Fault
When you think things all over
and call the roll on yourself and
the members of your family and see
how you treat the home doctor, how
the members of the family behave
toward the home doctor, is it any
wonder that the home doctor is poor
that the hospital is not we'll patron
lied, that it is empty part of the