Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-07

marks the Houston Chronicle. Experts
agree that they are unavoidable. In
the hospital maintained on its fees, the
average patient must pay seven dollars
a day, plus seven to seventeen dollars q
. day for special nursing services, plus
doctors fees. The proposed Gotham
Hospital is expected to cut all these
costs in half. .. It can render q
service that will only be a drop in the
bucket as compared with the public
need, OF course, but its hackers hope
that 1t Will serve as an example for
others. They hope to demonstrate that
great good can be done with COMPARE
lively little expenditure from an en-
dowment fund, and to encourage that
type OF endowment. Perhaps this Is the
KIND OF endowment and philanthropic
work that should now be stressed"
Calling this form of disqualification
IAN interesting experiment." the Port
land Oregon Journal observes that the
Gotham committee seeks the reaction
OF other American cities to the question
OF adequate hospital and medical care
Tor people of moderate means" and
concludes that ''as demonstration hos
pltal the operation Of the proposed in
stltution will be watched with interest
try"
students in colleges" states the Lin
coin State Journal, ARE not required to
pay the full cost of education, because
OF endowment by private benefactors or
the State, Of the institution they attend.
Why should not the sick receive a SINH
lar benefit when they come to paw the
cost OF illness? Is education more inn
portant than health? CHARITY
is hidden in endowed schools. Even the
rich accept the benefits, and there the
rich are not Disseminated against. It
appears they would be in the proposed
Gotham Hospital. They will be required
10 pay what the service costs. No such
requirement. is made in educational In
stltutlonS, and in this discrimination
against the rich may be found humilia.
ton for the middle class"
The white collar class. which admit.
tedly is the intellectual and economic
backbone OF society,"" says the Hartford
Courant, continues to eSchew the ward
ped, with resulting financial sacrifice.
At the same time it allows its sons and
oaughterS to accept reduced tuition
rates, and sees no loss of caste in 80
DONG. When will that class of people
begin to realize that medical care given
Iree, or under reduced rates. is no more
pauperizing than is the system of re-
duced tuition charges? Ger
talnly any community would be the bet
ter of for possessing facilities such as
those implied in the committees de-
scription of what the Gotham Hospital
Is to be-"
Referring to the Massachusetts, Cen
eral Hospital, the Rochester Times
Union records that "its name and fame
will be enhanced when, about March /.
1t opens to the public a new $4,000, 600
unit for the service Of the so-called
'white-collar' SICK" and that paper feels
confident that the enterprise will be
watched by those who. as they saw.
cannot afford to be SICK In yery
truth, they cannot under the system
from which the Massachusetts, General
breaks away"
OF this same institutions new work
the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin offers
the opinion: ut should be but the be-
ginning of the fulfillment of a great
want. And its operation should be an
OBJECT lesson to philanthropists here
and elsewhere, to whom hospitals must
look for the capital with which ia
emulate the Massachusetts General
example"