The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-03-11
FARMERS night IS
PLANNED BY ROTARY
Clubmen Will Entertain AgricuI-
turists March "a; Will An
nounce Program Later

Announcement that the Bismarck
Rotary club will stage a farmers
night March "a was made at the
weekly luncheon meeting Wednesday.
Two farmers have been invited for
each member Of the club and agricul-
turists and businessmen will rub
elbows at the dinner and program.
which will be designed to cement the
friendship Of town and city folk. De-
tails of the program will be an
1lounced later. Chairman j. P.
French asked for a 100 per cent at
tendance of club members.
DR.. L. w. Larson traced the his
tory of medicine from the earliest
times to TIE present and discussed
the relationship of the physician to
his patient, commenting at some
length on the financial situation in
which both doctors and patients find
themselves.
The rich, DR.. Larson said, are not
concerned with the cost of medical
treatment because they can pay with
out difficulty. The poor, now as al
ways, receive free treatment. The
middle class person, however, ex-
presses the most concern about the
cost of illness and it is upon him that
these costs fall most heavily.
Showing graphs which indicated
the number of patients treated, the
receipts and expenditures Of hospitals,
DR.. Larson said many hospitals
would be in great financial difficulty
we're 1t not for the benevolences
which they receive. At one local hos
pital, ne said, the average cost per
patient is $3.77 a day whereas some
patients pay only $3.50 a day and few
pay more than 81. The only way IN
which the hospital manages to exist,
he said, is by the collection OF fees
for special services and from benev-
olent contributions.
Pointing out that the average family
spends only $24 a year for medical at
tendance and So a year for nurses,
DR.. Larson said the budgets of most
families, and wen those prepared by
banks, magazines and insurance CON-
panies, rarely allow enough for med
ical attendance, since the average
family of four persons encounters a
serious illness once every four years.
Commenting on the cost of hospi-
talization as a factor IN making ILL
ness expensive, DR.. Larson said the
change in living conditions Is largely
responsible for the increased use OF
hospital facilities. Persons living in
apartments or in small homes find it
almost impossible to treat sick men,
bers of the family at home, he said.
Physicians also are responsible, he
said. since they encourage the re-
moyal of patients to hospitals in or
der that they may have the advan-
tage of hospital facilities in treating
cases.
The speaker assailed the tendency
of some public health doctors to en-
courage treatment Of people en-
masse in order to reduce the cost,
saying that the relationship between
doctor and patient is so personal that
1t is unwise to attempt to place 1t on
such a basis. In some cities, he said,
the demands upon physicians to as
SlSC al Tree CllIlACS Id ~ S4cdI tAAoV VAAeJ
hardly have time to develop a private
practice or to care for the practice
they have.
N. o. Churchill gave a brief talk on
community service, reciting the work
of the club with regard to boys and
girls work. rural-urban relationships
and school relationships.
The local club, he said, pioneered
the field of juvenile club work, aided
in the organization of q dairy circuit
in Burleigh county and assists and
promotes athletics in the local
schools.
Miss Inc: Wiser gave two violin
solos, accompanied on the piano by
Miss Belle Menus.