The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-10-05
Governor B0iIey's Medical School

great majority OF your doctors will not locat.
in areas where these are not available. Building
good small hospitals IN the large areas of Mis-
sissippi utterly without such facilities at present
is far more important in raising the ratio of doc
tors to population than building one big medical
school in Jackson. For the time being our young
men can continue 10 get good training at Tulane,
L.. S. u, Vanderbilt and other neighboring schools;
What is more important in bringing them back to
Jackson county or Webster or Smith or Oktibbeha
is providing them with facilities of modern med
zeal practice to use Their Skills. Too many Of
them now stay in the areas where they were
trained or locate in the cities with hospitals. And
this picture will continue If a medical college is
built in Jackson and no facilities for practice are
provided in the outlying areas. Far more than
half the counties Ia this state have no hospitals
at present.
Building a big teaching hospital in Jack
sen is not going to help low income people in
outlying districts. They need hospital facili.
ties in their own areas run by their own people.
In Jackson county we are fortunate in possessing
an adequate hospital. And we solidly endorse
the Farm Bureau proposal that the first public
health appropriation should be in the sum Of
$4,000. 600 10 build such facilities throughout the
state TO be used and run by local authorities.
The Farm Bureau proposes the creation of
a permanent commission on hospital care to sur
vey the needs of the state and to administer the
disbursements. It seems imperative to us that
the legislature set US such a group at its next
session.
These things seem to US to add up TO a pub
lie health program that makes the most practical
approach to the states present great needs. Any
politician naturally would rather have a big med
zeal school built during his administration, which
would remain a good talking point and some
thing of a political monument for years to come.
But it is the part of craftsmanship to rise above
these natural considerations for any man in public
life. and spend. the money on a program actually
more desperately needed by the people. And we
firmly hope that Governor Bailey is going to rise
to this occasion as he gives continued study to
all the facts.
Until this first program is accomplished.
the SfGte Of Mississippi can make arrangements
with neishborine medical schools TO take a
Mississippi quota. and the state should give
scholarships and leans for this purpose TO de-
serving students. a portion of the loan to be
forgiven for each year that the graduate prsc-
fices in Mississippi. This system has worked
well on q small scale in the Commonwealth
Fund scholarships for Mississippi boys at Tulnae.
Until these things are done, and until a fun
Improvement in our school system is
accomplished, the building of a medical school re-
a luxury. On the question of education,
we also have a poor and disheartening standing
in comparison TO other states. Our grades schools
and high schools need the available sums far more
than the state needs an expensive medical school
for the expensive and specialized training Of a
very small group of favored young men. Let's
spread these educational funds around in broader
levels. Maintaining a medical school and teach
ing hospital at Jackson. according to the pro-
posals, would cost as much as the state spends
on all six senior colleges-about $3.50, 600 a year.
This would be spending the same sum on the .edu-
of about 2l5 students what the state now
spends on the education of 1000 students. And
we think the children throughout the state and
the hard working and underpaid teachers have a
for better claim to the available money.
II seems a shocking fact to us that the annual
average pay for Mississippi teachers is $517, only
a third as large as the national average of 81 ,507.
What sort of teaching and child training can a
state expect for its citizens-to-be in the face of
facts like that?
These are the programs where this surplus
must first be put to work We are for Governor
Bailey's medical school, but we are against ii and
We hope the Legislature will be against it, until
these other matters of more pressing need are
undertaken.