The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-01-11


Up in Jackson, as the legislature con-
venes, the word" on the Medical School pro-
posal among the leaders Who know politics
is that the measure will not pass. This seems
to be the private opinion of both the men
who oppose it and the men who favor it.
There is still a very vigorous campaign UNI
derway, but some of the legislators say that
the measure will be defeated in committee
and may not even get to the floor.
The Chronicle-Star and Advertiser be-
lieves that, for the time being, there are other
more pressing needs in Mississippi and the
four-year Medical School and central hos
pital program should be shelved for a few
years. But let us make plain that we do not
, believe that this should be lone for any mis-
conceived theory of economy at the cost of
public health. That sort of economy is never
economy in the long run. For every dollar
that a state saves through this reasoning, it
spends several in the long run for tubercu-
losis sanitorium, charity hospital, mental in
! stitutions and jails.
We believe instead that all available
appropriations for public health should
be spent for the time being to bring des-
p~erately needed hospital and medical
! facilities to a lower and broader level of
the states population than would be
reached by the four-Year medical school.
which right at this time seems to US to
be something of a luxury. that would
concentrate state benefits upon too small
a group.
Mr.. Walter Sillers, one of the Delta dele
cation in the legislature, asserts that a domi-
nant group of legislators favor the plan for
a system of county hospitals over the four
year school and central hospital in Jackson.
We hope Mr.. Sillers and his group, however,
have set their sights high enough on the
question of the states need for regional
hospitals. This would seem so on the evidence
of Mr.. Sillers' statement that a sufficient
number of hospitals should be so located
throughout the state that no citizen should
have more than a 'thirty-mile drive" to
reach one. However,, the Delta counties have
a notorious history of way-laying measures
sorely needed by the rest of the state because
a relatively heavy proportion of the ad va
loren tax falls on the rich plantations. 1t
will not do to have a. clever group kill off
the medical school program in the name of
the greater need for county hospitals. and
then, when the first job has been done, sud-
denly forget about the second and start talk
ing about early adjournment.
During the opening hours of the legislature,
before things had jelled, it was hard to get a.
clear picture of what the county-hospital
group were actually advocating, and how
much of the state surplus they thought should
be spent on it. The Mississippi Farm Bureau
in a recent excellent issue surveying the de-
plorable state of medical and hospital facili-
ties in Mississippi, advocated a two-and-al
half million dollar program for the building
of smaller hospitals throughout the state.
This would seem to be the minimum require
ment. Mississippi in the list of states, is 48th
in the number of hospital beds to population,
18th in the number of doctors to population.
48th in the number of births per thousand in
hospitals, ETC., ETC., and so on down a de-
pressing list of "forty-eights' or forty
seventies"
The state is 5000 hospital beds short of
having four hospital beds to every 1000 pop
%ulation, which is the minimum standard of
need according to the calculations of the u.
s.. Public Health Service.
One group proposes the erection of four
regional hospitals with state funds. TWO for
North Mississippi and two for the south. We
think that this is the first expenditure that
should be made with whatever part of the
huge 23-to-25 million dollar state surplus
that IS Ia go for health and medicine. But