The Journal-Patriot Has Blazed the Trail of Progress In the "State of Wilkes" For Over 42 Years is hare to erect hospital for only cent of the cost. Vota| Hospital Sept. 28. OUR CITY North Wilkesboro has a trading radius of 50 miles, serving 100,000 people in Northwestern Carolina. I voi. wo. 43 Published Mondays and Thursdays NORTH WILKESBORO, N. C., Monday, September 13, 1948 x Make North Wilkesboro Your Shonnino Center ^B ^B '"i. ?. '^B ^B . ?. m m m mm mm ? m . -W ^B ^m ^m RE THIS WEEK ? ~"2. ----- "" " ' mm m W < irtainment Throughout Day Assured Visiters Everything was In a state of anticipation here this afternoon for the Annual Farmers' Day e ?ent tomorrow, with last-minute preparation being the order of the day. ? All plans point to a most en joyable day for the thousands of risitors expected here for Farm ers^, Day Tuesday and the Wilkes AuHcultural Fair throughout the | J week. More units were entered today In the parade, which will open Farmers' day at ten a. m. Tues day. More than 60 units will par ticipate in pie parade more than a mile In length. Line of .march will be from Wllkesboro by way of Memorial Park to Fifth street, over Main to Tenth, over Tenth to D and over D to Ninth. Fokpfwlng the parade will be I conr^rt by the Mount Airy band It the corner of Ninth and C streets, and many hilarious con on the Yadkin Yalley Motor jmpany's used car lot from 11: 80 until 12 o'clock. Principal features of the aft ernoon program on Ninth street [ between Main and C streets, will be an address by Former Gover nor J. M. Broughton at two p. ' m., presentation of prizes to 4-H ys who wop in the tlmberthln ig contest, and a string band concert by Don Walker and his Blue Ridge boys. Many prizes will be given a way at morning and afternoon programs to those attending. v ? ? Trench Disposal System Garbage To Be Used Here! City Buys $7,561.75 Equip-) ment; Street Projects Are Authorized ' North Wilkesboro city council I I has placed an order for a Diesel [.Crawler Tractor and Bullclam 1 Shovel to be used in the opera tion of a trench system of gar- J |/bage disposal. At a recent receps meeting, E. I L. Ittnton, sanitary engineer of j the Estate Health Department,j and E. R. Spruill, Wilkes sani [ tarian, recommended the trench | system to replace the present | practice of dumping garbage i [est of this city, a system which 'brought many complaints to I | the f^ity authorities from those I [who live near the dump. The equipment ordered will ist $7,561.75. The garbage will be buried on a plot of city prop erty near the ball park. Street Projects Ordered A number of street paving Jobs I were placed on the go-ahead list [for early construction. Fifth [street from F north to a point H>ove G street; Tenth street rom F to I and I from Tenth to IJTrogdon will be surfaced with Jproperty owners paying their fa/o-rata part of the cost as pro 7/ided by law. A re-surfacing Job r Is under way on B street between fenth and Forester Avenue and re-surfacing Job will be done i Sixth street between E and rH. Street work in Finley Park | and on J and Odell streets has | I been completed and approved (and the clerk was asked to ren 'der bills to property owners ?'along those streets for their part cost. Wm. Whiftington Funeral On Tuesday Funeral service was held Wed > nesday at Stony Hill Baptist jihurch for William McKinley, , whlttlngton, 48, well-known res | /dent of that community who lied Monday at Black Mountain, leva. Glenn Muffman, Lee Bea shers, A. W. Filer and Hayes [conducted the last rites. Mr. Whittington is survived !?y his wife, Mrs. Virginia Mael littington and ten 'brothers I iand sisters: Mrs. Pearl Baker, B.i |P. Htlngton, Mrs. Norlnal iTripletC^of Purlear; Mrs. ZelmaJ [Baker, of Wllkesboro; Mrs. Gra-j ,dy Watson. Lenoir; Conrad Whit-j ftington, PnTlear; Mrs. Ila Ham-1 Parsonrille; Mrs. Nellie Wat-f Summit; Mrs. Annie Trip- j Buck; Mrs. Ina Galloway,] PLANNED SUCCESSFUL SALES INSTITUTE Here are pictured members of the Advisory Committee of the Trade Promotion Group of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, which planned and carried out the highly successful Sales Institute. Left to riight are: C. Arthur Venable, Howard Stra der, Hubert Canter, Lawrence Miller, Russell Gray; standing?Paul Cashion, Millard Rhoades, Tom S. Jenrette, Terry Burke, R. M. Brame, Jr., J. Floyd Woodward, Har old Snyder. Gilbert Bare and W. G. Gabriel were committee members not present when the picture was made. (Photo By Lane Atkinson, Jr). Hospital Data Following are parts of an ad dress by Dr. W. S. Rankin, of the North ? Carolina Medical Care Commission, giving accurate in formation about the proposal for a - municipal hospital here: The Duke Endowment hasj been assisting from 130 to 134 hospitals for a number of years. As a condition for assistance, the Endowment requires that hospitals in their applications show a very detailed, verifiable, sworn to statement of income from various sources and expens es for various needs. For the 10 years prior to 1947 approxi mately 10 to 15 per cent of ap plicant hospitals showed deficits with most of the deficits under 3 per cent of operating expenses and very probably 90 to 95 per cent of the deficits under 5 per cent of operating expenses. Or reversing the order of the pre ceding statement, 85 to 90 per cent of the hospitals had no de ficits and most of these had sur pluses. In 1947 the Endowment assisted 132 hospitals located in North and South Carolina which included about 90 per cent of all general hospital beds in the two States. Eighty-eight of the 132 hospitals had no deficits, most of them surpluses; 44 showed de ficits. This was the largest per centage of hospitals showing de ficits that have applied in any one year to the Endowment for assistance. Now the reason few the increase in hospitals with de ficits during the year 1947 was a tremendous unanticipated in crease in costs, to be exact, 21.7 per cent or 31.58 per patient per day increase in costs. If this large increase in costs had been anticipated and rates adjusted to meet it, there would have been fewer deficits. Appproaching more closely to your own prob lem, I give you now the operat ing surpluses and operating de ficits of 9 general hospitals lo cated in the western part of North Carolina that average 73 beds in capacity. These 9 hos pitals are in Reidsville, Banner Elk, Morganton, Elkin, States ville, Marion, Mt. Airy, Shelby and North' Wilkesboro. Four of the 9 had an average operating 'surplus of $6,790.05; 5 of the 9 had an average operating deficit of The deficits for the 5 ranged from 1.1 per cent to 5.1 per cent of the operating costs. Three of them were under 3 per cent. What Is The Value of a Hospital? Let me surprise you with the assertion that its chief value Is not the care that ft provides for the 3,000 of your most seriously ill people. That, of course, is a great value, but it is definitely not the major value of a good hospital. The major or larger value of a hospital lies in .its in fluence upon, or lfe relation to, the total medical services of the county. First, the hospital at tracts and brings to the service of the county more doctors, more nurses, and more technically trained personnel to enlarge and to improve the local medical services. Moreover, it is the better type of physician, the I younger, better trained doctors, that the hospital brings to the services of the sick. More than anything else a loeal- hospital de termines both the number and the type?quantity and quality ?of the doctors to serve your community. Second, the local hospital doubles, trebles, and quadruples the services or ca pacities of physicians by (a) eliminating the travel factor and by (b) supplying the busy doc tor with the skilled assistance of nurses and technicians. If any of you will go to Banner Elk, North Carolina, #you- can see 3 physicians working in a hospital of 50 beds, assisted in their work by 25 nurses, 2 technicians, a dietitian, and a record librarian, doing work, and doing it better, than 12 physicians, minus a hos pital, minus nurses, and minus technical assistants, could pos sibly do. Third, the hospital at tracts and trains nurses and tech nical aides. Fourth, the local hospital serves as a reference center, as a professional appel late court, to which any person who is seriously ill or who is dependent upon institutional fa cilities for a diagnosis may be sent. It is this outside influ ence and effect of a hospital on the total medical Services of the county, not the inside work of the hospital that constitutes its major contribution to he com munity. It expands and im proves the medical services of the county to its remotest bound aries. According to the last American Medical Association Directory, Wilkes County had in 1946 11 physicians in active practice and two of the 11 were 65 years of age. There were two other phy sicians, one 79 and one 81, who had retired. Wilkes County had a ratio of only one physician for more than 4,000 people. The Surgeon-General of the United States Public Health Service es timates that one physician is needed to provide adequate care for every 1,000 to 1,500 people. The American Medical Associa tion concurs in this estimate. With adequate hospital facilities, with the added auxiliary services of nurses and technicians, your County will not need 30 active physicians. Twenty will serve you well. A good hospital will, more than anything else, attract them. The hospital is the key stone to a modern medical serv ice. The Hospital Is a Public Not a Private Problem . Is there anyone here whQ can conceive of New York being sup plied with adequate hospital fa cilities out of the private re sources of her physicians? Is there anyone here who can con ceive of Baltimore an^ Richmond, being supplied with adequate hospital facilities out of the pri vate resources of the physicians of those cities? Is there anyone here who can conceive of Ashe yille, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboto, High Point, Salis bury, Concord, Shelby, Morgan ton, Lenoir, or North Wilkesboro being supplied with adequate hospital facilities out of the pri vate resources of the practicing physicians of 'those nftaicQatt ties These questions supply their own answers. Seventy-five years ago think ing people thought of education as a private problem. The pri vate schools^ demonstrated the value, indeed," the necessity, of education. The public took over. Will you contemplate for a pass ing moment what would be our present situation in North Caro lina if the public had not enter ed the school picture? Hospital ization is following the same path as our schools?only fifty years behind them. The small, private hospital is yielding its place to the larger, better equip ped, more adequate public hos pital. In 1925, when the Cuke Endowment began its work with hospitals, 52 per cent of all gen eral hospital beds were privately owned and operated. Now not more than 12 per cent of the general hospital beds in North and South Carolina are privately operated and that 12 per cent is rapidly shrinking. With the Federal and State Government entering the field, in another ten years, not more than 5 per cent of general hospital beds will be privately owned and operated. The Basic Problem Besides the financial and pro fessional problem of adequate hospital facilities there is anoth er problem more basic than either of them, an