Dr. Graham Urges Farm Women to Support Health Measures, 1945

Published in the News and Observer, Raleigh, sometime in 1945

Declaring that “good roads, good schools and good health make the good life of a great commonwealth,” Dr. Frank P. Graham, president of the Greater University of North Carolina, yesterday urged the members of the State Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs to support the recommendations of the N.C. Commission on Hospitals and Medical Care.

“North Carolina has moved ahead of most of the Southern states in the schools and roads she provides for her citizens, and she must go ahead also with health services,” Dr. Graham declared.

In addressing the 25^th anniversary meeting of the State Federation at the State College YMCA yesterday, Dr. Graham quoted from the findings of the Medical Care Commission on the health and medical care facilities of the state.

“Approximately 73 per cent of the people of the state live in rural areas and in towns of less than 2,500 population, however, only 31 per cent of the doctors of the state serve them,” Dr. Graham pointed out, and said that there are only 4,870 approved hospital beds in North Carolina, 42 per cent of which are located in six urban centers of the state.

“Furthermore,” he said, “North Carolina ranks 41^st in the nation in the number of mothers who die in childbirth, and 39^th in the number of children who die soon after birth.”

Turning to the hospital facilities provided, he declared that North Carolina is 42^nd in the number of hospital beds in proportion to her population and 45^th in the number of doctors in proportion to the total number of people.

The recommendations of the Medical Care Commission were designed to correct some of these inadequacies, he said, and he listed the points stressed by that group.

“First,” he said, “the state should provide $500,000 out of any surplus funds it has for the care of indigent patients. This recommendation was passed by the last Legislature.”

The second point, Dr. Graham said, provided for a loan fund to finance the education of North Carolina students who wish to study medicine. By the terms of the provisions passed by the Legislature, these young men commit themselves to practice medicine for at least four years in the rural areas of the state.

The Legislature did not pass the third recommendation, he said, by which a fund would be set up to build rural hospitals, clinics and diagnostic laboratories, and which was designed, he said, to encourage young doctors to begin their practice in the rural areas where they are so needed.

The fourth recommendation, which was approved by the Legislature with no provision of funds for it, was that the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina would be expanded into a four-year medical school.

He praised the medical facilities offered by the Duke School of Medicine and by Bowman Gray Medical School, but he pointed out that these schools could not provide all the doctors needed by the people of the state and urged that women get behind the four recommendations and see them through to fulfillment.

Other speakers heard by the Federation women in their final day’s meeting, which closed at noon yesterday, were State Home Demonstration Agent Ruth Current, who outlined the main points of the Home Demonstration program for 1946.

Health programs will be stressed in all these programs, she said, and second in importance will be the raising of the standards of rural living.

Following Miss Current’s talk, Mrs. T. Palmer Jerman, Raleigh clubwoman, was introduced. She urged the women to support the amendment to the State Constitution which will be brought next year. The amendment is designed to remove certain basic discriminations against women.

Julian Mann, state director of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation of the USDA spoke briefly on the subject, “What Crop Insurance Means to the Farm Women of North Carolina.”

He urged them to consider how crop insurance would contribute to a better standard of living by all farm families, and showed them the benefits to be derived from such a system.

At the conclusion of the addresses, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

--An endorsement of the policy of improving rural health by requesting the State Medical Care Commission to investigate the possibility of establishing a health insurance plan on a voluntary basis;

--A recommendation to the State Board of Education to give consideration to the employment of school attendance officers;

--An opposition to the enactment of peacetime conscription;

--A request for legislative support to the school lunch bill HR-3370;

--A pledge to support the amendment to the Constitution removing discrimination against women;

--A plan to establish a health care plan, to be entitled the Estelle T. Smith Health Fund; and

--A request to Governor Cherry not to increase the speed limit above 45 miles per hour.

The resolutions were presented by Mrs. Annie Godwin, chairman of the resolutions committee.

At the conclusion of the session Mrs. A.W. Pierce of Wayne County was installed as president of the federation along with: first vice-president, Mrs. Glenn Duncan of Chatham County; second vice-president, Mrs. George Apperson of Davie County; third vice-president, Mrs. P.P. Gregory of Camden County; recording secretary, Mrs. Loy Howard of Lincoln County; corresponding secretary, Mrs. J.S. Gray of Macon County; treasurer, Mrs. Eva U. Person of Franklin County; chairman of the Jane S. McKimmon Loan Fund Committee, Mrs. H.M. Johnson of Lenoir County; and counselor, Mrs. Estelle T. Smith of State College.