Classification of
School Children Into Well-to-do and Indigent is Un-American, Un-Democratic,
Un-Christian
No zydogactile bird of the order Psittacci ever told
himself “Pretty Polly!” with more
satisfaction than otherwise responsible people derive from mouthing “Not able
to pay.” It is unction to their souls. It is balm for many a troubled
conscience.
“O, yes, this hospital offers free treatment to those who
are not able to pay,” says the President of the Board of Visitors, adding, of
course, “except a small fee to take care of incidentals.”
“Special provision for those who are not able to pay”; the
“worthy poor”; “children of the poor”; “for charity” are a few of the canting
generalities which cover a multitude of the sins of omission.
The North Carolina State Board of Health is neither Bolshevik
nor Prussian; nor is its mission the setting of a wrong world right. But some
of us who have played the game of life in the rough—who have practiced medicine
and occasionally ourselves bound up a wound, as well as sat on “the rail” and
watched the big men operate—have so often been balked in a sincere attempt to
render honest service by the trite, satisfied reply, “Oh, yes, if he is not
able to pay,” that we have become convinced that the expression itself is a
howling hypocrite.
Suffering humanity means just exactly nothing to us, but
suffering individuals whom it is partly our duty to assist mean everything.
This peculiarly applies to the correction of common physical defects of
thousands of school children in North Carolina.
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