A furor has been created by the announcement from Sanatorium, the State hospital for tuberculosis patients, that 16 persons, seriously ill with the disease, must leave the institution September 1st because of lack of funds. The last sessions of the General Assembly gave Sanatorium something like $150,000 when officials of the institution had asked for about a million dollars and had demanded not less than about $400,000 if their work was to continue on the scale needed.
The money needed at Sanatorium will be forthcoming, all right, for North Carolina people are not willing to see bed-ridden tuberculosis patients sent from a hospital when they are not able to take the treatment at their own expense. The directors of the hospital have just a certain amount of money to spend and they have decided that it will be better to give treatment to 16 persons who have just contracted the disease and who have a chance to be cured, than to keep the 16 persons who have no chance to recover. Still, the State is faced with the need of caring for the 16 hopeless cases just the same. The fact that they cannot be cured should not mean they will have to be in want in their last days.
North Carolina has prospered greatly in recent months and her humanitarianism has been responsible for this prosperity to no uncertain degree. We do not believe a State can prosper unless the people of that State are willing to give enough of their substance to care for the unfortunate people. What shall it profit North Carolina or any other State for her people to save a little money while neighbors and friends are suffering from insanity, disease or some other affliction. Surely there must be a way for the State to meet the demands in this case. We are certain the legislature members did not intend for such a condition to exist as has been created by the decreased appropriations for this hospital for tuberculosis patients.
From editorial page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, Aug. 17, 1925; J.B. Sherrill, editor and publisher; W.M. Sherrill, associate editor.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-08-17/ed-1/seq-4/
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