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Show EDITORIALS After All, What's $10,000,000? WE CITIZENS have become so accustomed to large expenditures by government agencies, both local and national, that we no longer raise a loud voice to protest huge and unnecessary appropriations. Specifically, we are referring to the Veterans Hospital Hos-pital which will socr be built at Fort Douglas. The hospital will cost us all at least $10,000,000, every dollar of which is unnecessary. One hour and ten minutes drive (traveling within the speed limit) from Salt Lake is an establishment which cost from $12,000,000 to $14,000,000, and it is lying completely com-pletely idle. We refer to Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City. Bushnell, in its peak years, during 1944 and 1945, easily housed 4000 war wounded. Its buildings are made of good brick . . . expensive brick. The buildings are connected con-nected by ramps for the benefit of wheel chair patients. At Bushnell Hospital there is everything essential to make a good veterans' hospital, including a $150,000 swimming pool completed just two weeks before the Japanese surrendered, sur-rendered, and a sewage disposal plant. There are nurses' and officers' quarters, two auditoriums, an administration administra-tion building, and a beautifully-landscaped hospital area. Salt Lake promoters have said that Bushnell is not a good location because of the difficulty of staffing it with j medical personnel. We know of a very famous hospital i called Mayo Brothers Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which 1 has a very competent staff even though it is miles from a large metropolitan area. Bushnell is conveniently located between Logan and Salt Lake. It is adjacent to Brigham . City, which has a population of about 8000. Ogden is only 20 miles to the South. The question which has often been asked and never answered is: "If Bushnell adequately served as a general hospital in wartime, why won.'t'is serve just as efficiently as a veterans' hospital in peacetime?" Surely, if an outlay of $10,000,000 is necessary for a new hospital, it seems reasonable that ways and means can be found to make use of a complete plant like Bushnell's. |