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Why Is Ann Arbor Failing In Drive For Polio Funds?

Why Is Ann Arbor Failing In Drive For Polio Funds? image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
January
Year
1951
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
Editorial
OCR Text

Why Is Ann Arbor Failing In Drive For Polio Funds?

Unless the citizens of Washtenaw County do a hasty about-face - and soon - the 1951 polio drive seems destined to be a miserable flop for the second consecutive year. All indications point to it as the deadline, next Wednesday, approaches. 

Why? Do people in the area feel they can't afford or contribute to the campaign? Do they believe the cause is not justified? Do they take the attitude 'Why should I pay the medical bills of Joe Doak's little boy?"

The Ann Arbor News and the group running the drive fervently hope and sincerely believe that the answer to all these questions is a positive "No." Why, then, is the campaign failing? We believe people just aren't willing to sit down and put a bill or coin in their cards and drop them in a mail box or put that loose change in the canister on the store counter. It's as simple as that!

The News wishes it had the answers to the problem on how to impress the public with the urgency of the campaign, of the serious polio conditions that exist today right here in Washtenaw County. 

We can write news stories and put big headlines on them telling people that there were 64 cases of polio - an all-time record - in the county last year. We can write editorials urging our readers to contribute. But unless John Q. Citizen stops - just a moment - to think of what's at stake in this March of Dimes, we might as well tell the Man in the Moon to give for the cause. 

Right now the county polio chapter is more than $14,000 in debt. Every day of the week, yes, even today, that debt is growing larger as patients in the hospitals receive their daily treatments and therapy. 

The chapter is asking residents to contribute only $24,500, of which $12,250 goes to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis headquarters for research and epidemic aid, and the other half stays here in the county. But even if the county receives its $12,250 - the chapter still will be in debt - and the year is only just started!

We of Ann Arbor, and of Ypsilanti, of Dexter, of Chelsea, of Milan, of Manchester, of Saline, and all the other communities in Washtenaw County CAN afford to contribute. We DO believe the cause is justified. And we DO realize that polio is a public problem and expense that must be met with public support. 

This is not an emotional appeal to give a dime of dollar. It is rather a cold, hard statement of the facts. Give today - before it's too late!