"Holy Money"

Almost as famed as Rochester, N. Y., hometown of George ("Kodak") Eastman is Rochester, Minn. (named for Rochester, N. Y.), seat of the Mayo Clinic. Last week Rochester's first citizen, Dr. William James Mayo, chugged into Memphis, Tenn., on his gasoline cruiser North Star on his way north from a Florida fishing trip. A newsgatherer got him talking about something he and his younger brother, Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, seldom discuss: money. Dr. Mayo assured his interviewer of a fact which Rochester, Minn., has long known. The Mayo money--and there are several millions of it--will not go to Mayo heirs but to the Clinic.

In 1894 the Mayo Brothers started saving half their incomes; put it into a special fund. Says Dr. Will: "I know it might sound mawkish . . . like egotism . . . but that money seemed, somehow, like holy money to us." Today this "holy money" is said to amount to $13,000,000. All of this will go to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, connected with the University of Minnesota. This was founded in 1915 with a gift of $1,500,000.

The Mayo Clinic. Forty-seven years ago this summer Rochester was a leveled mass of ruins; a tornado had twisted its base, uprooted it. William Worrell Mayo, country doctor, Indian fighter, took charge of patching up the scores of injured people in the small town. His boys helped him.

A temporary hospital was thrown up which was the beginning of the world famed "Clinic City." Probably the only city of its type in the world, Rochester is a giant hospital. To it, each day, come hundreds of sufferers--by plane, train, motor, foot. All know that they will be treated. Twenty-five % are free cases; 30% pay the bare expenses of their own cases; 45% pay for running the Clinic. Besides the Brothers Mayo there are over 300 other medical men in town.

The town is like a hospital campus. No street cars break the quiet; no clanging noises disturb the peace. Silent busses slip about the streets. No factory whistles shriek. It is a town of healing, charity, repose.

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