of unnecessary and incompetent surgery soon arose publicly. Draper wrote in 1953, "As there were no indications that the deplorable conditions of the past would not extend indefinitely into the future, the fund had no other recourse than to arrange for the establishment of new hospitals in some of the areas in which [the] most desperate need existed." This need led to the establishment of the Memorial Hospital Associations of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, and the building of ten new hospitals. These associations were non-profit organizations established in accordance with the respective laws of the individual states, and were financed through a production royalty on coal tonnage. While criticisms were launched at the plan as being socialized medicine, John L. Lewis, the President of the United Mine Workers had this to say: The program had both its merits and its downsides. On the positive side, in the field of rehabilitation alone, thousands of crippled miners had been restored to usefulness and re-employment. Dr. Draper wrote in a 1953 article, "the arduous, costly task of restoring men with crushed limbs and backs in the terrible toll of the coal mines is one of the finest chapters in the history of medicine." On the negative side, with a program of this extent there were physicians who were not competent to provide the quality of service needed, and those who rendered needless or poorly advised services. Some physicians had a monopoly on certain services in certain areas and charged exorbitant fees, while others took advantage of emergency situations, charging coal miners rates that they would charge their wealthiest clients. Nevertheless, Draper wrote in 1953, the physicians associated with the fund had done a great amount to improve the standard of medical practice in coal mining areas. Overall, the program was considered to be a success; so successful, in fact, that in 1956 it was given the Albert Lasker Group Award. While the fund continued to serve miners for decades to come, it was forced to give up its hospitals in 1964 from rising costs that it could no longer control. In an article that Draper wrote in the Military Surgeon in 1948 he stated, "I could not know, of course, that the climax of my career was to come in the form of a request from the War Department to serve in World War II as Chief of Public Health on General