You must implement the existing will and desire by enacting this billquickly—and, as it intends, an all-out war against cancer-appropriating only money to assure success; authorizing the supreme commander, the President of the United States, to appoint a truly representative commission to think, act, and conquer, on behalf of an enlightened people. Those of you who have the vision and the common sense to aggressively assure the enactment of this bill shall be added to the names of great Americans who have made American as well as medical history. Instead of begging for the pittance to keep alive the research activities of scientists spread all over the map, and out of touch with each other, I beg this comparatively great sum for coordination of all cancer work so that hope can be brought to the 17,000,000 of us who are doomed to die of cancer. EXHIBIT 38 STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY MORRIS M. BERNSTEIN, FIRM MEMBER OF BERNSTEIN & WOLFF, NEW YORK CITY; TREASURER, NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE CARE OF ADVANCED CANCER PATIENTS, INC., NEW YORK CITY; ASSISTANT TREASURER, SPONSORS OF GOVERNMENT ACTION AGAINST CANCER, NEW YORK CITY; VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CANCER FOUNDATION, NEW YORK CITY Interested as I have been in the passing of the Pepper-Neely Cancer bill, my interest and hopes have been increased exceedingly by the results of the Gallup Poll which show that 87 percent of the people questioned were willing to pay higher taxes should they be required to do so because of the bill. I was greatly impressed by the number of letters and telegrams coming to our office as sponsors of Government action against cancer requesting an all-out effort by the Government in the cause of cancer. In the enthusiasm and urge for the speed of the passage of the bill, the movement, however, must not become the exclusive project in the hands of any special group or interest but should be open to all skilled scientists and doctors and subject to the advice and judgment of interested people concerned and qualified lay leaders. I request that the bill go through in its present form without any impeding amendments. I believe that the $100,000,000 should be appropriated at the very least. It is needless for me to tell you about the agony endured by those who bear the burden of this dreadful disease. And it also is needless for me to tell you of the little that can be done with the knowledge and the medical skills now at hand to bring relief to the stricken. It has shocked me to learn that even babies fall victim to this merciless malady. Only a few days ago I heard of the death of a 2-year-old boy in my city. Many times I have contributed funds to care for a child whose poor parents could not afford the expense of hospitals and treatments. I have fought side by side with Julius J. Perlmutter in his splendid leadership to find a haven for people in the final stages of this disease, and I eagerly joined him when he organized the National Foundation for the Care of Advanced Cancer Patients and again with sponsors of Government action against cancer. One thing strikes home with me, and that is that individual efforts of too few people with too small means will not get anywhere toward conquering cancer. It is like trying to fight a thousand-acre forest fire with a single spray gun. Only our Government has the financial means and the power to focus a telling effort in the direction of a cure. It makes sense to direct tax money against such a foe. It worked in the case of the atom bomb. It has every chance of equal success, if done in the same manner, against cancer. Its people are the concern of the Government. No citizen is immune from attack by this disease. The need for worthy action cannot be ignored, since such action benefits us all. None of us at this hearing is pleading for someone else. Everyone is talking about himself and the danger that threatens him. It is plain self-protection. If there is an answer to cancer, he adoption of the PepperNeely bill is, to my mind, the way to find it. I know that I speak for every businessman in New York and, I am sure, throughout the country, when I plead for favorable action by this committee and the Congress on the Pepper-Neely bill. That the fight has grown more ominous of recent years can be easily explained if we consider that our population is an aging one. That is to say, during the last half century the mean expectancy of life at birth has increased from 45 years to 632 years. Thus, we are living longer than we used to live. Now, cancer, while it is no respecter of persons, and attacks even little children, is, in the main, a disease of middle years and old age. In other words, it is a chronic disease. The longer we live, the greater is the chance that we shall die of cancer. Hence, while cancer is on the increase, it is so only because we now manage to survive to a far greater degree than formerly the diseases which overtake us in our younger years. We owe our increased resistance to improved methods of treatment and diagnosis. Thus we can say that the more that is done to lengthen our lives the more work there is for, the doctors and the scientists and the educators to do in the field of cancer. In other words we need Government financial help to a far greater extent than ever before. The day of large endowments is over, for the most part. Institutions will undoubtedly receive bequests and contributions and aid from local governments from time to time. But only the Federal Government can insure steady, definite support on the enormous scale required over a period of years. The fight against cancer, to be most effective, must not be dependent on private financial aid or grants. Only a blueprint that looks forward to activities which will cover a considerable span of years will answer the purpose. The work must never be jeopardized because a slump in the stock market, for instance, has necessitated the stoppage of the usual sources of income, or at least the lessening of these contributions. When a financial depression overtakes us, we are apt to retrench in the matter of voluntary contributions. But aside from the advantage of stable financial support, is the advantage which over-all planning will give to the subject. The Federal Government has the power to mobilize the services of experts and to coordinate their efforts. How effectively a vast problem can be solved when it is tackled by the Federal Government was well demonstrated in connection with the atomic bomb. Here was a project calling for limitless sums of money and the coordination of scientific effort on an enormous scale. The Government spent $2,000,000,000 and enlisted the services of hundreds of scientists and engineers to develop the bomb. No group of scientists working alone, no matter how skillful or zealous they might be, no institution however efficient, could have achieved what the Federal Government was able to do. The same Government action and support will go far toward conquering cancer. We have learned to cooperate efficiently in waging a war against Nazis and Japanese. Now, at a cost which is less than half the amount that we spent every 24 hours to fight World War II, the Pepper-Neely bill aims to attack the problem of cancer in the most efficient way. It is the concern of every one of us to do our utmost to support Government action against cancer. In closing I favor the appointment by the President of the United States of a new and independent commission on cancer, this commission to be made up of men who are outstanding in the cancer field. A very apt reminder has been made by Mr. Waldimir Kaempfert, New York Times science editor, in his book Through Science to World Unity, in which he states: "It is a disgrace that the conquest of cancer is not in sight for lack of a systematic study of normal and abnormal growth." Our Government is the only one in the world today that is financially able to conduct the research on the scale demanded and at the same time to cooperate with all governments of the world. Gentlemen, the Nation awaits your cooperation. Senator CLAUDE PEPPER, EXHIBIT 39 BROOKLYN, N. Y., July 1, 1946. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.: Please read the following to your committee: Five days ago our 22-year-old son died of cancer. Only 3 months ago he was healthy, robust, intelligent, and a tremendous source of happiness to us. As soon as his illness was diagnosed he was doomed. Can you as a member of this committee gamble with the lives of those whom you love? There are many children alive and happy today who will suffer Donald's fate. The power to help them is in your hands. This source can only be eliminated by concentrating all the resources of our mighty nations in the attack on cancer. Only with the passage of Senate bill 1875 will the annual cancer toll in the United States and the rest of the world ho drastically reduced. Mr. and Mrs. MURRAY EISENSTADT. EXHIBIT 40 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, SENATE FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDING HEARINGS ON THE NEELY-PEPPER CANCER BILL. GENTLEMEN: I wish to be recorded as one who favors the enactment of the Neely-Pepper cancer bill. The Research which produced the atomic bomb shows the efficiency of coordinated scientific research. Cancer is another enemy of mankind and its ravages are comparable to the ravages of war. It is, indeed, more destructive than war itself as it is an enemy whose attack never ceases. While many individual research projects are carried on, the number should be greatly increased and the researches coordinated. For this purpose large additional funds should be provided. I regard the appropriation proposed as a minimum. The simplicity of the bill in its present form appeals to me. I trust that it will be reported out of committee quickly and will be as promptly enacted. The enemy does not wait. Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR PEPPER: This letter is the follow-up to my telegram this morning in which I stated an endeavor would be made to have a report in your hands today regarding my personal experience with cancer. It has been impossible, due entirely to my present serious illness, to get this report typed for your scrutiny today and perhaps this letter may come too late to be of any value. If such is not the case, the report will be sent in brief form, which may suffice, at the very earliest moment. You are certainly to be commended for your stand in putting everything you have behind this recommendation at this time, but I want to add my little suggestion for what it may be worth. During the course of my personal fight against this malady I have been to many of the most prominent specialists in the country and have at least refused to succumb of the predictions of many that my number was up. Of course the expense has run into thousands to say nothing of the suffering; first-hand knowledge of the way public funds are handled would astound you and anyone honestly interested in finding the solution. Too much stress has already been applied to the research angle as evidenced by the handling of the funds we all subscribe yearly to this cause and not enough effort to some form of relief of the individual cases, which in itself may finally prove to be the answer. It is my earnest hope that I may yet have the time to prepare the information which I feel sure will prove that you should make an endeavor to earmark at least a portion of any appropriation toward diversified channels. Too many funds have already been expended by the present authorities in the cancer field without the possibility of requisition of any of these funds for some most worthy avenues of accomplishment. Whether you remember me personally is irrelevant, but as I told your office this morning by phone if yo udo not, I will be greatly displeased, not only because of my Orlando efforts, for the reason that I have always felt you have been a real champion of the people and they may yet become completely aware of this in great numbers. Trusting I may be able to lend some assistance to this effort and looking forward to the time when I may be again well enough to bask in the sun. Yours for every success, Hon. CLAUDE PEPPER, WILLIAM M. (Bill) YOUNG. 1617 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, NW., Washington, D. C., July 6, 1946. United States Senáte, Washington, D. C. DEAR CLAUDE: Enclosed herewith you will find the statement requested by you to be included in the record of the hearings for the subcommittee and for full consideration by the committee handling the cancer bill. As stated to you by phone, and shown in the report, I am perhaps alive due entirely to the good fortune of having come in contact with one Dr. Lyman Loffler. His treatment, in my opinion and in the opinion of many of the specialists who have been called in on my particular case, was entirely responsible for saving my life this past year. My reason for elaboration as to the qualifications and unusual ability of Dr. Loffler, insofar as the treatment of cancer is concerned, are due entirely, not only to the first-hand knowledge that I have but due because, during the course of my treatments under his therapy, it was my good fortune to meet personally many of his patients without his personal knowledge. It was from the conversations with these people that I learned of the outstanding accomplishments, especially in the cancer field, through blood therapy, and I bring them to your attention for what they may be worth in steering your cancer measure through to final and successful conclusion. Great numbers of these people had experienced, like myself, consultations and treatment under many specialists and spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on unsuccessful treatments. As stated to you in our conversation, I feel sure you will find that it is vital in the welfare of humanity to earmark the greater portion of any public appropriation for individual aid and subsidy to the particular sufferer. On good authority, I am informed that the greater portion of the recent new findings, such as penicillin, have come much by accident from general practitioners in the normal course of their practices. You can believe me, I feel sure, that when I say even a person who starts out with considerable financial assets, will very shortly find himself without funds in his personal fight with the cancer problem. And even though we, as individuals, contribute an enormous amount annually to the Cancer Society, I, as an individual, have failed totally and entirely to locate any agency whatsoever in the United States today that offers specific financial aid or relief to an individual because of his or her malignant condition. At the very height of the fight against this malady, when it appears that Providence may be on your side, the idiosyncracies of social welfare require that at that stage of the battle you resign yourself to treatment in some general hospital as a public ward, even after you have, in the past 24 hours, been told that this is the time when highly specialized and qualified technicians should be momentarily at your beck and call. As per your telegram, I am bringing Dr. Loffler to your office Wednesday morning at 9:30 for the hour's conference we all so urgently are awaiting, with the utmost hope and anticipation. At the conclusion of that talk with Dr. Loffler, I want to have a few moments with you as a personal friend, in the strictest confidence, to give you my reasoning for the commendation of Dr. Loffler's work and for nothing else. With kindest personal regards and my sincere hope that you will continue to go on, as you have in the past, with this and other humanitarian work, which in my opinion has considerable merit, I am, as ever Most sincerely your friend, WILLIAM M. (BILL) YOUNG. JULY 6, 1946. REPORT ON THE CASE OF WILLIAM M. YOUNG, AGE 41 DIAGNOSIS-MALIGNANT MALANOMA-OCTOBER 1943 In 1943 Dr. Thomas A. Stevenson operated on right forearm of above patient and after operation returned with a positive diagnosis of malignant malanoma. In November 1943 the second operation was performed by the above physician as a prophylactic measure, removing the axilla glands. Pathological reports after the second operation were entirely negative. Postoperative care was rendered by the same physician and the patient was pronounced "cured" in March 1944. From March 1944 until May 1945 the patient enjoyed an unusual apparent good health and experienced a rehabilitation physically which was considered miraculous by many physicians, as attested by affidavits hereto. In July 1945 patient began very rapidly to become generally run-down and within 30 days lost from 40 to 45 pounds in weight. The diagnosis of this condition was made and explained in a letter dated June 25, 1945, from Dr. H. Oliver Ernst, Jr., New Orleans, La. Following the prescribed diet and medical advice of Dr. Ernst, some general physical improvement was noted for a period of approximately 30 days, at which time a period of recurrence of the internal disorders reappeared, such as internal bleeding, vomiting of blood, etc. Dr. Ernest H. Gaither, an internal specialist, 12 East Eager Street, Baltimore, Md., who had treated the patient previously for internal conditions, was called in and advised according to his statement, dated December 13, 1945, attached hereto, together with his personal history of patient's condition in general. From the early fall of 1945, until the last week of November, the patient experienced a state of debilitation almost reaching complete incapacitation. The week of December 1, the condition was again diagnosed as a recurrence of cancer and an operation was performed on December 7, namely, removal of the lymph gland as shown by the attached report and patient's condition generally became progressively worse following this operation. On advice of surgeons whose statements are also attached hereto, patient was referred to Dr. George H. Pack, the physician in America charged with the responsibility of guiding the activities of the Rockefeller Foundation at Cancer Memorial Hospital, New York City. His advice was immediate amputation of the arm as per letter attached hereto: Following these experiences and, as shown by all of the letters, correspondence, and reports, pathological and medical, attached hereto, the case was considered generally hopeless by all of the cancer specialists concerned and patient's life expectancy was placed by some at not more than 6 months at the outside. Under these conditions the patient was grasping at straws and was referred to Dr. Charles L. Loffler, M. D., Chicago, Ill., a hematologist of considerable background. Dr. Loffler stated that the case had gone too far for there to be any assurance that blood therapy could combat the situation, but that he would make the effort. The condition of patient was so grave that his will to pull through was approximately all that was left. He had no appetite, no physical stamina, had to be carried to and from bathing facilities, etc. After some 30 days under the care of Dr. Loffler, patient's recovery bordered on the miraculous. Dr. Loffler's therapy not only revitalized system of patient but was responsible for his regaining of appetite, and morale was improved to the point of again being physically able to fight for survival. Immediately within a 60-day period, patient regained 35 pounds of the 47 pounds lost during the previous 90 days. Dr. Loffler's affidavit and letter dated December 17, 1945, are attached hereto. During the course of treatment under supervision of Dr. Loffler, patient talked with many other patients of Dr. Leffler at length, especially those having had a history of cancer. The accomplishment and cures which he has effected, personally seen by the patient, are sufficient in themselves to justify the estab`lishment of blood-therapy clinics throughout the United States under Dr. Loffler's personal direction or supervision, or at least under his guidance, for the welfare of those who may have even the slightest possibility of cancer. Dr. Loffler is so sincere is his desire to make his therapy available to all mankind that he is volunteering the time from his practice to appear before Congress and present his experiences and suggest a method by which this treatment can be made available to at least the entire population of the country. |