Yes; we would expect to get very tangible benefits from this legislation, which would improve rehabilitation in this country as well as elsewhere.

The CHAIRMAN. In other countries, too?

Mr. WHITTEN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you find much of this rehabilitation research going on in other countries today? I guess not.

Mr. WHITTEN. I do not think you could say a lot, Senator, although you find efforts. At times it almost brings tears to your eyes to see how they are trying to carry it on and under what meager circum

stances.

I remember a young scientist in Mexico City this fall talking with me an hour. He wanted to talk about what he could do if he had equipment, what he could do if he had personnel to help him. But he was not discouraged. He was carrying on with what he had. But he knew enough about the possibilities to know that his time was to a considerable extent being wasted.

The CHAIRMAN. I recall it has not been too long ago since a little prince from Saudi Arabia came over here, I believe, seeking

rehabilitation.

Mr. WHITTEN. Yes, sir; I remember that quite well.

The CHAIRMAN. I remember at the time what that meant from the standpoint of friendship and the prestige of the United States. Was that not true?

Mr. WHITTEN. Oh, it was marvelous. In fact, I think we could say for a good many months it was probably more important than anything that could happen in our relationships with the Middle East.

It is true that now the balance of power may be shifting in Saudi Arabia; but it certainly was effective. Dr. Rusk and Dr. Kessler and other physicians in this country can tell you scores and scores of cases where handicapped people have been brought to their centers for treatment and where little islands of friendship have developed that nothing in the world could ever sweep away.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Yarborough?

Senator YARBOROUGH. Mr. Whitten, this has been a very helpful statement, and I am very much impressed by the fact that from your vantage point as Executive Director of the National Rehabilitation Association, with that broad experience, you have not known of a single instance, of a single one of these programs, that has backfired or hurt our relationships with other nations. I think it is significant that out of all of this, there has not been a single instance. And you would have heard of it?

Mr. WHITTEN. I think I would. And that is why I said in my concluding statement that this is an area in which we in this country can lead with confidence, and also I might say an area in which the world is looking to us for leadership.

This is not a matter of our pushing ourselves upon them, but responding to a very deep heart felt need that they have for us and what we can do for them.

Senator YARBOROUGH. I think bringing us this summary of information which you have accumulated from your knowledge of this program has been very helpful to the Senate in the passing of this legislation.

Mr. WHITTEN. Thank you, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Williams? Senator WILLIAMS. No questions. I certainly agree with my friend from Texas, Senator Yarborough.

The CHAIRMAN. You have brought us a splendid statement, and we are deeply grateful to you.

Mr. WHITTEN. I am certainly grateful for the opportunity of coming.

The CHAIRMAN. Our witnesses tomorrow will be Dr. Martha Eliot, head, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. Leo Cherne, chairman, board of directors, International Rescue Committee, New York City; and Mr. Basil O'Connor, president, the National Foundation, president of the International Poliomyelitis Congress, and president, National Health Council.

The committee will now stand in recess until 10 o'clock in the morning.

(Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m., the committee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Friday, February 27, 1959.)

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The committee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 4232, Senate Office Building, Hon. Lister Hill (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Hill (presiding) and Williams.

Committee staff members present: Stewart E. McClure, chief clerk; William G. Reidy and Raymond Hurley, professional staff members. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order.

Our first witness this morning is Dr. Martha Eliot.

Doctor, will you come forward, please? You are an old friend of this committee. You have helped us out many times and you have given us much valuable advice. We certainly welcome you here.

She

Dr. Eliot received a doctor of medicine degree in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; she was director of the Division of Child and Maternal Health of the Children's Bureau from 1924 to 1934. has served with great distinction as a leading spirit in and Director of the Children's Bureau over a period of 20 years. She was a U.S. representative on the Executive Board, United Nations Children's Fund. She was a member of the U.S. delegation to the First World Health Assembly held in Geneva in 1948; Chairman of the Expert Committee on Maternal and Child Health of the World Health Organization.

We are glad to have you here and would be glad to have you proceed in your own way, Doctor.

STATEMENT OF DR. MARTHA ELIOT, HEAD, DEPARTMENT OF MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Dr. ELIOT. Senator Hill, I am, of course, most happy to be here and to support the International Health and Medical Research Act, which you have introduced with the cosponsorship of so many other Senators.

I am glad to support the general purposes of this measure, namely, the production of new knowledge through research to be carried out by international organizations and by individuals, universities, and other types of research agencies in many other countries than our own with whatever help it is appropriate for our country to give them.

For the United States to make resources available to scientists the world over in the amounts specified in this joint resolution is to repay

only in a small way the very great gifts that have been made to us by scientists from other countries.

Though in my remarks I shall speak chiefly about the general provisions of this joint resolution, I would like to indicate now my satisfaction that the purposes are so worded, especially in section 2(1) (C) that emphasis can be put on research related to the growth and development and general problems of children not identifiable in terms of disease entities.

I do not belittle the research on disease, but I think with respect to children, it is very important that we consider not only disease, but the problems of their growth and development, which are many.

It is of greatest importance to children in our own country, as well as in others, that research in these general problems be pressed forward in many countries so that we can have a better understanding of the reasons why behavior disorders develop and often continue into adult life. I shall return to this later.

The first general point I want to make has to do with the utilization of the international organizations in the implementation of the program of research proposed in this joint resolution. I am particularly concerned that the United States, as a member agency in the World Health Organization, should do everything in its power to strengthen the current work of that organization and to utilize its facilities, services, and tremendous worldwide prestige to the maximum in the furtherance of research to improve the health of people everywhere.

As this collaboration goes forward, there will be great opportunity for the World Health Organization to develop its research program. The World Health Organization was given as its first function by the 60 or more nations that framed its constitution, the responsibility and the authority "to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work." This constitution sets forth many ways in which the World Heatlh Organization should assist governments by stimulating, fostering, and cooperating in their work. It furthermore places upon the World Health Oragnization the responsibility "to promote and conduct research in the field of health."

Since the World Health Organization is thus in a strategic position to foster and develop the purposes of the joint resolution, I was most happy to see expressed in the preamble to the resolution and in sections 1 and 2(4) the intent to cooperate with and support the research, research-training, and research-planning endeavors of the international organizations. I am pleased that the World Health Organization should be named first. This seems to me appropriate.

I would suggest, however, that the Food and Agriculture Organization be named also in both the preamble and in sections 1 and 2(4). The World Health Organization collaborates with the Food and Agriculture Organization in many ways. Both organizations are concerned with research into the quality of foods for human nutrition and into the diseases of animals that are transmittable to man.

I would like to say also that the United Nations Children's Fund, through its function of making available supplies and equipment, has aided the research and other work of these organizations materially. By naming the Food and Agriculture Organization at these points, emphasis would be given to the importance of nutrition to health and to the need for collaboration between these organizations.