Hearings

nel in any discipline, uses, intelligent uses, are found for their services in additional ways.

So you go through sort of a geometric regressive situation. We have practically doubled, through one of our scholarship plans, the number of physical therapists in this country. Yet today we are just about where we started some 20 years ago, because in the meantime physical therapy has been found to be an essential in the handling of other disabling cases, other kinds of cases.

A bigger demand is put on each physical therapist. The result is that you really begin to go backward rather than forward.

Another problem we have is that our great increase in population has been at the bottom of the ladder where they are very young, and at the top where they are old. But in the group that we are all drawing from for health personnel there has not been that same kind of increase, and we will not get that until sometime in 1961 or 1962, along in there.

So it is a distressing situation, and I think an alarming situation. We have spent in the last 25 years, just in professional education alone, $31 million of our money, and we have created in that period 7,000 new pairs of hands, including doctors all the way down the line.

But that is just like a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean. As I have indicated, this new scholarship plan, even though over a 10-year period we created an additional 10,000 pairs of trained hands, would be just like a drop of water in the Atlantic Ocean. We cannot fill the whole gap, of course.

It is not a simple problem, but it is one that we have to face up to, and I think more can be done on it if people realize what the problem really is.

Senator WILLIAMS. I wonder if we can take just a moment to get some appreciation as to the extent of the use of Salk vaccine around the world, how much it is distributed in other countries, or the manufacturing of it.

Mr. O'CONNOR. I cannot give you figures, but someone told me the other day that most of the children in Czhechoslovakia have been given the vaccine. Of course, they have used it in Denmark and Germany. They must now be using it in England after quite a delay. The Russians are manufacturing it.

This is the one American product where they give full credit to an American, Dr. Salk, as being his product. So I would say that it was being used to a certain extent abroad.

Of course, their problem is to get into manufacture, really, and not try to have us manufacture it and ship it to them. But I am much more interested in ours being used in this country. It is not being used to anywhere near the extent it should be.

Let me make it clear that we do not sell the vaccine, nor do we manufacture it. But the fact is that 36 percent of the people under 40, in which we have our highest paralytic rate, have not received one shot of Salk vaccine. The result of that is that in 1958 we had more cases, 40 percent more cases, of paralytic polio than we had in 1957. There are certain areas of this country, what we call soft areas, such as developed in Chicago in 1957, Detroit in 1958, and in West Virginia, where if polio does hit this summer we can have an oldfashioned epidemic running into substantial figures.

We now have some plans ourselves, after exhausting ourselves in what you might call an educational program in which the Government has participated, and the medical society has participated, and we have participated. We have now about brought ourselves to the point where we are about to bring in a specific program of trying to eliminate some of these soft spots, by actually making it possible for the vaccine to be given. That cannot be done by an organization such as ours in any one year. But we can start a program which we expect to do this spring which may spread to other places as the result of what you might call a pilot study.

Another problem we have is that we have some 4 to 5 million children born every year in this country. In many of these places, the highest incidence of polio is in the 1- to 2-year-old group. That is the group, of course, before they go to school. There are no specific, definite plans to cover those children with Salk vaccine. Each year you have 5 million of them, or 4 million, whichever you want, coming along. It does not take long to have something in the nature of a problem there.

But if we could just get people in this country to take this Salk vaccine, we just would not have any paralytic polio and, of course,

that is what we want.

Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. O'Connor, let me ask you this question: I am very much interested in what you had to say about the amount of money that you have invested through the foundation to get the vaccine. The resolution before us authorizes an appropriation of $50 million a year. You would not think that $50 million was at all too high or excessive for the purposes we have in mind, would you?

Mr. O'CONNOR. Well, in the area that you want to operate in, there isn't any doubt about it. I can tell you exactly what we have spent. As a matter of fact, the Salk vaccine was the cheapest thing the American people ever got. We spent about $30 million in 20 years on the Salk vaccine. But that is apart from the field trial, which cost another $7.5 million, and that is apart from $15 million on gammaglobulin, and $9 million for initial purchase of vaccine. And, of course, we will spend much more in research now for two reasons. One is we know more about it, and, secondly, we have a broader program.

In your program that covers the whole world, and which, obviously, as I am sure you know as well as anyone, has to be gone into on a gradual basis, the amount of money that is indicated now is in no sense too small. The hope would be that over a period of 100 years it would become increasingly more.

The CHAIRMAN. We certainly want to thank you, Mr. O'Connor. We are deeply grateful to you. Thank you.

I shall place in the record at this point a statement from Dr. Harold S. Diehl, dean, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, and senior vice president for Medical Affairs and Research of the American Cancer Society. The statement will appear in full.

I call attention to the last paragraph of Dr. Diehl's statement, which is as follows:

This bill will make it possible to enlist the combined skills of the best research minds throughout the world. The American Cancer Society, therefore, endorses the bill without reservation and trusts that the Congress will enact it in time to obtain appropriations for the purpose of fiscal year 1960.

(The complete statement of Dr. Harold S. Diehl follows:)

STATEMENT BY HAROLD S. DIEHL, M.D., SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR MEDICAL AFFAIRS AND RESEARCH AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

The international health and peace bill, introduced by Senator Lister Hill, was endorsed on January 13, 1959, by the board of directors of the American Cancer Society and favorable action by the Senate and the House of Representatives is urged.

The society's interest in this measure is because of its support of an international effort in the war against cancer. In the United States, where this disease is the second cause of death, some 255,000 Americans died of cancer in 1958. In the world, the total deaths were more than 2 million. In America, death rates from lung cancer and leukemia, particularly in those over 60, are rising sharply, but mortality in other sites is leveling off or dropping.

Much progress is being made. We estimate that today in this country 1 in every 3 patients with cancer is being saved where 10 years ago the figure was 1 in 4. An immense research program has been mounted. Programs of service and education are being pressed.

Communication between
Many scientists have

However, there is much more that needs to be done. scientists here and abroad is often slow and uncertain. skills and experience that are not being fully mobilized against cancer. There are striking variations in the incidence of cancer in many countries. Epidemiological studies of differences in peoples' habits, working conditions, diets, etc., might help answer such important questions as to why death rates from cancer of the lung are almost twice as high in England as in the United States, why deaths from cancer of the breast in Japan are only about one-fifth as many, per hundred thousand, as in England or the United States, or why cancer of the cervix occurs so infrequently in Israel whereas its incidence here is relatively high.

The more scientists in the world there are to work on cancer and the faster they are able to exchange ideas and reports of work, the sooner we shall find new ways of curing or preventing cancer. The lifting of the threat of cancer from mankind is a great and challenging goal in which every nation in the world can contribute.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything further?

The committee will recess in a few minutes until next Wednesday morning, March 4, 10 a.m. The witnesses on that morning will be: The Honorable Arthur Flemming, Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Dr. Leroy E. Burney, United States Surgeon General of the Public Health Service.

Miss Mary Switzer, Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

A representative of the American Dental Association;

And Gen. Melvin Maas, Chairman of the President's Committee on the Handicapped.

The committee will now stand in recess until 10 a.m., Wednesday morning, March 4, 1959.

(Whereupon, at 12 noon, the committee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 4, 1959.)

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH

ACT FOR 1959

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1959

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 4232, Senate Office Building, Senator Lister Hill (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Hill (presiding), Clark, Williams, and Cooper. Committee staff members present: Stewart E. McClure, chief clerk; John S. Forsythe, general council; William G. Reidy and Raymond Hurley, professional staff members.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will kindly come to order.

The first witness this morning will be Maj. Gen. Melvin J. Maas. General Maas, will you come around, please?

We want to say we are very happy to have you here. We welcome you. You and I were old colleagues for about 18 years, when you served in the House and I had the privilege of serving over there with you. Then you left to go into the Marines, where you had very fine and distinguished service. Since then you have been giving of yourself to the cause of rehabilitation as Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped.

Certainly we are glad to have you here, and we would be glad now to have you proceed in your own way, General.

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. MELVIN J. MAAS, USMCR, RETIRED, CHAIRMAN, THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT OF THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED

General MAAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have a prepared statement, which I would like to have permission to file with the committee, but I would like to make some additional supplementary remarks.

The CHAIRMAN. General, we will carry your statement in full in the hearings, and we will be glad now to have you proceed.

General MAAS. Thank you, sir.

I am very ardently in support of Senate Resolution 41. In addition to being Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, I am also chairman of the People to People's Committee on the Handicapped, which, as you gentlemen know, is a worldwide effort to exchange with other peoples all over the world the techniques and developments of assisting the handicapped to get rehabilitation, with the ultimate objective of assisting them to get employment.

37629-59-10

I have attended a number of international conferences with nations from all over the world and also most of the African and Asian nations in the past few years, and, Mr. Chairman, I have met with leaders of the peoples of almost every nation on earth, not the leaders of government, but in many cases the leaders of war veterans' organizations and leaders in rehabilitation. And, I believe that I have sensed the feelings, the ambitions, the desires, and the hopes and aspirations of these peoples, particularly the newly liberated peoples of Asia and Africa.

I would just like to supplement my formal statement by telling you that from my own personal experiences because I have become intimately acquainted with so many of these leaders in countries all over the world-they realize that we are in a war. It is a so called cold

war.

In this cold war that is going on, and it is a deadly war, if we, the free peoples of the world, Mr. Chairman, lose this war, there will be no survivors. By that I mean there will be no survivors among free people; because the penalty for losing will be the loss of freedom for everyone.

On the other hand, we can win this cold war. What is at stake? Our people.

We are not going to win this war by bullets, nor yet by intercontinental ballistic missiles. This war is not going to be won, Mr. Chairman, by the generals or the diplomats. This war is going to have to be won by peoples working together.

The world is sick and tired of war and threats of war and talk of war. Yes, Mr. Chairman, they are even sick and tired of hearing about economic wars. Can we not just help peoples because they are peoples? That is what they want to hear.

In my experience, the peoples of the world, particularly the newly liberated peoples, want to hear a great deal more about the American Declaration of Independence and a lot less about the declaration of who is going to control outer space.

This war, if it is to be won by free peoples, so that all peoples on earth may be free, is going to be won by people, people with ideals and ideas.

The one great desire that is universal among all peoples, regardless of their origin, their race, their color, or their creed, is a burning desire to have their human dignity recognized. And, that is more powerful, Mr. Chairman, than all the bullets and all the divisions in the world.

The Communists have been winning this cold war by dividing peoples and turning them against each other, by stimulating nationalism in order to break them up, and then absorbing them into the mighty colonial empire of the Communists, by division. They are out to capture the minds of the people of the world.

Mr. Chairman, if we are to win this war, with the goal of peace for all peoples as the price for winning, we must win their hearts.

And how do we do that? We do it by showing a genuine compassion for people, by treating people as human beings and not as pawns in an international chess game.

I know of nothing, Mr. Chairman, that will so well represent to the peoples of the world true brotherhood of mankind as assisting them in

« Previous Continue »

Books