The National Advisory Cancer Council recommended a larger amount of $34,573,000 which may be detailed as follows:

Grants, including those for research fellowships, teaching, training,

The American Cancer Society concurs in this recommendation. The proposed appropriation for fiscal 1956 as allowed by the Bureau of the Budget is $22,328,000 which may be broken down as follows:

Grants, including those for research fellowships, teaching, training,

It will be noted that the Bureau of the Budget allowance contains no funds for construction. However, bills have been introduced in the current Congress-Senate 849 and its companion bill H. R. 3459-designed to "provide assistance to certain non-Federal institutions for construction of facilities for research in crippling and killing diseases such as cancer, heart disease, poliomyelitis, nervous disorders, mental illness, arthritis, and rheumatism; blindness, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy, and for other purposes." These bills propose an appropriation of $30 million for each of the 3 fiscal years starting with the year ending June 30, 1956, on a matching basis with the institutions to whom the grants will be made. Thus there will be provided $90 million Federal funds to be matched by a minimum of $90 million of other funds over the next 3 years. Some years ago the National Cancer Institute decided to support a research facilities construction program at medical schools, hospitals, and so forth, for which it was thought $25 million of Federal funds should be appropriated over a period of several years. Appropriations of some $16 million were actually made and the construction covered thereby has to a large measure now been completed. The experience was that for every dollar of Federal funds approximately six of private funds were made available.

The society feels that these new bills providing directly for the construction of research facilities are a better way of handling this matter and accordingly it supports these bills and in so doing withdraws from its recommendations for the National Cancer Institute the construction item of $8 million.

Accordingly the society's specific recommendations against the Bureau of the Budget allowance for fiscal year 1956 are as follows:

It will be noted that in the Bureau of the Budget allowance the only increase over the current level of support recommended for fiscal 1956 over fiscal 1955 is in direct operations under "Research." This increase is due to the additional number of beds available for cancer patients at the research center at Bethesda. We wholly concur in the necessity of providing for this increased operation. The amount suggested for research projects to be given as grants to outside organizations is held at the same level as for 1955, namely, $8,160,000. This would allow for no raising whatsoever in the level of research activity in private institutions. In fact it might well lower such level due to the increased cost of items which are necessary in a research program and particularly in view of the imminent change in overhead allowance from 8 percent to a level substantially higher.

As stated above in this presentation, many of the research facilities made possible by the earlier construction appropriation are just now coming into full productivity. This coupled with the continuing supply of young scientists becoming available from the fellowship training programs and the increasing urgency of the cancer problem makes us urge strongly that a substantial increase in the amount available for research projects in independent institutions in the States be made available. The figure of $12,285,000 which is recommended by the American Cancer Society is based upon its judgment confirmed by the National Advisory Cancer Council whose responsibility it is to review and approve, subject to the availablity of funds, applications received from independent research institutions.

Accordingly, the American Cancer Society respectfully urges the subcommittee to increase the Bureau of the Budget allowance from the proposed $22,328,000 to a figure of $26,573,000.

Copies of this memorandum will be distributed to the divisions of the Amercian Cancer Society so they may be informed.

ARTHRITIS AND RHEUMATISM

A STATEMENT BY THE ARTHRITIS AND RHEUMATISM FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, N. Y., IN BEHALF OF THE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1956 OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS AND METABOLIC DISEASES

The Council of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases has proposed a budget of $12,810,000 for the institute for the coming fiscal year.

The Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation wishes to go on record as being fully in favor of this proposed budget and of urging its adoption by the Subcommittee on Appropriations of both the House and the Senate.

The Arthritis Foundation understands that a considerable portion of this proposed budget is earmarked for research into the cause of rheumatoid arthritis and into a possible cure for this insidious crippling disease.

This particular portion of the proposed budget will not only make possible research within the Arthritis Institute itself but will also be used to make available grants to promising research projects at medical schools and other investigative centers about the Nation.

Another portion of the proposed budget, $1,600,000, has been earmarked for training stipends.

The Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation perhaps more than any other agency or organization in the United States is qualified to speak to the need for this proposed budget of $12,810,000. For the Arthritis Foundation is the only agency in this country conducting an organized effort to meet the problems that arthritis has created among the American people and American business and industry.

For the past 6 years, the Arthritis Foundation has done yeoman work in bringing the problem of arthritis to the foreground. Through its 41 strategically located chapters about the country, it has supported a national program of patient care, rehabilitation, lay and professional education, and basic and clinical research.

In this Nation today, there are more than 10,104,000 men and women over the age of 14 who are suffering with arthritis and the rheumatic diseases. Of these, 4,900,000 are either completely or are partially disabled, most of them being persons stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, the most crippling and devastating form of the disease.

The rheumatic diseases are the commonest cause of chronic illness in the United States today. One out of every 16 persons is afflicted with some form of rheumatic disease. Ten times as many persons are disabled by the rheumatic diseases as are disabled by diabetes and tuberculosis combined. Seven times as many persons are disabled by arthritis and rheumatism as are disabled by cancer. There is no question but that the rheumatic diseases limit the amount of work that a person is able to do. It is estimated that about 2,627,000 persons in the United States this past year were forced to change their jobs or quit work entirely because of the pain and the discomfort that are so much a part of the rheumatic diseases.

This is but one of many illustrations that indicate that the rheumatic diseases are a far more important factor in the Nation's labor turnover than is generally recognized.

Another is a United States Public Health Service study that shows that 1 percent of all persons employed in this Nation will change their jobs by the time they reach the age of 40, because of arthritis and rheumatism. By the time these men and women in our country's business and industry reach the age of 50, 2 percent of them must enter less active and less productive occupations because of these diseases.

And although 65 is often thought of as being the universal age of retirement. 4 percent of this Nation's working population is forced into retirement by the time the age of 60 is reached, because of the aggravating restrictions placed upon the American people by the rheumatic diseases.

A rather startling fact is that this country loses more work days every year as a result of arthritis than it loses as a result of injuries suffered in accidents. Each year, arthritis and rheumatism robs this Nation of more than 1,200 million man-hours of work.

Conservatively estimated, arthritis and rheumatism are costing this Nation nearly $2 billion a year in lost wages and salaries and in tax moneys that go into welfare and relief allowances for arthritis victims who cannot support themselves.