HEALTH ACTIVITIES OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, The committee met this day at 10.15 o'clock a. m., Hon. James R. Mann (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. We have before us hearings on the health activities of the Government, and the message of the President, his last annual message, in relation to the bureau of health, which may be inserted in the record; also a message of the President transmitting communications from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the Commissioner of Fisheries, and Dr. H. R. Gaylord, director of the New York State Cancer Laboratory, in respect to the necessity for an active investigation into the subject of cancer in fishes, which may also be inserted in the record; also House bill 3039, introduced by Mr. Sabath, for the establishment of a national tubercular sanitarium in the State of Colorado for persons afflicted with tuberculosis, which may also go into the record; as may the following bills likewise: House bill 4814, introduced by Mr. Sabath, covering the same subject; House bill 9421, introduced by Mr. Grant, for the establishment of a national tubercular sanitarium in the State of North Carolina for persons afflicted with tuberculosis; House bill 19547, introduced by Mr. Plumley, by request, to regulate the appointment of pharmacists in the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the United States, etc.; House bill 5695, by Mr. Simmons, to further protect the public health, and imposing additional duties upon the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service; House bill 24827, also by Mr. Simmons, establishing a department of public health, and for other purposes; House bill 24828, by Mr. Hanna, establishing a department of public health, and for other purposes; House bill 24875, introduced by ine, providing for a public health service; House bill 24876, introduced by me, by request, to establish a bureau of health; and House bill 24549, by Mr. Creager, establishing a department of public health, and for other purposes. Mr. Stenographer, you may insert all these matters in the record: MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES COMMUNICATED TO THE Two HOUSES OF CONGRESS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTYFIRST CONGRESS. BUREAU OF HEALTH. For a very considerable period a movement has been gathering strength, especially among the members of the medical profession, in favor of a concentration of the instruments of the National Government which have to do with the promotion of public health. In the nature of things, the Medical Department of the Army and the Medical Department of the Navy must be kept separate. But there seems to be no reason 3 why all the other bureaus and offices in the General Government which have to do with the public health or subjects akin thereto should not be united in a bureau to be called the "Bureau of Public Health." This would necessitate the transfer of the Marine-Hospital Service to such a bureau. I am aware that there is a wide field in respect to the public health committed to the States in which the Federal Government can not exercise jurisdiction, but we have seen in the Agricultural Department the expansion into widest usefulness of a department giving attention to agriculture when that subject is plainly one over which the States properly exercise direct jurisdiction. The opportunities offered for useful research and the spread of useful information in regard to the cultivation of the soil and the breeding of stock and the solution of many of the intricate problems in progressive agriculture have demonstrated the wisdom of establishing that department. Similar reasons, of equal force, can be given for the establishment of a bureau of health that shall not only exercise the police Jurisdiction of the Federal Government respecting quarantine, but which shall also afford an opportunity for investigation and research by competent experts into questions of health affecting the whole country, or important sections thereof, questions which, in the absence of federal governmental work, are not likely to be promptly solved. [House Document No. 848, Sixty-first Congress, second session.] To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith communications to me from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the Commissioner of Fisheries, and Dr. H. R. Gaylord, director of the New York State Cancer Laboratory, in respect to the necessity for an active investigation into the subject of cancer in fishes, and I respectfully request an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of erecting one or more laboratories at suitable places and to provide for the proper personnel and maintenance of these laboratories. Were there a bureau of public health such as I have already recommended, the matter could be taken up by that bureau, and if in the wisdom of the Congress it should be provided in the near future, all such instrumentalities as that for which appropriation is here recommended may be placed in that bureau as the proper place for research in respect of human dis eases. I have directed the Secretary of Commerce and Labor and the Secretary of the Treasury to forward an estimate for the appropriation here recommended, in accordance with the procedure provided by law. The very great importance of pursuing the investigation into the cause of cancer can not be brought home to the Congress or to the public more acutely than by inviting attention to the memorandum of Doctor Gaylord herewith. Progress in the prevention and treatment of human diseases has been marvelously aided by an investigation into the same disease in those of the lower animals which are subject to it, and we have every reason to believe that a close investigation into the subject of cancer in fishes, which are frequently swept away by an epidemic of it, may give us light upon this dreadful human scourge. THE WHITE HOUSE, April 9, 1910. WM. H. TAFT. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D. C., April 8, 1910. MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have read the letter of Commissioner Bowers to you on the subject of cancer in fishes, and have also had an interview with Doctor Gaylord. I join in the recommendations of the Bureau of Fisheries, because the inquiry into the disease can no doubt be most advantageously pursued by investigation into the same disease as it is found to prevail in lower animals. A further reason for the investigation is that cancer among some of the species of fish seems to have reached such proportions that we are confronted with the problem whether we shall control the disease or abandon the hatcheries. The subject is one which appeals to the judgment so strongly that I can not believe Congress will entertain any doubt as to the propriety of the appropriation. Very sincerly, yours, The PRESIDEnt, The White House. CHARLES NAGEL, Secretary. |