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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

Q:

It seems to me, as you tell the story, this was an almost ideal example of something of an independent agency being used to foster...

Lasker:

And it was done with complete calculation on my part that this was what would happen--hope and calculation.

Q:

You had your initial experience...

Lasker:

With the Cancer Society, I learned from that, and I learned from the Heart Association that unless you had intelligent lay leadership, you probably couldn't get the doctors to do anything, and we didn't, and if it hadn't been for Floyd Odlum we wouldn't have gotten them to do anything through the Arthritis Foundation officially.

Q:

But your opportunity came when they asked you to set up the Foundation.

Lasker:

Yes, we were in on the ground floor, but without Odlum and getting him interested, we wouldn't have succeeded. The doctors had no idea of doing anything with the Federal Government at all.

Q:

Doesn't it always boil down to the individual, and to his...

Lasker:

That's right, and to his inspiration, right. It surely does.





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