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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

do the bulk of the work ourselves as usual.

Q:

Just a question about this National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Did they help during the time of the hearings in the Senate? Did they supply witnesses or anything of that sort?

Lasker:

I think Dr. Stevenson may have testified, and maybe one other person. But the idea of a federal bill wasn't interesting to most of the people at all connected with the Committee.

Q:

What was their reason for being?

Lasker:

Their reason was to collect money from foundations and individuals and try to put out small booklets and agitate about the subject. They didn't think of raising money for research or for training, curiously enough.

Another organization in the field was called the Psychiatric Foundation. It was a small group organized to inspect mental hospitals. And still another mental health organization came into the field in 1945.

Later it was proposed that the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and these other small groups merge. This was accomplished with great difficulties about the fall of 1950. A man called Orren Orin? Root was elected the paid President of the merged group. It was called the National Association for Mental Health.





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