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returned to Washington from California for a Heart Council meeting about the 15th of February in '51. I had a meeting with the President on the 19th of February and gave him the attached suggestions on appointments to such a health commission; the suggested statement on the establishment of such a commission was put together by Mike Gorman on the basis of my ideas. President Truman thought well of the idea and said perhaps it would be a good idea to ask Governor Caldwell, the then Civil Defense Administrator, to formally request the appointment of such a Commission. However, as far as I know, he never took the matter up with Caldwell and the subject dragged on until I returned from California and went to Washington again on the 19th of April.

This was the day that MacArthur returned from his triumphal first visit to Washington after the war and the whole town was in a turmoil. In the midst of the sirens greeting him India Edwards, David Stone, Mike Gorman, Florence Mahoney and the publicity director of the National Democratic Committee had a meeting with me on the suggested health commission. I explained that Florence and I had been the prime movers in originally interesting the President in the health program, including national health insurance. I had gone to him alone first on September 8th, 1945 and asked him to send a health message which he sent on the 19th of November, 1945, and this was the first health message ever sent to Congress by a President