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Who knows? They never heard about giving large amounts of money to research on diseases. Maybe some doctor in Minnesota was against it, I don't know. He was just able to block it.

The fact that the whole sentiment in Congress was known to be favorable to the bill and the bill would probably have passed if it had been brought to the floor of the House and the Senate aroused the Public Health Service. They realized that although nothing had happened, something might happen if outsiders like me kept busy. So they finally got the courage to ask for 14 million dollars in the next session of Congress--that was for fiscal ‘48. This was the first substantial money they ever asked for, for research in cancer.

Did this mean that the vision of that agency had expanded and they realized that they could expand the research?

Yes, it changed, and the Director of the Cancer Institute, a man called Dr. Spencer, was replaced by Dr. Leonard Shealy. Shealy realized that the outside pressure was going to be sudcessful eventually and that they'd better start within their own organization. He was a great, great help in the beginning and in the organization of all the institutes because in ‘48 he became the Surgeon General.

Mrs. Lasker, at that point in time, was there considerable research being conducted in European areas and was this a help