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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Institute bill through Congress. Florence Mahoney and I had already interested Senator Pepper in introducing such a bill in the Senate with several other sponsors, and Percy Priest, of Tennessee, had introduced a bill in the House for mental illness. He was very interested in some fact that he had read and some experiences he had had in connection with soldiers. He was a very enlightened and fine man, was Chairman of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committees later, in the House. He worked on the bill in the House and he got it passed. And as we worked on Paper and others in the Senate and had the support of Mr. Eugene Meyer, who was the owner of the Washington Post.

The bill was passed in June and signed by the President on July 4, 1946.

Now, it's fair to say that we had little, except indirect, influence on its passage in the House, but it is certain that without Flordace Mahoney and me it would not have passed the Senate. So, there would have been no bill without our efforts.

Q:

Would you say a word about your personal efforts to do this?

Lasker:

Well, we spent a great deal of time in Washington trying to get the attention of Pepper to bring the bill up to, first, his subcommittee and then the full committee in the Senate, and then to get it on the floor, and then to get it passed.





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