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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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they didn't say a word, just sat there. He talked. Kennedy said, “Well, you act as if you're the only one who has anything to say about this. After all the Senate passed the bill 79 to 1, our 79 to 1.”

Well, they finally came down and made a compromise, and instead of appointing an advisory council such as the present advisory council for NIH, the other institutes, they have a Cancer Advisory Board and it has 18 members including the head of NIH and the Secretary of HEW and there's to be about six laymen and nine doctors in addition to that.

I think that Schmidt will be the chairman of this committee, as well as he is already the chairman of President's attack board. Now, he was asked to do this by Nixon on the 23rd of December.

Q:

The day he signed the bill.

Lasker:

It was a beautiful day in Washington, the day he signed the bill, and we didn't know until the very last minute whether he was going to sign it or not, in a big ceremony, but finally he signed it in the dining room of the White House about noon, and there were about 250 people there, many of whom had done their utmost to defeat the bill in one way or another, all taking a lot of credit and drinking coffee and talking to each other.

At any rate, I think we have a chance, at least there will surely be more money, and with Benno Schmidt in there, there's going to to be a little more direct action.

Q:

What's his background?

Lasker:

He was the partner of Jock Whitney and he's the chairman of the board of of f the executive committee of Memorial Hospital.





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