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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 999

Lasker:

They wouldn't have been doing anything, had I not acted to get the Institute established and acted to get the money for them. But now they're doing it. But those are not major causes of death or disability. They're rare diseases.

See, here's a Senate resolution, with all those -- ...

Q:

I notice that Senator Smith of Maine is a signer. Has she been of any assistance?

Lasker:

She was at one point, very very helpful. Not in this, but at one point, when Senator Hill was trying to get more money, she espoused a much bigger research program than was then in existence, and that was very helpful to Hill in getting more money. This was about 1959. But she got discouaged because the people at NIH treated her very rudely and very stupidly and she just kind of lost interest in the whole thing.

Q:

I wondered, because she's had a personal experience with an affliction-

Lasker:

-- did she have cancer?

Q:

No, she's had, according to a doctor that told me the other day, arthritis, and I saw her a year ago and she was using a cane.

Lasker:

Oh, really? Senator Smith? Isn't that awful.

Q:

This doctor told me the other day in New York state that she had had





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