Statement in Tribute to Dr. Robert Koch.

FIFTY YEARS AGO, on March 24, 1882, Robert Koch, a German doctor, startled the medical circles of Europe by announcing he had discovered the germ that causes tuberculosis. The steps he took to prove his opinion, and the clarity with which he explained those steps, made his report not only a classic in medical literature but established a technique in medical research that ever since has been a boon to civilization in its fight against disease.

Next Thursday the fiftieth anniversary of Robert Koch's discovery of the tubercle bacillus will be commemorated throughout the world. Unstinted honor will be paid to the memory of the famous man who almost single handed directed the feet of nations toward the path of victory in the relentless, though silent, war against the destructive forces of nature.

In the United States the benefits of Koch's discovery loom large in light of the fact that the death rate from tuberculosis is now but one fourth what it was in 1882, and the search for a specific cure, as yet undiscovered, goes steadily forward along the lines he mapped out.

Because of his priceless contributions to human welfare it is fitting that we, as a nation, do him honor, and that each community acknowledge its debt to Robert Koch by commemorating in an appropriate manner the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his discovery of the tubercle bacillus.

HERBERT HOOVER