Proclamation 2830—Cancer Control Month, 1949

Whereas for many years cancer has steadily increased in importance as a cause of death in this country and now accounts for approximately one death in every eight; and

Whereas according to the best medical opinion a large number of cancer deaths could be prevented if full use were made of our present knowledge concerning early diagnosis and treatment of the disease; and

Whereas every citizen should be informed of the nature of cancer and the available means of combatting it; and

Whereas the program of cancer education, research, and control undertaken by the Federal and State Governments and by private organizations must have the wholehearted support of our people if we are to make progress against this disease; and

Whereas by a joint resolution approved March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), the Congress authorized and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the month of April as Cancer Control Month:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby set apart the month of April 1949 as Cancer Control Month; and I invite the Governors of the several States and the Territories and possessions of the United States to issue similar proclamations.

I also invite the medical profession, the press, the radio, the motion-picture industry, and all organizations and individuals interested in a national program for the control of cancer by education and other cooperative means to unite during the month of April in a public dedication to this program and in a concerted effort to impress upon the people of the Nation the necessity for such a program.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 10th day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-nine and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-third.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.