Proclamation 2878—Cancer Control Month, 1950

Whereas each year cancer claims the lives of approximately 200,k000 Americans; and

Whereas more than a third of these lives could probably be saved, and many others prolonged, if full use were made of our present knowledge of cancer; and

Whereas we can bring about this result only by developing adequate facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease and by teaching individuals not only to be on the alert for the first sign of cancer but also to make use of the available facilities; and

Whereas the full control of cancer must await the development through research of further knowledge concerning this disease; and

Whereas progress in the control of cancer has been made in the past, and may be expected to be made in the future, through the combined efforts of the national Cancer Institute of the Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency, the American Cancer Society, the medical and allied professions, the universities, and many private foundations, organizations, and individuals; and

Whereas by Public Resolution 82, 75th Congress, approved March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), the President is authorized and requested to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the month of April of each year 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 1950 as Cancer Control Month, and I invite the Governors of the States, Territories, and possessions of the United States to issue proclamations for the same purpose. I also urge the medical profession, the press, the radio and motion-picture industries, and all interested agencies and individuals to unite during April 1950 in public dedication to a program for the control of cancer.

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 18th day of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.