The Washington herald., 1914-01-20
RADIUM CONTROL
BYU.S. ISNEARER
First Step IN Campaign Taken
in Hearing Before House
Committee.
KELLY TO BUILD PLANT
Famous Baltimore Specialist Says
Government Should Advance
Fund Toward Work.
KELLY TO BUILD PLANT


gurated the first step in the campaign
for the conservation and the Federal
control of the radium-bearing mineral
deposits of the United States.
Two bills are pending before the House,
one introduced by Representative Martin
d. Foster, Of Illinois. chairman Of the
Mines Committee, and the other by Rep
resentative Scott d. Ferris. OF Oklahoma
The Foster bill provides that the Fed
eral government shall take charge Of all
the radium production of the United
States and the Ferris bill provides the
withdrawal from public entry of lands
known to contain deposits of radium-
bearing ores
Both measures have the Endorsement
and approval of Secretary of the Interior
Lane. and together constitute what has
become known as the Lane-Foster plan
for the conservation of radium in view
of its expected potentialities as spe-
cific for cancer.
The first witness to appear at yester-
days hearing was DIR. Howard A. Kelly,
of Baltimore. His testimony opened with
the following statement:
There has never been such tremen-
dous activity among medical men in the
worldwide battle against cancer as at
present Physicians in New York, Chi
cago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wash
a cure"
should Suppress "Ads."
The newspapers" said DIR. Kelly, ARE
filled with advertisements of remedies for
cancer. Every one Of them is the output
of a quack or an aggregation of quacks
and charlatans. Really Congress ought
10 pass a law penalizing this exploitation
of sufferers from cancer"
At present Representative Bremner, OF
New Jersey. is under DR.. Kelly's treat
ment in Johns Hopkins Hospital, at Bal
timore, for cancer of the shoulder and
neck. One of the committeeman made
inquiry as to Mr.. Bremner's condition.
Representative Bremner is improving"
said DR.. Kelly. But have not enough
radium. IL had, / could make an at
tack on this with a twelve-inch gun in
stead of little pistols. DR.. Able has
patients who are crying night and day,
give US more radium.' He couldn't give
me any of his any more than 1 could
subtract from the s12S.0oo worth I have
IN the Bremner case"
Dr. Kelly asserted that there are but
thirty grams of radium in this country,
and that one company in this country is
practically making the whole amount
produced in the last two years. He an
nounced that he and a New York man
are planning to erect factory in Denver
TO extract the radium from carnotite
ore, to be worked by the United States
Bureau of Mines.
Foreigners are keeping the price of
radium up said DIR. Kelly. .although
two Americans have been buying up big
carnotite claims in Colorado"
Turning to the question Of the radium
plant he is planning TO have installed
at Denver, DIR. Kelly said he is working
on an extraction process which. il per-
fected. will be turned over free to the
government
Wants Government Cash.
Representative Taylor. of Colorado. sug-
gested that Uncle Sam ought to put
some money into the work which DR..
Kelly has undertaken.
Il think it would be good idea" the
physician replied. "A Pittsburgh COM
pany has the only process in this coun-
try for extracting radium. 1t is secret.
but We will have the secret some day"
DIR. Kelly explained to the committee
that once created the marvellous metal
could retain its curative properties for
20o0 years DR.. Robert Able. senior sur
geon of the ST. Luke's Hospital New
York, urged conservation of the radium
supply and the development of every pos
sible source for obtaining more of the
metal
There is q popular misconception of
the usefulness of radium in the treat
ment of cancer said DR.. Able. 1T is
process of disintegration of the fibrous
growths which the use of the metal pro-
vides. The use of the surgeons knife
never drives the growth permanently
away. Unknown doctors are obtaining
fragmentary supplies of radium and
using it absurdly at the behest of
wealthy patients who demand it. This
should be stopped by government enact
ment forthwith.
Knife Not Sure Cure.
In the United States the whole out
put should be put into government hos
pitfalls, and only the largest and most
reputable public institutions. the army,
the navy and the Public Health Service.
Surgery cannot go deeply enough
radium. on the contrary, holds out hope
to a sizable percentage of 1900 sufferers
from cancer in the United States"
Dr. Harvey R Gaylord, of Buffalo,
director of the New York State Institu-