Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-03
THE FIGHT AGAINST
E
ELLIOTT w. r is a COZ

H AL4S
IL gresham from a Chicago dis
trict, the Third congressional dis
trict. He is a republican. This is
his first term. He came in in the
republican landslide of 1920. Pre-
vious to that, he had been in the
contracting business and a delegate
to the republican national conven-
ton. These facts we CLEAN from
the last edition of the Congress
sional Directory. A congressman
in his first term is a rather insig-
nificant unit at Washington. Rep
resentative Sproul probably want
ed to call some attention to him
self when he introduced a bill the
other day proposing to pay out OF
the taxpayers money a reward OF
one million dollars to the man who
would discover a cure for cancer
tuberculosis, pneumonia, epilepsy
or dementia praecox. His bill is
not likely to pass congress. That
body is not so much interested in
dementia praecox as it is in de-
mentia politicus, or the form OF
insanity that makes people vote re-
publicans out of office.
However, the bill of Representa-
tive Sproul calls attention to the
fact that not one million of money,
but hundreds of millions of money
Is now invested in the war against
disease, and steady progress in the
campaign is being made. Every
year the gallant armies of science
are pushing forward their trenches
in this campaign and Wrestling new
ground from the enemy. And they
are not doing this for money re-
ward any more than our soldiers
in France fought for the dollar a
day they received as pay. They
are fighting for glory and for hui
mainly. The reward of a million
dollars would not be likely to aid
very much in the search for a cure
for these diseases. Many scien-
lists would give their life to find a
remedy now, and be satisfied with
the achievement.
If the government wants to help
in the battle against disease, it
could not do better than to supple
ment the royal gifts of John D..
Rockefeller to the Rockefeller In
stitute. Mr.. Rockefeller has en-
lowed 1t with more than a hundred
millions of dollars. The interest
of this vast sum-, amounting to
more than five million dollars a
year, he supplements with added
yearly gifts of large sums. and the
whole income is devoted to fight
ing disease all over the world, and
the effort is meeting with steady
success. Already, many forms of
disease are conquered. There was
a time, not long distant, when
typhoid fever took a terrible an
nual toll from the people of the
United States, and diphtheria was
a terror to parents. Both of these
diseases have been largely wiped
out. Spinal meningitis has been
greatly checked, at least. 1t is true
that cancer and some of the other
diseases mentioned by the Illinois
CONGRESSMAN still take their toll OF
death, but tuberculosis is on the
retreat. 1t is no longer regarded
as an incurable disease, and hun
dreds of thousands of lives, as
sailed by what the doctors used to
call consumption, or the white
mans plague, are now cured by
proper treatment taken in time.
Congressman Sproul seems to
cherish several old-fashioned de-
lusions. Medical science does not
ECQulIC q 6ICot liOAACJ iC"oAo ~
enlist its utmost efforts. The
great men of the scientific world
are perfectly willing to give all
their knowledge and industry to
research with the Rockefeller In
stitute for a yearly compensation
that only insures them a modest
and comfortable living. Many OF
these workers have refused enor.
nous financial rewards Offered
them in other fields of labor. Anc
again these men are not finding
"cures" in the sense of some spe'
cific drug cure that kills the dis
case. At least, not very often. Ths
line of their assault on disease
goes to the study of the cause
When this is found, it is not sc
hard to devise mean to combat thu
cause. Quite often this means o.
battling with disease germs
marches through the gate Of SAM