Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-05-12
StandbyPo
.ForPresidenton
.VdccineUrged

Sentime 1t for presidential
standby powers appeared to be
gaining strength in Congress to-
day as a safeguard in the Salk
polio vaccine program.
Several representatives spoke
out for such machinery as the
House Banking Committee pre-
pared to call back Surgeon Gen.
eral Leonard A. Scheele for an
other round of questioning to-
morrow.
Some legislators saw the
standby controls, such as the
President exercised during war
time. as a compromise between
rigid Fedora! controls espoused
by some and a policy of volun-
tary compliance which the adj
mlnistration has pushed.
Spence Seeks More Facts
Committee Chairman Spence
said standby controls might well
be the best solution. But he
said he wished to hear more
about the problems of manufac-
ture. testing. distribution and
price of the vaccine before COM
hitting himself.
Meeting behind closed doors
today on another matter, some
banking committee members
said they would insist on taking
up the polio situation. including
a move to put strong pressure
on Secretary of Welfare Hobby
to testify before the group. Ear
lier this week Mrs. Hobby de-
chned an invitation to testify.
Speaking briefly in the House
today, Representative Miller,
Republican, of Nebraska, said
he had been concerned about
recent criticism of the Salk vac
cine program.
The legislator. who is a med
ical DOCTOR said he believed au-
thorities were working earnest
ly to make the program work.
Needless criticism does a dis
service to the American people,
he said, in expressing the hope
the attacks were not politically
inspired"
While Capitol Hill was map
ping a long-range plan for the
problem, Public Health Service
officials were trying to get the
stalled mass immunization pro-
gram back in gear. The vacci-
nation of the Nations first and
second grade school children,
past the S million mark, was
halted last week end by DR..
Scheele's order for a recheck of
vaccine making at the plant
level.
149 New Gases Listed
In its weekly report, the Pub
lie Health Service tabulated 149
new cases of polio throughout
the Nation last week. This list
is separate from that enumerat-
ing only those cases among per-
sons who have been inoculated
with the new vaccine this year.
That list stands at 81 confirmed
cases.
The Public Health Service re-
ported 1901 cases of polio this
year compared with 2,12O in the
same period of 1854.
Health and school authorities
in the District. Maryland and
Virginia. as well as other States,
were awaiting word that the
first patches of frozen vaccine
have been found perfect and
ready for release.
Health inspectors under the
direction of DR.. William Work
man, chief of the Biologics Con-
troll Laboratory at Bethesda. are
going over the first plant to be
visited, that of Park, Davis &
Co. in Detroit.
Some good news came from
the Detroit company, which an
nounced the testing of an i'm
proved version of the vaccine.
Kefauver Seeks Controls
Besides two Senate investiga-
tons scheduled to start Monday,
Senator Kefauver, Democrat, of
Tennessee, introduced a bill yes
terday to provide temporary con-
troll on distribution and price of
the vaccine.
The measure also would fix a
per unit cost for the vaccine and
establish priorities so that age
groups would get the vaccine
in the order of their susceptible
ity to polio.
The first case of polio among
the 100000 children vaccinated
in Virginia was reported yester-
day at Roanoke. However. the
illness of 7-year-old Alberta Toll