[ Audience clapping ]
[ Band playing, audience clapping and cheering ]
Mr. Coy, Dr. Thompson, and the governor of Maryland, Governor O'Connor...
Ladies and gentlemen:
Nowhere in the world except in the Americas is it possible for any nation
to devote a great sector of its effort to life conservation
rather than life destruction.
All of us are grateful that we in the United States
can still turn our thoughts and our attention to those institutions of our country that
symbolize peace --
institutions whose purpose it is to save life and not to destroy it.
It is for the dedication of these noble buildings to the service of man that we are assembled
here today.
The National Institute of Health speaks the universal language of humanitarianism.
The total defense that we have heard so much about of late,
that total defense which this nation seeks, involves a great deal more than
building airplanes and ships and guns and bombs.
For we cannot be a strong nation unless we are a healthy nation.
And so we must recruit not only men and materials,
but also knowledge and science in service of national strength.
And that is what we are doing here. We have recognized... [ audio cuts out ]
Neither the American people nor their government intend to socialize medical practice,
any more than they plan to socialize industry.
In American life, the family doctor, the general practitioner, performs a
service, which we rely upon and which we trust as a nation. No one has... [ audio cuts out ]
...1937.
The work of this new institute is well under way.
It is promoting and stimulating cancer research throughout the nation;
it is bringing to the people of the nation a message of hope,
because many forms of the disease are not only curable but even preventable.
Beyond this, it is doing research here and in many universities to unravel the mysteries
of cancer.
I think we can all have faith in the ultimate results of these great efforts.
These buildings that we dedicate represent new and improved housing for an institution
that has a long and distinguished background of accomplishment in this task of research.
The original demonstration of...[ audio cuts out ]
Now that we are less than a day by plane from the jungle-type yellow fever of South America,
less than two days from the sleeping sickness of equatorial Africa,
less than three days from cholera and bubonic plague,
the ramparts we watch must be civilian in addition to being military.
I voice for America, and for the stricken world, our hopes, our prayers,
our faith in the power of man's humanity to man.
[ Applause ]
[ Crowd stands; band plays ]
[ Camera pans over National Institute of Health buildings and National Cancer Institute building.]