Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 17, DeMotte, Jasper County, 25 March 1949 — Cancer Second Greatest Enemy Of Mankind [ARTICLE]

Cancer Second Greatest Enemy Of Mankind

Disease Moves From Bth To 2nd Place As Killer In 25-Year Period Back in 1913 a war was brewing in Europe. Another kind of wax* was brewing in America, but Hoosiers by ajxd large didn’t think too seriously of the upcoming battles on either front. As Kaiser Wilhelm maneuvered for the push into Belgium a small coterie of American doctors mobilized against a more subtle enemy—cancer. Germany since then has plunged America into two costly conflicts, but the last one brought into dramatic focus a grim fact: The entire global war cost the nation fewer lives on far-flung battlefields than insidious cancer was claiming on the home front. In 1913 cancer was eighth on the list of disease killers. A quarter of a century later it had moved up to second place. Hitler, however, loomed larger than Cancer back in 1937 when the Indiana Federation of Women’s Clubs raised the first blatant outcry against its depradations. In 1939, as Hitler invaded Poland, the newly organized Women’s Field Army raised a scant $5,000 in Indana. In 1940 the total amount contributed was $5,973. It jumped to $9,581 in 1941, fell to $9,400 in 1942, jumped to $12,259 in 1943 and to $22,951 in 1941. The war’s end in 1945 dramatized the startling toll that cancet had been taking at home while the nation’s youth blazed their way through the worst military hazards in history. The Indiana Cancer Society was organized. It aroused Hoosiers to the point of donating $127,819. But the size of this amount faded to insignificance as more and more people began to look at cancer squarely, to contemplate. ..its toll.and to reflect on the fact that something must be done. Some frightening facts stood out, For instance: 1. Cancer was (and still is) ' the second highest cause of death in the United States. 2. Its death toll was (and still is) increasing. 3. Thousands of cancer victims died (and still die) needlessly. "4. Early cancer was (and still is) curable. The man in the street began to hearken to the ’ words which the original small group had been 1 throwing into the winds for three ' decades. The war against cancer i must be fought on three fronts—research, education and service. Since 1945 Hoosiers have contributed about $1,000,000 to the cancer control movement. In the early stages they did this withou knowing, or demanding to know, just how the money was to be used. Today the Indiana Cancer Society points proudly to the tangible steps that are being taken as a result of the confidence placed more or less blindly in the organization. *7 Mr. and Mi McKinnon arid baby and Miss Florence McKinnon of Chicago visited Mrs. Neola True Sunday.