Proclamation 2546—Cancer Control Month, 1942

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas Public Resolution No. 82, 75th Congress, approved March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), authorizes and requests the President to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the month of April of each year as Cancer Control Month and to invite similar action on the part of the Governors of the several States, Territories, and possessions of the United States;

Whereas the victims of cancer are, for the most part, mature men and women, valued custodians of our American way of life, whose loss is a costly drain upon national strength and morale; and

Whereas American men and women should be urged by every educational means to make use of available facilities for early diagnosis and treatment of cancer in their communities, with a view to reducing the annual toll of 160,000 lives taken by cancer, which now ranks second among the causes of death in the United States:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby set apart the month of April 1942 as Cancer Control Month, and I invite similar action on the part of the Governors of the several States, Territories, and possessions of the United States.

I call upon State and local agencies, the medical profession, scientific leaders, civic groups, and the informative instruments of press, radio, and screen, in cooperation with the Women's Field Army of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, to spread the knowledge of the early symptoms of cancer and disseminate information regarding the location and function of cancer clinics and other health facilities.

I also urge the men and women of the Nation, especially those over 35 years of age, in whom cancerous growths are most likely to occur, to set aside a specific time during the month of April to obtain a thorough physical examination, in order that any premonitory signs of cancer may be detected and eliminated. This simple act on the part of individuals will go far toward the prevention of suffering and of the many unnecessary deaths from cancer.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand. and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 3rd day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-two and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-sixth.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
SUMNER WELLES
Acting Secretary of State.