Proclamation 2683—Cancer Control Month, 1946

Whereas cancer is the second highest cause of death in the United States, and was responsible last year for more than 170,000 deaths; and

Whereas the number of deaths from cancer in the United States during the period of hostilities in World War II exceeded the number of war casualties of the United States armed forces; and

Whereas the control of this disease requires that the individual shall be on the alert to discover early signs of the disease and seek medical diagnosis; that the medical profession shall be prepared to render adequate preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services; that adequate diagnostic and treatment facilities shall be available to all citizens; and that research shall be carried on to increase our knowledge of the disease and thereby improve our present methods of treatment and discover new methods; and

Whereas the National Cancer Institute in the United States Public Health Service, State health departments and cancer control commissions, medical associations, and many other public and private organizations have for many years been actively leading the fight against this disease; and

Whereas it is known that a large percentage of deaths from cancer can be prevented if the disease is discovered and treated in its early stages; and

Whereas by Public Resolution 82, 75th Congress, approved March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), the President is authorized and requested to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the month of April of each year as Cancer Control Month:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby set apart the month of April 1946 as Cancer Control Month, and do invite the Governors of the several States, Territories, and possessions of the United States to issue proclamations for like purposes. I also invite the medical profession, the press, the radio, the moving picture industry and all agencies and individuals interested in a national program for the control of the disease of cancer by education and other cooperative means to unite during this month in a public dedication to such a program and in a concerted effort to impress upon the people of the Nation the necessity of that program.

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 25th day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-six and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventieth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Acting Secretary of State.