Remarks at the Opening of the Fundraising Campaign of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Ladies and gentlemen:

I am glad to take part in the opening of the '64 Multiple Sclerosis Campaign. For multiple sclerosis is a crippler and we cannot rest in this country until we have conquered it. We owe that commitment to the 400,000 Americans who suffer today from multiple sclerosis, and to the thousands yet unborn who will suffer if we should fail in our task.

We have not been able to diagnose the cause of multiple sclerosis. But while we still have no cure, we do have great hope-hope that in time the dedication and the ingenuity of man will triumph over a tragic disease.

There is reason to hope for the first time. The Public Health Service, working in cooperation with the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, has started a program of controlled clinical therapy.

Certain hormone drugs may hold the answer that we have been looking for, and this new controlled clinical trial may lead to new avenues that we can hopefully investigate. But this effort and other efforts to find the cause and the cure of multiple sclerosis take a great deal of talent and a lot of money. Manpower is a critical problem.

Therefore, I applaud the efforts by the Multiple Sclerosis Society to encourage young doctors and young scientists to join us in this fight.

I want to urge all Americans to support the Multiple Sclerosis Society Campaign in 1964, and to help bring the day nearer when "MS" stands for "mystery solved."