The Eisenhower Era

Dr. Paul Dudley White was part of Florence Mahoney's stable on Capitol Hill before he became President Dwight Eisenhower's personal physician. When the Republican Party took both houses of Congress as well as the White House in 1952, Mahoney befriended the new chairman of the appropriations subcommittee dealing with Public Health Service funds, Sen. Edward Thye of Minnesota. They also used prominent businessmen as lobbying allies, such as Frank Neeley of Atlanta, Joseph Dodge of Detroit, and Floyd Odlum of California. Lasker and Mahoney tried unsuccessfully to persuade HEW Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby to serve their cause of increasing funding; she was attacked in the media by Mahoney's stooges Murray Kempton and Drew Pearson of the Washington Post when she didn't play ball with them. Lawrence Spivak inquisitioned her on Meet the Press, with figures apparently supplied by the Lasker Syndicate. Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herblock falsely blamed her for problems in the distribution and production of polio vaccine. George Dixon, Doris Fleeson, Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Walter Locke of the Cox Papers' Dayton Daily News, and Bill White of the New York Times were other cronies. When the Springfield, Ohio Sun, another Cox paper, praised Hobby on her resignation in 1955, Florence Mahoney complained to the editor and publisher and her ex-husband, and the editorial was changed. Hobby was replaced by the more pliable Marion Folsom. In 1956, Lasker, Mahoney and Gorman felt that Rep. John Fogarty wasn't being generous enough with them. Gorman wrote: "In the event that Fogarty decides to continue his spiteful ways, then we ought to inform him, politely and pleasantly, that it is our duty to inform the people of his actions. For example, if he does not agree to hear outside witnesses in 1956, we can bring so much unfavorable publicity down on his head that he will have to hear those witnesses." In 1959 Fogarty was rewarded for kowtowing with a Special Lasker Award. Florence Mahoney was on the Board of Governors of the Menninger Foundation from 1950 to 1962. Mary Lasker arranged for Dr. Sidney Farber and Jules Stein, head of Music Corp. of America, to talk Eisenhower out of vetoing the 1961 HEW appropriations bill during a golf outing in Rhode Island. (Information from Noble Conspirator. Florence S. Mahoney and the Rise of the National Institutes of Health. By Judith Robinson. The Francis Press 2001.)

Dr. Paul Dudley White

Dr. Paul Dudley White was a member of the first editorial board of the American Heart Journal, founded by Lewis A. Conner, who also founded the New York and American Heart Associations. He was a correspondent of Harvey Cushing between 1929 and 1936, while Cushing was a member of the Advisory Committee of Yale's Institute of Human Relations. White was installed as executive director of the National Advisory Heart Council (from 1948-57) and also chief medical advisor to the National Heart Institute after Mary Woodard Lasker got the legislation which created it. "As advisor to Van Slyke at the Heart Institute, White showed a particular interest in the Framingham study, of which he was one of the main supporters" (The Framingham Study. The Epidemiology of Atherosclerotic Disease. Harvard University Press, 1980. By Thomas Royle Dawber). He was a Founding Sponsor of John Banzhaf's anti-smoking group, Action on Smoking and Health, in 1967.

Sen. Lister Hill

"Hill became chair of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee in 1955, as well as its Health Subcommittee and the Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over education, labor, and health. Therefore, he was in the unique position of controlling the funding of programs he helped to create. Hill, who had supported the legislation creating the National Institutes of Health (NIH), teamed with Representative John Fogarty of Rhode Island to bring about federal funding of medical research on an unprecedented scale. In an informal coalition with citizen-advocates Mary Lasker and Florence Mahoney, activist physicians such as Sidney Farber and Michael DeBakey, and NIH Director James Shannon, they held hearings and passed vastly increased NIH budgets." By 1967, the federal government directly supported more than 40% of biomedical research in the United States. (Lister Hill and his influence. By Carolyn E. Lipscomb. Journal of the Medical Library Association 2002 Jan;90(1):109-110.)

Rep. Frank Boykin of Alabama

From a Feb. 14, 1953 letter by Rep. Frank Boykin to Sens. Lister Hill and John Sparkman of Alabama, on Alabama businessman Ben May speaking at an Alabama Delegation Day luncheon: "Now, I believe this is the only time Ben will be able to be with us for a long time. I talked to our mutual friend, Mrs. Albert Lasker, yesterday, who is a great person. You will remember, her husband was here with the Maritime Commission or the Shipping Board, or something, but I remember he used to appear before our committee. He died with cancer, I believe. They own Campbell Soup. Anyway, they are great friends of Ben's and Ben May's friends are ours... Anybody can help put this heart-cancer fund through would be helpful. Mrs. Albert Lasker suggested we get Mr. Dodge of the Bureau of the Budget. I called him and missed him, but he called back and Lucas told him what we wanted and he said he would be there. He ought to be able to help us, because the Democrats put, I think it was twenty-five million dollars in there, but if we don't watch out, the Republicans will take it out..." (Mobile Register Special Report, by Sam Hodges, staff reporter.)

Ben May funded the Kettering-Meyer Laboratory of the Southern Research Institute in 1946; later suport came from the Charles Fruehoff, the Charles F. Kettering, the Alfred P. Sloan and the Robert R. Meyer Foundations. May also founded the Ben May Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago in 1951. (The Beginnings of Cancer Research in the United States, by Harold P. Rusch. April 28, 1982.)

Rep. Boykin was involved in a $750,000 loan from the RFC to Reuben Hartman of the Mobile Paper Mill. Hartman said that Frank Prince, an RFC official and Boykin friend, pressured him to give up 40% of Mobile Paper Company's stock, which Prince and Boykin denied. Their "witness" was later found to have been away on vacation at the time of the incident. "Despite the infusion of cash, Mobile Paper kept losing money... Stone Container Co., a Chicago-based paper manufacturer, stepped in and offered to buy Mobile Paper's asset's for $1.36 million." Frank's son Bob Boykin "would have a long career with Stone Container," which kept him on to run the Mobile mill. Hartman's family says the mill was stolen from them. (FBI kept tabs on Boykin for 30 years. By Sam Hodges, staff reporter, The Mobile Register, Dec. 16, 2001.)

Stone Container

Roger W. Stone, the Chairman, CEO and President of Stone Container Corp. until April 1999, was also a director of McDonald's Corporation from 1989 to 2002. Jack M. Greenberg, director from 1995, was the Chairman and CEO of McDonald's USA and Vice Chairman of McDonald's Corp. John D. Nichols, director from 1989 to 1998, was the retired Chairman of Illinois Tool Works and was also a director of Household International and Philip Morris.

The former Director of the Former National Institute on Aging, Robert N. Butler on the founding of the Alzheimer Association, 1985: "I enlisted the help of a group of committed individuals with personal experiences with family members afflicted with this terrible disease. They were instrumental in the creation of the Alzheimer Association, with leaders among them including Jerry Stone, Lonnie Wollen and Yasmin Aga Khan. With Florence Mahoney as a conduit we brought several family groups together at the NIH..." ("Senility": The Epidemic of the Twenty-first Century of Longevity. By Robert N. Butler, MD.) "Jerry Stone" was Jerome H. Stone, founder of Stone Container.

James H. Stone, director of Stone Container from 1969 to 1998, is a director of the International Longevity Center; Robert N. Butler, who testified at the 1994 "Preventive Health" hearings for raising cigarette taxes to fund Roz Lasker's national health plan, is its President and CEO. Laurance S. Rockefeller is Honorary Chair; its Honorary Board includes Sen. Bill Bradley, Rosalynn Carter, C. Everett Koop, Joshua Lederberg, the late Florence Mahoney, and Dorothy P. Rice.

The Evelyn T. Stone University College at Roosevelt University is named for Mrs. Jerome H. Stone; Stone is an Emeritus Trustee and his son, James H. Stone, is a Trustee of Roosevelt University.

Arden House

"A mansion of ninety-six rooms on a mountain forty miles from New York has been assuming increasing importance in the affairs of the nation. Men and women who have held study and discussion retreats in the Ramapo fastness near Harrison, N.Y., have been called to Washington posts in sufficient number to put the imprint of Arden House upon President Eisenhower's Administration." They included Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, Federal Security Administrator Oveta Culp Hobby, W. Randolph Burgess, deputy to the Secretary of the Treasury; Philip Young, chairman of the United States Civil Service Commission; and Robert Cutler, Eisenhower's administrative assistant for national security. "Arden House is the home of the American Assembly, conceived in 1950 by General Eisenhower, who has described it as 'the most important step' he took during his presidency of Columbia University. The gift of Averell Harriman, New Dealer and former Director for National Security, the stone mansion and the surrounding forest are officially the Harriman Campus of Columbia University." Other members of the Arden House group included Lewis W. Douglas, chairman of the Assembly's national policy board; Brig. Gen. David Sarnoff, retired chairman of RCA; Harry A. Bullis, chairman of General Mills Inc.; John Cowles, president of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune; Former Democratic National Committee chairman James A. Farley, chairman of the Coca-Cola Export Corp.; William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor; Robert M. Hanes, president of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company; Mrs. Hobby, executive vice president of the Houston Post; Allan B. Kline, president of the Farm Bureau Federation; Leonard F. McCollum, president of Continental Oil Co.; William C. Mullendore, president of Southern California Edison Company; Dean William I. Myers of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University; Jacob S. Potofsky, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, C.I.O.; Robert E. Wood, chairman of Sears, Robuck & Co. Later members included Clarence Francis, chairman of General Foods Corporation, and Edwin T. Gibson, executive vice president of General Foods. (Arden House Aids in Guiding Nation. By Charles Grutzner. Sep. 7, 1953.)

The President's Appointments, Apr. 1, 1954

AT THE WHITE HOUSE 6:00 pm (Mr . Meyer Kestnbaum) OFF THE RECORD
7 :30 pm The President pressed a lever which lit the SWORD OF HOPE in Times Square, New York, thus launching the Cancer Crusade of the American Cancer Society, Inc., in the Broadcasting Room of the White House. The following guests were present:
    Hon. and Mrs. Walter J. Kohler, Governor of Wisconsin, and Chairman of the Board, American Cancer Society, Inc.
    Elmer H. Bobst, Chairman of Cancer Crusade
    Babe Didrikson Zaharias
    Mefford R. Runyon, Executive Vice President, American Cancer Society
    Frank Kramer, Director of Field Relations, American Cancer Society
    Steve Barrie, Director of Special Events, American Cancer Society
    Clayton Sanders, Crusade Chairman, District of Columbia Division
    Frederick P. H. Siddons, President, District of Columbia Division
    Mrs. Frederick P. H. Siddons
    Miss Betty Dodd (travels with Mrs. Zaharias)
    Clifton R. Read, Director of Public Relations, American Cancer Society
    Dr. Malcolm Ray, Secretary of the Committee on Growth, American Cancer Society
    Col. Luke C. Quinn, Represents National Society in District of Columbia

The President's Appointments, Mar. 1, 1955

9 :30 am The President received the following in connection .with the opening of the American Cancer Society Drive:
    Master Leroy Curtis, Denver, Colorado - presented Sword of Hope Emblem to the President
    Mrs. Mary Curtis, Denver, Colorado
    Gov. Walter J. Kohler, Chairman of the Board of the Society
    Mr. John McCall, Denver, Colorado, Division of the Society
    Mr. Clifton R. Read, Director of Public Relations
    Dr. Brewster S. Miller, Director of Professional Education
    (Hon . Sherman Adams)
    (Hon . Bernard Shanley)
    (Hon. Murray Snyder)

9 :45 am
    (Hon. Sherman Adams)
    (Hon. Gabriel Hauge)

President Eisenhower also met several times with Howard Cullman between 1953 and 1956, including "DDE Diary Oct.-Dec. 1953 [National Security Training Commission; Howard Cullman on relationship of lung cancer to cigarette smoking..."; and again in January and October 1956. (Scope and Content Note, Dwight D. Eisenhower Diaries.)

The U.S. National Health Survey, 1955

In 1955, the U.S. Census Bureau surveyed 25,000 householders to find out "how many smoke and how often. It is understood that the results will be used in connection with research into lung diseases, particularly lung cancer." Robert W. Burgess, director of the Bureau, said the survey was made at the request of the U.S. Public Health Service. "The questions worked out, by the Health Service and the Census Bureau are designed to lead to an estimate of how many Americans smoke, how many are heavy, moderate, or light smokers, and how long they have been at it." (Survey on smoking set. UP. New York Times, Feb. 6, 1955.)

Forrest E. Linder, Ph.D., Director; Theodore D. Woolsey, Assistant Director; Alice M. Waterhouse, M. D., Medical Advisor; Walt R. Simmons, Statistical Advisor; O. K. Sagen, Ph. D., Chief, Special Studies; Philip S. Lawrence, Sc. D., Chief, Household Survey Analysis; Margery R. Cunningham, Staff Assistant. ([study design] Health Statistics From the U.S. National Health Survey. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Marion B. Folsum, Secretary; Public Health Service, Leroy Burney, Surgeon General; Division of Public Health Methods, William H. Stewart, M.D., Chief. July 1958.)

Robert W. Burgess

Robert Wilbur Burgess graduated from Brown University in 1908, and Cornell in 1914. He was on the faculty at Brown from 1916 to 1925, when he joined the Western Electric Company as senior statistician and chief actuary. He left in 1952 to become a consultant to Johns Hopkins University and the law firm of Root, Ballantine, Harlan, Bushby & Palmer; then was appointed chief of the Census Bureau from 1953 to 1961. (Dr. Robert W. Burgess, 81, Dies; Eisenhower's Census Director. New York Times, May 28, 1969.) His brother, W. Randolph Burgess, was a special deputy of the Secretary of the Treasury during the Eisenhower administration.

The "Kelly-Green Jacket Boys," et al

New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey was an Eisenhower advisor, who "moves in and out of Washington in a spectral way, mending pipe lines running from the White House to the forces that won General Eisenhower the 1952 nomination." "The last category of Eisenhower advisors is the "Kelly-Green Jacket Boys," a nickname given to the President's off-duty companions. In a strict sense, the term applies to his golfing friends, like Robert W. Woodruff and and William E. Robinson of the Coca-Cola interests, who join him in wearing Kelly green jackets as they make the rounds of the Augusta National links. But in the broadest sense, it also covers his Gettysberg neighbors, George E. Allen, and Sidney J. Weinberg, a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Eisenhower's two Presidential campaigns. Latterly, former Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey has moved over into this group." (Inner Circles of the White House. By Sidney Hyman. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1958.)

Others

W. Beverly Murphy

Ties to Campbell Soup, AT&T, Merck, and International Paper Company

W. Beverly Murphy was a vice president of the A.C. Nielsen Company before he was elected vice-president of Campbell Soup in 1949; he was its president and CEO from 1953 to 1972. He was national chairman of Radio Free Europe from 1960-61; chairman of the board of trustees of the Nutrition Foundation from 1964-65; and was a special term member of the MIT Corporation from 1961-65 and a life member from 1965 to 1982. He was a director of AT&T, Merck & Co., and International Paper Co. He died in 1994.

Murphy was a director of Merck & Co. from 1959 to 1980; AT&T from 1961 to 1978; and International Paper Co. from 1969 to 1980. Fellow members of the MIT Corporation have included Edward E. David; David B. Clare, president of Johnson & Johnson; John C. Haas of Rohm & Haas; AHF Trustee Ralph Landau; Margaret E. Mahoney, president of the Commonwealth Fund; Frank Press of the Washington Advisory Group; Philip Morris director John S. Reed; Laurance S. Rockefeller; and Thornton T. Wilson, a director of Paccar, Hewlett-Packard, and USX. (How to start an alternative campus newspaper, by Rich Cowan, co-founder of The Thistle at MIT.)

Murphy was born in Appleton, Wisconsin ca. 1908. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin (chemical engineering) in 1928. He joined the Campbell Soup Company in 1938, after ten years with A.C. Nielsen in Chicago. He was a trustee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in 1960. "He led campaigns which raised $1,700,000 for the Presbytery of Philadelphia, $300,000 for Episcopal Academy, where his children went to school, and more than $800,000 for the Camden community chest." (Reds Criticize Appleton Native for Radio Work. Appleton Post-Crescent, Mar. 1, 1960.)

Murphy was a member of the President's Commission on Postal Organization, 1968, whose chairman was Frederick R. Kappel of AT&T. Other members included George P. Baker, Dean of Harvard Business School; David E. Bell, President of the Ford Foundation; Fred J. Burch, President of General Electric; David Ginsburg, partner of Ginsburg and Feldman; J. Irwin Miller, Chairman of Cummins Engine Company; Ralph A. Peterson, President of the Bank of America; and George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO. Postmaster General Lawrence O'Brien, the former Johnson administration official, and the "Quadriad Group" of four unknown persons, recomended its creation.

Former Campbell Soup executive J. Paul Sticht joined the board of directors of RJ Reynolds in 1968, where he proceeded to recruit more outside directors, several of whom were also directors of AT&T.

The 1960 campaign

Before the 1960 elections, "For a time she [Eleanor Roosevelt] said she was inclined to support Justice William O. Douglas if for no other reason than his willingness to speak frankly to the American people about relations with Red China.... Mrs. Roosevelt was distinctly cool toward Senate Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. He was 'one of the ablest people at maneuvering that we have in the party,' she went on 'Meet the Press,' but she did not know what his basic convictions were. 'You're crazy,' was her comment when Mary Lasker described him as a 'secret liberal'" (Eleanor: The Years Alone. Joseph P. Lash. WW Norton & Co, 1972.)

cast 04-24-08