The Webb-Waring Lung Institute

The Webb-Waring Institute for Medical Research (later named the Webb-Waring Lung Institute) was founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1924, by a tuberculosis specialist, Dr. Gerald R. Webb, and Dr. James J. Waring, Chairman of the Department of Medicine of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Lasker Foundation Director Robert J. Glaser, then-Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, was an Honorary Consultant in 1969-70; and Rene J. Dubos, Professor Emeritus of Pathology of the Rockefeller Institute, was an Honorary Consultant during 1969-76. Dr. Robert S. Liggett, who was President in 1969-70 and a trustee until at least 1976, was born in St. Louis - the home of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company - in 1903.

Howard S. Cullman, Yale 1913, one of the organizers of Philip Morris, was a tuberculosis patient in Colorado from 1918 to 1921.

Devereux C. Josephs Jr. was President of the Webb-Waring Lung Institute in 1986, and a Trustee from at least 1984-87.  Josephs' father was a director of the Morgan Guaranty Trust, whose connections to Mary Woodard Lasker go back to the New York Heart Association in 1946.

The Webb-Waring lung institute. Early Development and History on the Denver Campus. By Roger S. Mitchell, MD, Denver, Colorado. Rocky Mountain Medical Journal 1979 May-Jun;77(3):125; and: The Webb-Waring lung institute. Plans for the Future. By David W. Talmage, MD, Denver, Colorado. Rocky Mountain Medical Journal 1979 May-Jun;77(3):126..

One of the worthwhile discoveries from Webb-Waring was composition of the black pigment in human lungs, and that "When the case histories of the patients, their smoking histories, and their occupations were compared with the patterns of lung pigments observed in the electron microscope, no correlation was found between them." (Chemical and electron microscopic studies of the black pigment of the human lung. JK Newman, AE Vatter, OK Reiss. Archives of Environmental Health 1967;15:420-429.) Meanwhile, the anti-smokers lie about the subject by obtaining pig lungs from meatpacking plants, soaking them in chemicals, and then claiming that this is what tobacco smoke does to them.

The Philip Morris Research Foundation and the American Heart Association are major funders ($50,000+) of the Webb-Waring Institute.

James J. Waring

"James J. Waring, M.D. (1883-1962), was the first full-time Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Waring came to Colorado to recuperate from tuberculosis, which interrupted his medical studies at Johns Hopkins University. When he had recovered, he continued his medical education, graduating with the 1913 class of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Waring, an internist, served as head of the University's Department of Medicine from 1933-1948. He was active in the Colorado Foundation for Research in Tuberculosis, and negotiated the affiliation of the Foundation with the School of Medicine in 1949. The Foundation is now known as the Webb-Waring Institute,..." (Waring Room, Denison Memorial Library, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.)

James J. Waring was a member of Vannevar Bush's Committee of Medical Advisors in the days of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the Franklin Roosevelt administration.

He was the brother of Antonio Johnston Waring (1881-1951), Skull & Bones 1903, of Savannah, Ga. Their parents were Antonio de Gogorza, cotton and lumber merchant and Portuguese Consul, and Annie Johnston Waring. Their Yale relatives included grandfather James J. Waring 1850; great uncle Frederick Waring 1852; uncles James J. Waring 1887 and T. Pinckney Waring 1880; brother James J. Waring 1904-Sheffield; cousin J. Frederick Waring 1923, and Antonio's sons Antonio J. Waring Jr. 1938 and William W. Waring 1945-WS. He received the John Bennetto (S&B 1887) scholarship his senior year.  He received his M.D. from Columbia in 1908 and was on the staff of Presbyterian Hospital, then practiced as a pediatrician in Savannah from 1911. (Bulletin of Yale University. Obituary Record of Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools Deceased During the Year 1951-52, pages 61-62.)

Alfred Cowles III, Skull & Bones 1913

In 1929, Alfred Cowles III (1891-1984) came to town because he was suffering from tuberculosis; and in 1932, he founded the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics there. His particular focus was on stock market forecasting. The Cowles Commission later moved to the University of Chicago, and ended up at Yale. "The Cowles family has a long association with Yale University, starting with Alfred Cowles's father and uncle, who were Yale graduates. [Albert Cowles, Skull & Bones 1886, and William Hutchinson Cowles, Skull & Bones 1887 -cast.] His grandnephew, William H. Cowles 3rd [Yale University Class of 1953], President and Publisher of the Cowles Publishing Company of Spokane, Washington." From 1969 to at least 1976, Alfred Cowles 3rd was an Honorary Trustee of the Webb-Waring Institute.

James Quigg Newton Jr., Skull & Bones 1933

Newton was secretary to the board of trustees of the University of Denver and a founding director of the National Opinion Research Center. (Opinion Research Backed by Field. New York Times, Sep. 3, 1941.) He was the mayor of Denver, Colorado, from 1947-1955. As a well-connected Bonesman, he brought lots of boodle to the city, and established its first department of public health under Florence Sabin. In 1955-56 he was a vice president of the Ford Foundation. He was president of the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1956-63, then headed the Commonwealth Foundation in New York. Later, he was a senior consultant for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Palo Alto, California, and returned to Denver and his old law firm, now Davis Graham and Stubbs, in 1981. (Former mayor Newton dies. He left legacy of projects, leadership. By Virginia Culver. Denver Post, April 6, 2003; and: Obituary, University of Colorado. April 10, 2003.)

As president of the Commonwealth Fund from 1964 to 1975, he funded the The Children's Television Workshop, and "directed seed money to the Harvard Community Health Plan, the first prepaid health care delivery program established by a university. Newton was a fellow both of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. A member of the Institute of Medicine and of the National Academy of Sciences, he was also affiliated with the Mental Health Council of the National Institutes of Health, and he was a trustee of the Nutrition Foundation and chairman of the board of the Greater New York YMCA." Newton also served on the Alumni Council of the Phillips Andover Academy, and endowed the James Quigg Newton Scholarship Fund there. (J. Quigg Newton Jr. Andover Bulletin Online Summer 2003, Vol. 96, No. 4.)

Newton was a trustee of the Boettcher Foundation, created by a family who immigrated from Germany and became cement magnates, from 1937 to 1955.

Newton was a member of the American Cancer Society's National Commission on Smoking and Public Policy in 1977.

Newton was an Honorary Trustee of the Webb-Waring Institute from at least 1969 to at least 1989.

Dr. Roger S. Mitchell, Attack Dog

Dr. Roger S. Mitchell, a past president of the American Thoracic Society anddirector of the Webb-Waring Institute, began his campaign for blood-money before the 1964 Surgeon General report was even released. "In spite of your official capacity, you surely must have some inner concern over the possibility that regular cigarette smoking for many years is seriously harmful to the health of many humans," he wrote to both Joseph F. Cullman III, the president of Philip Morris, and H.J. Cramer, the president of Lorillard, March 20, 1963. His proffered "solution" to the anti-smokers' attacks was for them to flop on their bellies and plead guilty, while shoveling out tons of money to the anti-smoker bloodsuckers. Which is exactly what they did, while the anti-smokers conducted their bogus research in the spirit of the Tuskegee Study, making a big show of measuring lung faction and spewing out charts and statistics, while neglecting research on chronic infection.

Mitchell ranted against college students smoking at the American College health Association convention in Kansas City, Missouri (Seek ways to curb college smoking. Kansas City Times, April 27, 1963.)

Colorado Interagency Council on Smoking and Health hate propaganda, "Why Smoke? Some facts YOU should know about one the greatest Hazards to Health," 1964, whose sponsors include the Webb-Waring Institute as well as the usual culprits (the American Cancer Society, the Heart Association, and Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association, et al.)

Mitchell responds to Tobacco Institute President George V. Allen's request for unpublished data that Mitchell furnished for the 1964 Surgeon General report with a reprint of his published paper, "Cigarette Smoking, Chronic Bronchitis, and Emphysema" (RS Mitchell, TN Vincent, GF Filley. Journal of the American Medical Association, April 6, 1964). Funded by the National Heart Institute, Iowa Tuberculosis and Health Association, and Iowa Heart Association.

Mitchell was one of the "experts" thanked by Daniel Horn in the 1971 Surgeon General Report, "The Health Consequences of Smoking."

Webb-Waring and the Council for Tobacco Research

William U. Gardner advocated support for David W. Talmadge's work, "The Role of Macrophage Induced Factors in Cancer Immunity," with "cancer immunity" being undefined, and a specious concept when the role of infection is ignored. (Gardner to CTR Scientific Advisory Board members Feldman, Hockett, Huebner, Meier, Sommers, Stone & Wattenberg, Jan. 10, 1977.)

Talmadge approval with: "Comment: As progress appears to be satisfactory this request will be handled administratively and witheld from the bulky SAB agenda for the April 1978 meeting, unless you object." (David Stone to SAB, Jan. 5, 1978.)

Gardner advocated support for John E. Repine's work, "The Role of Phagocytes in the Development of Centrilobar Emphysema." (Gardner to CTR SAB members Hockett, Jacobson, Stone and Wyatt, Feb. 15, 1979.)

The CTR began funding Repine's work pushing the theory that "free radicals" are the cause of lung disease. (D.H. Ford and R.C. Hockett to S.C. Sommers and staff; Site visit with Dr. J.E. Repine and collaborators at the Webb Waring Institute, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, August 24, 1981.)

The Aspen Lung Conference

The Webb-Waring Institute began sponsoring the Aspen Lung Conference in 1957. Its International Advisors in 1983 included James Hogg of the University of British Columbia, and Claude Lenfant of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

cast 12-10-06