In concluding, Dr. Karsner wrote, "No words can overemphasize the importance to the Nation of the preservation of the integrity of these two institutions as part of the Army organization and of their proper and adequate
housing at the Army Medical Center." 15 [1]
A New Building — Where and When?
In the work of securing favorable action by Congress on the bill authorizing the new building, the medical profession of the country was foremost. Dr. Karsner's letter was typical of the more than one hundred letters, from distinguished doctors, which were submitted to the committees of the House and the Senate when, in 1938, those bodies had hearings on the identical bills introduced by the chairmen of the Committees on Military Affairs of the Senate and House.
In addition to these individual recommendations, the American Medical Association "officially endorsed the movement by authority of the House of Delegates," a circumstance which recalled to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association the fact that the Association had "played a great part in obtaining the legislation for the old building" which had housed the Museum and the Library for 55 years and had "contributed with equal force in obtaining the new," — thereby treating the prospective new building as if it were an accomplished fact and not a project which was to take another 15 years of struggle and delay so far as the Museum was concerned, and an even longer time for the achievement of the new Library.
On 18 June 1938, in an editorial published only 3 days after the Presidential approval of the authorization bill, the J.A.M.A. exulted that "at last the world's mightiest collection of medical literature and one of the largest of medical museums will be given adequate quarters. The medical profession," the editorial went on to say, "may congratulate itself on the enactment of the bill to authorize the new building."
"But," the editor added, "this is not enough. Under our legislative procedure the appropriation called for by the authorization bills must be obtained. The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and House of Representatives will shortly consider this. If we want the new building built now — and the need is nothing less than urgent — we must let our representatives in both houses of Congress know of our desire. The foundation for the building is already
- ↑ 15 Letters, Dr. Howard T. Karsner. various dates in August 1933. Copies on file in historical records of AFIP.
