laid; not the foundation of stones and mortar but that of Congressional approval." 16[1]
Efforts to build upon this foundation of congressional approval were promptly forthcoming, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt included in his budget for the fiscal year ending 30 June 1941, submitted on 4 January 1940, an item of $600,000 for preliminary expenses in connection with the new building.
Support for the adoption of this item in the appropriation bill included an article by Joseph M. Lalley, in the Washington Post of 11 February 1940, entitled "Neglected Treasures," which thus described "the plight of the Army Medical Library and Museum":
* * * Two years ago Congress authorized the expenditure of $3,750,000 for the construction of a new building for the Army Medical Library and Museum. This benignant gesture was merely an imprimatur. The Secretary of War is now free, within the limits of that sum, to have a new edifice built for the library and museum whenever and if ever he gets the money. He has not got it yet. The new War Department budget, however, does contain, among the Surgeon General's estimates, a special item of $600,000 for the acquisition of a site. But with Congress in its present temper, and with the estimates for national defense tremendously swollen, the fate of this item appears precarious.
All the same, it is unlikely that many high officers outside the Medical Corps, give any great attention to the concerns and difficulties of the library and museum. None of them, of course, would dream of parting with it. But when, in the course of the hagglings with the Congressional committee, it may mean the difference between a few extra tanks or bombing planes there may be a temptation to let the library wait another year for a new home. But it has already waited too many years, and can wait no longer.
Adoption of the budget item in the War Department appropriation bill was urged by the Washington Post in an editorial of 10 February 1940, entitled "Priceless and Unique." The estimate of $600,000 for the purchase of a site and the preparation of plans for "a new building which will more adequately house the Army Medical Library and Museum" was termed "modest" in amount and pressing in importance.
"Whatever the needs of other forms of national defense, there is no part of the current Army estimate more worthy of public support than this relatively tiny item," the editorial said. "Nearly two years ago Congress authorized a new building to replace the present antiquated Army Medical Museum, erected in 1887. Economy of a glaringly penny-wise pound-foolish variety has heretofore blocked action under this authorization. In view of the long delays and
- ↑ 16 Editorial entitled, "Army Medical Museum and Library." Journal of the American Medical Association 110: 2084-2085 18 June 1938.
