Public Health

September 1945

In the last Presidential campaign, both the Republican and the Democratic Parties acknowledged the fact that something must be done to make available to the whole population of our nation, adequate medical care from pre-natal days to old age.⁴

The Democratic Administration, of course, has accepted the responsibility for putting its promises in the form of a Bill which will start the ball rolling toward better public health. This Bill is known as the Wagner-Murray-Dingle Bill.⁵ But now we are beginning to see the same old game develop as we saw it at the end of the last war. We learned the same lessons then, namely, that our people are not the healthiest people in the world and need not only better medical care, but better food and more knowledge on the subject of health. But we quarreled as to how we would achieve our objectives and did nothing. We are headed that way again.

The way to begin is to begin. This Bill may not be perfect, but it is a step in the awakening of interest in the question of health for everyone, not for those alone who can afford to pay for it.

Let us tell our representatives in Congress that this is one of the things we want to do and keep on doing, so that twenty-five years from now our young people will be far healthier than they were found to be during this last draft.

Without health no nation can successfully defend itself against the aggression of other nations, either in the military or the economic fields. If we want to retain our leadership in the world we must see that our people are healthy and vigorous. The spirit of adventure and the power to show initiative will die out if we do not preserve the health of the nation. I can see objections to almost any plan that is attempted, but like so many things, I believe it is better to begin and make the changes as we learn from experience. We need to make the attempt to improve the general health of the people of our country.

TMsd AERP, FDRL

1. Lash, Eleanor, 465-67; Cook, vol. 2, 62-63, 416-18.

2. MD, 7 September 1945.

3. See Document 45.

4. In his January 11, 1944, annual address to Congress, the "Economic Bill of Rights" speech, FDR called for "a Second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race or creed," which included "the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health" (Zevin, 396).

5. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill proposed using funds collected from employees and employers to create a social insurance trust fund (with government contributions beginning within the next fifteen years) to finance a dramatic expansion of social security coverage. Not only would it add an additional 15,000,000 domestics, farm workers, small businesspeople, and employees of nonprofit institutions to the social security rolls, it would also cover workers and their families. The social insurance system would include prepaid health, unemployment, and disability insurance, as well as provide more generous retirement and survivors benefits. States would receive federal grants to enlarge hospitals and expand existing health coverage for pregnant women, infants, and children (C. P. Trussell, "Congress Gets Security Bill Adapting Beveridge Plan," NYT, 4 June 1943, 1; "Expanding Social Security," NYT, 26 May 1945, 14).

ER misspelled "Dingle."

On the Pearl Harbor Commission and Congress

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor produced immediate congressional cries for investigation. In January 1942, FDR appointed Associate Justice Owen Roberts to chair a special inquiry into the attack. Roberts's commission placed the blame at the feet of navy and army commanders at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband E. Kimmell and Major General Walter C. Short, faulting them for inadequate preparation and communication and "too lightly heed[ing]" the warnings from Washington. FDR refused to make the committee report public, arguing that doing so in wartime would put military personnel at risk. Congress thus passed resolutions extending the statute of limitations for the commanders' courts-martial until the war's end.

By 1944, election politics ignited more speculation, especially after Colliers published an article by Senator (and vice-presidential nominee) Harry Truman in its August issue indicting Kimmell and Short for their lack of cooperation. Kimmell, whom the navy had just placed on inactive duty, denied Truman's allegations and declared the Roberts report did "not contain the basic truths about the … catastrophe." The following December, Secretaries Stimson and Forrestal announced that separate boards of inquiry conducted by the army and navy found that while some unidentified army officers "lacked skill and judgement" the evidence investigated by both panels "does not warrant and will not support" court-martial proceedings.

Congress waited until Japan surrendered August 15 to press for hearings. August 17, Senator David Walsh (D-MA), chair of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, asked Forrestal to deliver the "complete file of the navy's investigation" to the committee and make recommendations for how its content should be released to the public. August 23, Truman summoned Roberts to the White House. August 29, the Pearl Harbor Army and Navy Boards of Inquiry released their reports to the press. The army blamed Short for his "failure … to adequately alert his command for war"; Secretary of State Cordell Hull for delivering a series of demands to the Japanese November 26, 1941, which the Japanese construed as an ultimatum "to withdraw from the Asiatic mainland"; and General George Marshall for his "failure to advise his deputy chiefs of staff" about "the critical situation in the Pacific," as well as his "failure to keep General Short fully informed on the international situation and the probable outbreak of war." The navy report, while citing inadequate communication procedures, held no officer accountable.¹

ER wrote the following column August 30, the day after the president released the reports from the military boards of inquiry.