General STREIT. Very important.

Mr. FASCELL. That raises a series of questions that I intended to get to, which is the scope of interrelationship with other institutions and other tropical laboratories.

General STREIT. Our relations with PAHO, the Pan American Health Organization, and relations with the laboratory which is under the direction of the Institutes of Health, specifically the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are very close.

Mr. FASCELL. What is your relationship with private institutions? General STREIT. Our relationship with many private institutions is a very welcome thing. For example, Louisiana State University has a graduate fellowship research program in which they send teachers and graduate students to Gorgas, usually from 3- to 6-month periods, to pursue their work in tropical medicine. They also have a program for senior medical students

Mr. FASCELL. That is very good.

General STREIT (continuing). In which medical students from a multitude of universities come to Gorgas one or two at a time for periods of 1 or 2 months to get a feel and develop an interest in tropical medicine.

Mr. FASCELL. Do you have the same relationship with the University of Miami, with their tropical medical laboratory?

General STREIT. No, sir; we have established no relationship with the University of Miami. I know about their program, but we have not had an opportunity to establish relationships.

We also have close relationships with Stanford University and with the University of Kansas, and with Harvard University.

Mr. FASCELL. I would think this would be a most important aspect of your work.

General STREIT. It is a most important aspect, sir.

At the present time there are scientists from the University of California in eastern Panama in the so-called Darien region working on a taxonomy project reclassifying the mosquitoes in the tropics.

Mr. FASCELL. Would it be possible to contact the University of Miami to see what they could do to cooperate in your programs? It sounds like a very important thing to do.

General STREIT. If you would ask them to get in touch with me, I would be delighted, sir.

Mr. FASCELL. I assume I trust correctly-that researchers and specialists are made available in cases of emergency in other places. I am thinking, for example, of the reported discovery of Venezuelan equine encephalitis in Florida.

General STREIT. Yes, sir.

Mr. FASCELL. Were any of your people involved in the study of this? General STREIT. We were not asked to appear, but would have been very happy to do so.

Mr. FASCELL. Who would have to make that request? Would it have to be the Public Health Service of the United States?

General STREIT. I would think that Dr. Terry of the Public Health Service would be the principal official.

Mr. FASCELL. In other words, a local health service, a State or county health service would not be the proper instrumentality to approach your organization?

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General STREIT. I would not think so.

Mr. FASCELL. We had several reported outbreaks in the United States in several different areas at the same time. I am curious to know whether we went outside of the United States to get any assistance, particularly when you tell me now you are about to conclude the two very important reports on the Venezuelan equine encephalitis and St. Louis encephalitis.

General STREIT. Our people know about those outbreaks, and have conferred with numerous scientists that dealt with these problems.

Mr. FASCELL. Is there anything lacking or should we do anything, or do we need to consider anything with respect to coordination in the United States? After all, this is a tropical disease, theoretically, at least, until somebody

General STREIT. Sir, I think that there is close cooperation now with scientists in the two areas. The laboratory of the Public Health Service in Atlanta deals with these problems, and our scientists in Panama are in close touch with them.

Our present Director, Dr. Martin Young, who assumed his position 1 year ago, is a past president of the American Tropical Association. Mr. FASCELL. This is within the scope of your jurisdiction and operation, so to speak, is it not?

General STREIT. It is, yes, sir.

Mr. FASCELL. It is encompassed in all this.

General STREIT. I would like to tell you about one other projectMr. FASCELL. Now is the time to do it.

General STREIT (continuing). In which the laboratory went far out of its own borders to engage in research that affected the welfare of the United States directly.

In 1950 it was discovered that jungle yellow fever was progressing northward from Colombia up through eastern Panama and the jungle, and

Mr. FASCELL. Just don't let it get to Florida if you can help it.
General STREIT. It got pretty close.

Mr. FASCELL. I know.

General STREIT. Closer than is publicly acknowledged.

Our scientists for 7 years wandered throughout Central America, all of Panama, back to Colombia, invading the jungle forests to determine the reservoirs and the vectors and the ecology of-particularly the reservoirs and the vectors, the means of transmission of this disease, and to study means of stopping its progress. It was stopped at the borders of Mexico, or a little beyond.

This was of tremendous interest to America, and it is still a very, very personal problem. Today we maintain so-called sentinel stations in three different places in the Republic of Panama, and three or four times a year we take blood, sera from animals-monkeys, particularly-whom we know are reservoirs of this disease, to see whether yellow fever is making an advance again.

Mr. FASCELL. What kind of key staff members would be made available to the Laboratory under the increased appropriation and authorization?

General STREIT. We have virologists. We have a noted epidemiologist, and others.

Mr. FASCELL. What kind of salary range would they have to be in order to attract them in this kind of work and this particular location? General STREIT. Our salaries in the Laboratory now are approaching a reasonable level. By reasonable I mean a level which permits us to recruit good scientists in the American market.

Mr. FASCELL. And to hold them?

General STREIT. And to hold them.

These salaries do not appear satisfactory if quoted for American universities, but they are satisfactory in Panama because scientists on the Gorgas staff do not pay taxes if they are foreign nationals. Mr. FASCELL. What is the approximate range of this?

General STREIT. The range of salaries for scientists with a doctorate-and all but one of our scientists have that-is $12,000 to $16,000.

Mr. FASCELL. I would say even with a tax break that is modest.
General STREIT. Very modest.

Mr. FASCELL. I know that tropical maintenance is unusually expensive and burdensome, but what additional kind of maintenance would be called for in this increased authorization, generally?

General STREIT. Well, we have never received any increase for the new building, which is five times as large as the old building and has all the sophisticated air conditioning and humidity controlsMr. FASCELL. All the comforts of home.

General STREIT. Well, you can't do anything in this modern biomedical research without those, sir.

Mr. FASCELL. I know that. I realize that.

General STREIT. Where our maintenance costs in the old building were $5,000 to $6,000 a year, they are a hundred thousand dollars. And we don't have one year's experience of costs of the new insectary. Mr. FASCELL. Thank you.

Mr. SELDEN. General, I was glad to hear you say prior to the beginning of the hearing that you and other officers of the Institute have had the opportunity to inspect the Medical Center of the University of Alabama located in Birmingham and that you are working out some sort of arrangement with the medical school as far as cooperation between the University of Alabama and the Gorgas Institute is concerned.

General STREIT. We have great plans, but these are in the exploratory stage. We hope that something very real will occur, because the possibilities for the university and for Gorgas both are wonderful.

Mr. SELDEN. I am very happy to hear that, and I am sure they are anxious to cooperate in every way.

The subcommittee would like to hear from Mr. Thatcher if he will come up to the witness table.

General STREIT. Yes, sir.

STATEMENT OF HON. MAURICE H. THATCHER, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, GORGAS MEMORIAL INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, INC.

Mr. THATCHER. Mr. Selden, members of the subcommittee.

Mr. SELDEN. Let me say, Mr. Thatcher, before you begin, that you have always been a wonderful advocate for the Gorgas Memorial Institute. It has been through your constant prodding and persuasive abilities that both Senator Hill and I have been so interested in this Institute, and certainly you continue to be a very wonderful good will ambassador.

I understand that on the 15th of August you are going to celebrate your 95th birthday.

Mr. THATCHER. Don't mention it.

Mr. SELDEN. I am sure my colleague here joins me in wishing you a very happy 95th birthday, though it is several weeks in the future. Mr. THATCHER. Thank you. You can give me and my associates a birthday present, the consideration of this bill.

And we are very grateful to you for giving us this opportunity to appear t to be heard on this measure, which is very vital.

I thought I would address myself somewhat to the parent institution involved here, the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine, Inc., which is by means of congressional appropriations a quasi-government institution and its accounts are regularly audited by the General Accounting Office.

If you will pardon me, in order to keep the continuity, I will read a little statement here.

By way of preface I may say that in the Congress I was the author of the act of May 7, 1928, providing for the establishment on the Isthmus of Panama, of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, under the auspices and supervision of the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine, Inc., a Delaware nonprofit, nonstock, welfare-health corporation. It was created to perform, in its major aspects, scientific research touching the cause and prevention of tropical disease, both human and veterinary. The corporate provisions are very broad, but the actual activities are limited to the studies just named.

The Institute was authorized to acquire property, wherever situated, for its purposes, as named in its articles of incorporation bearing date October 20, 1921.

I should like to file with the subcommittee for its files, if you do not have it already, the certificate of incorporation and the bylaws, so you may have it for reference.

Mr. SELDEN. We would be very happy to have that for our records. Mr. THATCHER. And the bylaws have been revised up to November 1,

1963.

The business office of the Institute is in Washington, D.C. The Institute is under the control of a board of directors, consisting of 46 members, 33 of which are elected by members of the corporation, and 13 related directors, similarly elected, to consist of the Surgeon Generals of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Public Health Service, and others.

The Institute also has a Scientific Advisory Board consisting of wellknown scientists. Reference is made to the 36th annual report of the Institute for the fiscal year 1964, for lists of directors, officials, and the Scientific Advisory Board, and the detailed work of the Laboratory.

I would like to file, if you do not have it already, one of the printed reports of 1964 which goes into detail concerning the activities of the Laboratory and its various lines of endeavor and sets forth a list of executives and officers and matters of interest.

Mr. SELDEN. We will be very happy to have that for our files also. Mr. THATCHER. An Executive Committee of not more than seven members, with the President of the Institute a member and chairman, is elected annually by the Board of Directors, and conducts the general business of the Institute, exercising all the powers of the Board of Directors when the Board is not in session. The officers of the Institute are elected annually by the Board of Directors.

All of the officers of the Institute, the Directors, members of the Executive Committee, and the Scientific Advisory Board serve without compensation. Only the technical staff and employees engaged in conducting the work of the Laboratory in Panama, and secretarial employees in the Washington office, receive payment for their services.

In passing I may say that I served during the construction era of the Panama Canal as a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, which had supervision of the building of the canal, and that I also served as head of the Department of Civil Administration of the Canal Zone, and in that capacity represented the Commission in all its relations with the Government of Panama, which relations embraced all health, sanitary, and related subjects.

And in that particular field of representation I was able to be of some service to General Gorgas in his requests for Panamanian cooperation and we always were able to obtain that cooperation as the conditions arose prescribing a need for it.

The President of the United States, I may add, is the Honorary President of the Institute, and that has been true since its organization.

After I left Congress in 1933 I have continuously served as Vice President, General Counsel, and member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Institute.

The act of 1928 creating the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory has been amended occasionally, including increase of the original $50,000 maintenance and operation fund to $250,000. That is the prescribed amount in the existing legislation.

Senate 511, recently passed by the Senate, and now pending in the House, increases such fund to an authorization of $500,000 annually.

Through the years the work of the Laboratory has greatly increased in volume and value. A much needed research building, constructed with congressional appropriation of $500,000, has recently been completed and dedicated, as you know, Mr. Chairman. Also a $100,000 insectary, built with a donation provided by Mr. James H. Rand, of Remington Rand, an outstanding philanthropist who has also donated substantial funds for the general purposes of the Laboratory-more than $100,000.