T. L. Gatke of Asbestos Textile Company to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Final Report (1946)

A two-page letter of April 18, 1946, from T. L. Gatke, president of Asbestos Textile Company, Inc., of Chicago, to Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville, after a visit from Manfred Bowditch of the Saranac Laboratory. The textile makers who had paid for Leroy Gardner's dust experiments were still waiting for his final report. Bowditch had warned that Gardner, "as a scientist," might be reluctant to say "that the invisible dust was not injurious." Gatke proposed that Gardner could state that five or six years of tests "gave no evidence of permanent injury," and that the report would help "offset the damaging effects" of doctors' claims that invisible dust causes asbestosis.

What it shows

Gatke wanted the findings made public to help him hire workers at his North Brookfield, Massachusetts, plant, where new help was "sometimes influenced by fear of dust." He recalled "an objectional statement" in Gardner's preliminary report that "referred to the possibility of cancer," which he thought "rather far-fetched" and with "no place in Dr. Gardner's final report." Since the group dealt with Gardner through Brown, he had said nothing to Gardner, "knowing you will take proper action." He also mentioned a building fund appropriation for Gardner, suggesting the textile companies might be "more interested and generous if the report from Dr. Gardner might be forthcoming." The letter shows a funder of the Saranac study asking for conclusions in advance and for the cancer reference to come out (see the industry's efforts to remove cancer from Gardner's report).

About this copy

The writer's name is not typed in full on the letter. The signature and the initials "TLG" fit T. L. Gatke, but his full first name is not shown.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Correspondence from Gatke, Asbestos Textile Company, to Brown, 4/18/46, concerning whether Gardner will state conclusively that invisible dust is not injurious - this is desired to dispel fear of dust felt by new workers entering the asbestos industry.