Sumner Simpson and Vandiver Brown on Asbestosis Articles in Asbestos Magazine (1935–1941)

Three letters between Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, and Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, about articles on asbestosis in the trade magazine Asbestos. On October 1, 1935, Simpson sent Brown a letter from the editor, Miss Rossiter, and wrote: "I think the less said about asbestos, the better off we are." Brown replied on October 3: "I quite agree with you that our interests are best served by having asbestosis receive the minimum of publicity." On November 3, 1941, he reported telling Miss Rossiter that her subscribers would likely dislike a review of a book on pneumoconiosis, and wrote that he "had in mind the ostrich-like attitude which has been evidenced from time to time by some members of the Industry."

What it shows

These letters are part of the Sumner Simpson Papers. In 1935 Brown added that if the companies did allow an article, the editors should be told to use American data rather than English, since Dr. Lanza had said the disease seen in North America was "considerably milder" than that reported in England and South Africa. Six years later the editor was still checking with the two companies before printing anything on asbestos disease, and Brown expected that she would "omit any review of the book in question."

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

Correspondence between J-M and Raybestos-Manhattan re publication of an article on asbestosis in the trade magazine Asbestos. One letter contains the famous quote by Sumner Simpson (President, Raybestos-Manhattan): "...the less said about asbestos, the better off we are, ...." (1935-1941)

About this copy

These are documents 22, 23 and 24 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000466 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000468.