J. F. D. Rohrbach to Vandiver Brown Asking Gardner for Simple Conclusions in Advance (1946)

A one-page file copy of a letter of August 9, 1946, from J. F. D. Rohrbach, executive vice president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville, after reading Dr. Gardner's letter of July 26. It was "unfortunate that we cannot get some brief report from Dr. Gardner, considering the large amount of investment that we have in this important matter." "Is it not possible for Dr. Gardner to write a few simple conclusions in advance of a complete report? I think he owes a great deal to the industry."

What it shows

Ten years after the sponsors began paying for the Saranac Laboratory experiments, the companies were pressing Dr. Gardner for short conclusions they could use before his full report. Rohrbach told Thomas L. Gatke of the request the same day (letter of August 9), and Gatke answered that the industry needed findings to "combat the claims" of doctors in court, "without injections of possibilities of cancer" (letter of August 12). Brown passed the suggestion to Gardner and sent Rohrbach his reply on August 19 (published in the Motley 1,000). Gardner died in October 1946 with the report unfinished.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

Acknowledges receipt of letter dated 7/31/46. Asks if it is possible to have Dr. Gardner write a few simple conclusions since the complete report will not be finished this year. States that Gardner owes a great deal to the industry and that it is unfortunate a brief report is not forthcoming considering the large amount the industry has invested in these experiments.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to J. F. D. Rohrbach on Gardner's Final Report on the Asbestos Dust Experiments (1946)
• J. F. D. Rohrbach to Thomas Gatke on Pressing Gardner for His Conclusions (1946)
• Thomas L. Gatke to J. F. D. Rohrbach on Getting Gardner's Report (1946)
• Leroy U. Gardner to Vandiver Brown on the Delay in His Final Asbestosis Report (1946)
• Vandiver Brown to J. F. D. Rohrbach Enclosing Gardner's Reply on the Asbestos Dust Experiments (1946)

About this copy

This is document 05621 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.