Thomas L. Gatke to Vandiver Brown on Finishing the Saranac Report (1948)

A one-page letter of September 14, 1948, from Thomas L. Gatke, president of the Gatke Corporation of Chicago, a maker of brake linings and friction materials, to Vandiver Brown. Gatke thanks Brown for confirming that he had "been after this report most consistently" and complains that asbestosis cases had been "handled with success by the opposition because there has been no substantial evidence presented to refute their claims," so that unless something was done "these little cases will breed like rabbits." He recalls that Leroy Gardner "was bringing into this report some question of cancer," which he took to be "just a conjecture," and writes: "I hope this will be stricken from the report."

What it shows

Gatke, one of the companies paying for the Saranac study, also suggested that with help from company scientists the report could stress the facts "most pertinent" to the industry and drop others, and he offered to pay a share of any added cost to finish it faster. He had pressed Brown about the report before (in 1946). Two months later the sponsors agreed that the references to cancer and tumors would be deleted (Brown to Kelly, November 12, 1948).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Correspondence between Thomas Gatke and Vandiver Brown dated 9/14/48, concerning the need to push for completion of Gardner's research. "It has been a long time coming and I realize there must be a lot of work involved as so much is being done by these asbestosis cases that have been developed and handled with success by the opposition because there has been no substantial evidence presented to refute their claims, and unless we do something about these little cases they will breed like rabbits and may grow as big as hares." Gatke was eager to "establish the facts that have been proven by Dr. Gardner's tests" to avoid permanent injury to the interests of textile manufacturers at the hands of "quack doctors and shyster lawyers." Gatke was specifically concerned about Gardner's interest in a cancer link.

Editor's note: The chronology quotes Gatke on establishing "the facts that have been proven by Dr. Gardner's tests" and on "quack doctors and shyster lawyers," and refers to textile manufacturers. None of that is in this letter; it may come from another Gatke letter.

Related documents

• T. L. Gatke of Asbestos Textile Company to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Final Report (1946)
• Vandiver Brown and Manfred Bowditch Letters on Lung Cancer in Gardner's Mice (1947)