| Show BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET Too Little for Brains Brains' Idea Is Hindering Research Medicine By By BILLY ROSE ROSE- Today r Id I'd like Uke to tell you about a talk I had with a doctor who is doing research work at one of the New York cancer clinics He made me promise not to use his name because he was afraid he might be blacklisted by the foundation which pays his salary I began by asking him to sketch in his research pre career The usual year 10 grind he said Four years of college four more at medical school a year as intern and a year In residency train train- ing What made you go into research Like a lot of young doctors he used to sitting said I couldn't get by while a n patient died simply because t tI I didn't know anything anything any any- i thing else I could do for lor him Every I f time I looked up R into the eyes of oJ relatives relative gathered around the bed of a aman I man in the last 7 stages of cancer I told myself t that hat ii a t Bill Billy Rose my Job wasn't to togo togo togo go on using the miss hit techniques techniques techniques tech tech- but to get into a laboratory and help find the real cure How did you go about getting started I made the usual applications said the M MD M.D. D. D but I soon found the hospitals and universities had no rio funds to hire research men and that I couldn't get a job unless a foundation paid my ray salary To complicate things most foundations wont won't give you a fellowship unless you first have a job In addition its it's almost impossible to get a agrant agrant agrant grant until youve you've published a certain certain tam tain number of scientific papers and of course you cant can't publish such papers until youve you've worked in a laboratory and had a chance to do research worth writing about It finally boil boiled cd down to this this this- I could work for nothing in a cancer cancer can can- cancer laboratory or I could take a job paying a week doing research for a cosmetic outfit Well I had just gotten married and was ready to settle for the money but my wife wouldn't hear of it she It-she she went out and got an office job and made me stick to my test tubes now HOW LONG did you work for free About a year said the doctor and then the head of the medical center center center-a a very decent guy squeezed guy squeezed me onto the payroll at 2887 a week You could have earned more washing dishes We JVe managed to 10 ge get gel by said the medico but bul the orl 10 following ng y year ear my u ui c tJ had a baby and had to 10 quit her job After let that Ihal it was pretty prelly rugged As for lor instance ue we couldn't afford ord to 10 buy a crib and the youngster hd had to 10 sleep in hi a donated baby carriage Somehow though we pulled our way through and by the end of the following year I had gotten a couple of research pieces published With these to back me up I applied for fora a fellowship paying a year Minus withholding tax I pre pro sume It may not sound like much but I felt like John D. D Jr when the grant came through said the doctor Last year I went through the application rigmarole again again- typed pages pages and and this time I got the full S S S WHAT DO YOU DO to earn all that money I said Im in charge of three cancer projects and help on half hall a dozen others On the side I run a throat clinic work in the wards and give seminars mars Any chance of a raise Im afraid not said the doctor and as far as fellowships are concerned concerned concerned con con- Im I'm getting near near- the end of the line Im I'm 29 now and the foundations foundations foundations dont don't like to make grants to tomen tomen tomen men over 30 Theres always the job la in In fe Industrial lab I said I It 11 may come to 10 that II J l j jM M M. D. D but bul I 1 hope hop nol no noNo No e eter ter I what whal iI it pays ays I want to i J plugging away on c Cancer anc er It tm ma m a lot more mora important Ih IJ 4 a new shade shad of f powder it i The day after our talk I h b bj to pass the medical ty ij j scraper in which the young da j works and I noticed that an U wing was under construes Dozens of steel workers bri briers ers and carpenters all all around a hundred a week rr getting in each others other's way Over the half finished was a space which looked as iii HI might eventually be filled wI sti I block of marble on which a fi Eq Inscription would be carved I 1 know what it ought to be be- be said to myself Too much b Ir bricks too little for brains It |
