When US Congress passed and the US president Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation establishing the National Cancer Institute in 1937, a Washington Post headline announced: ‘“Conquer Cancer” Adopted As Battle Cry Of The Public Health Service’, capturing the prevailing sentiment that defeating cancer warranted a warlike effort. The newest branch of the US Public Health Service would counter malignancy on two fronts, the paper reported. Researchers at the institute would investigate cancer’s causes and possible cures, while practising physicians would extend established treatments to regions where medical knowledge and facilities were limited.
At the time, most people with cancer sought legitimate medical care only after the disease had spread, if they did so at all. Fearing ‘the knife’, many patients delayed surgical consultation until it was too late. In the absence of effective medicines to treat cancer, quacks selling bogus ‘cures’ flourished.
Against this backdrop, the mantra ‘Fight Cancer With Knowledge’ referred not to cancer biology or laboratory investigations, but to the public’s understanding of disease and its proper treatments. Medical research, as we know it, was in its infancy and for the most part was not a priority for the ASCC until after the Second World War. Rather, the organisation aimed to educate people about cancer so that cases might be caught early, when established remedies – predominantly surgery and radiation – might be curative. ‘Do Not Delay’ was another go-to phrase. Experts affiliated with the cancer society emphasised that defence against malignancy rested in the public’s knowledge that cancer could be cured if treated promptly, in the recognition of symptoms (‘danger signals’), and in familiarity with appropriate care.
In pursuit of its mission, the ASCC sponsored the Women’s Field Army (WFA), a military-styled, grass-roots organisation that distributed anticancer literature and raised funds for the society. By 1939, led by its formidable national commander Marjorie Illig, the women’s network involved legions of territory-level, state and city commanders, deputy and vice commanders, adjutants, and majors who supervised captains, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and several hundred thousand ‘troops’. Each ‘recruit’ was expected to pay a $1 enlistment fee to support the cause.
As another world war loomed, the WFA dug into military rhetoric. In February 1938, for instance, Illig spoke with the US Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers in a radio segment titled ‘Women, Enlist, This Is Your War’. Mentioning the ongoing conflicts in Spain and China, Illig said:
Our war is of a very different kind… We are not using bayonets or tanks or machine guns: our weapons are leaflets and lectures. We are fighting with facts and our military objectives are the putting to rout of fear and ignorance.