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    "localId": "75722061",
    "label": "Memorandum, November 23, 1927",
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    "title": "Memorandum, November 23, 1927",
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        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "from both the Department and people investigating this matter, which should\nserve as a solution to the problem. I explained to Dr. S.; that we had\nendeavored to be very frank in giving to people, whom we felt were entitled\nto information, a true picture to the best of our knowledge. However, we\nadmited that we could not definitely state what had happened during the\ninterim of 1917 to 21, as some of the people connected with us in the\nmanufacture of our luminous compound were not now available. Dr. S. seemed\nto think that it would be very important if we could establish exactly\nwhat had happened during this period of time.\nWe discussed at considerable length the investigational work by the\nDrinkers, Flinn etc., and I pointed out that we were inclined to supress\nthe Drinker report, due to the fact that we felt it was incomplete, and\nshould not be published until the cases in litigation were settled. I told\nhim that we had Theen advised by Dr. Flinn that through his investigations\nup to such time as he examined a Miss Dunn from Waterbury, he had not\nfound a single girl suffering from a condition similar to that reported.\nDr. S. countered with the fact that regardless of what Dr. Flinn had deter-\nmined we had these cases to confront us, and must not lose sight of the\nfact that they actually existed.\nI told Dr. S. that while naturally we did not admit that luminous material\nmay have been the cause of these conditions, still we were not in a\nposition to entirely deny it, but that our position is that we do not feel\nparticularly responsible for these cases as we feel that we acted in\naccordance with the best information that was available at that time. This\nwas a point upon which Dr. S. was very cagy, and I felt for a time that I\nwould be unable to get a commital from him. However, by putting the\nquestion in a somewhat different manner, that is whether or not we were\ncriminally negligent, due to our methode of operation at this period,\nhe definitely stated that he felt we vere not, and that he believed the\nLabor Department would back us in this contention.\nWhile Dr. S. was extremely cautious in his statement,still at the same\ntime his was very friengly in his attitude, and upon ascertaining some-\nwhat more in detail what my mission was he opened up fairly well, and\ngave considerable general information. He stated that the Labor Depart-\nment had several requests from abroad asking for details of the law\nstatus involved in these types of cases in the State of N.J., and that\nthe Labor Department had refused to give any information on this subject,\nexcept such data of a statistical nature as they had compiled. He\nstated that they had never called the attention of inquirers to the\nDrinker article or any of the other published articles on this subject.\nHe felt that in view of the fact that all these cases had not been definite-\nly settled, and that the cause had not been definitely established, there\nwas little use in circulating information now at their disposal.\nDr. S. stated that the Labor Department had tried to be just to us in\nthis matter as well as to our employees, and that they would endeavor to\nfunction as such giving us their best cooperation so far as was within\ntheir power.\nhHBarker:RH"
}