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00:08:46
00:11:18
00:08:46
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Transcription: [00:08:46]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
in Bureau Science there in 1910. Through Dr. Salcedo and other Filipino doctors of the Department of Health, a vast experiment was carried out on the province of Butuan. You recall Butuan as the place where the Americans and Filipinos stood in their resistance against the Japanese for several months in early 1942. This experiment in Butuan proved that enriched rice can abolish beriberi, because beriberi ceased to exist in Butuan for several months during the period when the enrichment of the rice was being subsidized.

[00:09:31]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well then, it was a very dramatic experiment that you had there- that you did there. And why is it, Dr. Williams, that we can't get the world to really realize that we can save the lives of little babies and make people more vigorous? Why don't they go ahead and do it? Is it economic to a large degree?

[00:09:57]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
Oh it's partly economic, but this is not so- so difficult. After all, you can provide all the thiamine that anyone requires for a matter of 7 or 8 cents a year. And this is not large money, even for Filipino pocketbooks. It's rather that people get into controversies as to: "What is the best way to do it?" We recently witnessed in New York a great argument and controversy about the fluorination of water. A good, well informed, medical opinion came out in favor of it, but it wasn't difficult to find those who could oppose it, and who could bring, what seemed like, important arguments to bear against it. We've had that same experience in trying to make rice enrichment general in the Philippines.

[00:10:48]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well, let's hope that something will happen to go ahead and get that done over there because, as I understand it, you'd probably be- have a rise in the vigor and the energy of the people over there, which would pay off industrially and in actual income. Didn't you estimate that, Dr. Williams?

[00:11:06]
{SPEAKER name="Robert R. Williams"}
Yes, you can easily imagine a family that's lost child after child through the years, from beriberi, gets completely discouraged. The mental attitude