Medicine: Pan American

For 35 minutes last week President Roosevelt listened to the rapid, persuasive, ambitious voice of a handsome Manhattan dermatologist. Dr. Joseph Jordan Eller, 42, director-general of the Pan American Medical Association, wants to build a 17-story, 500-bed medical centre in Manhattan to serve his organization's members when they go there.

In his briefcase Dr. Eller, son-in-law of onetime President Plutarco Elias Calles of Mexico, had letters of approval and promises of co-operation from a score of Latin American officials who attended the Third Pan American Conference of National Directors of Health in Washington last month. Also in an approving mood were Sumner Welles, Assistant U. S. Secretary of State in charge of Latin American affairs, and Dr. Ross Mclntire, President Roosevelt's White House physician whose ear Dr. Eller had held for many an hour. When Dr. Eller ceased speaking President Roosevelt warmed him with a smile, told him to turn the $7,000,000 of rich men's promises he had in his briefcase into cash, to start building soon as possible, and to go to Buenos Aires next autumn and tell the whole story to President Roosevelt's forthcoming Pan American Conference.