DIGESTOFPROCEEDINGSATDINNERGIVENBY MR.JOHND.ROCKEFELLERJR,INTHEINTEREST OFALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS,ATUNIONCLUB, NEW YORKCITY,FEBRUARY 8,1940. Mr.Nelson Rockefeller,after the dinner,called the meeting to order and expressed regret that his father would be unable to be present, but that Mr.Scott, president of Lockwood Greene Engineers,Inc., would take over the meeting at this point. MR.Scorr:“It is a very diffcult situation to pinch hit for Mr.Rockefeller,but Nelson and I have agreed between us that we are going to do the best we can.Mr.Rockefeller asked me particularly to say how much interested hewas in thework that is being done and how very sorry he is that he cannot be here, and how niuch he appreciates the fact that you gentlemen have come out to hear what is to be said. My own experience with this group dates back to December 1937.I was asked to attend a meeting in Rockefeller Center and Imet somefifteen orcighteenmen thereandIhearda story that thrilled me from the start.Mr.Wilson,Dr.Smith,Mr.Mayo and some of the others who are here tonight told oftheir experi ence in getting control over alcoholism.The thing that particu larly impressed me as a business man was that this was done without any theatrics,without any strong appeal to the emotions, person might criticize.What they had done,it seemed to me, had gone back to the techniques ofprimitive Christianity,where one person told the good news to another.And it did not scem to make much difference whether the person they told it to was aJew,aProtestant,a Catholic or nothing at all. If he observed thetechniqueswhichhadbcendevelopedandreachedoutinto thc unknown and asked for help, the help came. Iam nothere to make a speech but tointroduce the other speakers.Ifrst want to introduce my friend Bill Wilson,who is at my right.Of this group Bill Wilson here has been the leader.He is almost,if not entirely, the originator of the undertaking. I know you will all want to hcar from Mr. Wilson, and nowIpresenthim toyou-Billwilson.” 1

MR.WnsoN: Mr. Chairman, Mr.Rockefeller, friends and “Yes, there are some exceptions-those cases where men have had so-calledvital spiritual experiences”Anexpression ofrelief guests: If there is one thing that most people would like, it is to went over our friend’s face as he said: “Well, Doctor, I am a recover the good things they have lost. With us who have been good Episcopalian. I used to be a vestryman before I got so alcoholics one of those good things is the regard of our fellow men.Therefore we are especially grateful to you gentlemen because your coming here is a mark of renewed confidence, this obsession which you have, this so-called compulsion neudodo rosis.” So our friend said,“What next, how do I get one of little story of what has happened. orders in the Catholic Church have had success with alcoholics. I might start off by giving an account of aman whomI have The Salvation Army..·priests and ministers partially.. not seen for two or three years.His experience so well illustrates Christian Science….But these successes have been only occathe nature of the problem with which we have been dealing. sional, sporadic”And he added, “I don’t know whether the This man was a rich man’s son, and I can pay him no greater lightning will hit you or not.You might try. Otherwise you tribute than to say that he wasvery successful inbusinessI think that is a real tribute.He was a person of dignity, good taste, education. He had a great many friends. Well, he did a con- That is a typical statement of the alcoholic’s dilemma.It ventional amount of drinking,and that went along nicely a describes ina loose way a condition in which we have gone from habit toobsession,toinsanity.And thevery strange thingisthat number of years, and then he found that he began to get drunk, very much to his own consternation,for he had looked down while this is going on,many of us seem to all outward appearances to be sound and able citizens in other respects.Our minds upon people of that type before. waver, and we wonder what in thunder is the matter. I have indicated,I think,that he was a person of character, and grcat force of character. Therefore the question immedi Recently I attended a dinner given by the Research Council on Problems of Alcohol. Several of the country’s leading authoriately arises in everyone’s mind: “Why didn’t he stop?” But he ties on the subject spoke. At the end of the meeting, the chairdid not. man,urging the need for research,called attention to the fact Little by little matters got worse and he began to go from that allof these authorities were in serious disagreement as to one hospital or cure to another.He consulted psychiatrists.He the fundamental causc. began to make a study of himself, and of this thing which is called alcoholism.Littie by little the realization dawned on him that although he might have been foolish in drinking too much, us.We know it is deadly. We know it to be hopeless unless the now he had become sick.In desperation he went to Dr. Jung in key is turned in the lock to the extent that it has been turned for the members of our group who now numbcr between four Zurich,whois considered bymany physicians the worldsleading authority on the alcoholic mind.There he was under treatment, and five hundred. I believe, for a long time. In the course of that treatment he I might refer briefly to my own experience. said to Dr. Jung:“Doctor,you are for me the court of last (Here Mr. Wilson gave his own experiences as an alcoresort.Will you please tell me how serious this is and where I holic and in discovering away out forhimself which after get off””And the doctor said:“It is this serious. I have never seventeen years’ continuous drinking had brought him seen one single case where the alcoholic’s mind was in the state toaconditionwhichleadingmedicalauthorities on that yours is that ever recovered.”And our friend said:“Ever alcoholism pronounced hopeless,has enabled him to be recovered? Are there no exceptions?”And the doctor said: sober for five years. 2

This experience is given in full in the book “Alcoone as to my hopclessness and two as to the absolute necessity holics Anonymous,”so it seems needless to recount it in of finding a spiritualbasis for living.” this necessarily concise report.) Now Bob is a doctor. He knew a great deal about the prob- After I had been free from liquor for several monthsIwent lem.He had tried many avenues of escape and among those was to the city of Akron on a business trip,a business trip which promthe religious solution.Hehad tried them earnestly,and still with ised a great deal to me. It meant perhaps the presidency of a small company:it meant coming from a state of having no busi ness friends or prestige whatever toa state of casy circuming to another seems to carry conviction,or,asyou might say, stances, and I counted a great deal on it.When I got there the packs a wallop that the outsider, no matter how understanding. matter bogged down into a proxy fight.Now that was a state cannot. of affairs that would have formerly thrown me into a tailspin at That summer in Akron,while my business dragged along into once.I was walking up and down the corridor of the hotel witha lawsuit, Bob and I found that we had to work with others to out any sure way of getting home, the bill unpaid, and the old thinking started to come back-well, after all,I ought to go stay alive ourselves.We kept scouring around for prospects.A into the bar and think things over,I see some nice people in there, couple were fiat failures. Two fellows we succeeded with,and etc-that vague thinking that so often precedes the first drink, then I came back to New York. even though one may have had delirium but a month before. NowI am going to take you on with an account of what hap- That sort of thinking was started but immediately I had a feeling pened after I left,because to my mind that is where the real of alarm which was new to me.I began to wonder if I should story of this thing begins.There were then three fellows in that not try to be helpful to someone else in that same position. townwhofelt thatthey musthelpotheralcoholicstogetwellor die themselves.Then they found that when they tried to help I had tried to do some alcoholic work prior to this business these people,and as they found they could help them,they loved trip,although without much success. So after inquiring about a to do it. Now that is exactly what we have all discovered,each in little bit,Iran across the gentleman who sits over there,his name his turn.Thatis why this organizationneeds little driving power is Dr. Bob Smith of Akron.A great many of us hope and from the top.Surely if each of us were a member of a convenbelieve that Dr.Bob Smith will be known in time to come as tional organization,and the‘undertaker and the asylum were the Louis Pasteur of alcoholism,because he has personally done just around the corner unless we were reasonably diligent, such more about it than anybody else, and it was in Akron really that Meanwhile, as an avocation-and that is what it is with all Bob said afterwards that he expected to spend only fifteen of us-I did some work here in my spare time. Iwas going on in business then.A few of us sprung up about New York.I I told him of my experience, what I had found, and we talked began to go back to the hospital over on Central ParkWest and about drinking.Shortly after that he had one little relapse and talk to paticnts there,and they began to return to their comthat was the last. He has had no more alcoholic trouble since. munities and in some cases they started to work.When we came down to about twoyears ago there were about forty of us whom He himself explains it this way:“For the first time in my life we thought hadrecovered. the problem was, and because of that identity of experience you Then we began to say to ourselves: well, here, we owe it to were able to carry to me convictions that I did not have before; other men in this dilermma to let them know how they can get 4 5

well.Moreover we felt that we ought to have a book which would sand inquiries.Fortunately these inquiries are on the whole time,feeling that enough had been proved to be surely of disvery good material,because they emanate from people and tinct help.Another thing we felt necessary was the matter farmilies who have tried about everything clsc.Those men and of getting the advice and counsel of people outside our group. those women having alcoholic trouble who write in and demand And so it was that the AlcoholicFouncdation came into being. Well, then the book was written and that book, I hope,has The results, so far as percentages go, are beginning to be no theory in it.It is all our own experience as we see it,and it impressive with the lapse of time.Enough has been demonstrated to be worth while, eminently worth while.But what the final holic at a distance, be he a person of enough determination verdict of medicine will be 1 do not know.We have here and substance, can take hold of that book, follow its directions tonight Dr. Blaisdell, who is head of the Rockland State Hospital. and get well. As in fact some men seem now to be doing alone. The doctor thinks enough of us to allow us to talk to com- To continue with what had happened out in Akron.By the mitted alcoholic cases, and ten of them have been liberated since time thebookwas published last April there were about one hunlast summer. About twenty more are just now coming out. dred of us,themajority of them in the West. Although we have Our group over inJersey numbers,oh,say forty.I should no exact figures, in counting heads recently,we think it fair to think about one-third of that group are people who have come state thatofall the peoplewho havebeen seriously interestedin out of Overbrook,the county place over there.And we have this thing since thebeginning,onehalfhavehadnorelapseatall. some men in this room who have been out of Greystone for a About 25%are having some trouble,or have had some trouble, year or so without any relapse.We are finding that the asylum boys and girls,as we call them,are yery good prospects,ro know about. vided they are not otherwise impaired.It is obviously not dificult In Akron the club had got up to amembership of forty or to convince them that they are “behind the 8 ball.”And if we fifty when some people inCleveland began to hearaboutit.One carry that conviction to a man once, he accepts a spiritual soluof those fellowswasa chap who is here tonight,by the name of tion for his difficulties rapidly. Clarence Snyder. Clarence began to work around among people To date, more than 4oo of us know that we have found an in Cleveland and began to attend Akron meetings-this goes back answer to the alcoholic riddle. some two years-so little by little a nucleus was formed in Cleve land of people who were getting well. So thatisineffectwhatsoingnandtheporunityf By this same spilling over method two men appeared after a coming hereto tellyou gentlemen about it is deeply appreciated time in Chicago,andin thefallof this year theywerejoined by by all of us of Alcoholics Anonymous. a woman alcoholic who had some means and spare time.I was Mr. Scott then introduced Dr. Foster Kennedy as one who there,for the frst time,by the way, about two weeks ago.I has been in touch with this group and who knows about what found thirty people there in that Chicago group whomI had they are doing, ending in these words:“I suppose most of you never seen. T’wenty-six of them had had no relapse. knowDr.Kennedy by reputation.But for fear that there may The book is finding its way over the country.It is being used be some obscure people here who do not,let me say that heisa by doctors and sanitariums.The Alcoholic Foundation,to date, neurologist,bornand trained asaphysicianinIreland andEng as the result of publicity and the book,has had about a thouland.He is now Professor of the Clinical Division of Corncll Medical University,and in charge of Alcoholics in Bellevue.He 6 7

want to say one thing about him in addition to his other qualities.I consider him my guide,counselor and friend.Dr.Fosdick. ises to rescue men like these from their thralldom. DR,Fossick: Mr. Chairman and friends: I suppose we all Dr.Foster Kennedy,speaking from the standpoint of the wish that this problem of alcoholism could be solved by prescientifc medical man,has expressed his interest in this move ment. As a minister I am interested too, because cases in this vention rather than cure.There is a famous test of sanity: feld are laid month after month upon the minister’s doorsill. namcly, turn a faucet into a basin and ask the patient to dip out the basin.If he starts to dip out the basin without turn- Just as Dr.Kennedy would say that a certain measure of success attends the efforts of the neurologist,so a minister would say that ing ofthe faucet firstheisprobablyanimbecile;ifhehas sense a certain amount of success attends his efforts.We all of us have enough to turn off the faucet first the chances are he is normal. happymemories of cases that have come to us,in one degree or We wish we could turn this faucet of alcoholism off.I don’t another the victims of alcohol,and we have helped to gct them know howwe are going to doit.We tried prohibition and that did not work.But I sincerely hope that this movement which on their feet,have brushed them off and sent them back high, wide and handsome.But the percentage of failuresis appaling, starts on the curative sideof dipping out thosewhohave fallen into alcoholism may indicatea coming psychologicalrevolution and therecomes a place where the degree of obsession is so terrific,as Mr.Wilson has pointed out, that a minister is baffled, in this country against the mad extremes to which the use of In the meantime,however,we face the need of helping out There are two or three special reasons why this movement which has been presented to you tonight interests me and seems those who fall under the spell of this habit. Just as we all would to me to have unusual promise in it.In the first place, this idea like to have an economic system that would abolish poverty,but of setting an ex-alcoholic to catch an alcoholic is good.You still face thefact that the poorare here who must behelped,so remember the title of Charles Reade’s novel,“Put Yoursclf in His is it with alcoholism. s There is a particular reason why the appeal of the alcoholic put yourself inhisplace.What good amI,then,indealing with is strong. Alcoholism does not affect simply the riffraff of humanity. It commonly aflicts some of the most charming,lovable wine; I could not be a drunkard if I wanted to; I don’t like the and valuable people in the community.Every one here,going taste of alcohol, hate the effect of it, cannot stand it. Now a back over the recollection of his friends,would at once validate fellow who is in the grip of alcoholism comes to me.I cannot that statement.The alcoholics that I have known have compeople.I well remember one of the handsomest men in college for the simple reason that I have been through a complete in my day. one of the best musicians, one of the best students. nervous breakdown, and with all due respect to the neurologists, Inever will forget in his senior year his mceting me one night once in a while I think I can supplement what they do.For on the campus-we had all been worried about his conditionwhile a neurologist knows more in a minute about a nervous and throwing his arms around me, saying,“Fosdick,it has got breakdown than I do in a week, there are a lot of them who have me,it has got me.Well, it had.He was fired from college and never been through a nervous breakdown themselves. So I often a year or two later forged his father’s check and shot himself. help in cases that come to me in various stages of nervous decomposition.The other day I said to a young neurotic,who started Every one of us can remember these lovable, able,eficient, to tell me how he felt,“Wait a minute, you don’t need to tell me charming personalities that have fallen under the curse of al- 11 10

one valid thing in the bookis therecognition of the seriousness is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,theRoyal Society ofaddiction to alcohol. Other than this,the book has no scien in London and served during the World War with distinction. tific merit or interest.”…Dr.Kennedy continued: And ifyou are interestedin the further record of his degrees and medals,I refer you to Who’s Who. “Idid not like that review much and I sent a letter to the editor of theJournalof the American Medical Association and DR.KeNNEDy:“Gentlemen,I am exceedingly glad to be here. asked himtoputitmongtheoh,triviaorwhatevertheywould I had a friend and patient who became interested in this moveput it in.But hewrote a very decent letter back and said he ment. Shehad a very unhappy,in fact quite desperate situation. Ithasnotbeenoneof thecomplete successesofthisgroup,but One neverlikes to see one’schildaborted,soIthoughtIwould she at least has stayed in the course longer with the aid of these read you my reply here: ideas than atanyother timeinher adult lifeand theffectf these doses still is working in her and I believe she will reach “Sir: An unsigned review appeared in the Journalof theAmerhealth. I am sure she will. I don’t thinkIought to make a long speech.You have been Anonymous,the story of how more than 1oo men have toldinsimpleandmost affectinglanguagethestoryof thismoverecovered from alcoholism.The cheapish tone of the review is surely a reflection on the thoughtfulness, the experience,and the innatekindliness of the reviewer,and beenspokenofbeforeIwasabletogethere,tospeakofareviw not at all indicative of lack of humane spirit in the that appeared in the Journalof the American Medical Asso- Journal. ciation.” The aim of those concerned in this effort against alco. MR.ScoTr:”It has not been referred to.” holism is high,their success has been considerable and I believe medicalmenofgoodwill should aid these decent Dr.Kennedy then read to the audience a review which ap. peoplerather than loftily condemn them for not being peared in the Journalof the American Medical Association of scientific. the 14th of October.It was a review of the book “Alcoholics One might askthe reviewer to produce a bookon thc Anonymous.”At the outset the reviewer spoke of the serioussubject ofalcoholism concocted by him out of”pure ness of the psychiatric andsocial problemreprescntedby addic science.”Medicine,surely,is Science touched with emotion.It is quicker andmore precious in vivo than in tiontoalcohol,stating:Many psychiatristsregad addiction vitro.Thisgroup ofworkersIhaveregardedasenlisting alcohol as having a more pessimistic prognosis than schizo. Belief and the herd-instinct tofortify and implement emophrenia….” tionally men’s actions,In doing so they have chosen well. triedweapons.It would be unfortunate if the opinion of “Schizophrenia,”Dr.Kennedy interpolated,“is at the moment the fashionable name for dementia praecox.That is the our professionwlhich hasnever before refused to use faith progress that has been made regarding this disease in thirty to move mountains.” I thank you. for these things andit is wrong now to speak of schizophrenia as dementia praecox. But it is a scrious condition.” In presenting the next speaker,Rev.Harry Emerson Fosdick, D.D., Mr. Scott said in part: In continuing with.the review which described “Alcoholics Anonymous”“a curious combination of organizing propaganda “I will not attempt to introduce Dr.Fosdick to this audience. and religious exhortation”…and closed with the words:“The I know of course that you all know him perfectly well. I simply 8 9

He was not a religious man.He came into this experience out how you feel.Let me tell you how you feel.”I gave him a blue. dnreeueesndeo print of all the feelings and thoughts that were going on inside by alcoholism,hereached the endof hisrope,hopeless,no way of him,and when I was through he said,“My God,how didyou out at all, until one day he said, If there be a God I will throw know that?”I could put myself in his place,but I cannot do it myself back on any God there is.Here is a discovery, it seems with an alcoholic. to me,on the part of people who come from Judaism,Roman Now comes a movement,an astonishingly apt andpertinent Catholicism,Protestantism and agnosticism,of one of the most movement,where men who have beenin the thick of this thing, elemental experiencesinreligion,theinner tappingofresources who have faccd the hopelessness of the situation, who have felt of power beyond ourselves.A whipped man morally feels like a that theynever could getwell,havefound resources of strength pool that is exhausted.It is as though all the strength he had and have come out and there is not a thing about alcoholism were a pool on the surface of his life,and the sun has been too they do not know.I think that psychologically speaking there hot and it has dried up, there is nothing more for him to rely is a point of advantage in the approach that is being made in on.Then he discovers this elemental religious experience and this movement that cannot be duplicated.I suspect that if it is he does not feel like a pool any more but like a river; there is a wisely handled-and it seems to be in wise and prudent handslot ofwater coming down from upstream if he will keep the there are doors of opportunity ahead of this project that may channels open; the sources of power are no longer so much in surpass our capacities to imagine. him as through him.Ruskin used that idea,you will remember, in describinggreatartists,someofwhomhesaidknewthey were There is another element in this movement that interests doing the best work that had ever been donc,but they were me-itsleanceitsbreadthitsinusivenessitsathlicityf very humble about it because, saidRuskin,they all knew that the power was not in them but through them.Touse the figure of a neat exclusive formula,that was dogmaticabout it,I would Prof.Wieman of the University of Chicago,it is as though a have my fngers crossed. But here is a movement that puts its arm around medicine on one side and religion on the other and lo, the waiting power comes in.A lot of these mcn, as I have says, we will take in everything that can help us, that crosses all touched this group,have gotten at God that way,not theoreti boundaries of sect and creed andisready to use anyresources of cally,not as a matter of speculation but rather in a moment of assistance that are available. These men are open-minded,not despair they found out how to throw a switch and complete a supposing that they have a neat formula that setles everything. circuit, and lo, something came into them.Thcy call it God. I think the spirit in which this work is carried on is wise and promising. It is God. Still another element in this movement greatly concerns me. Iremember as a boy I was brought up near Niagara Falls. Iwas there when the turbines were put in at the power plant, Just as Dr. Kennedy would be interested in the medical aspects andI shall never forget the first time I saw that man walking ofit,Iam interested in thereligious aspects of it.Itisamove quietly around in the room inwhich their controls were located. ment which treats on equal terms Jew,Roman Catholic,Prot- He was not creating power,he was releasing it.We never create estant and even agnostic. Mr.Wilson,I am right, am I not,you power. Nobody ever created any of his own physical power. told me you had always been an agnostic? You do not blow on your hands and create power. All power MR.WrLsoN:Very much so. comes from assimilation,we take it in.These men have gotten DR.Fospick:Hedidnot say that when he spoke,butIhink somehow at this inner core of religion, deeper than Judaism, deeper than Roman Catholicism,deeper than Protestantism, 13 12

underlying them all, experienced in them all,so that men from all these different fields meet on equal terms in this group, and the agnostics come in too,who never have had any theories of God,but now have found His power. Throw a switch,complete the circuiti Stop being a pool,become a riverlDo not create power! You cannotl Release powerl I call that an essential experience of religion,andIam interested to see a group that has run on it in this utterly unconventional, unorthodox way and is so inclusive, taking in all sorts and conditions of men from all kinds of religious and irreligious backgrounds, fnding here the one spiritualdynamic that can lift a man out of the mire whennothingelse can. Last of all, I admire the quietness, the anonymity with which this movement is carried on.Very small overhead financially, no big organization,nobody making anything out of it,no high salaried staff, people for the love of it sharing with others the experience that has meant life to them-that is good work. No one is a prophet, but I suspect that there is a long road ahead ofthismovement. 14

1940 amnin DINNER GIVD FEBRUARY 8thAT THE UNION CLUB BY MR.ROCKEFELLER,JR. Acceptances XMr.Frank B.Amos Dr.Seth Milliken Mr.Gordon Auchincloss Mr.Dave H.Morris ar.Stephen Baker ●Mr.Gilbert H.Montague Hr.James G.Blaine Mr. Charles F.Noyes xDr.R. E.Blaisdell oqDr. Godfrey L.Cabot Nor.w.S.Richarason Mr.William G. Cresmer ICm. Mr.Stanley Resor Mr.Lincoln Cromwell Dr.George W.Riley XMr.Horace Crystal Mr.C.M.Rodefer XMr. Jemes S.Cushman XMr. William Ruddell roC Mr.Benjamin M. Day Rnivinaccl. Hr.Morgen Ryen XMr.B.R.Donaldson NMr.Nelson A.Rockefeller iwMr.A.LeRoy Chipman QJudgeJacob Gould Scmurman,Jr. XMr.Fred I、Eldridge vr.Robert Garrett Mr.Carlton M.Sherwood Hr.Wm.Albert Harbison AMr.Robert A. Shaw LGeneral James G.Herbord NBC Dr.W.D.Silkworth Mr.Leonard V.Harrison xr. Clarence H. Snyder yMr.Buchanan Houston xDr.R.H.Smith Dr.Frank B.Jevett Vr.James M.Speers Dr.Foster Kennedy aDr.AIfen A. Stockdale Mr.P.Kellogg ,Dr. Leonard V, Strong, Jr. xMr.Norman Klauder xMr.HF.Taylor uMr.SamuelH.Kressht.7hwrum 0.r. Sanuel Thorne XMr.C.Walter Lotte Mr. Thomas J.Watson XMr.Fitzhugh Mayo Mr.Wendell L. Willkie Mr.William H.Matthews Ser.William Wilson CMr.Edwin G.Merrill xMr.Leslie R.Rounds ROCKER CENPER Focantsco iiils North Tarryto..,liawYork10591-1598

rhe Denver Post,Coioraco ROCKEFELLER HELPS TO CURE ALCOHOLICS JohnD.Jr.IsRevealed asFinancialBackerofSecret –1 OrganizationWhichRegeneratesHabitual DrunkardsIntoUseful Citizens. New York,Feb.9.(A.P.)—John D.RockefellerJr.,whohas tried to hide many of his philanthropios and socisl reform activi. ties under the bushel of anonymity,wss revealed Friday as in. terested in a“secret”organization simed at regenerating alcoatarted when three men wbo over-by personal contect of ex-alcoholics “which came their craving for whieky andwith alcoholics.Into these groupa numbers 120. Rockefeller was host at dinnerjnation to effeet a cure is kept alive. meetings result whereby the determithe work of the men who have been Thursday night to hear s report on cured or who are in the process of re-estabiishing themselves on a more normal plane. but decided it was wrong after It Rockefeller advocsted prohibltion, had been tried twelve years.He urged its repeal snd financed a eurvey of liquor control laws thruout associstedwith the “Council for the world. After repeal he became Moderation,” but withdrew because ofn disagreement over polley. His interest in “Alcoholles Anonymousapparently ie a continuation of the work he has sssoclated him self-with for years. aboutfour -yenrs ago.toseint, The organization came into being anonymoualy and.without publicity. chronic alcobollcn in reclali hemselves. krled

Dalias,Texas Rockefeller, Jr., Secretly Helps ChronicDrunks New York,Feb.9(AP).-John D.Rockefeller,Jr,who has tried to hide many of his philanthorples and social reform activities under the buebel of anonymity.was revealed today asinterestedin a “secret” organization aimed’at regenerating alcoholics. The organization Is.”Alcoholics Anonymous”which started when threemenwho overcame their craving for whisky and wanted to help others in the same plight be gan the movement that today numbers 120. Rockefeller was host at dinner last night to hear & report on the work of the men who have been cured or who are in.the process of re-establishingthemselves.on more normal piane. Rockefeller advocated prohibitlon but decided it was wrong after it had been tried twelve years.He: urged its repeal and financed a survey’of llquorcontrollaws throughtout the world.After re- “Council for Moderation” but withpealhebecame associated with the drewbecause of’adisagreement over polley. Hls Interest in “Alcohollcs Anonymous”apparently is &.continuation ofthc work he has associated him self with for years. The organization csme into beingabout four years ago to asslst chronic alcoholics in reclaiming anonymously and withoutpublicity. themselves. The workis cnrried on principal ly by personal contact of ex-alcohollcswith alcoholics.Intothase groups are.uaunllybrought:the familiesof.theafrlictedpersons. Soclal:and genernl mieetings result hebytaedeterminatlon’eaffeet

cefs Misconception.af leoholiesAnorymous.” rothe Boor ot The Btar: An Assoclated Press‘dispatch from New York in The Star of February 9 states that John D.Rockefeller was host knownas“Alcoholics at.dlnnerto ueu”Organization” Aronymous,” aimed at the regeneration of alcobolics. To avoid misconceptions and for the benefit of any who may be interested. I wish to say that “Alcoholics Anonymous’is neither secret nor an organization.Tnere re no.ofmeers,no dues. Itmay more nearlybe called afellowship.It exists not only In New York but aiso in other cities,and has already done grest work here in Washington.A book,also entitied “AlcohollcsAnonymous.which.ives a名oodideaof.the workthstis-being.dope,msybe eithet ourchasedcremt