Collier’s. SePt. 3. 1949

SKID ROW. U.S.A. By WILLIAM J. SLOCUM

Within our cities there is a world of living dead where Lonely, despairing Americans seek escape from themselves

The author of this two part article traveled 8,000 very live and reasonably sober gentleman. lt miles to get a close-up of Skid Row, U.S.A. Every was, indeed, Father himself. As soon as the city and town with a population of 5,000 or more initial shock had worn off Father spoke. “Fooled has its own human jungle. Crumbling tenements you, didn’t l?” he gloated. “You thought I was and filthy alleys mark the end of the road for dead, eh? Sorry to disappoint you.” With that he thousands of Americans. Part 1 dealt with the made a vulgar noise in the direction of his wife way vagrants go about getting a drink, a flop or and requested the captain’s permission to return an occasional stake. But what is society doing to rehabilitate these men? to the peace and quiet of his flophouse. The possibility of intended fraud is CONCLUSION remote and unimportant to this grisly anecdote which capsules so much of the Skid Roe story. A weird little tale was recently unfolded in Father did not merely dislike Mother. He hated Chicago that somehow managed to encompass her. Father’s respectable family and his war everything that goes to make up Skid Row, record suggest he had not long been an U.S.A. A bum was found dead in the Madison anonymous alcoholic. Father had recently been Street jungle and they carted his body off to the “jack-rolled” while drunk and it is reasonable to morgue. His pockets were crammed with suspect that the man who later died was the one identification, so officials were able to notify a who had picked his pockets. That would explain Wisconsin family that their father had depa(ed how Father’s identification papers were found on this world. The wife and a couple of daughters the corpse. came on and identified the remains. One drunken derelict preying on another, The body was taken back to Wisconsin sudden death and the completely broken family, and buried with full American Legion honors. A these are Skid Rowthe American jungle. $1500 insurance policy was settled and all went ln New York, a Bowery tavern owner well for two weeks. Then the family received a named Sammy Fuchs made an effort to do peremptory note from the morgue giving them something to help the bums who wanted their 48 hours to claim Father or he would go to relatives to be notified in case of death. From potter’s field. The family, baffled by this them he accepted envelopes which the bums development, came running to the Desplaines numbered and sealed. lnside they put the Street police station, which has jurisdiction over names of their next of kin. Sometimes papers to the Madison Street Skid Row. be forwarded were included. The bums in turn Captain JosePh GraneY quieted the carried little notes on their person reading: “[n woman and told them the morgue had originally case of death tell Sammy Fuchs to open made a mistake in concluding the body was that Envelope 17.” Ot Envelope 11, or whatever the of their father, and the family had compounded identifying number would be. the error by identifying the strange corpse. While “l sent off dozens of telegrams,” Sammy the Captain was talking to the ladies, however, told me. “l never looked at anything except the they showed him a picture of their father, taken address. I know one envelope contained papers a decade before. Captain Graney looked at the which were supposed to secure a big estate for picture and bellowed, “l saw this same guy last a Skid Row woman’s illegitimate son. She told night in front of the Star and Garter. He was me about it before she died and I hope the kid plastered. Wait here a minute.” got it. I sent one telegram to a rich Pennsylvania Graney hopped into a squad car. ln five banker to tell him his son rolled off an East River minutes he was back, dragging behind him a pier and drowned.”

Early this year burglars broke into Americans who drink regularly or occasionally Sammy’s saloon and carted off the safe which without letting alcohol interfere with their lives, held the enveloPes. liquor is a refreshment, a part and a symbol of Sammy runs a Bowery saloon that has a gracious living. But most alcoholics drink to dual personality. From 8:00 n.u. to 8:00 P.M. it is excess seeking escape from emotional ills. just another Skid Row dive. From 9:00 p.lvt. to Missions do what they can to help the 4:00 n.u. it becomes a sight-seeing mecca for sick and despondent on Skid Row. They are thrill-hungry out-of-towners. The hour between everywhere there, beckoning all with signs of eight and nine is used to clean the place up and gold and blinking neon. But to the men on the create atmosphere by lining up prop Bowery rows, they represent only a place a man can get characters. After nine o’clock ancient a soup, coffee and bread. entertainers sing with great gusto, and a I entered a mission on Sunday afternoon. benevolent old man, well into his sixties, plays Services had started, but I was greeted by a the meanest piano l’ve heard in a long time. preacher. “Welcome, brother,” he said. “Get yourself a book.” Experiments in Rehabilitation I got a hymnal and took my place among 20 other men. Fifteen were Skid Row bums, Sammy has made an interesting clean, hung-over, shaking and miserable. The experiment in rehabilitating Skid Road other five were well-dressed by any standards. characters the country over. He straightens Four were businessmen who had been saved them out, buys them clothes, pays a month’s from Skid Row. One was a visiting clergyman rent and gets them a job. He estimates it costs who had come to listen to the sermon. him about $350 per man to do a complete job’ We sang three hYmns. Then the He has experimented thusly 18 times and claims businessmen rose in turn to tell their stories’ A four of his rehabilitation projects are still off Skid sermon followed this, and when it was ended, Row. the preacher asked whether anyone felt called “You can’t let ’em live on Skid Row and upon to speak up. The room was redolent with expect ’em to stay sober when they see all their the aroma of hot soup and coffee, and the friends drunk,” says Fuchs. hungry men were concentrating on that. There Another Fuchs theory-“The only ones was no thought of talk. who have a chance to straighten out are the We sang three more hYmns and then it young ones”- is an opinion universally shared by was time for grace. The minister said it, trying policemen and judges all over the country. The not to look self-conscious as he gazed down at scientists at the Yale Plan Clinic, where the the bowed and frowsy heads of his sick and problem is being studied carefully, confirm that hungry congregation. they young are not beyond redemption, but in After that the men rose and formed a line measured academic tones Yale suggests that for a tin cup of soup, a half cup of coffee and a Sammy, the cops and the judges are nuts. “A slice of bread. They gulped the food and left young alcoholic has very little reason to want to hurriedly. sober up,” they point out. “He has never experienced the rewards of a normal life-family, Alcoholics AnonYmous Gives Aid children and a job.” According to Dr. Robert V. Seliger, first- Hard-working members of Alcoholics rate psychiatrist and executive director of the Anonymous are another force for good along National Committee on Alcohol Hygiene, lnc., 30 Skid Row. Faith is especially mentioned in six of to 40 out of every 100 alcoholics may be helped the 12 steps of the program for recovery the back to health by modern psychiatric treatment. organization uses. They are sick in the same way that a man may Alcoholics Anonymous is everywhere, in fall ill of pneumonia, or smallpox, or diabetes. the jails, the courtrooms and the hospitals. As Dr. Seliger points out, alcohol itself Sometimes A.A. members are received with does not cause alcoholism. To the millions of open arms by officials, sometimes they are

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brushed off as tiresome nuisances. They keep and he is soon talking to an A.A. who can insisting that a drunk doesn’t belong in jail, and truthfully top any story of degradation or that, when he does get to a hospital, he should misfortune the bum can tell about himself. He is receive the same care he might expect if he given coffee and food, and, if he volunteers a were a wellto-do citizen. request for help in sobering up, a silk-smooth New York City is a case in perfect point, operation begins. illustrating the conflict in official attitudes. At First he has to “sweat it out.” That’s a Bellevue Hospital A.A. are sometimes brushed three or four day process during which a man off by some busy and impatient doctor. “l didn’t gets sobered up first and then goes through the spend half my life studying medicine merely to agonies of the dammed, fighting against a take care of weak-willed drunks,” he will nervous system which screams for a drink. complain. But at Kings County Hospital in While he is “sweating it out,” A.A. veterans of the Brooklyn, run by the same City of New York, same sort of personal hell talk to him, listen to A.A.’s are welcomed. lts members and him, walk with him through the night and even interested doctors sit in joint committee to see buy him a double-header if their expert eyes tell how they can better cooperate in helping the them his system musf have a little alcohol. penniless alcoholic. When sleep comes at last he is taken to a The district attorney of San Francisco flophouse and his new friends buy him a night’s bows a reverent head in the direction of the lodging. “South of Market” chapter of A.A. which works in When the “sweating out” Period is Skid Row. ln Los Angeles, A.A. teams of two finished, the man gets a suit of clothes and a patrol the Lincoln Heights court 24 hours a day job. Twelfth Street House has an arrangement and any Skid Row bum who needs a cup of with a half-dozen hospitals to hire men it coffee or a double-header of rye to stave off the recommends. Since January more than 150 d.t.’s gets them and no questions. The “Alinon Skid Row drunks have been straightened out Club” in Newark is fighting the good fight in a and returned to work through its efforts. rough part of the country. “Alinon” has to its A.A. flatly refuses to compile statistics credit the rare case of a woman who spent 16 about cures it has effected because its axiom is, years on Skid Row and has been “dry” two years “An alcoholic is cured only when he is buried.” now. Every night 35 to 50 former Skid Row ln New York City the Twelfth Step House bums can be seen at Twelfth Step House. They at 53 Barrow Street has turned an apartment sit around talking or listening to impromptu house basement into a refuge for any man or speeches-academic discussions of the problems woman who is willing to walk the short distance involved in fighting alcohol. Talk and from Skid Row. He can get anything that a group companionship are the very heart of the A.A. of human beings who are themselves pretty technique. poor can give him: food, a suit of clothes, a job Everybody helps everybody else. I saw and that precious thing, an understanding ear. an old man hustle in and survey the room. He Twelfth SteP House was started bY an spotted a young fellow who was with a group A.A. who wanted to do something for what his which was heatedly discussing the effects of group calls “low-bottom drinkers.” A “high- “sneaky-pete,” a generic term for fortified wines. bottom drinker” is an alcoholic who has a little He nodded the boy away from the group and money, a home and some friends to help him excitedly whispered, “there’s a dishwashing job through his travail. A “low-bottom” is one who open up on Twenty-third Street. I couldn’t take it has nothing. Last January this man, who is not on account of my bum arm. But I told them you’d rich, paid $50 to cover a month’s rent on a be right up. Six bucks.” The boy got his cap and basement which had been unoccupied since was gone in half a minute. prohibition. Other A.A.’s pledged one, two, or five Employed Make Contributions dollars a month to keep it going. lt is open from noon to midnight. A Skid Row drunk walks in

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No working member of Twelve Step ever and I made arrangements to visit the jungle the enters the place without a couple of loaves of next day in the company of a police department bread and perhaps a half bologna under his expert. However, there was not a bum to be see arm. They all try to contribute to the kitty, but anywhere, not even in the jails. Later I visited one of the few rules of the place is “No the same areas unaccompanied and found all contributions from men working one-night the bums I ever wanted to see. I asked them stands. Okay from those steadily employed.” where they had been all afternoon. They said it The policeman is the Skid Row bum’s had been real hot, so they stayed off the streets. mortal enemy; he is as frequently his only friend. No young man ever took up police work My own experience with policemen in the Skid in anticipation of a career that would be spent Rows of America ran along the same line. ln chaperoning Skid Row bums. lt is not surprising, Chicago, Captain Graney told me, “We don’t therefore, that those assigned the task want you writing about Chicago’s Skid Row. But sometimes go about their duties with a you’re going to write about it anyway, so we’ll maximum of muscle and a minimum of answer every question you ask us. Of course persuasion. But for every cop who makes we’re ashamed of our Skid Row, but if you can enemies of the men he is supposed to help, figure out an answer, you’re smader than I think there are two like Chicago’s Steve Wilson and you are. We give the bums all the protection we Los Angeles’ William Shurley. And there is the I can. lt’s not enough, guess. Still, you if immortal “Book-Him” John McGinnis, also of assigned a cop to every bum on Skid Row, the Chicago. “Book-Him” John is now relieved of his bums would still get in trouble.” arduous Skid Row chores and works with ln San Francisco, Captain Leo Tackney children, but his name is still revered on the of the Southern Station glowered at me and nation’s Skid Rows. said, “l’m not going to tell you anything and When a bum Put in a hitch as a gandYneither is any of my men. lt’s bad for San dancer with the railroadthe name traces back to Francisco. lf you go into Skid Row, you go at the jiglike step used in tamping down the track your own risk. lf you take any pictures, you’ll do beds-and quit, got fired, or finished his it at your own peril.” I told the captain that the unwelcome job, he headed back to Chicago. He pictures would be taken. I also assured him I might have a couple of hundred dollars in his was going through his Skid Row. pocket and the unhappy knowledge that he Three separate times I walked all over would blow it all in a night if left to his own San Francisco, rated by many as America’s customs and habits. So he would seek out most charming city, always with the feeling I was McGinnis and turn over the major part of his being followed. I lost that feeling only after I money to him. “Book-Him” John doled it out until dropped in for a chat with District Attorney Pat it was gone, and after that John was always Brown. The D.A. agreed that Skid Row was bad good for a touch. for San Francisco but he also felt it would be The officer never lost a nickel through much worse if people stopped trying to do these loans. Usually the debtor paid off at the something about it. first opportunity. But id he went off on the I later learned why Captain Tackney was railroad again or took to the hobo jungles, John so irate. It seems they are making a movie about would pass the word along that he was in Skid Row-U.S.A. and the producer of the film default. The debtor would hear about it from has chosen Captain Tackney’s precinct as the every Chicago resident who crossed his trail. locale of the epic. lt is a choice with which no And if he found himself overlong in arrears, he man would quarrel. also found himself barred from the mulligan I tried one more police department. That stew, the bottle and the companionship of his was in New Orleans. When I had finished my fellow hobos or gandy-dancers. conduced tour in that city, I was stumped. McGinnis was a one-man warrant squad The first day in town I had asked kind on Skid Row. lf any flop resident was wanted, and expert friends to tell me where New John only had to pass the word. “Tell McCarthy Orleans’ Skid Row or rows were. They told me to get over to the station house. Somebody is

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looking for him.” “somebody” could be a relative, say to a man, “You’re pretty bad off. I want go to a friend, an insurance adjuster or even a go in. Stand over by that lamppost until the warrant. lt didn’t matter. lf McGinnis sent out the wagon comes by.” The man will stagger to the word, McCarthy came ambling into the police lamppost and wait until the patrol wagon, station within an hour. making its endless rounds, appears. Every morning, when the unhaPPY contents of a jail’s drunk tank were lined up Out-of-Bounds for Bums before a judge, McGinnis would stand at the court’s elbow. Theoretically he was there to Most cities have off-limits areas for identify the bums, but in practice he would make bums. The Skid Row resident who crosses recommendations. “Ah now, this is a nice lad, Texas Avenue in Houston does so at his own Judge,” John would say as a shivering hang- peril; or he can expect a good clout if found over stood before the bench. “A nice lad. He’s panhandling around New York’s Times Square. been working and only been on Skid Row a He is supposed to stay “south of the slot” in San couple of days. Let him go, Judge.” Francisco; and in Kansas City he passes the The next might hear, “Judge, this fellow’s Kay Hotel at his own risk. Boston cleans out its a nice lad but he’s been laying around six Skid Rows by making periodic promises of a months. He needs a doctor, Judge. Send him year in Bridgewater for vagrants and drunks who away for a while.” are apprehended. But John’s favorite expression and the Some police departments attempt to basis for his nickname was, “Now here’s a lad enforce a “keep-moving” policy. I heard a been laying about drunk for six months. But a crippled beggar, of extraordinarily handsome nice lad. Let me take care of him, Judge. l’ll features and cleanliness, plead with a judge to book him.” John would wave the man aside until let him off. “l’ve got relatives in Detroit and l’m the court recessed. Then the man, along with going back to see them.” several colleagues, would be shepherded to a The judge said, “You’re not going back to group of railroad labor representatives and John Detroit and you know it. lf you do, Hitler and would persuade them to book the derelicts for Mussolini will get you.” The men who were lined gandy-dancing jobs. up behind the cripple smiled. The cripple himself Chicago’s Steve Watson is in the grinned one of those “you-ain’t-just-talking- McGinnis mold. He’s in court every morning with judge” grins. “Hitler and Mussolini” are a couple his advice. 90 per cent of it compassionate. I did of Detroit policemen who have dedicated hear him say to Judge Edward Pluczak, as one themselves to keeping Detroit’s Skid Row man came up for sentencing, “Judge, this is one population as fluid as Possible. of the best thieves this side of the Mississippi.” No city overpatrols its Skid Row. Most The man got the equivalent of 30 days when he municipalities seem to ignore their jungles. sullenly refused an offer to rebut Watson’s There is a universal theory among lawestimate. enforcement men that there is little or no crime Steve walks his beat amid an endless on Skid Row. They couldn’t possibly be more salvo of greetings. When his charges attempt to wrong. shake hands, as they frequently do, Steve The major criminal is the “roller,” ‘Jackshows them his gloved hands and begs off with roller” or “mugger.” He is the same man some excuse about a skin ailment. operating under a different name in different I saw a young man laid out cold on parts of the country. He steals shoes, shirts, Madison Street. He looked dead to me. Steve pants, and even the undenvear of his victims’ bent over him, applied some pressure behind his Usually prey is too drunk to know, but ears, and bloodshot eyes opened in an ashen sometimes he attempts to resist and is hurt. I

face. The man managed a pathetic smile, “Hello staked a battered old wreck in Kansas City, but Steve,” he said. “Please help me up, will you?” when he saw me go to my pocket he said, “l’ll ln Los Angeles, William ShurleY has meet you around the corner. lf those guys see earned the confidence of his charges. He will you give me anything, l’ll get jack-rolled.”

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Almost any man found dead in Skid Row a man in the drunk tank is less likely to be without a bullet or a knife in him died of “natural injured. causes” so far as the cops are concerned. Drunk tanks are the same the country Public statistics keep tab on murders and since over and they are shameful. Most of them have police efficiency is judged by those statistics, the no facilities beyond bare, cold floors. The police cops try to avoid any additional unsolved claim they would be delighted to install cots and homicides among the nonentities of Skid Row. rudimentary plumbing, but the condition of the Before going into the details of how prisoners makes such sharp and unyielding murder is committed on Skid Row, it is objects a serious menace. necessary to understand that the resistance and When court convenes, the night’s haul is physical condition of most alcoholics is herded into a special corner of the room. The tremendously substandard. They hurt easily, non-Skid Row citizens who seek justice are they cure slowly and assistance comes tardily if separated and their cases, usually domestic at all. Nobody knows whether a man curled up in quarrels and landlordtenant disagreements, are the hallway is suffering from too much sherry or heard first. Then the Skid Row group is lined up a cracked skull. before the bar. Fist fights are common on Skid Row. The air of frustration that hangs over the Bottles make excellent weapons and they are courtroom defies description. The long weaving everywhere. Bartenders and flophouse bouncers line of hang-overs is wrapped in hopelessness; are busy men who frequently have only enough the judge is baffled; so too are the prosecuting time to practice a bit of rudimentary jujitsu to attorneys and the police. Everybody is licked invoke order and then “leave ’em lay.” And of and knows it. course the ‘Jack-roller” takes many a life for a Names are called and men answer. The pair of shoes or the nickel and three pennies to old-timers-a history of 200 arrests calls for no be found in a bum’s pocket. undue interest-are resigned; the youngsters are frightened; and the rare gentleman from the Police Keep Watchful EYe proper side of the railroad tracks is confident he can talk himself free, even though he looks ln most cities a patrolwagon, manned by about apprehensively in fear that he may see an policemen called “ragpickers,” makes regular old acquaintance, such as his wife. rounds collecting the pugnacious and the man A few of the oldtimers shrug, Plead so drunk he may stagger into a moving trolley guilty and hope for the best. Most of them give it car or truck. Bums who are sleeping it off are a bit of battle: “l’ve got a job waiting for me, rarely bothered, unless they have bedded down Judge,” or, “l’m getting out of town tonight, Your in front of the chamber of commerce. New Honor,” or “l’m a hard working man, Judge. ljust Orleans sends out the wagon on call. The slipped a little last night.” lf the judge has Second Precinct there, covering the beloved enough interest, he will ask the hard worker to French Quarter, speaks proudly of an elderly show him the palms of his hands. Calluses will client who regularly telephones and says, support his story. “sergeant, send the wagon for me. The usual Frequently a man says, “Please, Judge, corner.” give me 30 days.” lnvariably it is to get hospital New Orleans and Los Angeles give the treatment for wounds or infections. Occasionally pick-up bum a chance to sleep it off before it’s a desperate effort to get sober or something subjecting him to formal arrest. He gets a flat six to eat. But generally the men are frantic to avoid hours. lf he can make the 5:00 R.tvt. “kick-out” jail. line and sign a false-arrest waiver, he is freed. ln It’s a dreary Procession sPotted most other cities he must face the judge. occasionally with high drama. I heard the father The police, the magistrates and the of a young newspaperman plead with a judge, victims all agree that this is an expensive and “We have $15,000 to assure my boy complete useless procedure excused only by the fact that medical and psychiatric treatment, Your Honor.”

Before the Judge could answer, the boy Yale, too. And they are watching it wherever spoke, “Father, please. You know and I know it’s municipal officals do not feel that Skid Row is just a waste of money.” His father left, weeping, something that should be kicked under the rug as the boy took another 30-day sentence. and ruled out of public discussions. A twenty-one-year-old ex-G.|., hungover and petrified, answered all questions in a Galifornia Experiment Prom ising quavering voice, his head hanging. He was asked what kind of a discharge he possessed. Alameda County, which is Oakland, has His head came up, he straightened and his rented an unused military installation for $1 a voice was firm as he answered, “An honorable year. lt is called the Santa Rita Rehabilitation discharge, sir.” Center and covers 3,300 acres. Alcoholics are ln Los Angeles the court told a young given a choice of jail, or the Center. It is not as woman who had been picked up several times, obvious a choice as you might think, because at “l’m going to send you to jail to sober up.” Santa Rita there are 550 acres of vegetables “No, Judge, please don’t do that,” she under cultivation and that means hard work for begged. “l’m in Sister Essie’s show tonight. l’ve the physically fit. got a big part. l’m a very important angel.” The Most of the inmates are sent there for 90 important angel was freed to take her place in days but it is nof a jail. When a man gets himself the religious pageant at Sister Essie’s Skid Row straightened out and healthy he can leave in mission. less that 90 days. Alameda County Sheriff Jack Judge Edward Pluczak, of the Gleason says, “We give them psychiatric Desplaines Street Municipal Court in Chicago, assistance, work and an opportunity to build up looks like a tough Army sergeant, but he is their health. I won’t say how well the plan is surprisingly gentle. He told me, “l’m sick and working because it’s too new. Give me two tired of meeting boyhood friends, college pals years. But it looks pretty good, so far.” and members of the Chicago bar whom I once To spare their sensibilities, the Skid Row idolized. Sending these people to jail doesn’t do patients at Santa Rita were separated from other any good. What I need is a non-prison farm inmates. The Skid Row group complained where they could go to sober up. Nobody ever against this discrimination. “We’re as good as gave up liquor in a cell block.” they are,” they argued. Now all mix together, San Francisco’s realistic district attorney, and psychiatrists and policemen agree it is Pat Brown, is in complete agreement with Judge better that way. Pluczak. Brown’s theories are particularly Raymond McCarthy, executive director apropos because his bailiwick is the drinkingest of the Yale Plan Clinic, thinks Oakland is on the city in the United States, according to surveys right path. He told me, “The punitive approach to published by Brown’s own office. “l want a half the Skid Row problem accomplishes nothing million dollars to set up a rehabilitation center beyond making a city look neater. that is not a jail,” Brown told me. “l want to stop “But,” he added, “the majority cannot be the practice of tossing alcoholics in jail or freeing helped by treatment on an out-patient level. them to get stiff all over again. We won’t fhey must be isolated for medical and straighten out very many, but if we can psychiatric study. Jail is no good. Prison farms rehabilitate 10 per cent, the experiment will be are just as bad. The Skid Row bum, to be saved, cheap.” All four of San Francisco’s newspapers must have supervised freedom.” McCarthy support Brown. Alcoholics Anonymous, Stanford admitted “supervised freedom” is a top-notch and California universities are behind him, too. contradiction in terms. “The sad fact seems to Brown laughed and said, “l’ll probably be,” he said, “that these men and women must never be elected dogcatcher after saying this, be institutionalized in an institution that doesn’t but they’re doing a magnificent job across the exist today.” bay in Oakland.” To that, and to all that went before it, I Brown isn’t the only one with an eye on can add only this: I didn’t meet anybody on Skid the Oakland project. They are watching iy at Row who liked it. I didn’t meet anybody who

Atcoholism is the first and most evident ever expected to leave it alive. I didn’t meet obstacle to getting him back on the beam. But, as anybody who deserved to be there. lt is a world William J. Slocum suggests in this article and the of the living dead and an utterly fantastic preceding one, alcohol most likely is not the only exhibition of man’s cruelty to man. lt deserves problem, or even the basic one. lt may only be a as much study and research as cancer or heart symptom. lt is easy to say that drink has driven a man to Skid Row. But what drove him to drink? disease because, like those scourges, it can That question can never be answered easily’ happen to you and Yours. Sometimes it cannot be answered at all. But an THE END encouraging number of men are being helped to find the answer as the understanding of their problems increases. One of the leading contributors to that understanding is Alcoholics Anonymous, where a man (Sidebar) who still wants to come back can find inspiration and advice from others who have overcome desperate An Editorial difficulties that most of us cannot even imagine. The story of Skid Row is not new or pleasant’ Skid row, U.S.A’, is the end of the line. When a But it presents a situation that has to be faced. man gets there he can’t go any lower’ He can only go lntelligent studies like Mr. Slocum’s can help society to up-or out. Helping him up is not easy, for he is one of regard the inhabitants of Skid Row not as congenital the most perplexing members of society, as well as bums, but as troubled, unhappy men who, with patient one of the most pathetic. He is neither insane nor a and intelligent aid, may perhaps resume their places as criminal, but a man who has surrendered to adversity useful citizens. and sought oblivion at the rock-bottom social level.

Source: Collier’s, SePtember 3, 1949

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