Nine years ago the Post reported on the then-obscure group known as Alcoholics Anonymous. Since that time these self-rehabilitated men–and women–have sobered up an astonishing number of American’s heaviest drinkers. This is how they do it.

The Drunkard’s Best Friend by Jack Alexander

Alcoholism is a mysterious and repellent overseas, and one of its more dedicated workers malady, with perhaps as many as a million is the honorable secretary of the Dublin group. A victims in this country. Sandhurst graduate and a veteran of twenty-six When a farmer in Aroostook County, years in the British Army, he is still remembered Maine, announces that he is going to bake a in some portions of the Middle East for his cake, he is speaking figuratively. What he inspired work with the bottle. Now an abstainer, means is that he is bored with the loneliness of he lives off his major’s pension and the profits of Aroostook’s vast reaches, with the county’s most a small retail business. Like all faithful members famous product, potatoes, and with life in of A.A., he spends much of his spare time in general; and that, to relieve his boredom, he is shepherding other lushes toward total going on a vanilla-extract bender. In order to buy abstinence, lest he revert to the pot himself. liquor he might have to drive as much as a The honorable secretary is a man of few hundred miles, over drifted or rutted roads, to spoken words, but he carries on a large reach a town uninhibited by local option. He correspondence within the fraternity. His letters, tipples on vanilla, which is rich in alcohol, which are notable for their eloquent because it is easily and legally obtainable, in understatement, are prized by fellow A.A.’s in quantity, at the nearest grocery store. Grocers in this country and are passed around at meetings. local-option towns ordinarily do a thriving vanilla One of his more fascinating communiqués, business with alcoholically inclined agrarians, received here in October, described a but of late the strange society known as missionary trip to Cork, in company with another Alcoholics Anonymous has taken root in A.A. gentleman. The purpose of the trip was to Aroostook and a disturbing effect on the vanilla bring the glad tidings of freedom to any turnover has been observed. Corkonians who might happen to be besotted “You wouldn’t believe it, Ned,” one and unshriven, and to stimulate the local group, storekeeper lamented to a drummer on a gray which was showing small promise. This was the day last November, “but my vanilla sales is honorable secretary’s chronological report: almost down to normal.” 8 P.M. The chairman and myself sat alone. The impact of Alcoholics Anonymous 8:05 One lady arrived, a nonalcoholic. upon a community is not always that striking, but 8:15 One man arrived. it is doing quite well at its self-appointed task, 8:20 A County Cork member arrived to say he which, as almost everyone knows by now, is that couldn’t stay, as his children had just developed of helping confirmed drunks to quit drinking. The measles. . help is provided solely by alcoholics who, 8:25 The lone lady departed. through adhering to a specified program of 8:30 Two more men arrived. living, have managed to arrest their own 8:40 One more man arrived, and I decided to disastrous drinking habits. (A.A. members never make a start. call themselves ex-alcoholics, regardless of the 8:45 The first man arrival stated that he had to length of their sobriety, the theory being that go out and have a drink. they are ineradicably alcoholics by 8:50 He came back. temperament, and are therefore always 8:55 Three more arrived. vulnerable to a relapse). 9:10 Another lady, propped up by a companion, During the past few years Alcoholics arrived, gazed glassily around, collected some Anonymous has extended its influence literature and departed unsteadily.

1

9:30 The chairman and I had finished speaking. problem drinkers. A problem drinker, by 9:45 We reluctantly said good night to the new definition, is one who takes a drink for some members, who seemed very interested. In compulsive reason he cannot identify and, summing up, the secretary said: “A night of having taken it is unable to stop until he is drunk horror at first, developing quite well. I think they and acting like a lunatic. have good prospects, once the thing is launched.” How Many of the Four Million Will Join? To a skeptic, the honorable secretary’s happy prognosis in the face of initial It is tempting to become oversanguine discouragement may sound foolishly hopeful. To about the success of Alcoholics Anonymous to those already within the fraternity and familiar date. Ninety thousand persons, roaring drunk or with the sluggardly and chaotic character of A.A. roaring sober, are but a drop in the human local-group growth in its early stages, he was puddle, and they represent only a generous dip merely voicing justifiable optimism. For some out of the human alcoholic puddle. According to years after its inception, in 1935, the Alcoholics varying estimates, between 750,000 and Anonymous movement itself made slow 1,000,000 problem drinkers are still on the loose progress. As the work of salvaging other drunks in the United States alone. Their numbers will is essential to maintaining the sobriety of the inevitably be swelled in future years by recruits already-salvaged brethren, the earnest handful from the ranks of between 3,000,000 and of early salvagees spent some worrisome 4,000,000 Americans who, by medical months. Hundreds of thousands of topers were standards, drink too much for their own good. prowling about in full alcoholic cry, but few would Some of these millions will taper off or quit when pause long enough to listen. they reach the age at which the miseries of a Six years after it all began, when this hang-over seem too great a price to pay for an magazine first examined the small but evening of artificially induced elation; but some encouraging phenomenon (Post, March 1, will slosh over into the compulsive-drinker class. 1941), the band could count 2000 members, by The origins of alcoholism, which is now scraping hard, and some of these were still being widely treated as a major public-health giving off residual fumes. In the nine years which problem, are as mysterious as those of cancer. have intervened since that report, the small They are perhaps even harder to pin down, phenomenon has become a relatively large one. because they involve psychic as well as physical Today its listed membership exceeds 90,000. elements. Currently, the physical aspect is being Just how many of these have substantial investigated by universities and hospitals and by sobriety records is a matter of conjecture, as the publicly and privately financed foundations. movement, which has no control at the top and Some large business and industrial firms, is constantly ridden by maverick techniques, concerned about reduced productivity and operates in a four-alarm-fire atmosphere, and no absenteeism, are providing medical and one has the time to check up. A reasonable psychiatric aid to alcoholic employees. The guess would be that about two thirds have been firms’ physicians are also digging into the sober for anywhere from six months to fifteen alcoholic puzzle. The most plausible tentative years, and that the rest have stretched out their explanation that any of these investigative periods of sobriety between twisters to the point efforts has come up with is that alcoholism is a where they are at least able to keep their jobs. sickness resembling that caused by various The intake of shaky-fingered newcomers, allergies. now at its highest in A.A. history, is running at Psychiatry has its own approach to the the rate of around 20,000 a year. The number problem; it is successful in only a small that will stick is, again, a matter of conjecture. If percentage of cases. Clergymen, using a experience repeats, according to A.A. old- spiritual appeal, and the beset relatives of timers, about one half will stay sober from the alcoholics, using everything from moral suasion start, and one fourth will achieve sobriety after a to a simple bat in the jaw, manage to persuade a few skids; the other one fourth will remain few chronics to become unchronic. So does one

2

school of institutional treatment, which insists daily or weekly newspaper. If they don’t, a small that alcoholism is solely the result of “twisted amount of inquiry will disclose the meeting place thinking” and aims at unraveling the mental of the nearest group; a local doctor, or quirks. clergyman, or policeman will know. But the Alcoholics Anonymous approach- To some extent, the same easy -which leans on medicine, uses a few availability obtains in the twenty-six foreign elementary principles of psychiatry and employs countries -where AA has gained a foothold. This a strong spiritual weapon–is the only one which is especially true of the nations of the British has done anything resembling a mop-up job. Commonwealth, particularly Canada, Australia Whatever one’s attitude toward A.A. may be, and New Zealand, which together list more A.A. and a lot of people are annoyed by its members than the whole movement could boast sometimes ludicrous strivings and its dead-pan nine years ago; and of the Scandinavian thumping of the sobriety tub, one can scarcely countries, where membership is fairly strong. At ignore its palpable results. To anyone who has a recent A.A. banquet in Oslo, Norway, 400 ever been a drunk or who has had to endure the members celebrated their deliverance, drinking alcoholic cruelties of a drunk—and that would nothing stronger than water. Throughout embrace a large portion of the human family– Scandinavia the members bolster the program 90,000 alcoholics reconverted into working by using Antibuse, the new European aversion citizens represent a massive dose of pure gain. drug. This practice is deplored by some A.A. In human terms, the achievements of Alcoholics members as showing a lack of faith in the Anonymous stand out as one of the few standard A.A. program, but, of course, nothing is encouraging developments of a rather grim and done, or can be done, about it, since the destructive half century. program is free to anyone who thinks he needs it Drunks are prolific of excuses for their and he may adapt it in any way that suits him. excessive drinking, and the most frequent alibi is More often than not, though, disregard of that no one really understands what a struggle the standard admonitions backfires. A bibulous they have. With more than 3000 AA. groups at Scottish baronet found this out when, returning work in the United States, and every member is from London, where he caught the spark from a a veteran of the struggle, this excuse is local group, he set out ambitiously to dry up beginning to lose its validity, if it ever had any Edinburgh, a hard-drinking town. But he tried it validity. In most cities of any size the fraternity by remote control, so to speak, hiring a visiting has a telephone listed in its own name. A nickel American A.A. to do the heavy work. This call will bring a volunteer worker who won’t talk violated the principle that the arrested drunk down to a drunk, as the average nonalcoholic must do drunk-rescuing work himself in order to has a way of doing, but will talk convincingly in remain sober. Besides, the Scottish drunks the jargon of the drunk. The worker won’t do any wouldn’t listen to a hired foreign pleader. In no urging; he will describe the Alcoholics time at all, and without getting a convert, the Anonymous program in abbreviated form and baronet and his hireling were swacked to the depart. The drunk is -invited to telephone again eyeballs and crying on each other’s shoulders. if he is serious about wanting to become sober. After the American had gone home, the baronet Or a drunk, on his own initiative or in tow of a stiffened up, abandoned the traditions of his relative, may drop in at the A.A. office, where he class and started all over again, cruising the will receive the same nonevangelistic treatment. gutters himself, visiting drunks in their homes In the larger cities the offices do a rushing trade, and in hospitals and prisons. Edinburgh is now especially after week ends or legal holidays. in the win column, and there are also groups in Many small-town and village groups maintain Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and Campbeltown, all clubrooms over the bank or feed store; in one offshoots of Edinburgh. Canadian town the A.A.’s share quarters with a handbook operator, using it by night after the Alcoholism on a large scale seems to be bookie has gone home. Some of these groups most common in highly complex civilizations. carry a standing classified advertisement in the These tend to breed the basic neuroses of which

3

uncontrolled drinking is just one outward country club; they merely stand out more badly, expression. A man in a more primitive setting, and do more harm, in an emotionally explosive bound closely to earthy tasks and the constant society. Special A.A. groups in sixty-six prisons battle with Nature, is apt to treat his frustrations around the nation are constantly trickling out by ignoring them or by working them off. graduates into the civilian groups. The ex- Alcoholics’ Anonymous has nevertheless convicts are welcomed and are, for some caught on in some out-of-the-way places. A reason, usually models of good behavior. A liquor salesman for a British firm, who was sanitarium or mental-hospital background seduced by his own merchandise, started a causes no more stir in an A.A. group than a group in Cape Town, South Africa, which now string of college degrees would at the University has ninety members. There are also groups in Club; the majority of A.A.’s are alumni of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Durban anywhere from- one to fifty such institutions. and East London, and in Salisbury and Thus Alcoholics Anonymous is something of a Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. The group at Grand Hotel. Anchorage, Alaska, which started in a blizzard, The ability of the arrested drunk to talk has a dozen members, including one slightly the active drunk’s language convincingly is the puzzled Eskimo, and there are small groups in one revolutionary aspect of the A.A. technique, the leper colony at Molokai, nurtured by A.A.’s and it does much to explain why the approach from Honolulu, who fly there occasionally and so often succeeds after others have failed. The conduct meetings. rest of the technique is a synthesis of already The figures perhaps give too rosy a existing ideas, some of which are centuries old. picture of the turbulent little world of Alcoholics Once a community of language and experience Anonymous. Most of the members of any has been established, it acts as a bridge over standing seem to be exceptionally happy which the rest of the A.A. message can be people, with more serenity of manner than most conveyed, provided the subject is receptive. nonalcoholics are able to muster these jittery Across the bridge and inside the active days; it is difficult to believe that they ever lived alcoholic’s mind lies an exquisitely tortured in the drunk’s bewitched world. But some are microcosm, and a steady member of Alcoholics still vaguely unhappy, though sober, and feel as Anonymous gets a shudder every time he looks if they were walking a tight wire. Treasurers into it again. It is a rat-cage world, kept hot by an occasionally disappear with a group’s funds and alcohol flame, and within it lives, or dances, a wind up, boiled, in another town. After this had peculiarly touchy, defiant and grandiose happened a few times, groups were advised to personality. keep the kitty low, and the practice now is to There is a sage saying in A.A. that “an spend any appreciable surplus on a cake-and- alcoholic is just like a normal person, only more coffee festival or a picnic. This advice does not so.” He is egotistical, childish, resentful and always work out; last year the members of a intolerant to an exaggerated degree. How he fresh and vigorous French-Canadian unit in gets that way is endlessly debated, but a certain Northern Maine, taking the advice to heart, rough pattern is discernible in most cases. debated so violently about how to spend their Many of those who ultimately become alcoholics fifty-four dollars that all hands were drunk within start off as an only child, or as the youngest twenty-four hours. child in a family, or as a child with too solicitous It is difficult at first for the recruit to a mother, or a father with an oversevere concept achieve serenity. As most groups are mixtures of discipline. When such a child begins getting of men and women, a certain number of his lumps from society, his ego begins to swell unconventional love affairs occur. More than one disproportionately—either from too many easy group has been thrown into a maelstrom of triumphs or, as a compensation, from being gossip and disorder by a determined lady whose rebuffed in his attempts to win the approval of alcoholism was complicated by an aggressive his contemporaries. romantic instinct. Such complications are no He develops an intense power drive, a more frequent than they are at the average feverish struggle to gain acceptance of himself

4

at his own evaluation. A few of the power-drive himself alone on a high mountain, masterfully boys meet with enough frustrations to send them surveying the world below. This dream, or some into problem drinking while still in college or variant of it, will come to him whether he is even while in high school. More often, on sleeping in his own bed, or in a twenty-fiveentering adult life, the prospective alcoholic is dollar-a-day hotel suite, or on a park bench, or in outwardly just about like anyone else his age, a psychopathic ward. except that he is probably a little more cocky If he applies to Alcoholics Anonymous or and aggressive, a little more hipped on the help, he has taken an important step toward exhibitionistic charm routine, a little more arresting his drink habit; he has at least admitted plausible. He becomes a social drinker–that is, that alcohol has whipped him. This in itself is an one who can stop after a few cocktails and enjoy act of humility, and his life thereafter must be a the experience. continuing effort to acquire more of this ancient But at some place along the line his virtue. Should he need hospitalization, his new power drive meets up with an obstacle it cannot friends will see that he gets it, if a local hospital -surmount–someone he loves refuses to love will take him. Understandably, many hospitals him, someone whose admiration he covets are reluctant to accept alcoholic patients, rejects him, some business or professional because so many of them are disorderly. With ambition is thwarted. Or he may encounter a this sad fact in mind, the society has persuaded whole series of rebuffs. The turning point may several hospitals to set up separate alcoholic come quickly or it may be delayed for as long as corridors and is helping to supervise the patients forty or fifty years. He begins to take his drinks in through supplying volunteer workers. gulps, and before he realizes it he is off on a To the satisfaction of all concerned, reeler. He loses jobs through drunkenness, including the hospital managements, which find embarrasses his family and alienates his friends. the supervised corridors peaceful, more than His world begins to shrink. He encounters the 10,000 patients have gone through five-day horrors of the “black-out,” the dawn experience rebuilding courses. The hospitals involved in this of being unable to remember what he did the successful experiment are: St. Thomas’ night before–how many checks he wrote and (Catholic) in Akron, St. John’s (Episcopal) in how large they were, whom he insulted, where Brooklyn and Knickerbocker (nonsectarian) in he parked his car, whether or not he ran down Manhattan. They have set a pattern which the someone on the way home. In the alcoholic society would like to see adopted by the world a nice distinction is made between the numerous hospitals which now accept alcoholics “‘black-out” and the simple “pass-out,” the latter on a more restricted basis. being the relatively innocuous act of falling Early in the game a newcomer is asleep from taking too much liquor. He jumps subjected to a merciful but thorough deflating of nervously whenever the doorbell or telephone his ego. It is brought home to him forcefully that rings, fearing that it may be a saloonkeeper with if he continues his uncontrolled drinking–the a rubber check, or a damage-suit lawyer, or the only kind he is capable of–he will die police. prematurely, or go insane from brain He is frustrated and fearful, but is only impairment, or both. He is encouraged to vaguely conscious that his will, which is strong in apologize to persons he has injured through his most crises, fails him where liquor is concerned, drunken behavior; this is a step further in the although this is apparent to anyone who knows ego-deflation process and is often as painful to him. He nurses a vision of sobriety and tries all the recipient of the apology as it is to the kind of self-rationing systems, none of which neophyte AA. He is further instructed that unless works for long. The great paradox of his he will acknowledge the existence of a power personality is that in the midst of his troubles, his greater than himself and continually ask this already oversize ego tends to expand; failure power for help, his campaign for sobriety will goes to his head. He continues, as the old probably fail. This is the much-discussed saying has it, to rage through life calling for the spiritual element in Alcoholics Anonymous. Most headwaiter. In his dreams he is -likely to see

5

members refer to this power as God; some the Inter-group. There are no dues; all local agnostic members prefer to call it Nature, or the expenses are met by a simple passing of the hat Cosmic Power, or by some other label. In any at group meetings. case, it is the key of the AA. program, and it A certain body of operational traditions must be taken not on a basis of mere has grown up over the years, and charged with acceptance or acknowledgment, but of complete maintaining them–by exhortation only—is surrender. something called the Alcoholic Foundation, This surrender is described by a which has offices at 415 Lexington Avenue, New psychiatrist, Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, of Greenwich, York City. For a foundation it acts queerly about Connecticut, as a “conversion” experience, “a money; much of its time is consumed in turning psychological event in which there is a major down proffered donations and bequests. One shift in personality manifestation.” He adds: “The tradition is that A.A. must be kept poor, as changes which take place in the conversion money represents power and the society prefers process may be summed up by saying that the to avoid the temptations which power brings. As person who has achieved the positive frame of a check on the foundation itself, the list of mind has lost his tense, aggressive, demanding, trustees is weighted against the alcoholics by conscience-ridden self which feels isolated and eight to seven. The nonalcoholic members are at odds with the world, and has become, two doctors, a sociologist, a magazine editor, a instead, a relaxed, natural, more realistic newspaper editor, a penologist, an international individual who can dwell in the world on a live- lawyer and a retired businessman. and-let-live basis.” Preserving the principle of anonymity is The personality change wrought by one of the more touchy tasks of the foundation. surrender is far from complete, at first. Elated by Members are not supposed to be anonymous a few weeks of sobriety, the new member often among their friends or business acquaintances, enters what is known as the “Chautauqua but they are when appearing before the public-phase”–he is always making speeches at in print or on radio or television, for example–as business meetings on what is wrong with society members of Alcoholics Anonymous. This limited and how these defects can be remedied. Senior anonymity is considered important to the welfare members let him talk himself out of this stage of of the movement, primarily because it behavior; if that doesn’t work, he may break encourages members to subordinate their away and form a group of his own. If he does personalities to the principles of A.A. There is this, he gradually becomes a quiet veteran also the danger that if a member becomes himself and other Chautauqua-phase boys publicized as a salvaged alcoholic he may stage either oust him from leadership of his own group a spectacular skid and injure the prestige of the or break away themselves and form a new society. Actually, anonymity has been breached group. By this and other processes of fission the only a few dozen times since the movement movement spreads. It can stand a lot of began, which isn’t a bad showing, considering outstanding foolishness and still grow. the exhibitionistic nature of the average Drunks, as such, are too individualistic to alcoholic. be organized, and there is no top command in By one of the many paradoxes which Alcoholics Anonymous to excommunicate, fine have characterized its growth, Alcoholics or otherwise penalize irrational behavior. Anonymous absorbed the “keep it poor” principle However, services–such as publishing meeting from one of the world’s wealthiest men, John D. bulletins, distributing literature, arranging for Rockefeller, Jr. The society was formed in 1935 hospitalization, and so on–are organized in the after a fortuitous meeting in Akron between a larger centers. The local offices, which are Wall Street broker and an Akron surgeon, both operated and financed by the groups alcoholics of long standing. The broker, who was thereabouts, are autonomous. They are in Akron on a business mission, had kept sober governed by representatives elected by the for several months by jawing drunks-neighborhood groups to a rotating body called unsuccessfully—but his business mission had fallen through and he was aching for a drink.

6

The surgeon, at the time they got together, was alcoholic has a tougher row to hoe. The wife of quite blotto. Together, over a period of a few an alcoholic, for temperamental and economic weeks, they kept sober and worked out the reasons, will ordinarily stick by her erring basic AA technique. By 1937, when they had husband to the bitter end. The husband of an about fifty converts, they began thinking, as all alcoholic wife, on the other hand, is usually less new A.A.’s will, of tremendous plans–for vast tolerant; a few years of suffering are enough to new alcoholic hospitals, squadrons of paid field drive him to the divorce court, with the children workers and the literature of mercy pouring off in tow. Thus the divorced-woman A.A. is a immense presses. Being completely broke special problem, and her progress in sobriety themselves, and being promoters at heart, as depends heavily upon the kindliness shown her most alcoholics are, they set their sights on the by the other AA women. For divorcees, and for Rockefeller jack pot. other women who may be timid about speaking Rockefeller sent an emissary to Akron to out in mixed meetings, special female auxiliary look into the phenomenon at work there, and, groups have been formed in some communities. receiving a favorable report, granted an They work out better than a cynic might think. audience to a committee of eager-eyed Another development is the growth of the alcoholics. He listened to their personal sagas of sponsor system. A new member gets a sponsor resurrection from the gutter and was deeply immediately, and it is the function of the sponsor moved; in fact, he was ready to agree that the to accompany him to meetings, to see that he A.A.’s had John Barleycorn by the throat. The gets all the help he needs and to be on call at visitors relaxed and visualized millions dropping any time for emergencies. As an emergency into the till. Then the man with the big money usually amounts only to an onset of that old bags punctured the vision. He said that too feeling for a bottle, it is customarily resolved by a much money might be the ruination of any great telephone conversation, although it may involve moral movement and that he didn’t want to be a an after-midnight trip to Ernie’s gin mill, whither party to ruining this one. However, he did make the neophyte has been shanghaied by a couple a small contribution–small for Rockefeller–to of unregenerate old drinking companions. As the tide it over for a few years, and he got some of membership of AA cuts through all social, his friends to contribute a few thousand more. occupational and economic classes, it is When the Rockefeller money -ran out, A.A. was possible to match the sponsor with the self-supporting, and it has remained so ever sponsored, and this seems to speed up the since. arrestive process. Although AA remains in essence what it During the past decade or so, the has always been, many changes have come society, whose original growth was in large along in late years. For one thing, the average cities, has strongly infiltrated the grass-roots age of members has dropped from about forty- country. Its arrival in this sector was delayed seven to thirty-five. The society is no longer, as largely because of the greater stigma which it was originally, merely a haven for the “last attaches to alcoholism in the small town. gaspers.” Because of widespread publicity about Because of this stigma and the effect it has on alcoholism, alcoholics are discovering earlier his business, professional or social standing, the what their trouble is. small-town alcoholic, reveling in his delusion that As A.A. has achieved wider social nobody knows about his drinking–when actually acceptance, more women are coming in than it is the gossip of Main Street–takes frequent ever before. Around the country they average.15 “vacations” or ‘business trips” if he can afford it. per cent of total membership; in New York, He or she–the banker, the storekeeper, the where social considerations never did count for lawyer, the madam president of the garden club, much, the A.A.’s are 30 per cent women. The sometimes even the clergyman—is actually unmarried woman alcoholic is slow to join, as headed for a receptive hospital or clinic in the protection from her family than a man does; she nearest large city, where no one will recognize is what is known in alcoholic circles as, a him. “bedroom drinker.” The married-woman

7

The pattern of small-town growth begins and soda pop amid expensive furnishings. One when the questing small-towner seeks out the Southwestern group recently got its governor to big-city A.A. outfit and its message catches on release a life-termer from the state penitentiary with him. To his surprise, he finds that half a for a week end, so that he could be the guest of dozen drinkers in towns near his own have also honor of the group. “We had a large open been to the fount. On returning to his home, he meeting,” a local member wrote a friend gets in touch with them and they form an elsewhere in the country, “and many state and intertown group; or there may be enough county officials attended in order to hear what drinkers in his own town to begin a group. Herman (the lifer) had to tell about A.A. within Though there is a stigma even to getting sober the walls. They were deeply impressed and very in small towns, it is less virulent than the souse interested. The next night I gave a lawn party stigma, and word of the movement spreads and buffet supper in Herman’s honor, with about throughout the county and into adjoining fifty A.A.’s present. This was the first occasion of counties. The churches and newspapers take it this kind in the state and to our knowledge the up and beat the drum for it; relatives of drunks, first in the United States.” and doctors who find themselves unable to help Some A.A.’s believe that this group their alcoholic patients, gladly unload the carried the joy business too far. Others think that problem cases on AA., and A.A. is glad to get each section of the country ought to manifest them. The usual intrafellowship quarrel over who spirit in its own way; anyway, that is the way it is going to run the thing inevitably develops and usually works out. The Midwest is businesslike there are factional splits, but the splits help to and serious. In the Deep South the A.A.’s do a spread the movement, too, and all the big certain amount of Bible reading and hymn quarrels soon become little ones, and then singing. The Northwest and the upper Pacific disappear. Coast help support their gathering places with Nowhere is Alcoholics Anonymous the proceeds from slot machines. New York a carried on with more enthusiasm than in Los catch-all for screwballs and semiscrewballs from Angeles. Unlike most localities, which try to keep all over, is pious about gambling, and won’t have separate group membership small, for easier it around the place. New England is temperate in handling, Los Angeles likes the theatrical mass- its approach, and its spirit is characterized by meeting setting, with 1000 or more present. The the remark of one Yankee who, writing a fellow Los Angeles A.A.’s carry their membership as if A.A. about a lake cottage he had just bought, it were a social cachet and go in strongly for said, “The serenity hangs in great gobs from the square dances of their own. Jewelry bearing the trees.” A.A. monogram, though frowned upon The serene mind is what A.A.’s the world elsewhere, is popular on the Coast. After three over are driving toward, and an epigrammatic months of certified sobriety a member receives a expression of their goal is embodied in a bronze pin; after one year he is entitled to have quotation which members carry on cards in their a ruby chip inserted in the pin and, after three wallets and plaster up on the walls of their years, a diamond chip. Rings bearing the A.A. meeting rooms: letters are widely worn, as well as similarly “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I embellished compacts, watch fobs and pocket cannot change, courage to change things I can, pieces. and wisdom to know the difference.” Texas takes AA. with enthusiasm too. In Originally thought in Alcoholics the ranch sector, members drive or fly hundreds Anonymous to have been written by St. Francis of miles to attend A.A. square dances and of Assisi, it turned out on recent research, to barbecues, bringing their families. In have been the work of another eminent metropolitan areas, such as Dallas-Fort Worth– nonalcoholic, Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, of Union there are upwards of a dozen oil-millionaire Theological Seminary. Doctor Niebuhr was members here–fancy club quarters have been amused on being told of the use to which his established in the old mansions and the brethren prayer was being put. Asked if it was original and their families rejoice, dance and drink coffee with him, he said he thought it was, but added,

8

“Of course, it may have been spooking around the New York Herald Tribune. The fellowship for centuries.” was late in catching up with it; and it will Alcoholics Anonymous seized upon it in probably spook around a good deal longer 1940, after it had been used as a quotation in before the rest of the world catches up with it.

Source: The Saturday Evening Post, April 1, 1950

9