AMERICA A.PRIL 6, 1963 TWENTY-FIVE CENTS

Rcasor, Morality

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and Dcfcnso Policy Alain C. Enthoven

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”1.. r.

ALICE OGLE

TOMORROW’S ALCOHOLIC Well-established progra.nu are proaing that alcoholism is a preaentable disease iffi

A man walked into the office of Dr. Clyde C. Greene and supen isors,” says Dr. Greene, “even by their priand closed the door behind him. “I have a problem,” vate physicians when filing medical reports o., he said, “and I need your help.” “bsences. But now supervisors tend to report their sus- The scene is repeated, day in and day out, in doctors’ picions of an alcohol problem. Thev knor,v it won’t offices al1 over the country. It is as routine as a sore cost the employee his job and mav rvell save it for throat or a sprained ankle. But to Dr, Greene, general nim. medical director of the Paciffc Telephone Company, Other firms, including Allis-Chalmers, have preit was a symbol of success. The disease in this case ventive programs. They say, in efiect: “Take 33 rvorkwas the early stages of alcoholism. ers and chances are that at least one is alcohoiic. No one else had yet become aware of this patient’s \{aybe rve can’t help liim. Nlal,be no one can. The problem. His work was still satisfactory; his supervisors number of recovered alcoholics does not add up to a had not noticed anything wrong. Only he himself knew figure that should alouse national pride. But we can that he was having trouble controlling his drinking. and do save pre-alcoholics.” “This sort of thing is beginning to happen more and One man told me that Du Pont, Eastman Kodak, more often,” Dr. Greene declared. “I take it as evidence Corning Glass, Consolidated Edison in Nerv york City, thai what we have neglected for too long is prevention.” tlre Nerv York Times, Boeing Aircraft and a few other Paciffc Telephone is one of at least thirty large Amer- blg firms have excellent and extensive programs for ican industries that have well-established programs to detecting tendencies torvard alcoholism am-ong their combat alcoholism before it really begins, as well as emplovees. “This,” he said, “is real progress. If homes to help rehabilitate those who have become addicted. and schools r,vould now start to learn and teach the They have found that it pays. A cynic might say that scientific facts about the perils of alcohol, we might industry wasn’t touched by the immeasurable cost of achieve a real breakthrough. The churches have done alcoholism in ruined lives, broken homes and unhappi- all they could since man learned about fermentation, ness, but did respond to its efiects on the pocketbook. but the poor clergvman seldom even learns about a Be that as it may, whatever works against the enslave- parishioner’s problem until he’s alcoholic. It is simply ment of human beings by alcohol is bound to be re- too late b1. then.” garded as a force for good. “But Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t think it’s too Problem drinkers-and no one can estimate their late,” I commented. number-are tomorrow’s alcoholics, according to Dr. He surprised me considerably tdren he said: “A. A. Greene. ‘And these people are a great drain on our covers onlv a fraction of the nation’s alcoholics, mainly industry’s economy. Business spends a lot of money on because millions of addicts are too introverted to diialcoholism, but its costs are largely hidden. Absentee- cuss themselves frankly with anyone.” He added, earnism, accidents, inefficiency, lowered morale and idle estly: “I don’t know l,vhat lve’d do rvithout A. A. Its machines all contribute to industry’s well-known bil- u,onderful ideology and language make it extremely Iion-dollar hangover.” valuable for those rvho are willing to become membe.i. The telephone company got its program on alcohol- The fact remains, however, that prevention needs to be ism off the runway in 1959. Its basic premise is that stressed, and I am not talking about moralizing or alcoholism is a preventable disease. When the program prohibition.” beq1n, the alcoholic problems it turned up were gen- He greu, indignant when he spoke of the numbers of erally more advanced than they are today. “There used teen-agers who drink more than casually. “you know to be a great deal of covering up by fellow employees why kids drink? Because we have managed to make drinking a prestige symbol! You cannot just tear down MRs. ocLE, a Californian, is a free-lance writer. Her articles a prestige symbol and get the desired results. Only if have appeared in AuBnrce and many other reviews and we can substitute another prestige symbol for drinking magazines. can we accomplish something,”

468 ,{merica / Apri,l6, 1963

N4en like this one say that religion mr-rst 1’oin forces One of her most eloquent statements rvas made to a rvith science to provide a philosophy that tvorks in any group in San Francisco last year. “The average alattack on alcoholism. And they stress that this kind of coholic is a person rvho deep dou,n does not want to contribution doesn’t need to be made in the spirit of a be the way he is. He rvants to be like other people. In crusade, that the spirit of a crusade must be avoided. iris mind, nine times out of ten, it means he rvants to “It’s too iate,” they say, “for hoisting flags, drawing drink moderately like other people-and he doesn’t su,ords, killing dragons. As masters take slaves, drink understand why he can’t. He goes on trying; he never has taken millions of men, \vomen and even children succeeds. He never v,ill, for he has something wrong in the United States. New acquisitions are going on at rvith him that makes anything but total abstinence a rate of more than 200,000 a yeat. Since the old rvays impossible. I call this basic information, and it never didn’t rvork, why not give the newer ones a chance?” ceases to amaze me hoiv man1, people don’t know it.” The AFL-CIO has a program for countering al- Industry knorvs tirat this is true, and is doing somecoholism before it begins, as well as one of rehabilita- thing constructive about it. But horv long rvill it be tion. “No longer can we bury oul heads in the sand,” before the rest of us achieve the attitude of btisiness says a member of their community-service activities, firms (“This is everybody’s problem, vours and mine.” ) “refusing to recognize our responsibilities.” There are that are doing all they can to combat alcoholism? alreadv tu,o million alcoholics in industry. The best N4ore than $20 million are spent by public agencies estimates indicate that this costs ind,rsilv more than a each year for the families of problem drinkers. Private billion dollars and a huge, though indeierminate, num- agencies spend a like amount for the same plrrpose. ber of man-hours each year. ‘fhe AFL-CIO represen- Accidents due to excessive use of alcohol probably tative continued: cost $125 million each year. The bill for the care of alcoholics in mental hospitals is $30 million, and our Alcoholism is a complex disease that has left count- penal institutions spend another S25 million for the less families homeless and penniless. It is a massive care of alcoholic prisoners. The man u,ho ofiers these medical ptzzler nfiich is all the more complicated appalling facts is Dr. Marvin A. Block, chairman of the because it is, at the same time, a major sociological committee on alcoholism, American lviedical Council and economic problem, a public cancer that turns on N{ental Health. What makes him v,onder u,h), sohuman beings against themselves. The disease is a ciety is so apathetic about education on alcoholism is fickle tyrant, choosing, inexplicablv, one drinker out the loss, which he calls too staggering even to be of every 16 over rvhom it can exert con’rplete control. gu’essed, “that lies in the broken homes, frustrated chil- The culprit is not alcohol. The problen-r is not in the dren, unhappy parents, rvives and husbands.” bottle-but in the person. A San Francisco minister says: “It rvould be rvell for He felt that Fortune magazine performed a greater all of us to begin rvith an honest confession of compublic sen ice than it knerv when it published, some plicity in the sin of the kind of rvorld which can time ago, the news of growing evidence that alcoholism ploduce alcoholics.” among executives is a serious problem. “It taught readers that alcoholics are not necessarily delelicts.” His comment ivould have pleased N'{rs. N4arty tr,{ann, recovered alcoholic, founder and head of the National Sornething for a Day in Spring Cor-rncil on Alcoholism. She is a brave \voman rvho has A small thing fought long and hard in an effort to educate Americans Something for a day in spring on alcoholism. Obviously, she deplores the typical at- Expectant with sunshine and sudden rain, titude that keeps addicts too ashamed to ask for help. Fresh with fowers and N{rs. Mann knorvs that experience firsthand. She has Gentle in the touch of wit. said over and over again that the general attitude of society “refects not only a total lack of factual knorvl- Something for a day in spring edge, but also the presence of a mass of misinformation To rest shoulders that have carried winter, and falsehoods, a situation that must be changed.” To melt in tears the wall that holds back laughter, She rvrote the foreword to an outstanding book, To turn a world away from coldness, What AboutYour Drinking?,by Fr. John C. Ford, S. J., And save a heart for l<.rve. professor of moral theology at the Catholic University A small thingof America and an expert on alcoholism. Mrs, Mann A ]ittle kindnesscalls Fr. Ford’s book “a tool of prevention.” Probably Something for a day in spring. nothing could please her more, for prevention is her favorite word. BANBANA E. FOND

America / April 6, 1963 469