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[00:00:00.100 – 00:00:03.400] We open the meeting with our usual quiet time.

[00:00:03.400 – 00:00:13.600] It is my privilege and pleasure to introduce to you tonight a

[00:00:13.600 – 00:00:19.900] man who really needs no introduction to this group of people.

[00:00:19.900 – 00:00:24.700] He is close to all of your hearts.

[00:00:24.700 – 00:00:34.700] He has come here tonight from New York to give us the

[00:00:34.700 – 00:00:44.900] background and history of AA, which has led us to our third legacy, our

[00:00:44.900 – 00:00:45.700] services.

[00:00:45.700 – 00:00:50.600] I give you, without further ado, Bill Wilson.

[00:00:50.600 – 00:01:05.300] My

[00:01:05.300 – 00:01:16.300] dear friends of AA at Chicago, I think we shall all look back upon nineteen hundred and fifty-one as

[00:01:16.300 – 00:01:24.700] a historic time, perhaps a turning point in the destiny of our society.

[00:01:24.700 – 00:01:35.100] For more than fifteen years now, you and I have watched a great building under construction.

[00:01:35.100 – 00:01:39.500] Yes, it is something more than a building.

[00:01:39.500 – 00:01:49.500] To most of us, it is a temple, a cathedral of the Spirit, in

[00:01:49.500 – 00:01:59.900] which one hundred and twenty thousand of us have now entered and are in peace and

[00:01:59.900 – 00:02:05.600] know a freedom which in other days we never could have dreamed.

[00:02:05.600 – 00:02:15.500] Such is our cathedral of the Spirit, which has been in the building.

[00:02:15.500 – 00:02:26.600] It was with really deep emotion that

[00:02:26.600 – 00:02:32.800] I mark the widespread interest in our new venture.

[00:02:32.800 – 00:02:43.200] I think first I would like to recount the steps which

[00:02:43.200 – 00:02:53.500] have led us to this hour, beginning with those times of realization which

[00:02:53.500 – 00:02:55.500] have greatly touched our destiny.

[00:02:55.500 – 00:03:05.800] And marking each as it passes, we then may see more clearly the wisdom,

[00:03:05.800 – 00:03:12.200] or if you like, the unwisdom of what we are now about to do.

[00:03:12.200 – 00:03:22.200] Everyone in this audience has had his

[00:03:22.200 – 00:03:24.200] great hour of realization.

[00:03:24.200 – 00:03:34.300] Every alcoholic here has come to the identical path that I did, the

[00:03:34.300 – 00:03:44.700] realization that I was utterly unable to go on living, that I was in the grip of an obsession

[00:03:44.700 – 00:03:48.100] which my own resources could not break.

[00:03:48.100 – 00:03:56.500] How well I remember my first realization of that stark dilemma.

[00:03:56.500 – 00:04:01.100] It was in the summer of 1934.

[00:04:01.100 – 00:04:04.700] I lay in Towns Hospital, New York.

[00:04:04.700 – 00:04:15.200] The good doctor there at my other visits had been encouraged, but

[00:04:15.200 – 00:04:25.100] now he sat speaking to Lois downstairs, and she was inquiring, “Why, oh, why can’t he get well, Doctor?

[00:04:25.100 – 00:04:29.100] His willpower is strong enough in other things.

[00:04:29.100 – 00:04:39.600] Why can’t he break this insanity?” And the doctor proceeded to explain

[00:04:39.600 – 00:04:49.900] to her that my obsession was indeed the master of my will, and it condemned

[00:04:49.900 – 00:04:58.600] me to go on drinking against anything that I could do or that medical science could do that he knew of.

[00:04:58.600 – 00:05:08.900] So Lois, like every wife there, had her hour of realization

[00:05:08.900 – 00:05:11.900] that I was hopeless.

[00:05:11.900 – 00:05:21.900] Then came an interval of a few months, and

[00:05:21.900 – 00:05:32.700] during that period, a friend of mine who had been released of his obsession by the grace of God came

[00:05:32.700 – 00:05:33.300] to visit me.

[00:05:33.300 – 00:05:43.600] And over my kitchen table, where I sat drinking whilst Lois was at work, he

[00:05:43.600 – 00:05:50.700] related the simple formula which is now flowered in our Twelve Steps of Recovery.

[00:05:50.700 – 00:06:01.500] And that simple essence was, you remember, that he admitted he could not manage his own life, that

[00:06:01.500 – 00:06:13.900] he had got honest with himself as never before, that he had made a confession of his character defects, that

[00:06:13.900 – 00:06:19.600] he had tried to sweep away the debris of the past by mending his broken relations with others.

[00:06:19.600 – 00:06:25.300] And then he told me of a new kind of giving that demanded no reward.

[00:06:25.300 – 00:06:35.300] And then rather hesitantly, because he knew my agnosticism, he said, “And to do these things,

[00:06:35.300 – 00:06:47.600] I ask God’s help.” Thus spoke one alcoholic to another in

[00:06:47.600 – 00:06:55.300] a kitchen basement on Clinton Street, Brooklyn, in November nineteen thirty-four.

[00:06:55.300 – 00:07:05.600] I rebelled against his idea of God, but

[00:07:05.600 – 00:07:09.400] somehow the memory of that conversation could never escape me.

[00:07:09.400 – 00:07:12.500] He didn’t stay long.

[00:07:12.500 – 00:07:17.700] Prudently, he withdrew, leaving me to my thoughts.

[00:07:17.700 – 00:07:25.900] And in no waking hour after could I banish what he had said from my mind.

[00:07:25.900 – 00:07:32.600] There was no new principle that he had enunciated.

[00:07:32.600 – 00:07:33.800] Of course there wasn’t.

[00:07:33.800 – 00:07:41.800] But why did these simple precepts stick when poured into me by him?

[00:07:41.800 – 00:07:51.900] Well, you and I know, as we didn’t realize then, we know that he impressed me because he presented a spectacle of

[00:07:51.900 – 00:07:52.500] relief.

[00:07:52.500 – 00:07:55.700] We knew that I was impressed.

[00:07:55.700 – 00:08:00.900] We know now that I was impressed because he was another alcoholic who spoke my language.

[00:08:00.900 – 00:08:09.600] And so a realization came that maybe there was hope.

[00:08:09.600 – 00:08:14.600] At length, I repaired again to the hospital to be cleared up.

[00:08:14.600 – 00:08:20.600] The doctor put me to bed.

[00:08:20.600 – 00:08:23.800] I wasn’t yet in such a bad way.

[00:08:23.800 – 00:08:34.600] Three days later, free from sedative and alcohol, I looked up one morning out

[00:08:34.600 – 00:08:39.700] of my depression and saw this friend standing in the door.

[00:08:39.700 – 00:08:47.300] I feared he would evangelize me, but no, he didn’t.

[00:08:47.300 – 00:08:53.100] He said he’d heard I was there, just came to pay a friendly visit.

[00:08:53.100 – 00:08:57.100] I asked him once more what were the terms of his relief.

[00:08:57.100 – 00:09:04.500] Quite simply, he stated them and again betook himself away.

[00:09:04.500 – 00:09:15.800] Well, when he had gone, my depression deepened until

[00:09:15.800 – 00:09:18.900] it seemed that I was in the bottom of a pit.

[00:09:18.900 – 00:09:29.000] For, you see, I still rebelled against the idea that there, there would be a God who could

[00:09:29.000 – 00:09:33.500] save me, who could enable me to do what I couldn’t do myself.

[00:09:33.500 – 00:09:43.600] But presently my rebellion ceased, and in an agony I cried

[00:09:43.600 – 00:09:54.000] out, “If there is a God, will He show Himself?” And then came an experience which,

[00:09:54.000 – 00:09:58.400] of course, is the great event of my whole life.

[00:09:58.400 – 00:10:05.100] I had a very sudden experience in which it seemed that the room lighted up.

[00:10:05.100 – 00:10:08.200] I was caught into a great ecstasy.

[00:10:08.200 – 00:10:16.100] It seemed as though I were on top of a mountain and a great wind blew, and I knew it was Spirit.

[00:10:16.100 – 00:10:25.300] And at length, I find myself still on the bed, now surrounded by a presence.

[00:10:25.300 – 00:10:37.700] And I thought to myself, “So this is the God of the preacher.” You yourselves have

[00:10:37.700 – 00:10:42.900] had exactly the same kind of a thing happen to you, excepting that it took longer.

[00:10:42.900 – 00:10:50.100] But all of you sitting out there are now conscious that there is a higher power.

[00:10:50.100 – 00:10:55.700] There is one on whom you can depend.

[00:10:55.700 – 00:11:02.700] So I pondered there after this experience.

[00:11:02.700 – 00:11:08.400] I thought about the very simple terms on which it had come.

[00:11:08.400 – 00:11:18.000] I thought about its profound simplicity and yet its deep mystery.

[00:11:18.000 – 00:11:21.200] For indeed, I did feel relief.

[00:11:21.200 – 00:11:28.300] And it seemed to m- me that other alcoholics could find a kindred experience.

[00:11:28.300 – 00:11:38.300] And I began to sense that one alcoholic talking to another might do what none others could to

[00:11:38.300 – 00:11:40.200] open the way for the grace of God.

[00:11:40.200 – 00:11:45.500] So I commenced to work with others, and nothing happened.

[00:11:45.500 – 00:11:50.000] A succession of failures there was for six months.

[00:11:50.000 – 00:12:00.000] Meanwhile, my first friend began to stumble and fall w- by the wayside and

[00:12:00.000 – 00:12:02.100] would not be picked up and set right.

[00:12:02.100 – 00:12:10.500] Then the family began to say, “Well, when in heaven’s name is this guy Wilson going to go back to work?

[00:12:10.500 – 00:12:20.500] How long is he going to be a missionary?” And, uh, in my search for work, I stumbled into a

[00:12:20.500 – 00:12:25.600] business opportunity which took me out to Akron, and it promptly collapsed.

[00:12:25.600 – 00:12:35.400] And I was in a terribly distraught state and suddenly panicked in fear of getting drunk.

[00:12:35.400 – 00:12:45.800] And then I remembered how much it had helped me to try to help others, even

[00:12:45.800 – 00:12:47.500] though none had responded.

[00:12:47.500 – 00:12:53.700] And I thought to myself, “Now, this is something different again.

[00:12:53.700 – 00:12:57.300] I am no dispenser of grace.

[00:12:57.300 – 00:13:10.400] I must find another alcoholic and help him if I remain free.” That

[00:13:10.400 – 00:13:14.200] was a realization that has since counted much.

[00:13:14.200 – 00:13:24.600] And by a singular chain of circumstance that no one could call coincidence, I

[00:13:24.600 – 00:13:30.900] was presently brought face to face with our well-loved Dr.

[00:13:30.900 – 00:13:37.200] Bob and his Anne, brought together by a non-alcoholic.

[00:13:37.200 – 00:13:42.500] You know, non-alcoholics have played a conspicuous part in this movement of ours.

[00:13:42.500 – 00:13:52.600] We were brought together by a non-alcoholic who understood and who had time and who cared

[00:13:52.600 – 00:13:53.000] enough.

[00:13:53.000 – 00:14:03.200] So he and I met in her living room in Akron in the summer of 1935.

[00:14:03.200 – 00:14:10.800] And this time, I needed that alcoholic as much as he needed me.

[00:14:10.800 – 00:14:18.200] There was mutuality, which there hadn’t been before.

[00:14:18.200 – 00:14:20.400] Something happened.

[00:14:20.400 – 00:14:23.900] Something new began to happen.

[00:14:23.900 – 00:14:34.100] And he was relieved and stayed that way until our friend left us last November.

[00:14:34.100 – 00:14:44.200] Annie, however, was on the prudent side and, uh, she, uh, said, “Bill, uh, wouldn’t you like to come

[00:14:44.200 – 00:14:45.900] over and live at our house a while?

[00:14:45.900 – 00:14:57.300] Uh, you might look after Bob and, uh, he could look after you, and maybe you could do together what you couldn’t do separately.” So

[00:14:57.300 – 00:15:01.600] I went there to live in that dear place.

[00:15:01.600 – 00:15:03.700] And presently, Dr.

[00:15:03.700 – 00:15:13.900] Bob said to me, uh, “Don’t you think, my friend, uh, even in self-protection, we had better be working with some o– more drunks?” And

[00:15:13.900 – 00:15:15.400] I thought it was a good idea.

[00:15:15.400 – 00:15:21.200] Meanwhile, I had been trying to revive my sagging business deal.

[00:15:21.200 – 00:15:31.600] And the upshot of it was he called the city hospital where he was now in some discredit because of his drinking.

[00:15:31.600 – 00:15:43.100] He got hold of the head nurse down there, and he said to her, uh, “Fella from New York and I think we got a new cure for alcoholism.” Quite

[00:15:43.100 – 00:15:53.400] tartly, the nurse observed, “Well, Doctor, I should think you would try it yourself.” “Why,” she said, “we’ve got a dandy, Doc.

[00:15:53.400 – 00:15:54.000] He just…

[00:15:54.000 – 00:15:55.800] They just brought him in.

[00:15:55.800 – 00:15:58.700] He’s knocked down one of the nurses.

[00:15:58.700 – 00:15:59.900] She’s got black eyes.

[00:15:59.900 – 00:16:01.100] They’ve got him strapped.

[00:16:01.100 – 00:16:05.600] How would that one do you?” So Doc said, “Well, put him to bed.

[00:16:05.600 – 00:16:07.500] We’ll be down when you get him cleared up a little.

[00:16:07.500 – 00:16:16.300] Put him in a private room.” So a little while after, Dr.

[00:16:16.300 – 00:16:26.800] Bob and I saw a sight that tens of thousands of us have since beheld, and God willing, hundreds of thousands

[00:16:26.800 – 00:16:28.700] shall still see.

[00:16:28.700 – 00:16:37.700] It was the sight of the man on the bed who did not yet know that he could get well.

[00:16:37.700 – 00:16:43.300] Well, as it turned out, the man on the bed was no optimist.

[00:16:43.300 – 00:16:46.600] Like many a drunk since, he said, “But I’m different.

[00:16:46.600 – 00:16:49.000] My case is too tough.

[00:16:49.000 – 00:16:52.700] And don’t talk to me about religion.

[00:16:52.700 – 00:16:54.200] I’m already a man of faith.

[00:16:54.200 – 00:16:57.800] Used to be a deacon in the church.

[00:16:57.800 – 00:17:05.200] I got faith in God still, but quite obviously, He has none in me.

[00:17:05.200 – 00:17:10.100] But anyhow, come back tomorrow.

[00:17:10.100 – 00:17:11.400] You fellas interest me.

[00:17:11.400 – 00:17:17.900] You’ve certainly been through the mill.” Of course, we had related our simple formula.

[00:17:17.900 – 00:17:22.600] Of course, we had told him of our release.

[00:17:22.600 – 00:17:30.300] Although he wasn’t impressed with the fact that mine was only of months and Bob’s only of days.

[00:17:30.300 – 00:17:41.700] He said, “I was sober that long once myself.” But we came on the morrow, and

[00:17:41.700 – 00:17:51.900] w– as we entered the bed, the man’s wife sat at its foot, and she was saying to her husband,

[00:17:51.900 – 00:17:54.700] “Husband, what has got into you?

[00:17:54.700 – 00:18:00.500] You seem so different.” And he said, “Here they are.

[00:18:00.500 – 00:18:03.100] These are the ones who understand.

[00:18:03.100 – 00:18:13.100] They’ve been through the mill.” And he made great haste to exclaim how during the night, hope had

[00:18:13.100 – 00:18:13.900] come to him.

[00:18:13.900 – 00:18:21.800] And then as he had taken the resolve to follow our simple recovery formula.

[00:18:21.800 – 00:18:25.000] Something else had happened.

[00:18:25.000 – 00:18:35.200] There was a sense of lightness, a sense of feeling in one piece, a feeling of release, he said.

[00:18:35.200 – 00:18:46.900] And the next thing you knew, number three was saying to his wife, “Fetch

[00:18:46.900 – 00:18:48.000] my clothes, dear.

[00:18:48.000 – 00:18:58.300] We’re going to get up and get out of here.” So AA number three rose from his bed and

[00:18:58.300 – 00:19:02.000] walked from that place, never to drink again.

[00:19:02.000 – 00:19:12.600] Well, at that time, there was no realization on the part of us three

[00:19:12.700 – 00:19:13.900] what had begun to happen.

[00:19:13.900 – 00:19:20.900] Of course, that was the beginning of AA as we understand it today.

[00:19:20.900 – 00:19:31.600] The essential process was the same, and the grace of God

[00:19:31.600 – 00:19:32.800] just as everlasting.

[00:19:32.800 – 00:19:42.900] So the first AA group had come into being, but we still had no name.

[00:19:42.900 – 00:19:50.600] Those were the days of flying blind, those ensuing two or three years.

[00:19:50.600 – 00:19:55.700] A slip in those days was a dreadful calamity.

[00:19:55.700 – 00:20:06.200] We would look at each other and say, “Who might be next?” Failure, failure, failure was our constant

[00:20:06.200 – 00:20:07.000] companion.

[00:20:07.000 – 00:20:15.700] I returned to New York, now endowed with a more becoming humility and less preaching.

[00:20:15.700 – 00:20:18.700] A small group took shape there.

[00:20:18.700 – 00:20:23.900] A few people began to come from Cleveland over to Akron.

[00:20:23.900 – 00:20:34.000] I had got back into business briefly, but again, Wall Street collapsed and

[00:20:34.000 – 00:20:35.400] took me with it as usual.

[00:20:35.400 – 00:20:39.600] So I set out my face west to

[00:20:39.800 – 00:20:42.900] See if I couldn’t find something to do out in that country.

[00:20:42.900 – 00:20:44.500] Dr.

[00:20:44.500 – 00:20:47.100] Bob and I, of course, had been in correspondence.

[00:20:47.100 – 00:20:57.200] But it wasn’t until one late fall afternoon in nineteen thirty-seven that I reached his house, and we sat there

[00:20:57.200 – 00:20:58.300] in that living room.

[00:20:58.300 – 00:21:03.400] I can recall the scene as though it were yesterday.

[00:21:03.400 – 00:21:13.400] And we got out pencil and paper, and we began to put down the names of those people in

[00:21:13.400 – 00:21:21.500] Akron, in New York, and a little sprinkling in Cleveland who had been dry a while.

[00:21:21.500 – 00:21:31.600] And despite the large numbers of failures, it finally burst in on us that

[00:21:31.600 – 00:21:39.900] forty people had got a real release, had really significant dry time behind them.

[00:21:39.900 – 00:21:51.500] I shall never forget that great and humbling hour of realization when

[00:21:51.500 – 00:22:02.000] Bob and I saw for the first time that a new light had begun to shine down upon us alcoholics,

[00:22:02.000 – 00:22:07.600] had begun to shine upon the children of the night.

[00:22:07.600 – 00:22:17.500] That realization brought a new and immense responsibility.

[00:22:17.500 – 00:22:27.600] Naturally, we thought at once, how shall what we forty know be

[00:22:27.600 – 00:22:29.700] carried to the million who don’t know?

[00:22:29.700 – 00:22:39.900] Within gunshot of this house, there must be others

[00:22:39.900 – 00:22:44.700] like us, slowly throttled by this obsession.

[00:22:44.700 – 00:22:48.600] How shall they know?

[00:22:48.600 – 00:22:54.900] How shall the millions who suffer everywhere know?

[00:22:54.900 – 00:22:58.500] How is this g- thing going to be transmitted?

[00:22:58.500 – 00:23:08.700] Up to this time, as you must be aware, AA was utterly simple.

[00:23:08.700 – 00:23:16.800] It filled the full measure of simplicity, as is since demanded by a lot of people.

[00:23:16.800 – 00:23:27.000] I guess we old timers all have a nostalgia about those halcyon days of simplicity when,

[00:23:27.000 – 00:23:33.900] thank God, there were no founders, and there was no money, and there was no– there were no meeting places, just parlors.

[00:23:33.900 – 00:23:40.800] Annie and Lois baking cakes and making coffee for those drunks in the living room.

[00:23:40.800 – 00:23:47.400] We didn’t even have a name, just called ourselves a bunch of drunks trying to get sober.

[00:23:47.400 – 00:23:50.700] We were more anonymous than we are now.

[00:23:50.700 – 00:23:59.600] Yes, it was all very simple, but here was a new realization.

[00:23:59.600 – 00:24:07.900] What was the responsibility of that forty men to those who didn’t know?

[00:24:07.900 – 00:24:15.400] Well, I had been in the world of business, a rather hectic world of business, too, Wall Street.

[00:24:15.400 – 00:24:24.400] I suspected I was a good deal of a promoter, a bit of a salesman, rather better than I am even today.

[00:24:24.400 – 00:24:29.800] So I began to think in term, in businessman’s terms.

[00:24:29.800 – 00:24:34.000] We had discovered that the hospitals didn’t want us drunks.

[00:24:34.000 – 00:24:36.400] Poor pay.

[00:24:36.400 – 00:24:37.800] They never got well.

[00:24:37.800 – 00:24:43.300] So why shouldn’t they, we have our own hospitals?

[00:24:43.300 – 00:24:51.500] And I could vision a great chain of drunk tanks and hospitals spreading across the land.

[00:24:51.500 – 00:24:58.600] Probably I could sell stock in those, and we’d all damn well eat as well as save the drunks.

[00:24:58.600 – 00:25:02.400] Then, too, Dr.

[00:25:02.400 – 00:25:09.600] Bob and I recalled it had been a very tedious and slow business to sober up forty people.

[00:25:09.600 – 00:25:11.400] It had taken about three years.

[00:25:11.400 – 00:25:20.800] And in those days, we old timers had the vainglory to suppose that nobody else could really do this job but us.

[00:25:20.800 – 00:25:28.700] So we naturally thought in terms of sort of alcoholic missionaries.

[00:25:28.700 – 00:25:32.100] No disparagement to missionaries, to be sure.

[00:25:32.100 – 00:25:38.900] In other words, people who would be grubstake for a year or two to move to Chicago and St.

[00:25:38.900 – 00:25:43.300] Louis and Frisco and so on and start little centers.

[00:25:43.300 – 00:25:50.500] And meanwhile, we would be financing this string of drunk tanks, you know, and we’d be- begin to suck them into those places.

[00:25:50.500 – 00:25:53.600] And, yes, we probably need some missionaries.

[00:25:53.600 – 00:25:54.600] We need the hospital.

[00:25:54.600 – 00:26:00.500] And then came one reflection that did make some sense.

[00:26:00.500 – 00:26:06.700] It seemed very clear to us that what we had already found out should be put on paper.

[00:26:06.700 – 00:26:08.400] We needed a book.

[00:26:08.400 – 00:26:10.800] So Dr.

[00:26:10.800 – 00:26:13.300] Bob called a meeting for the very next night.

[00:26:13.300 – 00:26:23.500] And in that little meeting of a dozen and a half, an

[00:26:23.500 – 00:26:29.800] historic decision was taken which deeply affected our destiny.

[00:26:29.800 – 00:26:40.000] It was in the living room of a non-alcoholic friend who let us come there because his living room was bigger than the Smith parlor

[00:26:40.000 – 00:26:41.000] and because he loved us.

[00:26:41.000 – 00:26:48.100] I too remember that day as though it were yesterday.

[00:26:48.100 – 00:26:55.400] So Smithy and I explained this new obligation which had descended upon us forty.

[00:26:55.400 – 00:26:58.600] How are we to carry this message to the ones who didn’t know?

[00:26:58.600 – 00:27:08.800] And I began to wind up my pr-promotion talk about the hospitals and the missionaries and the book, and I saw

[00:27:08.800 – 00:27:10.100] their faces fall.

[00:27:10.100 – 00:27:17.600] And straightaway, that little meeting divided into three significant parts.

[00:27:17.600 – 00:27:23.400] There was the promoter section, in which I definitely was.

[00:27:23.400 – 00:27:32.000] There was the section that were indifferent, and there was what you might call the orthodox section.

[00:27:32.000 – 00:27:42.100] And the orthodox section was very vocal, and it said with good reason, “Look, put us in the business and we’re

[00:27:42.100 – 00:27:42.700] lost.

[00:27:42.700 – 00:27:48.700] Professionalize this thing and we’re lost.

[00:27:48.700 – 00:27:58.800] This works because it’s simple, because everybody works at it, because nobody makes

[00:27:58.800 – 00:28:08.400] anything out of it, because no one has any axe to grind except his sobriety and the other guy’s.

[00:28:08.400 – 00:28:17.700] If you even publish a book, we shall have infinite quarrels about the damn thing.

[00:28:17.700 – 00:28:27.800] It’ll put us into business.” And the clincher of the orthodox section

[00:28:27.800 – 00:28:31.100] was that our Lord Himself had no books.

[00:28:31.100 – 00:28:41.300] Well, it was impressive, and events proved that the orthodox people were partly right,

[00:28:41.300 – 00:28:44.800] but thank God, not wholly right.

[00:28:44.800 – 00:28:55.500] Then there were the indifferent ones who said, “Oh, well, if Smithy and Bill think we gotta do these things, it’s all right for us.” So

[00:28:55.500 – 00:29:05.600] the indifferent ones, plus the promoters, outvoted the orthodoxy and said, “If you wanna do these things, Bill, you go back to New York where there’s a lot

[00:29:05.600 – 00:29:12.400] of dough, and you get up the money, and we’ll see.” Well, by this time, I’m higher than a kite, you know.

[00:29:12.400 – 00:29:17.400] These promoters can stay high on something beside alcohol.

[00:29:17.400 – 00:29:27.600] I was already talking about the greatest, uh, medical development, greatest spiritual development, greatest social development probably of all

[00:29:27.600 – 00:29:28.100] time.

[00:29:28.100 – 00:29:29.900] Think I was forty drunk.

[00:29:29.900 – 00:29:35.500] So I went back to New York, as we say, all steamed up.

[00:29:35.500 – 00:29:45.600] And then I made the very dismal discovery that the very rich who had the money that we needed had not the slightest interest in

[00:29:45.600 – 00:29:46.100] drunks.

[00:29:46.100 – 00:29:48.400] They just didn’t care a damn.

[00:29:48.400 – 00:29:54.900] And I solicited, and I solicited, and I became very worried.

[00:29:54.900 – 00:29:59.600] Even approached the Rockefeller Foundation, you know.

[00:29:59.600 – 00:30:08.000] Figured John D., he certainly had an interest in alcohol and in sociology and in medicine and religion, and why, this just would fit the bill.

[00:30:08.000 – 00:30:12.600] But no, we didn’t fit into any category of the Rockefeller Foundation.

[00:30:12.600 – 00:30:15.100] They felt a little poor at the time, you know.

[00:30:15.100 – 00:30:16.100] There was a depression on.

[00:30:16.100 – 00:30:21.400] So one day, I’m in my brother-in-law’s office.

[00:30:21.400 – 00:30:22.200] He’s a doctor.

[00:30:22.200 – 00:30:28.200] I was moaning about the stinginess of the rich, our need for money.

[00:30:28.200 – 00:30:36.700] Very promising.

[00:30:36.700 – 00:30:38.400] Probably Mr.

[00:30:38.400 – 00:30:40.500] Wilson, the Rockefeller Foundation.

[00:30:40.500 – 00:30:47.700] I said, “Oh, no, no.” “Well,” he said, “come to think of it, uh, you’d do much better if you, if you saw Mr.

[00:30:47.700 – 00:30:52.200] Rockefeller personally.” And I said, “Well, now, Dr.

[00:30:52.200 – 00:30:57.000] Wynn, I don’t wish to be facetious, but could you recommend me to the Prince of Wales?

[00:30:57.000 – 00:30:59.200] He might help out, too,” he understood.

[00:30:59.200 – 00:31:09.300] And then came one of those strange turns of fate,

[00:31:09.300 – 00:31:19.300] if you like, or providence, you will prefer, and the slender

[00:31:19.300 – 00:31:20.600] thread was this.

[00:31:20.600 – 00:31:31.600] My brother-in-law, the doctor, stood there scratching his head, and he said, “When I was a young fella, I

[00:31:31.600 – 00:31:41.700] used to go to high school with a girl, and I think the girl had an uncle, and it seems to me his name was Richardson,

[00:31:41.700 – 00:31:51.800] and he was then a pretty old guy, and he might be dead now, but it does seem to me that he had something to do with the Rockefeller Charities.

[00:31:51.800 – 00:32:02.500] Supposing I call up the Rockefeller offices and see if he’s around, see if he’d remember me.” So

[00:32:02.500 – 00:32:04.300] he called on the phone.

[00:32:04.300 – 00:32:14.500] This dear old gentleman, one of the greatest non-alcoholic friends AA has ever had, immediately remembered my brother-in-law

[00:32:14.500 – 00:32:17.100] and said, “Why, Leonard, where have you been these years?

[00:32:17.100 – 00:32:27.400] I’d love to see you.” Unlike me, my brother-in-law is a man of very few words, and he rather tersely explained

[00:32:27.400 – 00:32:31.800] that he had a relative who was trying to help alcoholics, making some headway.

[00:32:31.800 – 00:32:33.800] Could we come over to the– Mr.

[00:32:33.800 – 00:32:35.600] Rockefeller’s offices and talk about it?

[00:32:35.600 – 00:32:37.900] “Why, certainly,” said the old man.

[00:32:37.900 – 00:32:43.700] And soon, we were in the presence of this wonderful Christian gentleman.

[00:32:43.700 – 00:32:47.600] Incidentally, one of Mr.

[00:32:47.600 – 00:32:48.200] John D.

[00:32:48.200 – 00:32:49.800] Jr.’s closest friends.

[00:32:49.800 – 00:32:55.200] And when I saw that, I thought, well, now we’re getting warm.

[00:32:55.200 – 00:32:57.900] We’re really getting close to the bankroll.

[00:32:57.900 – 00:33:03.300] And the old man asked me a few shrewd questions.

[00:33:03.300 – 00:33:07.600] I told the yarn so far as it had been spun.

[00:33:07.600 – 00:33:11.000] And he said, why, Mr.

[00:33:11.000 – 00:33:14.200] Wilson, wouldn’t you like to come to lunch with me early next week?

[00:33:14.200 – 00:33:16.000] Oh boy, would I.

[00:33:16.000 – 00:33:18.200] I thought, now we’re surely getting warm.

[00:33:18.200 – 00:33:20.800] Shall we have lunch?

[00:33:20.800 – 00:33:22.800] At the lunch, he said yes.

[00:33:22.800 – 00:33:27.400] He said, I can think of three or four fellows I know that would be real interested in this.

[00:33:27.400 – 00:33:29.700] I’ll get a meeting of them.

[00:33:29.700 – 00:33:31.400] Most of them are associated with Mr.

[00:33:31.400 – 00:33:32.800] Rockefeller, friends.

[00:33:32.800 – 00:33:40.600] Some of them have been on a committee recently that recommended the discontinuance of the prohibition experiment.

[00:33:40.600 – 00:33:50.600] So presently, several of us alcoholics, Smithy and a couple from Akron, some

[00:33:50.600 – 00:33:56.600] of the boys from New York, found us sitting in the company of these friends of Mr.

[00:33:56.600 – 00:33:58.300] Rockefeller in Mr.

[00:33:58.300 – 00:34:01.500] Rockefeller’s private boardroom.

[00:34:01.500 – 00:34:06.700] In fact, I was told that I was sitting in a chair that Mr.

[00:34:06.700 – 00:34:10.100] Rockefeller had sat in only about a half an hour before.

[00:34:10.100 – 00:34:12.600] And I said, now boys, we’re really getting hot.

[00:34:12.600 – 00:34:22.600] Well, we were nonplussed, a little at loss for words, so each of us alkies

[00:34:22.600 – 00:34:24.600] just started telling his own story.

[00:34:24.600 – 00:34:30.300] Our new friends listened with really rapt attention.

[00:34:30.300 – 00:34:40.500] Then with becoming reluctance and modesty, I brought up the subject of money.

[00:34:40.500 – 00:34:41.600] Money.

[00:34:41.600 – 00:34:51.400] And at once, all you see, God has worked through many people to shape our destiny.

[00:34:51.400 – 00:34:55.200] At once, Mr.

[00:34:55.200 – 00:35:03.000] Scott, who sat at the head of the table, said, I am deeply impressed and moved by what has been said here.

[00:35:03.000 – 00:35:11.200] But aren’t you boys afraid that if you had money, you might create a professional class?

[00:35:11.200 – 00:35:21.500] Aren’t you afraid that the management of plants and properties and hospitals would distract you from your purely goodwill aim?

[00:35:21.500 – 00:35:25.200] Well, we admitted, yes.

[00:35:25.200 – 00:35:28.100] We had certainly thought of those difficulties.

[00:35:28.100 – 00:35:31.300] They had been urged upon us by some of our own members.

[00:35:31.300 – 00:35:41.300] But that we felt that the difficulty or that the risk of not doing these things was greater

[00:35:41.300 – 00:35:43.500] than the risk of doing at least some of them.

[00:35:43.500 – 00:35:45.800] At least, we said, Mr.

[00:35:45.800 – 00:35:55.900] Scott, this society of ours needs a book in which to record its experience so that the alcoholics at a distance can know

[00:35:55.900 – 00:35:56.700] what has happened.

[00:35:56.700 – 00:36:02.000] Well, one of the gentlemen said he would go out to Akron.

[00:36:02.000 – 00:36:08.600] We kind of steered him that way because the mortgage on the Smith’s house was bigger at the time than mine.

[00:36:08.600 – 00:36:17.100] And he went out and he came back with a glowing report, which dear old man Richardson laid in front of Mr.

[00:36:17.100 – 00:36:18.100] Rockefeller.

[00:36:18.100 – 00:36:22.800] And mark you, another tremendous turning point.

[00:36:22.800 – 00:36:35.200] After hearing the story and reading the report of the activity at Akron, group number one, Mr.

[00:36:35.200 – 00:36:42.000] Rockefeller expressed his deep interest, his deep feeling about this.

[00:36:42.000 – 00:36:52.200] But at once he said to his old friend, Dick, but Dick, if we give these fellows real money,

[00:36:52.200 – 00:36:54.800] it’s going to spoil it.

[00:36:54.800 – 00:36:59.100] It’ll change the whole complexion of it.

[00:36:59.100 – 00:37:02.500] Maybe you fellows think it needs money.

[00:37:02.500 – 00:37:05.400] If you think so, go ahead and get them up some.

[00:37:05.400 – 00:37:09.300] He said, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.

[00:37:09.300 – 00:37:19.300] I’ll put a small sum up here in the Riverside Church treasury and you can draw on it and try to help these two men along a little

[00:37:19.300 – 00:37:19.700] while.

[00:37:19.700 – 00:37:22.900] But this thing should be self-sustained.

[00:37:22.900 – 00:37:25.800] Money, Dick, will spoil it.

[00:37:25.800 – 00:37:31.500] Ah, what a profound realization.

[00:37:31.500 – 00:37:35.300] God didn’t work through us at all.

[00:37:35.300 – 00:37:36.100] Through Mr.

[00:37:36.100 – 00:37:41.200] Rockefeller, whose every interest we had actually claimed from that moment.

[00:37:41.200 – 00:37:50.300] And this man of wealth, who has devoted his life to giving away money, said, not this time.

[00:37:50.300 – 00:37:58.800] And he never did give us real money.

[00:37:58.800 – 00:38:01.000] Praise God.

[00:38:01.000 – 00:38:10.700] Well, you probably remember the steps that led to the preparation of the book.

[00:38:10.700 – 00:38:20.400] We created something, really an undusted incorporated committee of these friends and two or three of ourselves called the Alcoholic Foundation.

[00:38:20.400 – 00:38:24.900] Some of our friends, new friends, thought that Mr.

[00:38:24.900 – 00:38:30.000] Rockefeller was a little severe, that at least we needed money to write to get the book together.

[00:38:30.000 – 00:38:34.000] They even gave us names to solicit.

[00:38:34.000 – 00:38:41.000] Again, in the summer of 1938, we approached the rich with good recommendations.

[00:38:41.000 – 00:38:45.400] And praise God, we didn’t get one damn cent.

[00:38:45.400 – 00:38:56.700] Then we decided that we’d try to raise the money on subscription for

[00:38:56.700 – 00:38:58.500] the book to be written.

[00:38:58.500 – 00:39:06.200] And AAs in New York began contributing five dollars a month out of their salaries, which were pretty small then.

[00:39:06.200 – 00:39:11.800] And people in Akron began to write stories, and people in New York wrote stories.

[00:39:11.800 – 00:39:23.200] And old Charlie Towns, owner of that hospital where my doctor worked, he gave us a critical sum of money which

[00:39:23.200 – 00:39:24.500] made that book possible.

[00:39:24.500 – 00:39:26.900] And at length, the book appeared.

[00:39:26.900 – 00:39:32.100] We had high hopes of it because the Reader’s Digest had promised a piece.

[00:39:32.100 – 00:39:42.100] And after they made the promise, they had an editorial meeting and suddenly decided that they wouldn’t publish the piece and forgot to let us know.

[00:39:42.100 – 00:39:47.800] So we had five thousand books printed, no market for them whatever.

[00:39:47.800 – 00:39:52.200] A good many of the early groups thought the book was a heresy anyway.

[00:39:52.200 – 00:39:56.900] And the book venture all but collapsed.

[00:39:56.900 – 00:40:01.800] In that fourth year of AA, Lois and I lost our house.

[00:40:01.800 – 00:40:03.300] The mortgage was foreclosed.

[00:40:03.300 – 00:40:06.400] The printer almost got the book.

[00:40:06.400 – 00:40:10.700] The sheriff moved on in, on the little office where it was prepared.

[00:40:10.700 – 00:40:16.700] But we barely somehow got through that year of nineteen thirty-nine.

[00:40:16.700 – 00:40:26.700] And early in nineteen forty, still having foundation meetings with our important friends who commiserated with us every

[00:40:26.700 – 00:40:31.000] three months, Mr.

[00:40:31.000 – 00:40:41.100] Richardson came in very bright and cheery at our January meeting, nineteen forty, and he said, “I have

[00:40:41.100 – 00:40:43.000] great news.” Mr.

[00:40:43.000 – 00:40:49.200] Rockefeller, from whom we hadn’t heard for three years, had suddenly taken a great interest.

[00:40:49.200 – 00:40:60.000] He said, “I think we should give these people a dinner, and we’ll bring in some of my friends so they can see the beginning of this promising work.” So

[00:40:60.000 – 00:41:01.900] a dinner was given at the Union Club.

[00:41:01.900 – 00:41:02.800] Mr.

[00:41:02.800 – 00:41:04.900] Rockefeller was really sick that night.

[00:41:04.900 – 00:41:07.100] His son, Nelson, came.

[00:41:07.100 – 00:41:10.400] Harry Emerson Fosdick, who had beautifully reviewed the book, came.

[00:41:10.400 – 00:41:11.200] Dr.

[00:41:11.200 – 00:41:13.700] Foster Kennedy, the noted neurologist, came.

[00:41:13.700 – 00:41:19.300] So we had Reverend Fosdick on the spiritual aspect, Kennedy and

[00:41:19.500 – 00:41:24.900] The medical aspect, and naturally the drunks present at every table all spoke for themselves.

[00:41:24.900 – 00:41:35.000] Well, you know, I’m a practical kind of a guy, and I kind of figured

[00:41:35.000 – 00:41:37.800] out how much money was represented in that room.

[00:41:37.800 – 00:41:45.200] And I figured that at, there was at least four or five billions dollars worth of capital there in all those bankers.

[00:41:45.200 – 00:41:50.100] And it did seem to me that we were really getting warm on this money question.

[00:41:50.100 – 00:42:00.400] But no, Nelson Rockefeller, speaking on behalf of his father, said, “This is a work of goodwill,

[00:42:00.400 – 00:42:00.900] gentlemen.

[00:42:00.900 – 00:42:09.300] My father wished you to see the beginning of this great thing, which has so deeply affected his own life.

[00:42:09.300 – 00:42:19.300] But gentlemen, fortunately, this is a cause which requires no money.” Whereupon the four and five billion dollars got

[00:42:19.300 – 00:42:20.700] up and they walked right out.

[00:42:20.700 – 00:42:31.200] Such were our early struggles, and how wise it was that we had to struggle.

[00:42:31.200 – 00:42:41.500] Such is a brief account of our pioneering time, which terminated when another meeting

[00:42:41.500 – 00:42:46.200] took place which deeply affected our destiny.

[00:42:46.200 – 00:42:50.200] The meeting was entirely of non-alcoholics.

[00:42:50.200 – 00:43:00.300] It was the editorial board of the Saturday Post, which met in Philadelphia probably in

[00:43:00.300 – 00:43:02.300] January 1941.

[00:43:02.300 – 00:43:12.400] And the question was: Should the Post print anything about this new society of Alcoholics

[00:43:12.400 – 00:43:13.000] Anonymous?

[00:43:13.000 – 00:43:18.800] And I’ve since learned there was much division among the members.

[00:43:18.800 – 00:43:30.100] And finally, the owner of the Post turned to his associates and said, “Well, we seem divided on this question, but

[00:43:30.100 – 00:43:32.100] I have no divided mind on it.

[00:43:32.100 – 00:43:37.200] I have seen some of the result of this work, and it is miraculous.

[00:43:37.200 – 00:43:47.300] I think we should print a piece.” And so it was that our beloved friend, Jack Alexander, wrote his famous article in the Saturday Post

[00:43:47.300 – 00:43:49.800] in 1941.

[00:43:49.800 – 00:43:60.000] And that immediately brought down on our little New York office a deluge of thousands upon thousands of inquiries from frantic

[00:43:60.000 – 00:44:03.400] alcoholics, their wives, their employers.

[00:44:03.400 – 00:44:14.200] And at that moment, we passed out of our infancy and embarked upon our next phase, the

[00:44:14.200 – 00:44:16.400] phase of adolescence.

[00:44:16.400 – 00:44:26.500] Well, adolescence by any description is always a troubled time

[00:44:26.500 – 00:44:30.900] of young life, and certainly we were no exception.

[00:44:30.900 – 00:44:40.900] As groups began to rapidly take shape all over the face of the land, these groups immediately

[00:44:40.900 – 00:44:41.600] had trouble.

[00:44:41.600 – 00:44:51.000] We made the very sad discovery that just because you’ve sobered up a drunk, you haven’t made a saint of him, not by a long shot.

[00:44:51.000 – 00:44:56.200] We found that we could be bitterly resentful.

[00:44:56.200 – 00:45:01.800] We discovered that we had a much better booze cure than we once thought possible.

[00:45:01.800 – 00:45:06.500] A lot of us found that we could gripe like thunder and still stay sober.

[00:45:06.500 – 00:45:14.200] We found that we were in all sorts of petty struggles for leadership and prestige.

[00:45:14.200 – 00:45:22.000] A lot of us were deeply suspicious of the book enterprise in the hands of that fellow Wilson who had the truck backed up to Mr.

[00:45:22.000 – 00:45:24.000] Rockefeller for all that dough.

[00:45:24.000 – 00:45:30.800] And we began to have all sorts of group troubles.

[00:45:30.800 – 00:45:33.800] Money had entered the picture.

[00:45:33.800 – 00:45:34.600] It had to.

[00:45:34.600 – 00:45:37.100] We had to hire halls.

[00:45:37.100 – 00:45:38.400] They didn’t come for nothing.

[00:45:38.400 – 00:45:40.700] The book cost something.

[00:45:40.700 – 00:45:43.800] We had some dinners once in a while.

[00:45:43.800 – 00:45:47.200] Yes, money came into it.

[00:45:47.200 – 00:45:50.900] Then we found little by little that the groups had to have chores done.

[00:45:50.900 – 00:45:53.300] So who was going to be the chairman?

[00:45:53.300 – 00:45:56.300] Would somebody handpick him or would we elect him or what?

[00:45:56.300 – 00:45:59.100] You know what those troubles were.

[00:45:59.100 – 00:46:01.300] And it…

[00:46:01.300 – 00:46:07.900] They became so fearsome that we went through another period of flying blind.

[00:46:07.900 – 00:46:18.100] The first flying blind period, you remember, had to do with the question of whether we could recover from alcoholism, whether

[00:46:18.100 – 00:46:29.100] the individual could be restored into one piece, whether the forces of destruction in him could be contained and

[00:46:29.100 – 00:46:30.000] subdued.

[00:46:30.000 – 00:46:40.100] Now, we were commencing to wonder in the early part of the adolescence whether the destructive forces in our groups

[00:46:40.100 – 00:46:43.200] would not rend us apart and destroy our society.

[00:46:43.200 – 00:46:47.000] Oh, those were fearsome days.

[00:46:47.000 – 00:46:58.100] And our little New York office began to be deluged with mail from these groups growing up at distances, not in contact with our old centers, and

[00:46:58.100 – 00:46:59.700] they were having these troubles.

[00:46:59.700 – 00:47:03.000] There were people coming out of the insane asylum.

[00:47:03.000 – 00:47:05.600] My Lord, what would these lunatics do to us?

[00:47:05.600 – 00:47:07.800] There were prisoners.

[00:47:07.800 – 00:47:09.400] Would we be sandbagged?

[00:47:09.400 – 00:47:11.500] There were queer people.

[00:47:11.500 – 00:47:16.800] There were people, believe it or not, whose morals were bad.

[00:47:16.800 – 00:47:22.600] And the respectable alcoholics of that time shook their heads.

[00:47:22.600 – 00:47:32.700] And said, “Surely these immoral people are going to rend us asunder.” And little Red Riding Hood and the big

[00:47:32.700 – 00:47:34.900] bad wolves began to abound.

[00:47:34.900 – 00:47:39.700] Oh yes, could our society last?

[00:47:39.700 – 00:47:43.400] But it ke- kept growing.

[00:47:43.400 – 00:47:48.300] More groups, more members.

[00:47:48.300 – 00:47:50.400] More groups, more members.

[00:47:50.400 – 00:47:54.600] Sometimes groups divided because the leaders were mad at each other.

[00:47:54.600 – 00:47:58.300] Sometimes they divided because they were just too big.

[00:47:58.300 – 00:48:07.600] But by a process of fission and subdivision, this movement grew and grew and grew.

[00:48:07.600 – 00:48:13.700] And ten years later, it had spread into thirty countries.

[00:48:13.700 – 00:48:23.700] Well, out of that vast weller of experience in our adolescence, it began to be

[00:48:23.700 – 00:48:32.200] evident that we were going to take very different attitudes toward many things than our fellow Americans.

[00:48:32.200 – 00:48:42.600] We were deeply convinced, for example, that the survival of the whole was more important than the survival

[00:48:42.600 – 00:48:48.700] of any individual or group of individuals, that this was a thing far bigger than any of us.

[00:48:48.700 – 00:48:58.900] We began to s-suspect that once a mass of alcoholics

[00:48:58.900 – 00:49:09.000] were adhering even halfway to the twelve steps, that God could speak in their group conscience, and up

[00:49:09.000 – 00:49:16.100] out of that group conscience could come a wisdom greater than that of any inspired leadership.

[00:49:16.100 – 00:49:21.500] You know, I used to think I was one of these inspired leaders, but boy, I got on a horse good.

[00:49:21.500 – 00:49:26.700] Let me tell you a story about that, kind of temptations we used to have.

[00:49:26.700 – 00:49:36.700] One time when things were awful tough, drunks around

[00:49:36.700 – 00:49:40.500] New York were getting well, a lot of them got pretty good jobs.

[00:49:40.500 – 00:49:46.300] It was just before Lois and I got evicted from the house.

[00:49:46.300 – 00:49:58.700] I was up at Town’s Hospital one day, and old Charlie, who had lent us money on the book that was about to go bust, called

[00:49:58.700 – 00:50:02.900] me in his office and he said, “Look, Bill,” he said, “you’re passing all these people up over your head.

[00:50:02.900 – 00:50:04.000] They’re all getting good jobs.

[00:50:04.000 – 00:50:05.700] They’re getting back to work.

[00:50:05.700 – 00:50:08.800] You’re spending all the time getting these people well, but you’re starving to death.

[00:50:08.800 – 00:50:17.900] That isn’t right.” He said, “Why don’t you come up here and take an office in my place?

[00:50:17.900 – 00:50:20.800] Let me give you a drawing account.

[00:50:20.800 – 00:50:30.800] Back here in the nineteen twenties, this place used to earn several thousand dollars a month.” He said, “I’m no great man of the spirit,” but he said, “I

[00:50:30.800 – 00:50:32.300] can see this thing is going to work.

[00:50:32.300 – 00:50:40.000] You’re going to fill Madison Square Garden someday with these drunks.” Well, I said, “That’s a little optimistic.

[00:50:40.000 – 00:50:44.900] You don’t know them as well as I do.” “But anyhow,” said he, “why don’t you come in here?

[00:50:44.900 – 00:50:46.900] I’ll give you a third interest in the place.

[00:50:46.900 – 00:50:51.500] Actually, you had this funny experience of yours here.

[00:50:51.500 – 00:50:52.200] Dr.

[00:50:52.200 – 00:50:53.600] Silkworth helped you out.

[00:50:53.600 – 00:51:03.800] That could be advertised in a perfectly ethical way.” Well, you know, it sounded awful good to me, I don’t mind saying.

[00:51:03.800 – 00:51:13.900] And then became that– began that process of rationalizat-rationalization to which we drunks are so very

[00:51:13.900 – 00:51:14.600] subject.

[00:51:14.600 – 00:51:24.700] I began to think of Lois still in the department store, and then I got a dandy rationalization right

[00:51:24.700 – 00:51:26.500] out of the Bible, the good book itself.

[00:51:26.500 – 00:51:33.200] Uh, on the way home, one of those illuminated thoughts came into my mind, you know?

[00:51:33.200 – 00:51:43.200] And it said to me, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” So I get home, and Lois is cooking the supper, and

[00:51:43.200 – 00:51:46.000] I say, “Honey, we’re going to eat, and no fooling.

[00:51:46.000 – 00:51:55.300] We’re going to work up at Charlie Townes.” And we thought how nice it would be to be able to pay our bills.

[00:51:55.300 – 00:52:01.600] And there was a little meeting in the front parlor that evening.

[00:52:01.600 – 00:52:11.700] And I started enthusiastically to tell my fellow alcoholics of

[00:52:11.700 – 00:52:13.500] this bright new opportunity.

[00:52:13.500 – 00:52:26.000] And rather challengingly, I asked them, some of whom were making good livings, “Isn’t the laborer worthy of his hire?” I

[00:52:26.000 – 00:52:28.200] could tell by the look in their eyes.

[00:52:28.200 – 00:52:38.400] And finally, rather timidly, one of them said, “Bill,

[00:52:38.400 – 00:52:44.200] don’t you realize that would create a professional class?

[00:52:44.200 – 00:52:50.000] Don’t you realize that would marry us to that particular hospital?

[00:52:50.000 – 00:52:57.300] Oh, sure, it’s ethical in the book of ethics, but Bill, it isn’t good enough for us.

[00:52:57.300 – 00:53:07.100] Aren’t you the very man who has so often told us sometimes the good is the enemy of the best?

[00:53:07.100 – 00:53:10.500] No, Bill, that isn’t good enough for us.

[00:53:10.500 – 00:53:19.400] You can’t do that to us.” So spoke the wisdom of the group.

[00:53:19.400 – 00:53:23.500] So spoke the group conscience to me.

[00:53:23.500 – 00:53:33.600] And for the first time I realized that this movement, this society, had begun to

[00:53:33.600 – 00:53:44.100] speak to me and teach me, and I knew that when they spoke truly, I must obey, and

[00:53:44.100 – 00:53:44.800] I did.

[00:53:44.800 – 00:53:50.900] Well, you remember in the early days, we had all those membership rules.

[00:53:50.900 – 00:53:52.400] Where have they gone now?

[00:53:52.400 – 00:53:54.600] We’re not afraid anymore.

[00:53:54.600 – 00:53:56.400] We open our arms wide.

[00:53:56.400 – 00:54:00.100] We say, “We don’t care who you are, what your other difficulties are.

[00:54:00.100 – 00:54:03.000] You just need say, ‘I am an alcoholic.

[00:54:03.000 – 00:54:09.400] I’m interested.’ You declare yourself then.” Our membership idea is put exactly in reverse.

[00:54:09.400 – 00:54:19.300] Years ago, we thought this society should go into research and education to do everything for drunks every place all the time.

[00:54:19.300 – 00:54:21.000] We know better now.

[00:54:21.000 – 00:54:28.800] One sole object in this society, we shoemakers are going to stick to our last.

[00:54:28.800 – 00:54:36.200] We will carry that message to the other alcoholic and leave these other matters to the more competent.

[00:54:36.200 – 00:54:41.300] We will do one thing supremely well rather than many bad.

[00:54:41.300 – 00:54:50.100] Then we began to have our trouble about hiring people.

[00:54:50.100 – 00:54:56.100] We were so scared of professionalism in those days, I can tell you a very comical story.

[00:54:56.100 – 00:55:03.800] We’d started a little club, first AA club in the world, I guess, down on 24th Street, New York.

[00:55:03.800 – 00:55:13.600] The volunteers had painted up the place, and they answered the telephone, and finally, the volunteers kind of languished, though.

[00:55:13.600 – 00:55:15.100] Floor got dirty.

[00:55:15.100 – 00:55:16.600] The drunks were laying around.

[00:55:16.600 – 00:55:19.000] Club growing pains.

[00:55:19.000 – 00:55:24.400] So it became obvious somebody ought to be around the place all the time.

[00:55:24.400 – 00:55:32.200] So we got our eye on old Tom Mohall, a retired fireman that we’d snatched out of the asylum.

[00:55:32.200 – 00:55:35.600] We’d got over our asylum fear by then.

[00:55:35.600 – 00:55:45.700] And we approached Tom, and we said, “Tom, how would you like to come over and live in the clubhouse?” Said, “There’s a nice free

[00:55:45.700 – 00:55:55.800] room over there, Tom.” Well, Tom was a man of the world, and he says, “What’s the catch?” “Oh, well,” we said, “Tom, if you came in there to live

[00:55:55.800 – 00:56:01.000] and you were handy by, of course you’d be glad to sweep out the floor.” And Tom says, “Seven days a week?” “Yeah.

[00:56:01.000 – 00:56:07.300] You’d fire the furnace in the winter, of course, wouldn’t you, Tom?

[00:56:07.300 – 00:56:18.300] And, and Tom, uh, if the drunks are troublesome, uh, you’d lead them outside, and you’d answer the telephone if the volunteers weren’t here, wouldn’t you, Tom?” And

[00:56:18.300 – 00:56:23.700] old Tom looked at us, and he said a profoundly true thing, which took us years to discover.

[00:56:23.700 – 00:56:29.000] He said, “I think you guys have got a hell of a nerve.

[00:56:29.000 – 00:56:32.200] What you people really want to hire is a janitor.

[00:56:32.200 – 00:56:42.300] Am I right?” But we, who had this immense piety and fear of money in those days, said to Tom, “Oh,

[00:56:42.300 – 00:56:44.700] no, Tom, this is Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:56:44.700 – 00:56:51.600] You can’t make any money out of it.” Tom says, “Look, what you want is a janitor.

[00:56:51.600 – 00:56:54.700] What has that got to do with this 12 steps?

[00:56:54.700 – 00:57:05.200] And if you’re gonna hire me for a janitor, you’re gonna pay me for a janitor.” Well, right then and there,

[00:57:05.200 – 00:57:15.200] and out of that incident and hundreds more, we discovered that in AA we could hire a few people to do a few chores without making

[00:57:15.200 – 00:57:16.000] them professionals.

[00:57:16.000 – 00:57:19.000] Tom was right.

[00:57:19.000 – 00:57:29.500] To hire him cheap or for nothing was to force a contribution from him that we wouldn’t make ourselves, and we were doing this under the cloak of fear and piety.

[00:57:29.500 – 00:57:33.700] So we’ve learned, sure, we can hire a few secretaries.

[00:57:33.700 – 00:57:36.100] We can hire a few caretakers.

[00:57:36.100 – 00:57:38.500] Why, we can even hire an author.

[00:57:38.500 – 00:57:48.600] And today, I have the brass to say that I am paid 35 cents a book, and every time you drunks buy one, you pay me 35

[00:57:48.600 – 00:57:48.900] cents.

[00:57:48.900 – 00:57:50.400] Think of that.

[00:57:50.400 – 00:57:53.600] I don’t believe it makes me a professional.

[00:57:53.600 – 00:57:57.800] I’m paid for being an author and not for being a missionary to you.

[00:57:57.800 – 00:58:06.100] But we have come firmly to the conclusion that nobody is to be paid for that 12-step job.

[00:58:06.100 – 00:58:10.200] For spiritual activity, not a cent.

[00:58:10.200 – 00:58:13.200] For doing the chores, well, once in a while.

[00:58:13.200 – 00:58:16.900] And so our tradition grew.

[00:58:16.900 – 00:58:21.200] We began to set American tradition at naught.

[00:58:21.200 – 00:58:23.800] Take our public relations policy.

[00:58:23.800 – 00:58:26.700] Why?

[00:58:26.700 – 00:58:30.400] In America, everything runs on big names.

[00:58:30.400 – 00:58:33.600] Advertisement of people.

[00:58:33.600 – 00:58:37.300] We are a country devoted to hero worship.

[00:58:37.300 – 00:58:48.300] It is a beloved tradition, and yet this movement, in the wisdom of its group soul, knew

[00:58:48.300 – 00:58:50.000] that this was not for us.

[00:58:50.000 – 00:58:57.200] So our public relations policy is anonymity at the public level.

[00:58:57.200 – 00:58:60.000] No advertising of people.

[00:58:60.000 – 00:59:03.900] Principles before personality.

[00:59:03.900 – 00:59:12.900] Anonymity has a deep spiritual significance, the greatest protection this movement has.

[00:59:12.900 – 00:59:22.900] Yes, once upon a time, the group conscience gave me a lesson on anonymity when we were thinking of the title of that

[00:59:22.900 – 00:59:23.300] book.

[00:59:23.300 – 00:59:27.700] Oh, there were a hundred titles suggested.

[00:59:27.700 – 00:59:31.500] Alcoholics Anonymous wasn’t very popular at first.

[00:59:31.500 – 00:59:33.400] At first, I pushed it.

[00:59:33.400 – 00:59:40.700] And over the months, it kind of went out of favor.

[00:59:40.700 – 00:59:44.600] And then it got back into favor.

[00:59:44.600 – 00:59:49.700] But I was not heard as one of the supporters of the idea.

[00:59:49.700 – 00:59:60.000] Because something which certainly was not of God had commenced to say to me, Bill, should

[00:59:60.000 – 00:60:06.200] this book prove to be important, why shouldn’t your name be on it?

[00:60:06.200 – 00:60:12.200] Why should it be Alcoholics Anonymous?

[00:60:12.200 – 00:60:16.700] Why shouldn’t it be The Way Out by Bill Wilson?

[00:60:16.700 – 00:60:26.600] Why, we might even call this the Wilson Movement, so thought I in the dark hours of the night.

[00:60:26.600 – 00:60:27.700] Yeah.

[00:60:27.700 – 00:60:37.800] And when I barely insinuated such a thing to my comrades,

[00:60:37.800 – 00:60:42.100] again that hurt look in their eyes.

[00:60:42.100 – 00:60:45.000] They didn’t even have to speak.

[00:60:45.000 – 00:60:51.200] They were again saying to me, Bill, you can’t do this to us.

[00:60:51.200 – 00:61:01.900] grew

[00:61:01.900 – 00:61:11.900] up and our society developed its way of life, its way of relating ourselves

[00:61:11.900 – 00:61:22.000] together, its way of relating ourselves to these troublesome questions of property, money, prestige, authority, and the world at large.

[00:61:22.000 – 00:61:32.100] The AA tradition developed not because I dictated it, but because you

[00:61:32.100 – 00:61:42.100] people, your experience, formed it and I merely set it on paper and

[00:61:42.100 – 00:61:45.800] tried, beginning four years ago, to reflect it back to you.

[00:61:45.800 – 00:61:51.900] Such were our years of adolescence.

[00:61:51.900 – 00:61:57.900] And before we leave them, I might say that a very powerful

[00:62:00.800 – 00:62:05.200] Impetus was given to traditions by the gentleman who introduced me.

[00:62:05.200 – 00:62:07.400] He’s still here, or has he got all tired out?

[00:62:07.400 – 00:62:18.000] He came down to Bedford Hills one day after the long form traditions were done, and those

[00:62:18.000 – 00:62:24.400] were written out at some length because in the office we were forever after having to answer questions about group troubles.

[00:62:24.400 – 00:62:31.400] So the original traditions, uh, were longer and covered more possibilities of trouble.

[00:62:31.400 – 00:62:41.400] And Earl looked at me rather quizzically, and he said, “Well, Bill, didn’t you ever get it through your thick head that these drunks do not

[00:62:41.400 – 00:62:42.500] like to read?

[00:62:42.500 – 00:62:46.000] They’ll listen for a while, but they won’t read anything.

[00:62:46.000 – 00:62:50.400] Now, you ought to capsule these traditions.

[00:62:50.400 – 00:63:00.500] Simple, easy doses, just like those 12 steps to recovery.” So he and I started the capsuling process, which lasted a day or

[00:63:00.500 – 00:63:05.000] two, and that put the tradition in its present form.

[00:63:05.000 – 00:63:15.100] Well, by this time we’d had a lot of experience on these principles which we began to think

[00:63:15.100 – 00:63:19.600] might bind us together in unity for so long as God might need us.

[00:63:19.600 – 00:63:29.900] And at Cleveland, seven thousand of us did declare, “Yes, these are the traditional principles

[00:63:29.900 – 00:63:40.500] upon which we are willing to stand, upon which we can safely commit ourselves to the future.” And

[00:63:40.500 – 00:63:50.600] so we emerged from adolescence, and again, last year took destiny

[00:63:50.600 – 00:63:51.300] by the hand.

[00:63:51.300 – 00:64:02.200] Now, before proceeding to the last phase, before

[00:64:02.200 – 00:64:11.600] approaching the step we are about to take, I must get back down to Earth and become a little mundane.

[00:64:11.600 – 00:64:17.400] I’ll introduce the subject in this way.

[00:64:17.400 – 00:64:27.400] Back in ’41, when Jack Alexander published that piece and our little New York office was hit by a bunch of inquiries, thousands of them,

[00:64:27.400 – 00:64:32.400] we realized the book sales couldn’t hire the gals to answer those letters.

[00:64:32.400 – 00:64:35.000] Neither could we throw them in the wastebasket.

[00:64:35.000 – 00:64:45.000] So we went to the groups of that time and said, “Well, look, if you fellas would all chip in a dollar a piece a year, you know, there’d be enough income down here

[00:64:45.000 – 00:64:47.100] so that we could answer these things.

[00:64:47.100 – 00:64:53.900] You don’t want us to throw them in the wastebasket.” So the appeal was made, and the money was awful slow coming in then.

[00:64:53.900 – 00:64:56.200] Has happened since, too.

[00:64:56.200 – 00:65:00.700] And, uh, I was very annoyed.

[00:65:00.700 – 00:65:04.300] I was very self-righteous that morning.

[00:65:04.300 – 00:65:14.500] I was walking up and down the office, and, uh, I was cussing out these drunks, so careless that they wouldn’t send us down

[00:65:14.500 – 00:65:18.800] even a buck a year apiece to answer these frantic inquiries.

[00:65:18.800 – 00:65:28.800] And in this mood of self-righteousness, who should appear but an old friend, a slip E who never had made the program, one of my nursing

[00:65:28.800 – 00:65:29.600] projects.

[00:65:29.600 – 00:65:36.900] And I saw him in the door, and I went over and took him by the hand and drew him into my little cubicle of an office.

[00:65:36.900 – 00:65:39.400] Sure, I knew what he wanted.

[00:65:39.400 – 00:65:41.200] He was thirsty.

[00:65:41.200 – 00:65:42.500] He wanted to make a touch.

[00:65:42.500 – 00:65:47.100] At that time, I was on the Rockefeller dinner money.

[00:65:47.100 – 00:65:48.100] John D.

[00:65:48.100 – 00:65:52.100] did finally chip in one thousand dollars a year, and his friends a little bit more.

[00:65:52.100 – 00:65:55.100] Smithy and I were each getting thirty bucks a week at the time.

[00:65:55.100 – 00:66:00.400] So we had thirty dollars a week, and Lois and I had been evicted from our house.

[00:66:00.400 – 00:66:10.600] Nevertheless, I put in– my hand in my pocket and took out five dollars and handed it to this chum of mine who was half tight then and who

[00:66:10.600 – 00:66:13.200] I knew would positively go out and drink the money up.

[00:66:13.200 – 00:66:21.300] You see, it made me s– feel so good to feel superior to those drunks who wouldn’t send in even one buck a year.

[00:66:21.300 – 00:66:23.600] Oh, I felt awful good.

[00:66:23.600 – 00:66:29.400] So we went up– I went up to the clubhouse that night.

[00:66:29.400 – 00:66:35.300] Lois and I were living in one of the rooms up there next to Mulhall, that janitor fella.

[00:66:35.300 – 00:66:39.200] And the clubhouse, that was hired up.

[00:66:39.200 – 00:66:42.900] They weren’t paying Mulhall much of anything, and the rent was behind.

[00:66:42.900 – 00:66:48.300] And in those days, treasurers of the groups used to be very timid.

[00:66:48.300 – 00:66:53.100] They hardly dared say or bring in the subject of money.

[00:66:53.100 – 00:66:54.100] It…

[00:66:54.100 – 00:66:57.000] I mean, the rent was something kind of unholy, and money.

[00:66:57.000 – 00:67:01.100] Uh, there was a very pious attitude toward money.

[00:67:01.100 – 00:67:08.700] You, uh, you see, if you were pious enough about money, you could feel awful good and at the same time avoid putting any out.

[00:67:08.700 – 00:67:18.700] So the treasurer in his halting way said, “Well, folks, really, we’re

[00:67:18.700 – 00:67:20.200] way behind in the rent here.

[00:67:20.200 – 00:67:30.500] When we pass the hat now, can’t you fellas do just a little something extra?” Well, at the moment, I was sitting on the stairs,

[00:67:30.500 – 00:67:32.700] uh, talking to some drunk in the intermission.

[00:67:32.700 – 00:67:36.500] You see, I was always in my work of salvation and saving souls.

[00:67:36.500 – 00:67:40.000] I didn’t hear too clearly what the treasurer said.

[00:67:40.000 – 00:67:50.000] And the hat finally came along my way, and I reached my hand automatically in my pocket, and I got a hold of a coin, and

[00:67:50.000 – 00:67:51.900] I took it out, and it was a half a dollar.

[00:67:51.900 – 00:68:02.000] And then I put my hand back in my pocket and took out a dime and put it in

[00:68:02.000 – 00:68:02.400] the hat.

[00:68:02.400 – 00:68:12.500] And then I thought to myself, “So you are the fella who bawled out the drunks for not sending in a

[00:68:12.500 – 00:68:23.500] dollar a year, who gave five dollars to a drunk that Lois should have had for groceries, and who now comes to the club and

[00:68:23.500 – 00:68:31.900] passes in ten cents into the hat.” Now, dear people, as you see, there is a collection being taken.

[00:68:31.900 – 00:68:33.200] We want to pay for the hall.

[00:68:33.200 – 00:68:44.200] So it is, my friends, that

[00:68:44.200 – 00:68:53.500] you and I, hand in hand, have been traversing down the pathway of the years since our beginning.

[00:68:53.500 – 00:69:04.600] We have paused to look again upon the scenes and time of our infancy,

[00:69:04.600 – 00:69:15.300] to realize that in that period there was bestowed upon us the principles

[00:69:15.300 – 00:69:21.900] upon which we alcoholics might live and be free.

[00:69:21.900 – 00:69:34.400] Then we coursed down through that exciting and perilous time of adolescence in

[00:69:34.400 – 00:69:44.900] which was generated our tradition, the tradition upon which we may rely, we think, to

[00:69:44.900 – 00:69:52.000] maintain us in unity for so long as God will need this society.

[00:69:52.000 – 00:70:02.100] Now, almost unseen, at times

[00:70:02.100 – 00:70:10.900] scarcely respectable, another phase developed.

[00:70:10.900 – 00:70:14.000] It began very early.

[00:70:14.000 – 00:70:17.500] You see, A.A.

[00:70:17.500 – 00:70:19.900] is something more than just recovery.

[00:70:19.900 – 00:70:22.700] An A.A.

[00:70:22.700 – 00:70:26.300] group is something more than a bundle of unity.

[00:70:26.300 – 00:70:28.900] If A.A.

[00:70:28.900 – 00:70:32.300] is anything, it is a program of action.

[00:70:32.300 – 00:70:42.100] As individuals, you and I must not only believe in the Twelve Steps, we must do something about them.

[00:70:42.100 – 00:70:52.200] As groups, do we remain whole, we must believe in something more

[00:70:52.200 – 00:70:53.100] than the traditions.

[00:70:53.100 – 00:70:57.400] We have to do something about the traditions.

[00:70:57.400 – 00:70:59.900] This is a program of action.

[00:70:59.900 – 00:71:05.100] The individual must function all in one piece.

[00:71:05.100 – 00:71:09.800] The group must function all in one piece.

[00:71:09.800 – 00:71:18.800] And this movement of a, as a whole has to function as a society.

[00:71:18.800 – 00:71:28.000] Now, anything which legitimately causes A.A.

[00:71:28.000 – 00:71:35.600] to function and which we can use is today called a service.

[00:71:35.600 – 00:71:46.100] And in retrospect, we see that services of various kinds put in their appearance

[00:71:46.100 – 00:71:56.600] very early, even back in the parlor days when Anne Smith and Lois Wilson

[00:71:56.600 – 00:72:06.700] brewed the first coffee and baked the first cakes for those drunks out there struggling for sobriety

[00:72:06.700 – 00:72:07.600] in the front room.

[00:72:07.600 – 00:72:15.700] Those good women were providing a service that helped A.A.

[00:72:15.700 – 00:72:20.100] to function and so happily to grow.

[00:72:20.100 – 00:72:30.600] Then when the parlors wouldn’t hold us any longer, we moved into a hall, perhaps.

[00:72:30.600 – 00:72:38.000] The hall was a service, but this time it took some dough.

[00:72:38.000 – 00:72:48.100] So in the early groups, the founders and their friends would put the finger on somebody to point, pass the hat,

[00:72:48.100 – 00:72:50.900] and thus the rent was paid.

[00:72:50.900 – 00:72:56.000] As our evolution proceeded, that guy became a treasurer.

[00:72:56.000 – 00:73:04.000] And by and by, we needed a gal to write a few letters and order some books and maybe answer a phone, and she was a secretary.

[00:73:04.000 – 00:73:14.000] And then your little growing group, uh, had need to go to the ministers and the doctors and might want to see

[00:73:14.000 – 00:73:15.000] the newspapers.

[00:73:15.000 – 00:73:23.900] In other words, there were chores, services which had to be performed so that A.A.

[00:73:23.900 – 00:73:24.900] could function.

[00:73:24.900 – 00:73:33.900] So as you see, these simple chores of various kinds were done at a very early date.

[00:73:33.900 – 00:73:43.000] Well, then as we grew and grew, the need for more of such chores became apparent.

[00:73:43.000 – 00:73:53.100] And right here in this town, you people pioneered something that might be called

[00:73:53.100 – 00:74:03.500] central service for this area, which I know and which you know has had a profound effect upon

[00:74:03.500 – 00:74:05.900] your ability to carry the message to others.

[00:74:05.900 – 00:74:11.500] and a deep effect indeed on your fundamental unity.

[00:74:11.500 – 00:74:20.700] It was you people who first conceived and put into practice the idea of central service for an area.

[00:74:20.700 – 00:74:31.500] As your groups here multiplied, as you swarmed out through this city in hordes almost, it

[00:74:31.500 – 00:74:41.500] was seen that certain chores had to be performed for the area which couldn’t be performed by any, any individual who happened

[00:74:41.500 – 00:74:46.600] to feel like doing them, couldn’t be performed by any particular group in the neighborhood.

[00:74:46.600 – 00:74:49.100] It had to be centrally done.

[00:74:49.100 – 00:74:53.000] You had to have a little head and tail to your public relations.

[00:74:53.000 – 00:75:03.000] You had to have a place in Chicago where AA could be found on the telephone, where people could be located, where people clamoring for co–

[00:75:03.000 – 00:75:07.800] recovery could be interviewed, where wives and employers could be talked to.

[00:75:07.800 – 00:75:17.900] You needed, in other words, an office of service, of mediation, of information, of public

[00:75:17.900 – 00:75:18.500] relations.

[00:75:18.500 – 00:75:28.700] So very early, even before the need was clearly there, the foresighted originators of this group

[00:75:28.700 – 00:75:31.400] instituted something called central service.

[00:75:31.400 – 00:75:40.400] That central service is not big business for the thousands of members now in this locality.

[00:75:40.400 – 00:75:45.000] A small office, two, three, four help.

[00:75:45.000 – 00:75:50.500] It isn’t big business, but it is very important business.

[00:75:50.500 – 00:76:00.500] It has a profound relation to the world outside, to your relations with each other, to your public

[00:76:00.500 – 00:76:05.100] relations, and especially to that alcoholic just coming in the door.

[00:76:05.100 – 00:76:15.500] Your relations with medicine, with religion, with the hospital all cluster about that small but vital center

[00:76:15.500 – 00:76:16.100] of service.

[00:76:16.100 – 00:76:17.900] Is that not so?

[00:76:17.900 – 00:76:28.600] Well, quite early in AA, in nineteen thirty-eight to be exact, the

[00:76:28.600 – 00:76:37.600] need for a book was seen, which evolved into something called the book Alcoholics Anonymous, published in April nineteen thirty-nine.

[00:76:37.600 – 00:76:41.500] That book is not the Twelfth Step itself.

[00:76:41.500 – 00:76:51.900] It is a service, an arm of service that has enabled this

[00:76:51.900 – 00:77:02.600] movement to unify, to have a common standard of recovery, something you can get your teeth in, a

[00:77:02.600 – 00:77:06.500] harbinger of good news to the alcoholic at a distance.

[00:77:06.500 – 00:77:12.800] Our messenger, that book, a service.

[00:77:12.800 – 00:77:18.900] Well, quite obviously, the book couldn’t be published at a dozen places.

[00:77:18.900 – 00:77:21.500] It had to head up somewhere.

[00:77:21.500 – 00:77:31.700] And one of the first functions of the Alcoholic Foundation, that committee of old friends and a few drunks incorporated

[00:77:31.700 – 00:77:41.800] down there in New York, one of its first functions was to take over the ownership and publication of that book, which since that day they have held

[00:77:41.800 – 00:77:42.900] in trust for you.

[00:77:42.900 – 00:77:53.100] Then when Jack Alexander came along to write that first piece, Jack is a swell writer, a great guy,

[00:77:53.100 – 00:77:54.400] but he had to have help.

[00:77:54.400 – 00:78:02.000] The piece just didn’t happen because he happened to be talking to some drunk in a streetcar.

[00:78:02.000 – 00:78:12.000] We spent a whole month going around the country with Jack, showing him the business, inoculating him

[00:78:12.000 – 00:78:13.000] with our doctrine.

[00:78:13.000 – 00:78:23.300] A good piece was the result, and because we had a good piece, we probably gained ten thousand members then

[00:78:23.300 – 00:78:24.100] and later.

[00:78:24.100 – 00:78:28.300] That was a public relations job.

[00:78:28.300 – 00:78:30.300] Somebody had to do it.

[00:78:30.300 – 00:78:32.800] Everybody couldn’t do it.

[00:78:32.800 – 00:78:35.000] It couldn’t be done in a dozen places.

[00:78:35.000 – 00:78:36.600] It had to be done in one place.

[00:78:36.600 – 00:78:42.400] The foundation and the office there did the job.

[00:78:42.400 – 00:78:48.400] And since I hang around those parts a good deal, I, I had something to do with it myself.

[00:78:48.400 – 00:78:55.900] Well, when that piece went out, our office was flooded.

[00:78:55.900 – 00:79:06.200] Soon, not only with inquiries to redistribute and people to write letters to, but as soon as the groups

[00:79:06.200 – 00:79:16.500] began to form, they began to have their troubles, and they frantically wrote us saying, “What is the experience in Chicago and in New York and in Cleveland

[00:79:16.500 – 00:79:26.500] and Akron on these things?” And knowing these experiences, we could write out to them and help them, those growing groups still

[00:79:26.500 – 00:79:29.000] isolated at a distance.

[00:79:29.000 – 00:79:39.000] So we became an office of encouragement and help and information, and we helped carry the lighted torch

[00:79:39.000 – 00:79:45.700] further and further out, finally into thirty countries in the world and now into foreign languages.

[00:79:45.700 – 00:79:53.600] Then the question arose, well, did this society of ours have any control of its public relations?

[00:79:53.600 – 00:79:58.000] We had a drunk down in Jacksonville with a very corny radio script.

[00:79:58.000 – 00:80:01.900] He had a contract with Mutual Broadcasting to run it.

[00:80:01.900 – 00:80:05.400] Some life insurance company was going to pay him a big fee.

[00:80:05.400 – 00:80:07.900] He was going to bust his anonymity.

[00:80:07.900 – 00:80:11.100] And we expostulated with him.

[00:80:11.100 – 00:80:19.100] And he said, “Well, I got a right of free speech, and I owe my message to America,” says he.

[00:80:19.100 – 00:80:20.800] What were we going to do?

[00:80:20.800 – 00:80:23.100] Well, we had…

[00:80:23.100 – 00:80:29.200] Somebody had to remind him that, uh, there were a lot of drunks beside himself that had the right of free speech.

[00:80:29.200 – 00:80:38.900] And just in case he put that corny broadcast on the air, air, his sponsor would certainly hear from hundreds, if not thousands of us, really, what they thought about it.

[00:80:38.900 – 00:80:43.200] In other words, he needed a little gentle restraint.

[00:80:43.200 – 00:80:53.200] So following that, uh, episode, I wrote all the groups of that day and said, “Will you give these trustees

[00:80:53.200 – 00:81:00.600] of this foundation in New York jurisdiction over your general public relations?” And you did.

[00:81:00.600 – 00:81:02.700] So they had a new function.

[00:81:02.700 – 00:81:07.500] And by and by, it was a question, well, where were the A.A.

[00:81:07.500 – 00:81:08.400] groups anyway?

[00:81:08.400 – 00:81:11.300] Shouldn’t we have some kind of a world group directory?

[00:81:11.300 – 00:81:14.700] It’s now getting as big as a small telephone book.

[00:81:14.700 – 00:81:17.200] It doesn’t go together by accident.

[00:81:17.200 – 00:81:19.100] It’s an awful lot of work.

[00:81:19.100 – 00:81:21.000] Somebody has to do it.

[00:81:21.000 – 00:81:31.300] Every month, we ship three tons of books and pamphlets out of the New York office carrying

[00:81:31.300 – 00:81:32.000] the message.

[00:81:32.000 – 00:81:34.000] Does it just happen?

[00:81:34.000 – 00:81:34.900] No.

[00:81:34.900 – 00:81:36.400] Somebody has to look after it.

[00:81:36.400 – 00:81:38.400] Somebody has to pay the bill.

[00:81:38.400 – 00:81:40.100] Is it big business?

[00:81:40.100 – 00:81:40.400] No.

[00:81:40.400 – 00:81:43.600] Still small business for a hundred and twenty thousand people.

[00:81:43.600 – 00:81:46.500] And so it goes.

[00:81:46.500 – 00:81:55.700] You see clearly then that there are certain vital chores that must be performed for the good of A.A.

[00:81:55.700 – 00:81:56.300] as a whole.

[00:81:56.300 – 00:82:06.600] That foundation, those trustees, those secretaries, those volunteer Grapevine editors, they are not a government for Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:82:06.600 – 00:82:10.600] They are servants, your servants.

[00:82:10.600 – 00:82:20.600] And the services which they have performed over the last 10 or a dozen years probably have accounted for half of our growth

[00:82:20.600 – 00:82:24.000] in this society, maybe much of its unity.

[00:82:24.000 – 00:82:27.800] Obviously, those services should go on.

[00:82:27.800 – 00:82:37.900] Those activities, too, go on without you realizing that

[00:82:37.900 – 00:82:38.200] they

[00:82:39.200 – 00:82:39.500] Goal.

[00:82:39.500 – 00:82:49.500] For example, if you go onto the newsstands now and ask for that flossy business magazine called Fortune, you’ll find one whale of a

[00:82:49.500 – 00:82:53.300] good article about AA in the February issue.

[00:82:53.300 – 00:82:56.900] Did it just get there by accident?

[00:82:56.900 – 00:82:57.200] No.

[00:82:57.200 – 00:83:08.200] It got there to begin with because somebody, uh, a, a vice president of that magazine, got

[00:83:08.200 – 00:83:11.000] ahold of the AA program himself three or four years ago.

[00:83:11.000 – 00:83:17.200] He retired from Fortune, wrote a very noted bestseller.

[00:83:17.200 – 00:83:21.900] The other day, he was in Fortune’s office, and Mr.

[00:83:21.900 – 00:83:32.100] Luce, the owner, came up and said, “Look, you gotta do a piece about AA.” So he came over to the office and he said, “Hey, Bill, they put the finger

[00:83:32.100 – 00:83:33.400] on me to do something about…

[00:83:33.400 – 00:83:35.000] piece about AA.

[00:83:35.000 – 00:83:38.400] What’s all this about the AA tradition?

[00:83:38.400 – 00:83:42.900] I don’t know much about it.” So we spend some hours with him.

[00:83:42.900 – 00:83:44.700] He goes off to Florida.

[00:83:44.700 – 00:83:53.500] We spend, uh, some of your money checking his manuscript over the telephone long distance.

[00:83:53.500 – 00:83:57.000] We have a three-way conversation with somebody else over at Fortune.

[00:83:57.000 – 00:84:03.800] So now you read the piece in Fortune and say, “Well, that’s pretty good,” but you didn’t know what was behind it, did you?

[00:84:03.800 – 00:84:10.000] Now, that work has– of that kind has been silently and effectively done all these years.

[00:84:10.000 – 00:84:20.100] This movement has an impeccable relation with medicine, religion, and the general public, not only because we are

[00:84:20.100 – 00:84:27.500] worthy of it, but also because somebody looked after it, did those chores for you.

[00:84:27.500 – 00:84:37.600] So we are now come to a point in this movement where we

[00:84:37.600 – 00:84:48.600] realize that we must have certain services that we may function, that we may remain in unity, that we may propagate,

[00:84:48.600 – 00:84:54.100] that we may remain on good terms with the general public, upon which so much depends.

[00:84:54.100 – 00:85:04.400] For example, we’ve been in a terrible tizzy with one of the mo- motion picture companies, one

[00:85:04.400 – 00:85:05.200] of the big ones.

[00:85:05.200 – 00:85:15.200] One of our AAs working for the company got hold of the script of a very lousy movie, and

[00:85:15.200 – 00:85:20.400] when we first saw the script, to put it in good Anglo-Saxon, it stunk.

[00:85:20.400 – 00:85:24.800] Could anything be done about it?

[00:85:24.800 – 00:85:30.500] Well, we started doing something about it, uh, about a year ago now.

[00:85:30.500 – 00:85:36.100] Before we got through, we had been to the so-called Hays Office.

[00:85:36.100 – 00:85:39.300] We had friends there, we found.

[00:85:39.300 – 00:85:42.500] We had an agent on the job.

[00:85:42.500 – 00:85:45.200] We had a lawyer on the job.

[00:85:45.200 – 00:85:49.100] We were nice about it, but we were firm.

[00:85:49.100 – 00:85:52.300] We got the title of the picture changed.

[00:85:52.300 – 00:85:55.100] A good deal of the script was rewritten.

[00:85:55.100 – 00:86:04.000] And when you see the picture, you will see a reference to AA in it, and you will say, “Well, maybe that’s a pretty fair picture.

[00:86:04.000 – 00:86:06.700] T’ain’t so bad,” that’s probably what you’ll say.

[00:86:06.700 – 00:86:09.900] And you’ll turn around and go out.

[00:86:09.900 – 00:86:19.900] But if somebody hadn’t looked after it and you had ever seen it in its original form, you would have certainly said, “Who in hell let this

[00:86:19.900 – 00:86:27.700] thing loose on us?” Somebody had to look after these things, and it has made a profound difference.

[00:86:27.700 – 00:86:35.000] Obviously, then, this idea of services in AA has to be made respectable.

[00:86:35.000 – 00:86:38.000] It has to be understood.

[00:86:38.000 – 00:86:48.300] Some people will tell you that the New York office is big business, but I say it is very small

[00:86:48.300 – 00:86:51.200] business, but terribly important business.

[00:86:51.200 – 00:87:01.300] Five years ago, when we were much smaller, the New York office had one employee for every three thousand

[00:87:01.300 – 00:87:06.800] AAs, and that includes the packing boys and the stenographers and a couple alcoholic dames.

[00:87:06.800 – 00:87:11.100] One employee for every three thousand drunks.

[00:87:11.100 – 00:87:13.600] Now, the movement is several times as large.

[00:87:13.600 – 00:87:19.000] Today, the office does a very good job with one employee for every six thousand drunks.

[00:87:19.000 – 00:87:28.400] Five years ago, that office used to cost this movement a dollar a piece a year on the membership in real money.

[00:87:28.400 – 00:87:37.500] Today, if everybody really paid the bill and put his hand in his pocket for something a little more than half a dollar, we’d get by.

[00:87:37.500 – 00:87:44.500] Now, very small business, but terribly important business.

[00:87:44.500 – 00:87:55.900] Now, as I pointed out, this, these services, these central world services, are

[00:87:55.900 – 00:88:01.500] the function of a board of trustees, friends of Dr.

[00:88:01.500 – 00:88:11.800] Bob and mine, who have guarded these things, preserved these assets during your infancy

[00:88:11.800 – 00:88:12.800] and adolescence.

[00:88:12.800 – 00:88:20.400] But at Cleveland, we saw that AA had grown up.

[00:88:20.400 – 00:88:23.100] It had become mature.

[00:88:23.100 – 00:88:34.300] And two or three years before the affirmation of our tradition at Cleveland, a

[00:88:34.300 – 00:88:36.400] few of us knew that Dr.

[00:88:36.400 – 00:88:40.300] Bob was probably fatally stricken.

[00:88:40.300 – 00:88:50.400] And suddenly we woke up to the fact that he and I were

[00:88:50.400 – 00:89:00.300] the principal links between those people in New York who are completely unknown to you and you who they serve.

[00:89:00.300 – 00:89:10.100] And that one of the links might soon fade away when Dr.

[00:89:10.100 – 00:89:13.700] Bob passed to his father’s house.

[00:89:13.700 – 00:89:20.800] Some of the rest of us who might vouch for them, not so young as we used to be.

[00:89:20.800 – 00:89:29.600] Would not this movement therefore wake up someday and find that those very valuable services were in the hands of total strangers?

[00:89:29.600 – 00:89:40.300] Your money, your book, your public relations, your principal newspaper, your office of propagation and mediation

[00:89:40.300 – 00:89:44.000] in the hands of people you didn’t know.

[00:89:44.000 – 00:89:45.900] You have no access to them.

[00:89:45.900 – 00:89:47.400] There isn’t any linkage.

[00:89:47.400 – 00:89:51.600] The only links that you knew are gone.

[00:89:51.600 – 00:89:55.100] Then something happens.

[00:89:55.100 – 00:89:59.100] The thing collapses.

[00:89:59.100 – 00:90:02.400] Maybe those fellows make just one bad mistake.

[00:90:02.400 – 00:90:06.700] The contributions to the office dries up.

[00:90:06.700 – 00:90:08.800] There’s a collapse.

[00:90:08.800 – 00:90:15.200] The collapse gets publicized in the world press.

[00:90:15.200 – 00:90:19.300] Something gone wrong with Alcoholics Anonymous in America.

[00:90:19.300 – 00:90:29.000] You can’t imagine what consternation that would cause today if it happened in a place like England.

[00:90:29.000 – 00:90:35.200] When Lois and I were there last summer, we reenacted the whole pioneering scene of AA.

[00:90:35.200 – 00:90:39.800] They knew in a vague way that AA worked over here in the States.

[00:90:39.800 – 00:90:43.000] They had seen an occasional traveler.

[00:90:43.000 – 00:90:47.000] They’d had a lot of comforting correspondence with our New York office.

[00:90:47.000 – 00:90:53.100] But in England, the doctors didn’t know except one or two.

[00:90:53.100 – 00:90:56.600] The Church of England was still indifferent.

[00:90:56.600 – 00:90:59.800] The public didn’t know.

[00:90:59.800 – 00:91:01.100] The drunks didn’t know.

[00:91:01.100 – 00:91:04.900] Nor would the London papers print anything about AA.

[00:91:04.900 – 00:91:13.600] Due to some strange British quirk, the Financial Chronicle in London was the only one that was bold enough to say anything about drunks.

[00:91:13.600 – 00:91:23.500] Now, supposing that we had a great movement problem over here that we couldn’t settle because there was no cross-section of opinion.

[00:91:23.500 – 00:91:31.300] Supposing that those trustees someday made a mistake so that you lost confidence and that center collapsed.

[00:91:31.300 – 00:91:33.600] And that news got into the world press.

[00:91:33.600 – 00:91:43.700] Don’t you think those drunks who don’t yet know in the British Isles might turn their faces to the wall and say, “Oh, we had

[00:91:43.700 – 00:91:53.900] hope.” You, my friends, supposing that AA had come to each of you ten

[00:91:53.900 – 00:91:55.200] years late.

[00:91:55.200 – 00:92:04.300] So, these services must go on.

[00:92:04.300 – 00:92:13.500] We must build some new links other than Smithy and me from you to them.

[00:92:13.500 – 00:92:22.100] Hence, we are proposing something to be called the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:92:22.100 – 00:92:25.400] Not a large body of people.

[00:92:25.400 – 00:92:29.300] One, two, or three at the most from every state and province.

[00:92:29.300 – 00:92:35.300] Who will journey down to New York as your representatives to sit down with Dr.

[00:92:35.300 – 00:92:42.800] Rob’s friends and mine, the trustees, once a year to back them up and give them a cross-section of AA opinion.

[00:92:42.800 – 00:92:46.800] To advise them when they know not what to do.

[00:92:46.800 – 00:92:51.300] Or perchance to correct them if someday they should get out of line.

[00:92:51.300 – 00:92:57.300] And see, therefore, that our lifelines to the million who don’t know are preserved.

[00:92:57.300 – 00:93:00.200] That our literature remains standard.

[00:93:00.200 – 00:93:03.400] That our public relations are really looked after.

[00:93:03.400 – 00:93:08.500] That these vital chores continue to be done.

[00:93:08.500 – 00:93:12.500] That is our proposal.

[00:93:12.500 – 00:93:15.900] And that is what we mean when we speak of the third legacy.

[00:93:15.900 – 00:93:26.600] For you see, it is by the recovery steps that you have recovered, by the traditions you have unified, but

[00:93:26.600 – 00:93:34.000] only by services can we, as groups, areas, and AA as a whole, function.

[00:93:34.000 – 00:93:38.500] Therefore, not long before Dr.

[00:93:38.500 – 00:93:48.500] Bob passed out of our sight and hearing, he aided me in the preparation of this plea that something of this

[00:93:48.500 – 00:93:55.600] sort be done and a concrete plan for accomplishing it was brought into being.

[00:93:55.600 – 00:94:05.700] So I am out among you now asking that you take this third legacy and

[00:94:05.700 – 00:94:06.500] guard it well.

[00:94:06.500 – 00:94:17.000] And to conclude, I will read you two or three paragraphs out of this third legacy pamphlet,

[00:94:17.000 – 00:94:21.700] this plan to perpetuate our central services.

[00:94:21.700 – 00:94:26.800] The foundation wasn’t well enough off to mail every member a copy.

[00:94:26.800 – 00:94:33.700] So I’m going to read briefly from this one.

[00:94:33.700 – 00:94:45.200] Yet some may still say, “Of course the foundation should go on.”

[00:94:45.200 – 00:94:47.400] Certainly we’ll pay that small expense.

[00:94:47.400 – 00:94:51.300] But why can’t we leave its conduct to Dr.

[00:94:51.300 – 00:94:55.400] Bob and Bill and their friends, the trustees?

[00:94:55.400 – 00:94:57.500] We always have.

[00:94:57.500 – 00:95:02.100] Why do they now bother us with such business?

[00:95:02.100 – 00:95:05.000] Let’s keep AA simple.

[00:95:05.000 – 00:95:13.100] Good questions, these, but today the answers are quite different than they once were.

[00:95:13.100 – 00:95:15.800] Let’s face these facts.

[00:95:15.800 – 00:95:18.900] First, Dr.

[00:95:18.900 – 00:95:25.100] Bob and Bill are perishable, and when this was written, we know, knew that he was soon to go.

[00:95:25.100 – 00:95:29.800] Second, their friends, the trustees, are almost unknown to the AA movement.

[00:95:29.800 – 00:95:36.900] Third, in future years, our trustees couldn’t possibly function without direct guidance from AA itself.

[00:95:36.900 – 00:95:39.300] Somebody must advise them.

[00:95:39.300 – 00:95:44.100] Somebody or something must take the place of Dr.

[00:95:44.100 – 00:95:45.000] Bob and Bill.

[00:95:45.000 – 00:95:52.200] Fourth, Alcoholics Anonymous is out of its infancy, grown up, adult now.

[00:95:52.200 – 00:95:59.100] It has a full right and the plain duty to take direct responsibility for its own headquarters.

[00:95:59.100 – 00:96:09.500] Fifth, clearly then, unless the foundation is firmly anchored through state and provincial representatives

[00:96:09.500 – 00:96:15.700] to the movement it serves, a headquarters breakdown will someday be in- inevitable.

[00:96:15.700 – 00:96:24.500] When its old-timers vanish, an isolated foundation couldn’t survive one grave mistake or serious controversy.

[00:96:24.500 – 00:96:27.100] Any storm could blow it down.

[00:96:27.100 – 00:96:29.800] Its revival wouldn’t be simple.

[00:96:29.800 – 00:96:33.200] Possibly it could never be revived.

[00:96:33.200 – 00:96:38.300] Like a fine car without gasoline, it would be helpless.

[00:96:38.300 – 00:96:43.200] Six, another serious flaw.

[00:96:43.200 – 00:96:52.400] As a whole, the AA movement has never faced a grave crisis, but someday it will have to.

[00:96:52.400 – 00:97:00.900] Human affairs being what they are, we can’t expect to remain untouched by the hour of serious trouble.

[00:97:00.900 – 00:97:11.000] With direct support unavailable, with no reliable cross-section of AA opinion, how could our remote trustees handle

[00:97:11.000 – 00:97:12.900] a hazardous emergency?

[00:97:12.900 – 00:97:20.400] This gaping open end in our present setup could positively guarantee a debacle.

[00:97:20.400 – 00:97:24.000] Confidence in the foundation would be lost.

[00:97:24.000 – 00:97:30.900] AAs everywhere would say, “By whose authority do the trustees speak for us?

[00:97:30.900 – 00:97:41.000] And how do they know they are right?” With AA service lifelines tangled and severed, what then might happen to

[00:97:41.000 – 00:97:42.600] the million who don’t yet know?

[00:97:42.600 – 00:97:53.100] Thousands would continue to suffer on or die because we had taken no forethought, because we had forgotten the virtue

[00:97:53.100 – 00:97:54.000] of prudence.

[00:97:54.000 – 00:97:57.400] This should not come to pass.

[00:97:57.400 – 00:98:00.900] This is why the trustees, Dr.

[00:98:00.900 – 00:98:06.300] Bob, and I now propose the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:98:06.300 – 00:98:10.700] That is why we urgently need your direct help.

[00:98:10.700 – 00:98:14.500] Our principal services must go on living.

[00:98:14.500 – 00:98:22.500] We think the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous can be the agency to make that certain.

[00:98:22.500 – 00:98:29.400] And now to conclude, my dear friends, here is our bequest.

[00:98:29.400 – 00:98:33.700] Your third legacy.

[00:98:33.700 – 00:98:44.300] We, who are the older members of AA, bequeath to you, who are younger, these three legacies:

[00:98:44.300 – 00:98:54.100] The 12 Steps of Recovery, the 12 Traditions, and now the general services of AA.

[00:98:54.100 – 00:98:58.800] Two of these legacies have long been in your keeping.

[00:98:58.800 – 00:99:01.900] By the 12 Steps, we have recovered.

[00:99:01.900 – 00:99:07.200] By the 12 Traditions, we are achieving a superb unity.

[00:99:07.200 – 00:99:12.100] Being someday perishable, Dr.

[00:99:12.100 – 00:99:16.600] Bob and I now wish to deliver to the members of AA their third legacy.

[00:99:16.600 – 00:99:22.800] Since 1938, we and our friends have been holding it in trust for you.

[00:99:22.800 – 00:99:33.300] This legacy is the general headquarters of Alcoholics Anonymous, the foundation, the AA book, the Grapevine, and the general office.

[00:99:33.300 – 00:99:39.800] These are the principal services which have enabled our society to function and to grow.

[00:99:39.800 – 00:99:44.100] Acting on behalf of all, Dr.

[00:99:44.100 – 00:99:54.000] Bob and I ask that you, the members of AA, assume guidance of these services and guard them well.

[00:99:54.000 – 00:100:04.100] The future grou- growth, indeed the very survival of Alcoholics Anonymous, may

[00:100:04.100 – 00:100:12.800] one day depend on how prudently you guard these arms of service in the years to come.

[00:100:12.800 – 00:100:22.900] So, my dear friends, I again see

[00:100:22.900 – 00:100:24.800] our cathedral of the spirit.

[00:100:24.800 – 00:100:34.800] On its great floor, where one hundred and twenty thousand of us now stand in freedom,

[00:100:34.800 – 00:100:39.500] are inscribed our 12 Steps of Recovery.

[00:100:39.500 – 00:100:48.200] You and I have seen the great walls go up, buttressed by our 12 Traditions.

[00:100:48.200 – 00:100:56.500] And are becoming confident that they will maintain us always in unity.

[00:100:56.500 – 00:101:06.600] And now I am sure that you perceive with me that the spire is being affixed

[00:101:06.600 – 00:101:17.100] to our cathedral of the spirit, and the name of that spire shall be called Service, a

[00:101:17.100 – 00:101:23.800] beacon for all to see, a beacon to the million who don’t know.

[00:101:23.800 – 00:101:34.100] And may that spire, may its symbolic finger always point

[00:101:34.100 – 00:101:36.300] straight upward toward God.

[00:101:36.300 – 00:101:59.700] Thank

[00:101:59.700 – 00:102:06.000] you, Bill, for a most interesting and instructive talk.

[00:102:06.000 – 00:102:17.900] The foundation have furnished us with these pamphlets describing

[00:102:17.900 – 00:102:22.300] our third legacy, one for each secretary of our neighborhood groups.

[00:102:22.300 – 00:102:32.400] We have available in the hall outside other copies which may be had as you leave the hall

[00:102:32.400 – 00:102:32.900] tonight.

[00:102:32.900 – 00:102:39.000] May we close this meeting by repeating the Lord’s Prayer.

[00:102:39.000 – 00:102:46.900] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[00:102:46.900 – 00:102:53.900] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:102:53.900 – 00:103:03.900] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[00:103:03.900 – 00:103:13.900] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, power, and glory

[00:103:13.900 – 00:103:15.800] forever and ever.

[00:103:15.800 – 00:103:16.300] Amen.

[00:98:22.500 – 00:98:29.400] And now to conclude, my dear friends, here is our bequest.

[00:98:29.400 – 00:98:33.700] Your third legacy.

[00:98:33.700 – 00:98:44.300] We, who are the older members of AA, bequeath to you, who are younger, these three legacies:

[00:98:44.300 – 00:98:54.100] The 12 Steps of Recovery, the 12 Traditions, and now the general services of AA.

[00:98:54.100 – 00:98:58.800] Two of these legacies have long been in your keeping.

[00:98:58.800 – 00:99:01.900] By the 12 Steps, we have recovered.

[00:99:01.900 – 00:99:07.200] By the 12 Traditions, we are achieving a superb unity.

[00:99:07.200 – 00:99:12.100] Being someday perishable, Dr.

[00:99:12.100 – 00:99:16.600] Bob and I now wish to deliver to the members of AA their third legacy.

[00:99:16.600 – 00:99:22.800] Since 1938, we and our friends have been holding it in trust for you.

[00:99:22.800 – 00:99:33.300] This legacy is the general headquarters of Alcoholics Anonymous, the foundation, the AA book, the Grapevine, and the general office.

[00:99:33.300 – 00:99:39.800] These are the principal services which have enabled our society to function and to grow.

[00:99:39.800 – 00:99:44.100] Acting on behalf of all, Dr.

[00:99:44.100 – 00:99:54.000] Bob and I ask that you, the members of AA, assume guidance of these services and guard them well.

[00:99:54.000 – 00:100:04.100] The future grou- growth, indeed the very survival of Alcoholics Anonymous, may

[00:100:04.100 – 00:100:12.800] one day depend on how prudently you guard these arms of service in the years to come.

[00:100:12.800 – 00:100:22.900] So, my dear friends, I again see

[00:100:22.900 – 00:100:24.800] our cathedral of the spirit.

[00:100:24.800 – 00:100:34.800] On its great floor, where one hundred and twenty thousand of us now stand in freedom,

[00:100:34.800 – 00:100:39.500] are inscribed our 12 Steps of Recovery.

[00:100:39.500 – 00:100:48.200] You and I have seen the great walls go up, buttressed by our 12 Traditions.

[00:100:48.200 – 00:100:56.500] And are becoming confident that they will maintain us always in unity.

[00:100:56.500 – 00:101:06.600] And now I am sure that you perceive with me that the spire is being affixed

[00:101:06.600 – 00:101:17.100] to our cathedral of the spirit, and the name of that spire shall be called Service, a

[00:101:17.100 – 00:101:23.800] beacon for all to see, a beacon to the million who don’t know.

[00:101:23.800 – 00:101:34.100] And may that spire, may its symbolic finger always point

[00:101:34.100 – 00:101:36.300] straight upward toward God.

[00:101:36.300 – 00:101:59.700] Thank

[00:101:59.700 – 00:102:06.000] you, Bill, for a most interesting and instructive talk.

[00:102:06.000 – 00:102:17.900] The foundation have furnished us with these pamphlets describing

[00:102:17.900 – 00:102:22.300] our third legacy, one for each secretary of our neighborhood groups.

[00:102:22.300 – 00:102:32.400] We have available in the hall outside other copies which may be had as you leave the hall

[00:102:32.400 – 00:102:32.900] tonight.

[00:102:32.900 – 00:102:39.000] May we close this meeting by repeating the Lord’s Prayer.

[00:102:39.000 – 00:102:46.900] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[00:102:46.900 – 00:102:53.900] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:102:53.900 – 00:103:03.900] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[00:103:03.900 – 00:103:13.900] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, power, and glory

[00:103:13.900 – 00:103:15.800] forever and ever.

[00:103:15.800 – 00:103:16.300] Amen.

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