DIGEST OF PROCEEDINGS AT DINNER GIVEN BY MR. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER JR., IN THE INTEREST OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, AT UNION CLUB, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 8, 1940.

Mr. Nelson Rockefeller, after the dinner, called the meeting to order and expressed regret that his father would be unable to be present, but that Mr. Scott, president of Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc., would take over the meeting at this point, Mr. SCOTT: “It is a very difficult situation to pinch hit for Mr. Rockefeller, but Nelson and I have agreed between us that we are going to do the best we can. Mr. Rockefeller asked me particularly to say how much interested he was in the work that is being done and how very sorry he is that he cannot be here, and how much he appreciates the fact that you gentlemen have come out to hear what is to be said. My own experience with this group dates back to December 1937. I was asked to attend a meeting in Rockefeller Center and I met some fifteen or eighteen men there and I heard a story that thrilled me from the start. Mr. Wilson, Dr. Smith, Mr. Mayo and some of the others who are here tonight told of their experience in getting control over alcoholism. The thing that particularly impressed me as a business man was that this was done without any theatrics, without any strong appeal to the emotions, without any effects or any activities which perhaps a conservative person might criticize. What they had done, it seemed to me, had gone back to the techniques of primitive Christianity, where one person told the good news to another. And it did not seem to make much difference whether the person they told it to was a Jew, a Protestant, a Catholic or nothing at all. If he observed the techniques which had been developed and reached out into the unknown and asked for help, the help came. I’am not here to make a speech but to introduce the other speakers. I first want to introduce my friend Bill Wilson, who is at my right. Of this group Bill Wilson here has been the leader. He is almost, if not entirely, the originator of the undertaking. I know you will all want to hear from Mr. Wilson, and now I present him to you–Bill Wilson.”

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

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

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well. Moreover we felt that we ought to have a book which would sand inquiries. Fortunately these inquiries are on the whole represent a pool of our experience down to that particular very good material, because they emanate from people and time, feeling that enough had been proved to be surely of dis- families who have tried about everything else. Those men and tinct help. Another thing we felt necessary was the matter those women having alcoholic trouble who write in and demand of getting the advice and counsel of people outside our group. personal contact are prima facie good prospects. And so it was that the Alcoholic Foundation came into being. The results, so far as percentages go, are beginning to be Well, then the book was written and that book, I hope, has impressive with the lapse of time. Enough has been demonstrated no theory in it. It is all our own experience as we see it, and it to be worth while, eminently worth while. But what the final sets out in detail the methods that we employ, so that an alco- verdict of medicine will be I do not know. We have here holic at a distance, be he a person of enough determination tonight Dr. Blaisdell, who is head of the Rockland State Hospital. and substance, can take hold of that hook, follow its directions The doctor thinks enough of us to allow us to talk to comand get well. As in fact some men seem now to be doing alone. mitted alcoholic cases, and ten of them have been liberated since To continue with what had happened out in Akron. By the last summer. About twenty more are just now coming out. time the book was published last April there were about one hun- Our group over in Jersey numbers, oh, say forty. I should dred of us, the majority of them in the West. Although we have no exact figures, in counting heads recently, we think it fair to think about one-third of that group are people who have come state that of all the people who have been seriously interested in out of Overbrook, the county place over there. And we have this thing since the beginning, one-half have had no relapse at all. some men in this room who have been out of Greystone for a About 25% are having some trouble, or have had some trouble, year or so without any relapse. We are finding that the asylum but in our judgment will recover. The other 25% we do not boys and girls. as we call them, are very good prospects, proknow about. vided they are not otherwise impaired. It is obviously not difficult to convince them that they are “behind the 8 ball.” And if we In Akron the club had got up to a membership of forty or carry that conviction to a man once, he accepts a spiritual solufifty when some people in Cleveland began to hear about it. One tion for his difficulties rapidly. of those fellows was a chap who is here tonight, by the name of Clarence Snyder. Clarence began to work around among people To date, more than 400 of us know that we have found an in Cleveland and began to attend Akron meetings-this goes back answer to the alcoholic riddle. some two years-so little by little a nucleus was formed in Cleve- So that is, in effect, what is going on, and the opportunity of land of people who were getting well. coming here to tell you gentlemen about it is deeply appreciated By this same spilling over method two men appeared after a by all of us of Alcoholics Anonymous.” time in Chicago, and in the fall of this year they were joined by a woman alcoholic who had some means and spare time. I was Mr. Scott then introduced Dr. Foster Kennedy as one who there, for the first time, by the way, about two weeks ago. I has been in touch with this group and who knows about what found thirty people there in that Chicago group whom I had they are doing. ending in these words: “I suppose most of you never seen. Twenty-six of them had had no relapse. know Dr. Kennedy by reputation. But for fear that there may be some obscure people here who do not, let me say that he is a The book is finding its way over the country. It is being used neurologist, born and trained as a physician in Ireland and Engby doctors and sanitariums. The Alcoholic Foundation, to date, land. He is now Professor of the Clinical Division of Cornell as the result of publicity and the book, has had about a thou- Medical University, and in charge of Alcoholics in Bellevue. He

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want to say one thing about him in addition to this other quali- cohol. There is a particular appeal in any movement that promties. I consider him my guide, counselor and friend. Dr. Fosdick. ises to rescue men like these from their thralldom.

DR. FOSDICK: Mr. Chairman and friends: I suppose we all Dr. Foster Kennedy, speaking from the standpoint of the wish that this problem of alcoholism could he solved by pre- scientific medical man, has expressed his interest in this movevention rather than cure.. There is a famous test of sanity: ment. As a minister I am interested too, because cases in this namely, turn a faucet into a basin and ask the patient to dip field are laid month after month upon the minister’s doorsill. out the basin. If he starts to dip out the basin without turn- Just as Dr. Kennedy would say that a certain measure of success ing off the faucet first he is probably an imbecile; if he has sense attends the efforts of the neurologist, so a minister would say that enough to turn off the faucet first the chances are he is normal. a certain amount of success attends his efforts. We all of us have We wish we could turn this faucet of alcoholism off. I don’t happy memories of cases that have come to us, in one degree or know bow we are going to do it. We tried prohibition and that another the victims of alcohol, and we have helped to get them did not work. But I sincerely hope that this movement which on their feet, have brushed them off and sent them back high, starts on the curative side of dipping out those who have fallen wide and handsome. But the percentage of failures is appalling, into alcoholism may indicate a coming psychological revolution and there comes a place where the degree of obsession is so in this country against the mad extremes to which the use of terrific, as Mr. Wilson has pointed out, that a minister is baffled, alcohol is going, and that it may lead to preventive measures. and turns frantically wherever he can hope to find some help.

In the meantime, however, we face the need of helping out There are two or three special reasons why this movement those who fall under the spell of this habit. Just as we all would which has been presented to you tonight interests me and seems like to have an economic system that would abolish poverty, but to me to have unusual promise in it. In the first place, this idea stil1 face the fact that the poor are here who must he helped, so of setting an ex-alcoholic to catch an alcoholic is good. You is it with alcoholism. remember the title of Charles Reade’s novel, “Put Yourself in His Place.” You cannot really help a man in tragedy unless you can There is a particular reason why the appeal of the alcoholic put yourself in his place. What good am I, then, in dealing with is strong. Alcoholism does not affect simply the riffraff of hu- an alcoholic? I cannot stand liquor; I go to sleep on a glass of manity. It commonly afflicts some of the most charming, lovable wine; I could not be a drunkard if I wanted to; I don’t like the and valuable people in the community. Every one here, going taste of alcohol, hate the effect of it, cannot stand it. Now a back over the recollection of his friends, would at once validate fellow who is in the grip of alcoholism comes to me. I cannot that statement. The alcoholics that I have known have com- put myself in his place. There are certain areas where I can monly been among the most charming, convivial, and congenial help people. I can help people in Dr. Foster Kennedy’s realm. people. I well remember one of the handsomest men in college for the simple reason that I have been through a complete in my day, one of the best musicians, one of the best students. nervous breakdown, and with all due respect to the neurologists, I never will forget in his senior year his meeting me one night once in a while I think I can supplement what they do. For on the campus-we had all been worried about his condition – while a neurologist knows more in a minute about a nervous and throwing his arms around me, saying, “Fosdick, it has got breakdown than I do in a week, there are a lot of them who have me, it has got me.” Well, it had. He was fired from college and never been through a nervous breakdown themselves. So I often a year or two later forged his father’s check and shot himself. help in cases that come to me in various stages of nervous decom- Every one of us can remember these lovable, able, efficient, position. The other day I said to a young neurotic, who started charming personalities that have fallen under the curse of al. to tell me how he felt, “Wait a minute, you don’t need to tell me

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is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society one valid thing in the book is the recognition of the seriousness in London and served during the World War with distinction. of addiction to alcohol. Other than this, the book has no scien- And if you are interested in the further record of his degrees tific merit or interest.” . . . Dr. Kennedy continued: and medals, I refer you to Who’s Who. “I did not like that review much and I sent a letter to the DR. KENNEDY: “Gentlemen, I am exceedingly glad to be here. editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and I had a friend and patient who became interested in this move- asked him to put it among the, oh, trivia, or whatever they would ment. She had a very unhappy, in fact quite desperate situation. put it in. But he wrote a very decent letter hack and said he It has not been one of the complete successes of this group, but thought no good purpose could be served by publishing my letter. she at least has stayed in the course longer with the aid of these One never likes to see one’s child aborted, so I thought I would ideas than at any other time in her adult life, and the effect of read you my reply here: these doses still is working in her and I believe she will reach “Sir: health. I am sure she will. An unsigned review appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association October 14th of ‘Alcoholics I don’t think I ought to make a long speech. You have been Anonymous,’ the story of how more than 100 men have told in simple and most affecting language the story of this move- recovered from alcoholism. The cheapish tone of the rement. I think I perhaps might be allowed, if it has not already view is surely a reflection on the thoughtfulness, the exbeen spoken of before I was able to get here, to speak of a review perience, and the innate kindliness of the reviewer, and that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Asso- not at all indicative of lack of humane spirit in the Journal. ciation.” The aim of those concerned in this effort against alco- MR. Scott: “It has not been referred to.” holism is high, their success has been considerable and I believe medical men of good will should aid these decent Dr. Kennedy then read to the audience a review which ap people rather than loftily condemn them for not being peared in the Journal of the American Medical Association of scientific. the 14th of October. It was a review of the book ‘*Alcoholics One might ask the reviewer to produce a book on the Anonymous.” At the outset the reviewer spoke of the serious- subject of alcoholism concocted by him out of “pure ness of the psychiatric and social problem represented by addic- science.” Medicine, surely, is Science touched with emotion to alcohol, stating: “Many psychiatrists regard addiction to tion. It is quicker and more precious in vivo than in alcohol as having a more pessimistic prognosis than schizo- vitro. This group of workers I have regarded as enlisting phrenia. . . .” Belief and the herd-instinct to fortify and implement emotionally men’s actions. In doing so they have chosen well- “Schizophrenia,” Dr. Kennedy interpolated, “is at the mo- tried weapons. It would be unfortunate if the opinion of your “Cynic Anonymous” be given too wide credence by ment the fashionable name for dementia praecox. That is the our profession which has never before refused to use faith progress that has been made regarding this disease in thirty to move mountains.” years. (Laughter) Each ten years we medicos have another name I thank you. for these things and it is wrong now to speak of schizophrenia as dementia praecox. But it is a serious condition.” In presenting the next speaker, Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick. D.D., Mr. Scott said in part: In continuing with. the review which described “Alcoholics Anonymous” ” a curious combination of organizing propaganda “I will not attempt to introduce Dr. Fosdick to this audience. and religious exhortation” . . . and closed with the words: “The I know of course that you all know him perfectly well. I simply

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how you feel. Let me tell you how you feel.” I gave him a blue- He was not a religious man. He came into this experience out print o f all the feelings and thoughts that were going on inside of fairly pugnacious agnosticism. Confined in an asylum, laid up of him, and when I was through he said, “My God, how did you by alcoholism, he reached the end of his rope, hopeless, no way know that?” I could put myself in his place, but I cannot do it out at all, until one day he said, If there be a God I will throw with an alcoholic. myself back on any God there is. Here is a discovery, it seems to me, on the part of people who come from Judaism, Roman Now comes a movement, an astonishingly apt and pertinent Catholicism, Protestantism and agnosticism, of one of the most movement. where men who have been in the thick of this thing, elemental experiences in religion,-the inner tapping of resources who have faced the hopelessness of the situation, who have felt of power beyond ourselves. A whipped man morally feels like a that they never could get well, have found resources of strength pool that is exhausted. It is as though all the strength he had and have come out and there is not a thing about alcoholism were a pool on the surface of his life, and the sun has been too they do not know. I think that psychologically speaking there hot and it has dried up, there is nothing more for him to rely is a point of advantage in the approach that is being made in on. Then he discovers this elemental religious experience and this movement that cannot be duplicated. I suspect that if it is he does not feel like a pool any more but like a river; there is a wisely handled-and it seems to be in wise and prudent hands- lot of water coming down from upstream if he will keep the there are doors of opportunity ahead of this project that may channels open; the sources of power are no longer so much in surpass our capacities to imagine. him as through him. Ruskin used that idea, you will remember, There is another element in this movement that interests in describing great artists, some of whom he said knew they were me-its tolerance, its breadth, its inclusiveness, its catholicity. If doing the best work that had ever been done, but they were this were a movement that thought it had a panacea, that had very humble about it because, said Ruskin, they all knew that the a neat exclusive formula, that was dogmatic about it, I would power was not in them but through them. To use the figure of have my fingers crossed. But here is a movement that puts its Prof. Wieman of the University of Chicago, it is as though’ a arm around medicine on one side and religion on the other and man could inwardly throw a switch and complete a circuit and says, we will take in everything that can help us, that crosses all lo, the waiting power comes in. A lot of these men, as I have boundaries of sect and creed and is ready to use any resources of touched this group, have gotten at God that way, not theoretiassistance that are available. These men are open-minded. not cally, not as a matter of speculation but rather in a moment of supposing that they have a neat formula that settles everything. despair they found out how to throw a switch and complete a I think the spirit in which this work is carried on is wise and circuit, and lo, something came into them. They call it God. promising. It is God. Still another element in this movement greatly concerns me. I remember as a boy I was brought up near Niagara Falls. Just as Dr. Kennedy would be interested in the medical aspects I was there when the turbines were put in at the power plant, of it, I am interested in the religious aspects of it. It is a move- and I shall never forget the first time I saw that man walking ment which treats on equal terms Jew. Roman Catholic, Prot- quietly around in the room in which their controls were located. estant and even agnostic. Mr. Wilson, I am right, am I not, you He was not creating power, he was releasing it. We never create told me you had always been an agnostic? power. Nobody ever created any of his own physical power. You do not blow on your hands and create power. All power MR. Wilson: Very much so. comes from assimilation, we take it in. These men have gotten Mr. FOSDICK: He did not say that when he spoke, but I think somehow at this inner core of religion, deeper than Judaism, it will help you to get this background of Mr. Wilson’s irreligion. deeper than Roman Catholicism, deeper than Protestantism,

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underlying them all, experienced in them all, so that men from all these different fields meet on equal terms in this group, and the agnostics come in too, who never have had any theories of God, but now have found His power. Throw a switch, complete the circuit1 Stop being a pool, become a river! Do not create power! You cannot! Release power! I call that an essential experience of religion, and I am interested to see a group that has run on it in this utterly unconventional. unorthodox way and is so inclusive, taking in all sorts and conditions of men from all kinds of religious and irreligious backgrounds, finding here the one spiritual dynamic that can lift a man out of the mire when nothing else can. Last of all, I admire the quietness, the anonymity with which this movement is carried on. Very small overhead financially, no big organization, nobody making anything out of it, no highsalaried staff, people for the love of it sharing with others the experience that has meant life to them-that is good work. No one is a prophet, but I suspect that there is a long road ahead of this movement.

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d’,: DINNER GIVEN FEBRUARY 8th, AT THE UNION CLUB BY MR. ROCKEFELLER; JR: ON BEHALF OF “ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS” .. Acceptances

Xhir. Frank B. Amos s-l,””&& Dr. Seth Milliken !-AA-” ff-s %c’ &~–d,Ifir. Gordon Auchincloss j “Mr. Dave H. Morris y(-Mr. Stephen Baker, 4 Mr. Gilbert H. Montague vX!r. James G. Blaine L-MI-. Charles F. Noyes .xDr. R. E. Blaisdell [C..r LC…T!~..(, I;&. Lewis E. Pierson ‘I\) Y StiL 3 CAL* ci (& – QqiDr. Godfrey L. Cabot i ‘.f’doXr. W. S. Richardson f &,+ki k-. William G. Creamer I?.+ .cm. v&!r. Stanley Resor Lincoln Cromwell ‘;EjLDr. George W. Riley Horace Crystal l Lti. C. M. Rodefer X74.x. James S.Cushman x&. William Ruddell rb~kt”‘;L Mr- Benjamin M. Day L&&&a. v&. Morgan Ryan XYz. B. R. Donaldson ljd!r. Nelson A. Rockefeller Jacob Gould Schurman, Jr. William J. Schieffelin h—-p77h ~%a I-. Albert L. Scott; D. R. Sharpe ; *Xr. Robert Garrett bMr. Carlton M. Sherwood 8y.y- Mr . Wm. Albert Harbison ‘1.$ i Mr . Robert A. Shaw 1 !?:.’,G-Lua-General James G. Harbord /’JfiC %Dr. W. D. Silkworth Leonard V. Harrison *a-. Clarence H. Snyder Buchanan Houston wDr. R. H. Smith Frank B. Jenett James M. Speers Foster Kennedy Allen A. Stockdale P. Kellogg ‘P Dr. Leonard V. Strong, Jr. Norman Klauder rMr. H. F. Taylor — Samuel H. ‘Kressh;f.ih,;cLm aj ‘-%r . Samuel Thorne C. Walther Lotte ~Mr. Thomas J. Watson Fitzhugh Mayo Wendell L. Willkie William H. Matthews (&-..-,a.& William Wilson Edwin G. Merrill IS ” iI.?r. Leslie R. Rounds

‘lh? lknvsr Post, c,:oiorec!o

.ROCKEFElmLER. HELPS ] j TO CURE’ ALCOHOLlGSi Joh~n il. Jr. Is Revealed as Financial Backer r%eEet Organization Which Regenerates Habitual Drunkards Into useful Citizens.

1 Secretly Helps I 1 ChronicDrunkti / New York,= (APL-John 1D. Rockefeller, Jr., who has triedto hide many of his philanthorpies and social reform activities under 1 the bushel of anonymity, was rejvealed today as interested in a I “secret” organization aimed’ at re- /generating alcoholics. 1 The organiaation is “Alcoholics ! Anonymous” which started when ! three men who overcame their craving for whisky and wanted to’ i1 help others in the same plight ba- 1gan the movement that today num-’ lbers 120. ‘. Rockefeller was host at dinner i last night to hear a repdrt on the ‘work of the men who hsve been cured or who are in the process of I re-establishing themselves on a more normal plane. I Rockefeller advocated prohibition but decided it was wrong after it fI had been tried twelve year& He rurged its repeal and financed a ‘survey of liquor control laws throughtout the world. After rei peal he became associated With the “Council for bXoderation” but with* drew because of *a disagreement Iover policy. 1 His Interest in ~Alooholics AnoWimous” apparently is a E6ntlnu&n I I of the work he has associated~himself with, for years. ’ ,. The organization came into be- / fng about four years ago to assist, ; anonymously and without publlaity, i chronic alcoholics in realalming j themselves. The work is carried on prim&l- 1 ly b y personal contact of e+alco- 1