1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer Articles - Part 51939 Cleveland Plain Dealer Articles
The first extensive publicity of the newly-formed AA Fellowship.
These articles are reprinted from the Cleveland Plain Dealer with
permission The Elrick B. Davis Articles From The Cleveland Plain Dealer
October - November 1939
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These articles appeared in the main Cleveland newspaper, the Plain
Dealer, just five months after the first A.A. group was formed in
Cleveland. The articles resulted in hundreds of calls for help from
suffering alcoholics who reached out for the hope that the fledgling
Alcoholics Anonymous offered.
The thirteen reliable members of the Cleveland group handled as many as
500 calls in the first month following the appearance of Davis' articles.
The following year Cleveland could boast 20 to 30 groups with hundreds of
members.
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October 21, 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here - Part 1
October 23, 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here - Part 2
October 24, 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here - Part 3
October 25, 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here - Part 4
October 26, 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here - Part 5
November 2, 1939, A Noted Divine Reviews "Alcoholics Anonymous"
November 4, 1939, A Physician Looks Upon Alcoholics Anonymous
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Reprinted from the October 26, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer with
permission Alcoholics Anonymous
Makes Its Stand Here Part 5
By Elrick B. Davis
In previous installments, Mr. Davis has told of Alcoholics Anonymous, an
informal society of drinking men who have joined together to beat the
liquor habit This is the last of five articles.
No Graft
It is hard for the skeptical to believe that no one yet has found a way
to muscle into Alcoholics Anonymous, the informal society of ex-drunks
that exists only to cure each other, and make a money-making scheme of
it. Or that someone will not. The complete informality of the society
seems to be what has saved it from that. Members pay no dues. The society
has no paid staff. Parties are "Dutch." Meetings are held at the homes of
members who have houses large enough for such gatherings, or in homes of
persons who may not be alcoholics but are sympathetic with the movement.
Usually a drunk needs hospitalization at the time that he is caught to
cure. He is required to pay for that himself. Doubtless he hasn't the
money. But probably his family has. Or his employer will advance the
money to save him, against his future pay. Or cured members of the
society will help him arrange credit, if he has a glimmer of credit left.
Or old friends will help.
At the moment members of the Cleveland Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
are searching the slum lodging houses to find a man, once eminent in the
city's professional life. A medical friend of his better days called them
in to find him. This friend will pay the hospital bill necessary to
return this victim of an "incurable" craving for drink to physical
health, if the society will take him on.
The society has published a book, called "Alcoholics Anonymous," which it
sells at $3.50. It may be ordered from an anonymous address, Works
Publishing Co., Box 657, Church Street Annex Postoffice, New York City;
or bought from the Cleveland Fellowship of the society. There is no money
profit for anyone in that book.
It recites the history of the society and lays down its principles in its
first half. Last half is case histories of representative cures out of
the first hundred alcoholics cured by membership in the society. It was
written and compiled by the New York member who brought the society to
Ohio. He raised the money on his personal credit to have the book
published. He would like to see those creditors repaid. It is a 400-page
book, for which any regular publisher would charge the same price. Copies
bought from local Fellowships net the local chapters a dollar each.
The Rev. Dr. Dilworth Lupton, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of
Cleveland, found in a religious journal an enthusiastic review of the
book by the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, and sent it to the president of
the local Fellowship. It has been similarly noted in some medical
journals.
The Foundation
To handle the money that comes in for the book, and occasional gifts from
persons interested in helping ex-drunks to cure other "incurable" drunks,
the Alcoholics Foundation has been established, with a board of seven
directors.
Three of these are members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Four are not
alcoholics, but New Yorkers of standing interested in humane movements.
Two of them happen also to be associated with the Rockefeller Foundation,
but that does not associate the two foundations in any way.
First problem of the Cleveland Fellowship was to find a hospital willing
to take a drunk in and give him the medical attention first necessary to
any cure. Two reasons made that hard. Hospitals do not like to have
alcoholics as patients; they are nuisances. And the society requires that
as soon as a drunk has been medicated into such shape that he can see
visitors, members of the society must be permitted to see him at any
time. That has been arranged. The local society would like to have a
kitty of $100 to post with the hospital as evidence of good faith. But if
it gets it, it will only be from voluntary contributions of members.
Meantime the members, having financed their own cures, spend enormous
amounts of time and not a little money in helping new members.
Psychiatrists say that if an alcoholic is to be cured, he needs a hobby.
His old hobby had been only alcohol. Hobby of Alcoholics Anonymous is
curing each other. Telephone calls, postage and stationery, gasoline
bills, mount up for each individual. And hospitality to new members. A
rule of the society is that each member's latch string is always out to
any other member who needs talk or quiet, which may include a bed or a
meal, at any time.
Contact:
The Legacy Group of Alcoholics Anonymous © 2005