A.A.'s Country-wide News Circuit

Recently the secretary of the newly formed Neosho, Mo., Group received a letter from a high school student at Grandby who said that his high school health class had been studying A.A. via magazines and requested literature and information on how A.A. is run, its financial backing and other features. The new secretary wrote in part, "The health point of view on A.A. is a hard one to grasp. We are not doctors nor scientists. We are amateurs, 40,000 strong, who have pooled our information, and who have many times been the guinea pigs for experiments which determined eventually what makes an alcoholic. The conclusions are simply this: Alcoholism is an incurable disease. Any alcoholic can arrest the ill effects and bodily ailments caused by drinking if he abstains. He can never drink normally, and perhaps never completely rid himself of the desire to drink. Alcoholism is the sixth greatest health menace in the United States, and those afflicted should be treated as people who are very ill. To finance our efforts we, as members, voluntarily take care of the expense we go to in order to help other alcoholics. There is, of course, a central office, and it is also kept solvent by voluntary contributions, the sale of the A.A. book and other literature. Should you need further explanation you should write to P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Annex, New York. Maybe this will make you the top man in your health class."