THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, October 22, 1941
ALCOHOLICS HOLD CLEVELAND DINNER
CLEVELAND, Oct. 7.- Perhaps the strangest testimonial dinner ever held in this city took place Sunday evening. Nine hundred persons, all of them formerly addicted to drink, paid tribute to a former New York broker and an Akron physician who together started the movement known as “Alcoholics Anonymous.” Also honored were the women who introduced them and the first convert to the movement. So carefully guarded were the names of the participants that none appeared in news accounts. It was revealed that 16 northern Ohio groups were represented, that there are now approximately 6,000 members throughout the country, and that Greater Cleveland alone has 1,400 members who meet weekly in 18 units.
The leaders claim neither religious sanctions nor reform motives. Their success is based upon anonymity and upon the ideas that every confirmed alcoholic wants to quit drinking and feels a strong bond with other victims of the liquor habit. Each reformed drinker helps himself by locating and assisting another alcoholic to abstain completely.