TAR: ALGAED YOUTH reports on

T’S BIG news when a great univer-

sity, on its own initiative, under-
takes to give scientific aid to the for-
mation of thought and action of pri-
vate citizens toward a major social
problem. Yale University, in conduct-
ing its first School of Alcohol Studies
last summer, has rendered one of the
finest public services by a major Ameri-
can university in recent years.

This School of Alcohol Studies, the
first formal school of its kind in the
history of the United States, may prove
to be the beginning of a movement that
will focus the attention of the people of
the nation on the magnitude and com-
plexity of the alcohol problem. Un-
doubtedly this news will hearten many
people who had begun to despair.

~The School now becomes a permanent
part of Yale. It is under the direction
of Dr. E. M. Jellinek, Associate Pro-
fessor of Applied Physiology.

The purpose of the School was to
train community leaders to combat al-
coholism through a scientific under-
standing of its consequences. In this, its
first session, it devoted itself not only
to alcoholism—or excessive drinking—
but to many other angles of the alco-
hol problem. It brought together sev-
enty-nine men and women, who, in the
course of six weeks of intensive study,
received a scientific grounding in the
fundamental problems of alcohol and
what science knows about them. The
students represented every part of the
country and every aspect of interest in
the alcohol problem. They included
Anti-Saloon League superintendents,
W.C.T.U. workers, Salvation Army of-
ficers, social workers in prisons, com-
munities, and cities, probation officers,
pastors, church editors, denominational
secretaries, a Catholic priest, a Munici-
pal Court judge, high school and ele-
mentary school principals and teach-
ers, college deans and professors, state
departments of education representa-
tives, members of Alcoholics Anony-
mous, officials of liquor control com-
missions, and distillery representatives.
Allied Youth was represented by W.
Roy Breg, its Executive Secretary. Two
other members of its staff, Bert H.
Davis and Frances Marsden, visited the
School and attended some of its ses-
sions.

Two hundred and forty people ap-
plied for admission. Seventy-nine were
accepted. The School was not sponsored
by any organization outside of the Uni-
versity, but received the cooperation of
the National Education Association and

September, 1943

YALE UNIVERSITY’S
School On

the Federal Council of Churches of
Christ in America in nominating those
who received Fellowships. The Univer-
sity provided from its own funds the
expenses of the School and the Fellow-
ships which were awarded to many of
the student body.

These major subjects were treated:
physiological aspects; alcohol and traf-
fic; personality, constitution, and al-
cohol; statistics of the alcohol prob-
lem; social measures in the prevention
of inebriety; legislative controls of the
alcoholic beverage trade; and religion
and prevention and treatment of alco-
holism.

In addition to Dr. Jellinek, Dr. How-
ard W. Haggard, Director of the Lab-

oratory of Applied Physiology at Yale,

and the Rev. Francis J. McPeek
directed the School. Lecturers included
Dwight Anderson, LL. B., Director,
Public Relations, Medical Society of
the State of New York; Andras Angyal,
M. D., Ph. D., Director of Research,
Worcester State Hospital; Ralph S.
Banay, M.D., Lecturer in Criminal Psy-
chopathology, New York University,
College of Medicine; Donald S. Berry,
Ph. D., Director, Traffic and Transpor-
tation Division, National Safety Coun-
cil; Neil A. Dayton, M. D., Superin-
tendent, Mansfield State Training
School and Hospital; John Dollard,
Ph.D., Research Associate Professor of
Social Anthropology, Yale University;
Edward B. Dunford, LL.D., Attorney-
at-Law, Washington, D. C.; Halbert L.
Dunn, M. D., Chief Statistician, U. S.
Bureau of the Census; Haven Emerson,
M.D., Columbia University, College of
Physicians and Surgeons; Leon A.
Greenberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
Applied Physiology, Yale University;
Rev. Seward Hiltner, Executive Secre-
tary, Commission on Religion and
Health of the Federal Council of
Churches; Norman Jolliffe, M.D., As-
sociate Professor of Medicine, New
York University, College of Medicine;
Lawrence W. Kolb, M.D., Assistant
Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health
Service; Benjamin Malzberg, PhD.,
Statistician, Department of Mental
Health, State of New York; Anne Roe,
Ph.D., Secretary, Psychological Section,
New York Academy of Sciences; En-

Alcohol

Because of the great significance of
this School on Alcohol Studies, THE
ALLIED YOUTH will feature addi-
Watch

tional articles concerning it.
for them in later issues.

Studies

voy J. Stanley Shappard, Director,
Men’s Prison Bureau, The Salvation
Army; and Harry M. Tiebout, M.D.,
Physician-in-charge, Blythewood Sani-
tarium.

This School was out after facts. Its
purpose was to get the students to re-
ceive an understanding of how great and
complex the alcohol problem is. It was
pointed out that over-simplification is
disastrous. People working in this field
should be trained; they should have all
of the knowledge science has available.
This School taught a new respect for
the handling of scientific information.
Allied Youth will test everything it
presents in its publications, its pro-
grams, and on the platform by the
yardstick of this School.

The emphases in the future will: be
along the following lines:

1. Alcohol generally impairs the
psychological functions as to judgment,
skill, and dexterity.

2. Alcohol causes a loss of efficiency
when viewed from the standpoint of
performance of tasks.

3. It has been disproved that liquor
will provide strength.

4. Alcohol does. not relieve fatigue.

5. It is not a stimulant.

6. Alcohol affects the higher func-
tions of the brain, impairing them.

7. Small and medium amounts of al-
cohol have this effect, sometimes right
after taking alcoholic beverages, when
impairment has been found to be of a
surprisingly high degree. ;

8. There is evidence of sedative ef-
fect of small amounts of alcohol and
in large amounts it is an anesthetic.

9. The nutritional aspects of drink-
ing must be given serious consideration.

Those who studied at Yale this past
summer and participated in the fel-
lowship of this School will feel the ef-
fects for a lifetime. They plan to re-
turn for a few days next summer near
the close of the 1944 Summer Session
for a refresher course.

As has been mentioned, this School
of Alcohol Studies is now a permanent
feature of Yale. There a staff is being
built to conduct. research. Their find-

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