nual bulletin for 1942, show these figures:
Percentage of increase from 1941
to 1942 of girls under 21 arrested
for drunkenness and driving while
EC ci ee 36.0
Percentage of increase from 1941
to 1942 of boys under 21 arrested
for drunkenness and driving while
WELCOME ooo oe ae: 25.3
Percentage of increase from 1941
to 1942 of girls under 21 arrested
for disorderly conduct and
i. seeps ance 102.1
Percentage of increase from 1941
to 1942 of girls under 21 arrested
for prostitution and other sex
I hs 80.1

“Arrests of girls under 21 for prostitu-
tion and commercialized vice,’ the report
goes on to state, “showed a 64.8 percent
increase last year; those arrested for other
sex offenses increased 104.7 percent;
vagrancy arrests increased 124.3 percent;
and girls under 21 arrested for drunken-
ness and disorderly conduct showed in-
creases during 1942 of 39.9 percent and
69.6 percent respectively.”

Says Director J. Edgar Hoover in this
connection: ‘The alarming upswing in
crime among women and girls points to the
need for renewed efforts to keep the home
front clean, wholesome, and strong. Boom
conditions and ‘easy money’ in the hands
of youthful persons, together with a pos-
sible let-down in the influence of the
home, are factors that must be offset in
designing programs to combat the general
upswinging crime curve.”

“To what extent,’ I want to ask all
American educators, “is the school obli-
gated toward ‘designing programs to com-
bat the general upswinging crime curve,’
especially as this applies to drinking by
students?”

These same reports show that 10,384
young men and young women between the
ages of 15 and 21 were arrested last year
for drunkenness alone. An _ additional
2,140 were arrested for driving while in-
toxicated, while still another 1,014 were
arrested for violation of liquor laws.

With what weapons are we to combat
these soaring increases, and the multitude
of human problems that they indicate?

The Navy, speaking through the man
who has been placed in charge of its physi-
cal fitness program, believes that research
and education are the long-term measures
that will prove effective in reducing drink-
ing among young people.

Youth needs to know the true nature of
alcohol as a beverage, as only scientific re-
search and sound education can give it
convincingly.

Youth must rely upon today’s educa-
tional leadership. The burden falls square-
ly upon the shoulders of those who teach
and upon those who are responsible for
what is taught.

September, 1943

. 3
Let's Leam
about ie alcoholic

by
Nathan Adler

Social Worker, San Quentin Prison
Welfare Worker, Hebrew Association

HAT WOULD you think of a medi-

cal program suggesting that people
suffering from cancer and tuberculosis he
shackled and thrown into barred cells? It
is not an extravagant idea. Only 150 years
ago we treated the mentally ill that way,
chaining and confining them in prisons.
Democratic France in 1789 first struck the
chains from the insane and began a mod-
ern, scientific, hospital program.

We are too humane and enlightened to
jail sick people today and we would view
with horror the imprisonment of the tuber-
cular or cancerous patient. Still, in most
cities and counties of our country, we
throw the chronic alcoholic addict into
jail.

Quite properly we have been upset in
viewing the victim of chronic alcoholism.
We have rejected his irresponsibility, his
failure to his family, his job, and his coun-
try. The alcoholic is a parasite in the com-
munity and so we wanted to get rid of him
as, formerly, we rid ourselves of the insane.
In our zeal to protect the rest of the com-
munity from the alcoholic our approach
emphasized the isolation and punishment
of the chronic drinker instead of his cure.

Who is the alcoholic? What is his illness?
Can he be cured?

It is not enough to say that the alcoholic
has little character or will power. We have
to ask why he is an addict and cannot
control his drinking. Modern psychology,
after many studies, suggests that the alco-
holic is suffering certain psychopathic dis-
abilities which it calls neurotic. The addic-
tion of the alcoholic is likely to be a com-
promise to keep him from developing even
worse mental diseases. The alcoholic is a
person who, though he may have grown
up physically, has never grown up emo-
tionally. He has failed to make the adjust-
ments and establish the relationships ex-
pected of an adult. Although he is grown
up he is still infantile in his attitudes and
in his dependency on the people with
whom he forms emotional attachments. He
has never developed resourcefulness so
that he can find recreation that is satis-
fying, work that is meaningful, and the
kind of relationship with his parents, his
brothers and sisters, and his wife that can
give him security and happiness.

An emotional and mental cripple, who
has never developed the security and tran-

quillity that come from a normal and
healthy childhood, the alcoholic uses
liquor as a social crutch.

Our mental hospitals are full of people
whose illness began with frustration, a
feeling of insecurity, and an anxiety they
could not control. People suffering from
the same difficulties, but to a lesser de-
gree, need not become insane. They are
handicapped, however, and require treat-
ment from properly trained physicians.
The alcoholic is in a similar predicament,
and, furthermore, faces additional compli-
cations.

The alcoholic addict as a result of his
excessive drinking is frequently slowly
starving himself to death. Alcohol, taken
in sufficient quantity, has enough calories
to keep him from feeling hungry. But al-
cohol has no proteins, no minerals, no vita-
mins—all of which are required to main-
tain, replace and build body tissue and
supply the necessary nourishment for his
normal physical functions. As a result of
the lack of vitamins and of his under

nourishment the alcoholic is liable to de-

velop diseases of the skin, like pellagra,
nerve diseases of his arms and legs, called
neuritis, and certain types of insanity.

Is this the type of man we want to

throw into an overcrowded jail cell, fre-

quently with no medical care or super-
vision? Shall we place this man, already
seriously undernourished, on the poor diets
our prisons and jails offer?

It is unchristian to reject even the least
and the worst of men. While we proceed to
prevent the disease by intelligent alcohol
education: by bringing up healthy, happy
youth with the resources within them-
selves to find wholesome recreation, satis-
fying work, and meaningful associations
and relationships with other men and
women, it is necessary to engage in an en-
ergetic treatment program for the existing
alcoholic.

As in other fields, the study of the abnor-
mal teaches us about the normal, so in .
treating the alcoholic we can learn more
about preventive work. Furthermore, in
curing the addict, we will be removing one
source of infection in the community. We
will isolate those who are incurable and
treat effectively those who can respond to
treatment. The thousands of dollars now
spent in each city and county with little
effect, merely in turning the drunkards in
and out of jail on a perpetual merrygo-
round, can be spent fruitfully, so that it
gets results.

No disease has ever been successfully
combated while people have been ashamed
of it and whispered about it. It is time to
smoke alcoholism out into the light of day.
Instead of helping families hide the shame
of the alcoholic, we have the responsibility

Continued on page 8

Page Five