Page 2
University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 6, 1958
Churches Fight Alcoholism
American churches are soft-pedaling their ancient differences over temperance in order to wage common war against alcoholism.
They are learning that they can work together against excessive use of alcohol without necessarily seeing eye-to-eye on the morality of moderate drinking.
All Christian bodies teach that temperance is a virtue and that drunkenness is a sinful abdication of the power of self-control, but for generations, there have been two sharply conflicting schools of thought about what temperance means.
Some denominations, like the Methodists and Baptists, have held that it means total abstinence from alcoholic beverages.
Others, like the Catholics and Episcopalians, have held that it means being temperate—that is, restricting consumption to appropriate times and places, and to quantities that will not produce intoxication.
Neither of these viewpoints has been abandoned. But there is a strong tendency among churches to declare a truce in the dispute about moderate drinking and stress their universal concern about the spreading blight of alcoholism.
Last month, for the first time in its history, the National Council of Churches adopted an official policy statement on the alcohol problem. It was endorsed by representatives of 34 denominations who sit on the council's general board.
The statement was notably devoid of the self-righteous tone which once characterized many Church pronouncements on the demon rum.
It treated the nation's 5,000,000 alcoholies, not as moral lepers, but as sufferers who desperately
need the "healing ministry" of the Christian Church.
"We recognize that once drinking has passed a certain point, it becomes alcoholism, an affliction which cannot be met effectively by the unaided efforts of the victims," the church leaders said.
"We recognize the complex origins of alcoholism and excessive drinking in social pressures, emotional instability, bodily functioning and the nature of alcohol itself."
The statement acknowledged "Differences of conscientious conviction" on whether the prevention of alcoholism requires total abstinence or legal prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages.
"Alcoholics are persons in need of diagnosis, understanding, guidance and treatment. They are especially in need of pastoral care and the divine love which the church can bring them."
But it said that even those churches which regard all drinking as evil have an obligation to extend competent and sympathetic help to alcoholics and their families.
The statement was heartening to groups, such as the National Council of Alcoholism, which have been trying to organize an effective fight against the affliction which now ranks as America's number four public health problem.
One authority said its potential impact may be comparable to that of the historic resolution which the American Medical Association adopted in November, 1956. The AMA resolution officially recognized alcoholism as a "treatable disease" and called on all doctors and hospitals to accept alcoholics as patients.
What the AMA said to the medical profession, The National Council of Churches has now said to the ministry.
United Press
Book Review
"The Unsilent Generation"
What does this generation think about democracy, religion, happiness, success, education, love, marriage and moral problems? What do we want from life? What are our goals? How do we plan to attain those goals?
These are some of the questions which have been asked by the adult world, and because we have not given obvious answers we have been called the "silent" generation.
An Answer To The Adult World
In an answer to the anxious questions asked by today's adults Otto Butz, professor at Princeton University in an interesting book called the "Unsilent Generation" presents an anonymous symposium of 11 college seniors' views of themselves and their world. Mr. Butz selected 12 seniors whom he had met in classes and seminars, from Princeton's undergraduate student center. "I could not possibly pretend to any scientifically representative sample, I resigned myself . . . to operating by rule of thumb. I would select at random twelve who struck me as more or less ordinary . . . who would likely be literate and conscientious enough to be able to write the desired essays and have them completed by graduation. By graduation only one of the 12 boys—because of illness—had not come through." Mr. Butz stated in his foreword.
One would immediately question the value of a set of eleven essays written by eleven senior men from one particular university. The logical question is, "How representative are these essays of the whole?"
In answer, Mr. Butz says "In any scientific, statistical sense these essays cannot, of course claim to be representative, either of the younger generation of Americans as a whole or even of the undergraduate body of Princeton University. Nor are some of the motivations, ideas and experiences of these young men wholly admirable. Yet whatever one may think of the substance of what they have written about themselves and their world, there is one quality which one cannot deny them: a truly remarkable capacity for self-awareness and an uncompromising insistence on honesty with themselves."
A Realistic Presentation
This writer would go one step
further. The "Unsilent Generation" seems to present a realistic glance into the minds of today's youth. At least of today's college youth. As Mr. Butz honestly admits, the collection of eleven different boys' views could not clearly describe the feelings and emotions of each young man and woman in America.
But at points in each of these essays we are able to say "Yes, I have felt that way," or "This is something, I too, have experienced." On some of the points, especially those dealing with religion or moral ideals, we may disagree violently with all the men's opinions. Yet we are honestly able to say, "I disagree, personally, but I know a boy or a girl who does believe this."
One of the boys, for instance, came from a broken home and was encouraged by foster parents to go to Princeton. Another came from a wealthy family who lived in a restricted upper class section of their home town. Some of the boys had "lived" a great deal in their 23 years of existence and yet others were just beginning to make some of the important decisions for themselves.
Mr. Butz was extremely fortunate in selecting "at random" boys of such a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
Two excerpts from the “Unsilent Generation” illustrate contrasting degrees of the importance of religion to two boys: “And where, I’ve sometimes been asked, does God fit into this scheme of mine? The truth is that religion has become a very touchy subject with me. When I look at the world around me, I find it difficult to conceive of an omnipotent, all-good, fatherlike deity. Such a deity wouldn't permit the pain and suffering that exists.
Some of the boys were indifferent to religion, some rejected and ignored Christianity and others were devout Christians whose lives centered around the church.
About Religion
"It seems to me that the deity can be all-good and fatherlike only if he is infinite. But if he is really infinite, he must be very sadistic to allow the things he does. The argument that God tortures
us to test our faith is so much bull to me, because if he's truly infinite, he knows how we will react. He doesn't need to test the faith of tiny infants in India by letting them starve to death! I prefer to believe in no god at all rather than this kind of a god."
Another view: "By now it should be obvious to the reader that I take my religion very seriously. It is with me day and night, seven days a week. I have relatively little formal education in my religion. Only my last years of high school and one year at the University of Santa Clara were spent in Catholic schools. Although I try to be a good Catholic and to follow the precepts of the Church, there are many little things taught by it that I have trouble agreeing with. Despite my doubts, however, I feel that to a great extent I have retained my religion.
The "silent generation" has perhaps been silent, not because it has nothing to say. but because it has not often been asked to speak.
"Princeton has been a terribly corroding influence. But I hope that after I get away from this atmosphere of questioning everything, I will be able to regain and strengthen my faith and once more accept what it teaches in toto."
Evelyn Hall
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904, trieweek 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
trieweek 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Extension 251, news room Extension 376, business room
Member Inland Daily Press Association,
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by
Madison Avenue, Madison Ave., New York. N. Y.
News service: United Press. Mail subscription
rates $3 a semester or $450 a year. Pub-
lished 24-hourly ond during the University year except
Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays,
and examination periods. Entered
at Lawrence, Kau. post office under act of
March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Dick Brown
Boston, Bob Hardy,
Mary Beth
Noyes, Malecmil
Managing Editors; LeRoy Lord, City
Editor; Martha Croisier, Jack Harrison,
Michael Jones, Jason Parker,
Telegraph Editor; Mary Alden,
tant Telegraph Editor; George Anthan,
Shoots Editor; Bob Macy, Assistant
Shoots Editor; Society
Editor; Ron Miller, Picture Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Del Haley ... Editorial Editor
New Library Book
"South of the Heart" is the latest in the field of novels set in the romantic desert wastes of Arabia and North Africa, settings that generations of readers have found appealing. This is a new book to be found in Watson Library.
The port of Rosario, Argentina, on the Rio Parana, is the urban hub of the maize district in Argentina and ships more maize than any other port in the world.
Mary Katherine Goddard of Connecticut was the first woman to work for the United States government. She was postmaster of Baltimore from 1775 to 1789.
SCIENCE MADE SIMPLE: NO. 2
Though this column is intended solely as a vehicle for well-tempered drollery, the makers of Mariboro have agreed to let me use this space from time to time for a short lesson in science. They are the most decent and obliging of men, the makers of Mariboro, as anyone can tell from sampling their product. Only from bounteous hearts could come such a lot to like—such filter, such flavor, such flip-top box. The filter works; the flavor pleases; the box protects. Who can resist such a winning combination? Surely not I.
Today let us take up the science of medicine, which was invented in 1066 by a Greek named Hippocrates. He soon gathered around him a group of devoted disciples whom he called "doctors." The reason he called them "doctors" was that they spent all their time sitting around the dock and shooting the breeze. In truth, there was little else for them to do because disease was not invented until 1477.
After that, doctors became very busy, but it must be admitted that their knowledge of medicine was lamentably meagre. They knew only one treatment—a change of climate. For example, a French doctor would send all his patients to Switzerland. A Swiss doctor, on the other hand, would send all his patients to France. By 1789 the entire population of France was living in Switzerland, and vice versa. This later became known as the Black Tom Explosion.
Not until 1924 did medicine, as we know it, come into being. In that year in the little Bavarian village of Pago-Pago an elderly physician named Winko'Sigafoos discovered the hot water bottle. He was, of course, burned as a witch, but his son Lydia, disguised as a linotype, made his way to America where he invented the Mayo Brothers.
Medicine, as it is taught at your very own college, can be divided roughly into two classifications. There is internal medicine, which is the treatment of interns, and external medicine, which is the treatment of externs.
Diseases also fall into two broad categories—chronic and acute. Chronic disease is, of course, inflammation of the chron, which can be mighty painful, believe you me! Last summer my cousin Haskell was stricken with a chron attack while he was out picking up tinfoil, and it was months before the wretched boy could straighten up. In fact, even after he was cured, Haskell continued to walk around bent over double. This went on for several years before Dr. Caligari, the lovable old country practitioner who treats Haskell, discovered that Haskell had his trousers buttoned to his vest.
Two years ago Haskell had Addison's disease. (Addison, curiously enough, had Haskell's.) Poor Haskell catches everything that comes along. Lovable old Dr. Caligari once said to him, "Son, I guess you are what they call a natural born catcher."
"The joke is on you, Doc," replied Haskell. "I am a third basemen." He thereupon fell into such a fit of giggling that the doctor had to put him under sedation, where he is to this day.
But I digress. We were discussing medicine. I have now told you all I can; the rest is up to you. Go over to my med school and poke around. Bring popeorn and watch an operation. X-ray each other. Contribute to the bone bank . . . And remember, medicine can be fun!
The makers of Marlboro cigarettes bring you filter, flavor, flip-top box, and ON CAMPUS WITH MAX SHULMAN throughout the school year.