president of the North Conway Institute, an interfaith, totally ecumenical fellowship of lay people and clergymen.

We have been studying, praying, working, and waiting for a new or more effective way for the churches and synagogues of the United States to help all people prevent alcohol problems.

In addition to my responsibilities with the North Conway Institute, which is now permanently located in Boston, Mass., I am also a member of the newly created task force on alcohol problems of the National Council of Churches, which was created to do two things:

(A) Study the report of the federally financed cooperative commission on alcohol problems with special emphasis on Dr. Thomas Plaut's Book, "Alcohol Problems: A Report to the Nation," and

(B) To recommend to the National Council of Churches and through the National Council of Churches of Christ, United States of America, to its constituent members, a broad, comprehensive program to prevent problem drinking.

In addition to my role as a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and a full-time professional worker in our Lords' vineyard, I am also a very grateful recovered alcoholic who, along with my wife and children and other members of my family-especially my mother and brothers and sisters-wish to express our deep gratitude to this distinguished committee and to you, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Kyros, and other members of this committee, and to the other Members of the 99th Congress and to the present administration for the privilege of adding my words of strong support for H.R. 15758.

Starting in 1951, in a small mountain village in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, an ever-increasing group of competent and dedicated church people have been planning out a church program. After 10 years in New Hampshire and the neighboring State of Maine, and in Congressman Peter Kyros' neighboring State of Maine, His Eminence Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston asked the religious leaders of the Greater Boston area to help sponsor our North Conway Institute program. We plan to do four things:

I will quote from "Alcohol and the American Churches," published by the North Conway Institute in 1967.

We call upon the people of God to join efforts in an ecumenical spirit to attack this major social problem by action in four areas:

A. THE PASTORAL CARE OF ALCOHOLICS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN THE COMMUNITY WHERE THEY LIVE

Each congregation must bring to the alcoholic and his family a redemptive ministry based on compassionate understanding and loving concern which seeks to help them withstand the stress, tension and anxiety of modern life by providing hope, acceptance, and spiritual guidance to a reliance upon God.

B. ALCOHOL EDUCATION OF THE ECUMENICAL COMMUNITY'S OWN CONSTITUENT MEMBERS

We urge all religious bodies to place a new emphasis on the importance of educating their constituents with regard to the personal and social issues involved in drinking.

C. ALCOHOL EDUCATION FOR THE PUBLIC WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

The ecumenical community should take the initiative in seeking the cooperation of other community organizations in the sponsorship of educational activ

ities designed to acquaint the total community with objective facts about the role of alcohol in the life of the community, the several problems that grow out of it, and the responsibility of the community to deal with these problems.

D. SOCIAL AND LEGAL CONTROLS

We urge the people of God to work constructively for the creation of attitudes which will constitute a social control over the drinking customs of the populace by establishing high values on the virtue of sobriety and strong sanctions against the irresponsible use of alcohol including drunkenness.

We urge the appropriate public agencies to enforce the present legal regulations on the distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages and urge the general public to obey these regulations in the interest of public welfare. At the same time, we urge that new forms of legal control based on scientific understanding be developed.

In particular, we urge the courts to expand practices under which chronic offenders for drunkenness may elect to receive treatment in lieu of jail sentences. We note the special need for constructive controls over the increasing problem of alcohol-related traffic accidents.

The churches then, to sum up, are helping people to prevent alcohol problems through three major avenues of concern:

First, we have a department of research and development headed by David Barton.

Second, we have a department of pastoral services and training which is headed by a native son of Oklahoma, the Reverend William Sprague.

Third, we have a department of communications which is headed by Simons L. Roof, and which is responsible for issuing our various publications.

All of us work at therapy or helping folks and communities who are already afflicted with not only alcoholism but many other types of alcohol problems.

The average Episcopal minister spends 75 percent of his pastoral time with parishioners who have alcohol-related problems.

What we need are facilities such as will eventually grow out of the Alcoholic Rehabilitation Act of 1968.

The responsible churches of America will evidence our long-time continuing interest by giving members of this committee our strong support in your attempts to achieve a new enlightened concept.

The North Conway Institute is a product of the ecumenical movement, which is sweeping the religious community. It is both interfaith and interdisciplinary. The institute has serving on its board of trustees individuals representative of the three major faiths-Protestant, Catholic, Jewish-and the health, education, and welfare professions and volunteer service groups. A wide spectrum of religious opinion from liberal to conservative is represented by the membership of the board of trustees.

One of the notable achievements of the institute was the endorsement of a statement by prominent church leaders of Metropolitan Boston in 1966. The statement was drafted by the Ecumenical Council on Alcohol Programs and was endorsed by leaders from 16 different churches ranging from Roman Catholic to Salvation Army. The key paragraphs read as follows:

We believe that alcoholism and alcohol-related problems are a serious threat to the health, happiness, and welfare of many people and to the stability of families and communities

Among other consequences of excessive drinking which call for remedial action are the breakup of family life, the stimulation of crime and juvenile delinquency, the mounting of welfare costs, and the loss to industry through absenteeism and inefficiency.

These problems are not new, but they are acute and are made more so by an attitude of complacency and irresponsibility on the part of the general public in whose hands the final determination of social policy lies. It is urgent that churchmen and others concerned with human needs and the moral foundations of our society endeavor to create a more responsible public attitude toward drinking.

We believe that we may all unite on the ground of the virtue of sobriety. This can be practiced in two ways. One is by total abstinence from beverage alcohol for religious motives. The other is by true moderation in the use of alcohol, also for religious motives. On this common ground the virtue of sobriety may be practiced both by abstainers as well as by those who drink moderately.

Although differences of conscientious conviction in relation to certain current drinking customs exist among us, the area of our agreement with regard to drunkenness and alcoholism is sufficiently large and significant as to enable us to unite our best efforts for the alleviation and ultimate solution of these alcohol-related problems.

As churches move closer to one another and understanding increases, Congress will find more and more support among their constituents for health measures to help communities help the alcoholic and his family. H.R. 15758 is a major step in that direction.

In conclusion, may I strongly urge you to recommend the passage of a comprehensive national program to deal with the health problems of families and communities dealing with chronic alcoholism.

The Alcoholic Rehabilitation Act of 1968 represents a real step forward in the beginning of such a program. Again, I commend the Democratic administration for proposing this legislation, for Congressman Staggers of West Virginia for sponsoring it. And I hope you, Congressman Jarman, will get your subcommittee to approve this bill so the Congress can pass it shortly so our President can sign it into law.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for your gracious courtesy in allowing me to testify.

(Dr. Works' prepared statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF REV. DAVID A. WORKS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE NORTH CONWAY INSTITUTE, BOSTON, MASS.

My name is The Reverend David A. Works of Topsfield, Massachusetts and North Conway, New Hampshire, and Episcopal clergyman, who is the Executive Vice President of the North Conway Institute, an inter-faith, totally ecumenical fellowship of lay people (men and women) and clergymen (Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish) who have been studying, praying, working, and waiting for a new or more effective way for the Churches and Synagogues of the United States to help all people prevent alcohol problems.

In addition to my responsibilities with the North Conway Institute, which is now permanently located in Boston, Massachusetts, I am also a member of the newly created Task Force on Alcohol Problems of the National Council of Churches which was created to do two things:

(a) Study the report of the Federally financed Cooperative Commission on Alcohol Problems with special emphasis on Dr. Thomas Plaut's book, Alcohol Problems: A Report to the Nation.

(b) To recommend to the National Council of Churches and through the National Council of Churches of Christ, United States of America, to its constituent members a broad, comprehensive program to prevent problem drinking. In addition to my role as a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and a full-time professional worker in our Lords' vineyard, I am also a very grateful recovered alcoholic who, along with my wife and children and other members

of my family-especially my mother and brothers and sisters-wish to express our deep gratitude to this distinguished committee and to the other members of the 90th Congress and to the present administration for the privilege of adding my words of strong support for H.R. 15758.

Starting in 1951, in a small mountain village in the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire, an ever-increasing group of competent and dedicated Church people have been planning out a Church program. After ten years in New Hampshire and the neighboring State of Maine, His Eminence Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston asked the religious leaders of the greater Boston area to help sponsor our North Conway Institute program. We plan to do four things:

quote from Alcohol and the American Churches published by the North Conway Institute in 1967, pages 24-25:

"We call upon the people of God to join efforts in an ecumenical spirit to attack this major social problem by action in four areas:

(a) The pastoral care of alcoholics and their families in the community where they live. Each congregation must bring to the alcoholic and his family a redemptive ministry based on compassionate understanding and loving concern which seeks to help them withstand the stress, tension and anxiety of modern life by providing hope, acceptance, and spiritual guidance to a reliance upon God. We urge our congregations to take the initiative in offering such a ministry by training some of its members to join with the professional clergy to constitute a fellowship of redeeming love within which the alcoholic and his family may find the help they need.

Included in such a ministry should be the effort to detect those who are beginning to rely on alcohol as a crutch and to help them find new spiritual resources for handling their problem. In addition, to their own direct ministries to the alcoholic and his family, the churches should help stimulate community action to provide adequate treatment facilities for the alcoholic and adequate social services for his family. Clergymen should work as part of a therapeutic team which includes members of the medical, psychiatric, social work, and vocational rehabilitation professions. They should help develop reciprocal referral services between the churches and the public and private welfare agencies of the community.

(b) Alcohol education of the ecumenical community's own constituent members. We urge all religious bodies to place a new emphasis on the importance of educating their constituents with regard to the personal and social issues involved in drinking. With each communion establishing goals and methods in harmony with their own traditions relating to the use of alcohol, we recommend that the following be among the educational objectives to be attained:

To help the membership understand the role of alcohol in society and the gravity of the problems connected with its use.

To help persons understand their own motivations for drinking or abstaining so that an individual choice may be made free from the necessity to confirm.

To provide better understanding between those who practice the virtue of sobriety through moderation and those who practice it through abstinence. (c) Alcohol education for the public within the community. The ecumenical community should take the initiative in seeking the co-operation of other community organizations in the sponsorship of educational activities designed to acquaint the total community with objective facts about the role of alcohol in the life of the community, the several problems that grow out of it, and the responsibility of the community to deal with these problems.

We urge that the members of each of our communions engage in conversation with others in the community for the purpose of helping to form new attitudes of responsibility in which all forms of excessive drinking are morally and socially unacceptable.

When there is no satisfactory general alcohol education program in the community notably in the schools and the churches, the ecumenical leadership should initiate the development of one, giving inter-faith support to school officials and offering every possible assistance. Such a program should assist individuals to make mature and responsible decisions about use or non-use of alcohol in keeping with one's own beliefs and individual needs. It should also present scientifically accurate information about alcohol and the nature of the illness, alcoholism. It should foster understanding between persons who follow the abstinence and moderation traditions without seeking to impose either.

(d) Social and legal controls.-We urge the people of God to work constructively for the creation of attitudes which will constitute a social control over the drinking customs of the populace by establishing high values on the virtue of sobriety and strong sanctions against the irresponsible use of alcohol including drunkenness. This should include the enunciation of new norms of etiquette which hold it to be an act of impoliteness to urge anyone to drink against his will and which dictates that when alcoholic beverages are served, non-alcoholic alternatives also be provided as a matter of course.

We urge the appropriate public agencies to enforce the present legal regulations on the distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages and urge the general public to obey these regulations in the interest of public welfare. At the same time, we urge that new forms of legal control based on scientific understanding be developed. In particular, we urge the courts to expand practices under which chronic offenders for drunkenness may elect to receive treatment in lieu of jail sentences. We note the special need for constructive controls over the increasing problem of alcohol-related traffic accidents."

The Churches, then, to sum up are helping people to prevent alcohol problems through three major avenues of concern:

First, we have a department of research and development headed by David Barton. This is our "learning" arm.

Second, we have a department of pastoral services and training which is headed by a native son of Oklahoma, The Reverend William Sprague. This is our "teaching" or sharing arm of our Institute.

Third, all of us work at therapy or helping folks and communities who are already afflicted with not only alcoholism but many other types of alcohol problems. This is our "caring" or healing arm.

In addition we publish a number of publications and other statements and newsletters.

Eventually, I beileve the major churches and synagogues will also handle problems of drug abuse-including alcohol when it is misused through this three-fold approach of learning, sharing, and caring (i.e. Research, training, and therapy).

In 1968 the churches are now beginning to tackle six major areas of concern: (1) People and alcohol and alcoholism.

(2) People, alcohol and youth education--including in many places increasing emphasis on drugs along with the drug alcohol.

(3) People, alcohol and drunken driving.

(4) People, alcohol, and the liquor and beer control systems. For example, you will note in our paper, The Churches and Alcohol on page five: "In 1966, the Federal government collected approximately three billion, eight hundred million dollars ($3,800,000,000) in beverage alcohol taxes [with an expenditure of about seven million dollars ($7,000,000)]. To this amount should be added comparable tax revenue collected by the States. Obviously no estimates are available as to the losses of tax revenue chargeable to the illicit manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages."

The church people are increasingly wondering if this is a fair proportion for a National Federal Program of research, training, and therapy as well as education for prevention.

(5) People, alcohol and the police court problem. Already mention has been made in these hearings of the impending United States Supreme Court decision on "Powell vs. Texas." In The North Conway Institute along with the Methodist Board of Christian Social Concerns is one of the Amici Curiae. Also, since the first of January 1968, a small Task Force of professional people have been meeting in Boston to plan a concerted attack on "police court alcoholic." We will, however, need funds to help implement this program which we are developing in New England as you in the United States States Congress and in the Lyndon Johnson-Secretary Wilbur Cohen Administration are developing here in Washington.

(6) People, alcohol and the indifference of the two hundred million (200,000,000) Americans.

After almost a quarter of a century of satisfied sobriety, I can state emphatically that people are not so much indifferent to problems connected with alcohol as we are frustrated. The average Episcopal clergyman spends 75% of his pastoral time (i.e. with peopel in trouble or in distress) with parishioners who have alcohol-related problems!