Wonderful find, Austin!  This article is rich with tantalizing hints at the early impressions of the still-fledgling RCPA.  The first sentence’s mention that RCPA scientists “would rather drink cocktails than tea” is a offers a nice indication that even middle-of-the-road TIME saw the organization as pretty damp if not outrightly wet.  As to the first number of the QJSA, it’s pretty clear that the combination of (a) Henderson’s case for dilution – the first and flagship article in the new journal, (b) Yale’s alcohol’s-effects-on-the-human-organism focus (with its roots in the newly adopted Carnegie-funded study), and (c) psychiatric speculations about alcoholism – all left TIME wondering as to what the RCPA’s message and purpose actually was.  The climate of opinion in 1940 was of course still very much split between dry and wet dispositions.  This new player, TIME’s account is reflecting, was hard to place.

Ron

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From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of K. Austin Kerr
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 5:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: founding Quarterly Journal

Time magazine now makes available to subscribers its articles going back to its start in 1923.  You might be interested in this 1940 report:

Medicine
Doctors on Alcohol


Time, Jul. 15, 1940
Last year a group of eminent scientists, most of whom would rather drink cocktails than tea, banded together to wrest the U. S. Drunkard from the hands of the temperance movement. Bolstered by grants from several learned societies, the Research Council on Problems of Alcohol, under the leadership of Dr. Winfred Overholser of Washington's St. Elizabeth's Hospital, set projects stirring in a half-dozen U. S. universities. Members tackled such problems as the Drunkard's liver, stomach, love for his mother.
Last week the Council issued Volume I, No. 1 of the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol. A compendium of scientific fact and fancy, the Journal offered no clear-cut conclusions on the cause & cure of alcoholism, left the lay reader with the sobering impression that a man staggering down the street is a dark scientific mystery.

High Proof. Yale's Physiologist Yandell Henderson has his own ideas about alcoholism. Because drunkards thrive on hard liquor, always drink it straight, Dr. Henderson wants to dilute their liquor for them. He proposed high federal taxes on high-proof whiskey,* low taxes on low-proof. He even advocated that watered-down, 60 proof liquor be legalized. "Consumers of spirits," said Dr. Henderson, would probably "support the experiment" by drinking such cheap liquor. Result: fewer drunkards. Such "as would be still produced would be addicted to 60 to 70 proof instead of 80 to 100 proof. And this would be a step distinctly in the right direction."

Liver, Stomach, Kidneys. No one has ever proved the old contention that alcohol causes cirrhosis (hardening) of the liver. It is merely known to be very bad for those who already have cirrhosis. Although years of toping may cause chronic gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining) and lead to cancer, most doctors still believe that small amounts of alcohol, like the old "stomachic bitters," are fine for the digestion.

As for the kidneys, Dr. Maurice Bruger of Columbia claims that, contrary to popular opinion, alcohol does not cause Bright's disease and arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). In fact, since a "negligible amount" of alcohol is excreted by the kidneys, "experimental studies fail to reveal that the consumption of alcohol in moderate doses is harmful to the normal, or even to the diseased kidney."

Flight v. Fun. Present medical fashion regards all alcoholics as neurotics and psychotics who drink to flee from harsh reality, overcome a feeling of inadequacy, or express homosexual tendencies kept under during sober periods. Doctors' great problem, says Director Nolan Dan Carpentier Lewis of New York State Psychiatric Institute, is to uncover the mental disorders which drive men to drink.

To this view Psychiatrist Abraham Myerson of Harvard entered a strong demurrer. "It is not true, in my opinion," wrote he, "that excessive drinking springs mainly from neurosis, psychosis or conflict." As proof, Dr. Myerson pointed to the fact that women and Jews, two groups which have "their full share" of mental disorders, have a very small percentage of alcoholism. Their temperance rests on "social tradition and social pressure." There would be "universal horror and social condemnation," said Dr. Myerson, if Radcliffe girls went out on wholesale benders like "lusty, gusty Harvard men." The Jews, he continued, "have always lived in a state of constant siege in which the alcoholism of any member was dangerous to the group."

Best way to rid society of alcoholism, concluded Dr. Myerson, is to advertise the glowing virtues of moderate drinking -"exuberance, good fellowship and friendliness."

^{*In the late 18th Century, when U. S. whiskey taxes came into effect, distillers began the custom of watering liquor. To test alcoholic content, buyers would sprinkle the whiskey over gunpowder, try to light it. If the alcohol content was high enough, the water low enough, the powder would burn. That was "proof." In the U. S. today, proof is double the alcohol content.}