The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1929-09-01


topic of much discussion since newspapers
carried the story from the Secretary of
the Cure at Dwight. Illinois, in which an
effort is made 10 show that new life and
some Of the old time splendor of the Cure
has returned, and that the Institute Is
doing more business than in former
years.
THE AMERICAN ISSUE wrote Martin Nell
son, Secretary Treasurer OF the Dwight
Institute and sought facts and figures
about the alleged revival of the inebriate
cure We asked for the number of pa
ticats being treated year after year since
prohibition became effective, and also the
number treated in the years before pro-
hibition.
The reply did not furnish the informa-
ton requested It said that two large
buildings were about to be remodeled,
witch, when completed, will accommodate
from As to SO people, and that the num-
Der of patients is increasing, but the num-
Der Omitted each year was not given.
However, the Christian Science Moni
tor of Boston, has investigated, and pub
isles an editorial showing the Dwight In
stiute as it was in the days of its splen-
do, and what it is to-day Here is the
editorial in full, but wet newspapers will
no publish 1t:
The remoteness of the birthplace of
the once famous 'Keeley cure for in
ebriety in the small country town of
Dwight, Ill., encourages the attempt to
build up a legend about this historic
remedy An institution which has dealt
WI addiets for nearly half century
my rightly be regarded as something Of
an index of prohibitions effect upon alco-
holsm. The more weight may be given
its experience when recalled that DR..
Kesley's gold cure grew into the largest
system of its kind the world has seen.
IN The face of the disappearance Of
al ost all the old popular drink cures 1t
would indeed be an idiosyncrasy of pro-
hilition If, as the report goes, the original
Keeley Institute at Dwight was to-day en-
joying an almost unexampled prosperity
if in 1923. under national prohibition, ii
exhibited the greatest year but one
C1o0D in its history. Such arresting
statements as these have led The Chris
ton Science Monitor to investigate the
record of the institution. Apparently the
early history of the gold cure has es-
capped the attention of both drys and vets
since the Eighteenth Amendment went
into effect and gave it fresh significance.
The inquiry has brought to light an al
legged present-day Kelley BOOM
Instead of the Keeley cure standing
to-day at the height of its fortune it is
In fact but the greatly diminished survival
of a system which once had branches in
every state, in Canada and in Europe. In
stead of doing business to-day from a
massive office building, the hub of $780,
900 plant at Dwight, the Kelley Institute
has been operating since 1920, when 1t
sold its big establishment, from a bunga-
low And as regards 1928 being almost
a record year, many more unfortunates
= have stood in line in Dwight for the
Kelley treatment on a single day than
dribbled in thither all last year.
1.-The word is broadcast that 1853 in
ebriates resorted to Dwight in 1923, but
no reports can be found in to-day's press
-as at one time before national prohibit
tion-that addicts have so inundated the
town that they almost outnumber the
natives. 1t is not reported in this period
that inebriates sleep there in the Railways
of homes, in attics and in barns, because
every available room in the community
has already been preempted by alcoholics
No warning is nowadays sent out that
further patients will not be received
at the Kelley Institute unless accommo-
dations have been arranged for them in
advance. The establishment OF local
branches of the institute is not extended
TO every section of the country until their
total at home and abroad, numbers, as
formerly, some 123 almost ten times their