Bill W.'s original Grapevine article introducing Tradition Four:

Tradition Four Tradition Four is a specific application of general principles already outlined in Traditions One and Two. Tradition One states : "Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. AA must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward." Tradition Two states: " For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as he may express himself in our group conscience." With these concepts in mind, let us look more closely at Tradition Four. The first sentence guarantees each AA group  local autonomy. With respect to its own affairs, the group may  make any decisions, adopt any attitudes that it likes. No overall or intergroup authority should challenge this primary privilege. We feel this ought to be so, even though the group might sometimes act with complete indifference to our  Tradition. For example, an AA group could, if it wished, hire   a paid preacher and support him out of the proceeds of a group   nightclub. Though such an absurd procedure would be miles   outside our Tradition, the group's "right to be wrong" would   be held inviolate. We are sure that each group can be granted,   and safely granted, these most extreme privileges. We know   that our familiar process of trial and error would summarily   eliminate both the preacher and the nightclub. These severe    growing pains which invariably follow any radical departure    from AA Tradition can be absolutely relied upon to bring an    erring group back into line. An AA group need not be coerced    by any human government over and above its own members. Their own experience, plus AA opinion in surrounding groups, plus God's prompting in their group conscience would be sufficient. Much travail has already taught us this. Hence we may     confidently say to each group, "You should be responsible to     no other authority than your own conscience."      Yet that such extreme liberty of thought and action applies only      to the group's own affairs. Rightly enough, this Tradition      goes on to say, "But when its plans concern the welfare of      neighboring groups also, these groups ought to be consulted."      Obviously, if any individual, group, or regional committee      could take an action that might seriously affect the welfare      of Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole or seriously disturb      surrounding groups, that would not be liberty at all. It would      be sheer license; it would be anarchy, not democracy.      Therefore, we AAs have universally adopted the principle of      consultation. This means that if a single AA group wishes to      take an action that might affect surrounding groups, it      consults them. Or, it confers with the intergroup committee      for the area, if there be one. Likewise, if a group or      regional committee wishes to take any action that might affect      AA as a whole, it consults the trustees of the Alcoholic       Foundation, who are, in effect, our overall general service       committee. For instance, no group or inter group could feel       free to initiate, without consultation, any publicity that       might affect AA as a whole. Nor could it assume to represent       the whole of Alcoholics Anonymous by printing and distributing       anything purporting to be AA standard literature. This same        principle would naturally apply to all similar situations.        Though there is no formal compulsion to do so, all        undertakings of this general character are customarily checked        with our AA general Headquarters.        This idea is clearly summarized in the last sentence of        Tradition Four, which observes, "On such issues our common        welfare is paramount."        Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., March 1948