T h e T o b a c c o T a b o o,
by Rev. Charles M. Fillmore
(Indianapolis, IN:
Meigs Publishing Co, 1930)
Charles Millard Fillmore, preacher, lecturer, editor, song writer, etc., is a man of world wide influence whose messages have been heeded and felt by thousands of people interested in moral and spiritual questions. His Mother Songs written a quarter of a century ago are still growing in popularity. "Tell Mother I'll be There" and "I'll Wear a White Flower for You" are two of his songs. He is also author of many other songs. In the fight for Prohibition he was in the very front line. For the last ten years he has been giving his entire time to an extensive and intensive study of the tobacco question from every possible angle. Mr. Fillmore is an outstanding and reliable authority on this vital question and his fearless and kindly way of presenting the facts in this book
will be helpful to all readers.
Y O U T H
We salute you!—
At the dawning of a bright, new day;
In the vast arena of life;
Surrounded by cheering throngs that fill the stadium
of the universe:
Poised with eager feet on the starting line of expectancy;
Every power trained and tense;
Each faculty keen and alert;
Muscles aquiver;
Nerves atingle;
Heart throbbing;
Blood surging;
Lungs responding;
Eyes sparkling;
Ambition spurring;
Faith assuring;
Courage daring;
Hope sustaining;
Patience persisting:—
You 're off! Hurrah!
Run! Run! RUN!!
WIN THE PRIZE IMMORTAL!—
CHARACTER
-3-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Frontispiece, "The Runner"
| Youth | 3
| Nicotine | 7
| Introduction | 9
| Presentation | 11
| | | |
PART I. TOBACCO
| Keynote | 15
| Filosofics | 16
| Prelude | 17
| "The Weed" | 18
| Four Vital Necessities | 19
| Science Bears Witness | 20
| Flirting With Neurosis | 22
| The Fount of Life | 25
| A Disgraceful Death | 27
| Ask the Doctor, He Knows—Maybe | 30
| Worthy Witnesses | 33
| Counterfeits | 35
| Just Like Alcohol | 38
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
PART II. THE TOBACCO HABIT
| Keynote | 43
| Filosofics | 44
| A Real Boy | 45
| A Real Girl | 46
| A Paradox | 47
| Habits and Character | 48
| A Pagan Practise | 50
| Drug Addiction | 51
| An Abnormal Habit | 53
| An Unhealthful Habit | 54
| Cheating the Invisible 'You' | 56
| Voluntary Dullards | 58
| A Useless Habit | 60
| An Expensive Habit | 62
| "The Innocent By-Stander" | 65
| A Bitter Bondage | 68
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
-5-
| Deliverance | 70
| Keynote | 75
| Filosofics | 76
| The Bravest Battle | 77
| Ideal American Womanhood | 78
| Smokes for Women | 81
| "Smart Sobriety" | 83
| A Bad Alliance | 85
| Background | 86
| Insidious Seducers | 89
| Woman's Finer Fiber | 92
| The Queen of the Home | 95
| Fade or Fight | 97
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
PART III. THE TOBACCO BUSINESS
| Keynote | 103
| Filosofics | 104
| Formidable Figures | 105
| Fooling the People | 107
| Staple, Stable | 110
| A Pseudo Business | 111
| Buncombe, Quakery, Fraud | 115
| Parasitical, Piratical Exploitation | 117
| Brigand Business | 118
| Tobacco and Life Insurance | 120
| Incendiarism | 122
| | | | | | | | | | |
PART IV. OPPOSITION TO TOBACCO
| Keynote | 127
| Filosofics | 128
| Taking the Enemy's Measure | 129
| Fools and Fanatics | 132
| The Public Schools | 133
| Attitude of the Church | 135
| When She Will, She Will | 138
| Parent-Teacher Associations | 139
| Beat 'Em with Clubs | 141
| Definite Organized Opposition | 142
| Anti-Cigaret Organizations | 145
| Boys and Girls Anti-Cigaret League | 146
| Anti-Cigaret League of California | 146
| The Anti-Cigaret Alliance of America | 147
| The Assurance of Victory | 148
| Today and Tomorrow | 152
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
-6-
NICOTINE
JUST WHAT IS THIS NICOTINE!
IS IT FILTHY/ IS IT CLEAN
COUNT ON YOUTH TO LEARN THE TRUTH—
ALL ABOUT TOBACCO
-7-
INTRODUCTION
The man who has written this book is also the author of that very touching song, "Tell Mother I'll be There," a song that has literally been sung around the world and is known in practically every Christian home in America. He is a member of that well-known musical family of the Fillmore Brothers, whose publications have for a generation ranked among the best and most widely used.
But Charles M. Fillmore was early drawn to the ministry, in which profession he rendered a good many years of effective service in Indiana and neighboring States. In the course of time he became increasingly impressed with the fact that the greatest enemy of the home, the school, and the church today is tobacco in general and the cigaret in particular.
In consequence, when a tender was made to him some ten years ago, to become the General Secretary of the No-Tobacco League of America, he accepted the duty with the full consciousness of what it would mean financially and in many other ways. In this anticipation he has not been disappointed, but, in spite of extraordinary discouragements, he as persisted in his great purpose through the years, until his name, his personality, and the organiza-
-9-
tion he represents have come within the consciousness of and commanded the respect of many thousands of people in all parts of America.
The writer of this introduction and to many, many other people, Mr. Fillmore stands out as a man of manifest culture, splendid poise, unlimited sacrifice, tireless aggressiveness, unswerving devotion, nagnificent faith, and exceptional beauty of life. The editorship of the No-Tobacco Journal has revealed his splendid literary ability and taste, and it is the confident expectation of the writer and many friends that this book will prove a recognized masterpiece in its vastly important field.
Prof. F. M. Gregg
Department of Psychology
Nebraska Wesleyan University
-10-
THIS BOOK
Is Presented
To:
The YOUTH as an INVITATION:
We rejoice that you strive for the highest, happiest, healthiest life. Investigate before you invest in the tobacco habit. We invite you to hold a trial for Tobacco before a jury of twelve: a doctor, a minister, an educator, a police judge, an athletic coach, an employer, an insurance man, a Y.M.C.A. secretary, a Sunday-school teacher, your father, your mother. We believe the verdict will be unanimous—"Tobacco is guilty."
The PARENT as an AID.
One of the most difficult problems is incorrigibility due to the child's use of tobacco. It is our hope that the facts and arguments of this book may aid parents in saving their children from disease, stupidity, and evil.
The EDUCATOR as a WEAPON.
Many if not most dull students use tobaco, thereby frustrating the most carefully planned programs of education. Teachers, principals, professors, the facts contained in this volume, are a defense for your fine programs and weapons with which one of the greatest foes of intelligence can be destroyed.
-11-
The MINISTER as an ALLY:
Not only the physical senses but moral awareness is rendered less sensitive by the use of tobacco. Christian ideals are blighted. Many church groups, Christian people, are oblivious to the grave situation. Gross evils go unchallenged because of befogged moral vision. Brother Preacher, we are confident that this book will prove an invincible ALLY in meeting this situation and in restoring your people to ethical sensitivity.
The TOBACCO-USER as a DARE:
We dare you to read it. We dare you to think upon its contents. We dare you to prove whether you can "Quit it if you wish." We dare you to "Wish to quit."
The PUBLIC as a VOICE OF CONSCIENCE:
Innocent children are enslaved; women are degraded; nature lovers have their esthetic sensibilities outraged by vicious advertisements upon bill-boards obscuring the beauties of nature; readers of the public press have forced upon them the repulsive propaganda flaunting misrepresentations, if not outright lies; health and sanity are impaired; questionable business methods are employed; religion and morals are undermined—all these and many other equally reprehensible charges are found in the true bill of indictment drawn against tobacco and the tobacco business. Something should be done about it, and done NOW. The present general complacency is collective sin. The social conscience must be awakened. This duty is not for "somebody," but for you and me.
-12-
PART I
T O B A C C O
-13-
KEYNOTE
"God is."
"God is love."
"God is spirit."
"In the beginning God."
"Having no hope without God."
"Believe in God, believe also in me."
"The man who draws near to God must believe that
there is a God and that he proves himself a rewarder
of those who earnestly try to find him."
This world is not a thing of hapless chance,
Nor we the creatures of blind circumstance.
Both sense and right for a Creator call,
With thought and power to plan, make, rule it all
" . . . . The necessity
Or deity which forms and drives our world,
Has writ its character in endless forms.
In earth and sky, in heart and mind of man
It is expressed. He most reveals that cause
Who, in the texture of the far-flung world,
By patient search, in hunger for the truth,
Deciphers the design for all mankind."
-15-
| FILOSOFICS
We are living in a heroic age.
A brave man inspires universal admiration.
Faith tears no foe in the footpath of duty.
The man with backbone keeps his face to the foe.
There is a world of difference between calling right wrong and righting a wrong.
He who chooses ease or the praise of men rather than the championship of a just but unpopular cause is a slacker and a coward.
|
-16-
PRELUDE
Life is struggle. The new-born babe battles for breath. The centenarian longs to lay his armor by and dwell in peace at home. Every hour from infancy to senility is full of conflict. Life is strife.
Physically, mentally, morally, economically, endless warfare must be waged between cleanliness and filth, strength and weakness, health and disease, aspiration and apathy, ambition and complacency, faith and doubt, love and hate, holiness and sin, justice and iniquity, good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error. Such is life's concomitance.
His life will prove to be the most satisfactory, the fullest, the richest, the noblest, the best, who, whenever be confronts a problem, meets it honestly and earnestly; investigates it candidly and thoroughly; decides fairly and squarely which side is true, right, good; unhesitatingly and unreservedly espouses the worthy cause and supports it with courage, zest, and persistence; snaps his fingers at opposition; whistles at fears; laughs at difficulties; sings amid sorrows; rejoices in persecution; flaunts failure and turns defeat into triumph.
SUCH A LIFE ONLY IS WORTH THE LIVING.
-17-
"THE WEED"
In popular parlance tobacco is called "the weed." Like many such phrases in common use there is sound sense back of it. There seems to be an intuitive feeling that the tobacco plant does not belong in the cultivated field along with wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, etc. It fits more naturally with the thistle, tare, jimson, burdock—things eradicated wherever food plants are to have full, free opportunity for growth.
Scientific investigation of the constituents of tobacco justifies this intuition of the masses. The vegetables mentioned possess in their elements properties universally recognized as nutrients—calories, vitamins, or other principles essential to the perpetuation and development of life.
Tobacco contains elements of a diametrically opposite nature. When tobacco is first introduced into the system of a normal, healthy human being, there is a violent revolt. This is due to the fact that tobacco is not a natural food plant. It is not nutritious but noxious. Its effect is not tonic, but toxic. Instead of exciting healthful reactions in the vital organs it arouses antagonisms. Its results are not beneficial, but baneful. It is not a bearer of vitality, but of fatality.
-18-
The voice of the people is right—TOBACCO IS A WEED—THE WORST OF WEEDS.
FOUR VITAL NECESSITIES
There are four essentials to life—light, food, water, air. One may exist healthily for only a few months in a dark dungeon, a month or two if denied food, two or three weeks without water, and just a few minutes without air.
"God giveth us richly all things to enjoy." How marvelously the world is swathed in the beautiful radiance of glorious sunlight! What a wonderful variety of choice food is provided in superabundance for our nourishment! How immeasurably vast is the supply of refreshing water in spring, creek, river, and lake! Who can estimate the incalculable extent of the atmosphere surrounding the earth!
Is it not base ingratitude to misuse these beneficent provisions made for the enrichment and enjoyment of our lives? Is it not particularly culpable to substitute, in place of these blessings, other things that are neither vital nor nourishing but that contain elements actually injurious and fatal to life and health? Yet millions are doing this daily.
Wisdom also dictates that these necessities be kept uncontaminated. They must be pure, clean, fresh, to be healthful.
An unabused appetite is indispensable to the full enjoyment of the bounties of nature. This source
-19-
of satisfaction should be jealously safeguarded.
Does smoke clarify or contaminate the atmosphere that we breathe and through which oar light comes? Is tobacco food or poison! Does it simulate the natural appetite or injure it? Are men wise or foolish in using tobacco?
SCIENCE BEARS WITNESS
The characteristic element in the tobacco plant is nicotine. Other harmful alkaloids are associated with it. This is the verdict of chemical analysis. Dietitians recommend certain vegetables because they are known to possess specific elements vital to perfect health. They will not, they cannot intelligently recommend tobacco and tobacco smoke, because they contain
nicotine, pyridine, collodine, hydrocyanic acid, acrolein, and other unhealthful ingredients.
Men habitually use tobacco on account of the peculiar effects produced by its drug content. Extract these drugs and the residuum will not satisfy them any more than liquids without alcohol satisfy the drunkard.
Nicotine is "a poisonous, colorless, oily, liquid alkaloid." Prussic acid alone is more virulent. Nicotine has been excluded from the "United States Pharrmacopoeia," which shows that it is not credited with having any value as a useful drug or medicament.
-20-
Dr. Pierre Schrumpf-Pierron,a Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Cairo, says:
"The chief poison existing in the leaves of tobacco is nicotine. It is a volatile alkaloid whose poisonous properties are akin to those of curare. The dried leaves of tobacco also contain traces of other alkaloids and a volatile oil. The smoke, in addition to nicotine or its salts or derivatives, contains pyridine and other pyrogenous compounds, carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, phenols and aldehydes. In considering the toxicity of tobacco, the combined effect of nicotine and other components formed in the process of fertnentation or due to combustion must be taken into the account. When absorbed simultaneously and day by day, they may add to the toxic action of the nicotine."b
Another late authority (Dr. A. A. Stevens, A Text-book of Therapeutics, including the Essentials of Pharmacology and Materia Medica, 1923) says,
"Acute tobacco poisoning is due mainly to the effect of nicotine, altho pyridine and other toxic constituents may have some influence. It is char-
_____________
aIn 1918 a large group of scientists, physicians, aad other eminent men asociated themselves as a "Committee to Study the Tobacco Problem." Two books have been issued ander the auspices of that committee which give the latest dicta of science on tobacco:. In 1923 there appeared the volume, Tobacco and Mental Efficiency, edited by Prof. M. V. O'Shea, of the University of Wisconsin. In 1927, Tobacco and Physical Efficiency appeared, edited by Dr. Schrumpf-Pierron. These two volumes are the authority for most of the facts about tobacco given in this book.
bTobacco and Physical Efficiency (p. 6).
-21-
acterized by pallor, dizziness, fainting, sweating, palpitation, muscular weakness, and collapse."*
Tobacco, then, according to these authorities, because nicotine and other toxic alkaloids and aldehydes are among its predominant constituents, is to be classified, scientifically, as a poisonous weed and not as a food or medicinal plant. Tobacco poisons, in their very nature, are inimical rather than amicable to health and life.
Furthermore, these poisons are much more noxious than they are generally supposed to be. The mass of the people, even some above average intelligence, have been deceived by the extensive, shrewd propaganda of selfish interests, whose methods have been to conceal rather than reveal the truth about their products.
In view of the fact that tobacco does not possess valuable food or medicinal elements, but is a virulent poison, is its habitual use wise or foolish?
FLIRTING WITH NEUROSIS
One of the most wonderful parts of man's body is the nervous system. The intricate network of the afferent and efferent nerves of the cerebro-spinal and the autonomic nervous systems is truly marvelous. Its function is stimulus-receiving and stimulus-sending. Through it we see, hear, taste, and
____________
*Scbrumpf-Pierron (Op. cit. pp. 9, 117).
-22-
experience other impressions from the outside world.
Tobacconists, through most alluring propaganda, are endeavoring to make the use of their products universal. It is of decidedly great importance to know whether tobacco, or any other product thus urged upon us, has a beneficial or baneful effect upon the nervous system. Our nerves play such a significant part in our happiness or misery, that we trifle with them at our peril. What is the teaching of science with reference to the influence of tobacco upon the nerves? Schrumpf-Pierron says,
"The action of nicotine upon the nervous system, both central and peripheral, is first exciting, then paralyzing. From the anatomical standpoint, prolonged poisoning from tobacco causes chronic inflammation and ultimate sclerosis of the nervous elements, exactly as is the case with alcohol."a
Dr. A. A. Stevens says,
"Nicotine first stimulates and then powerfully depresses both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic ganglia of the autonomic nervous system; it also stimulates and then depresses the central nervous system and the endings of the motor nerves in the voluntary muscles."b
Effects such as these are called narcotic effects. Among the drugs commonly classified as narcotics are opium, morphine, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, chloral, ether, belladonna, chloroform. Nicotine belongs in this class. Science places it there. The
____________
aOp. cit. (p. 10).
bOp. cit (p. 9).
-23-
tobacco user is a narcotic drug addict as truly as the user of alcohol or morphine. Some claim that the addiction is so mild as to be negligible and incomparable with the others. Careful consideration will show the position to be untenable.
Notice that authorities cited testify that the immediate, temporary effect of the tobacco is "stimulating," "exciting." To experience such "thrills" seems to be the great outstanding "craze" of the age in which we are living. That this is a condition upon which we can congratulate ourselves is not believed by anyone who appreciates its real significance. To many careful observers it is fraught with serious dangers.
Note even more carefully that the immediate, temporary effects of tobacco are followed by results that are "powerfully depressing" and "paralyzing" —"chronic inflammation and ultimate sclerosis." It would seem that some people are willing to pay a rather big price for a brief little "thril."
A normally healthy man is quick, alert, active, energetic, keen, acute, ready, animated, ardent, spirited, vivacious. A narcotic is a substance that produces stupor, torpor, dulness, lethargy, numbness, sluggishness, and dormancy. Used to excess narcotics produce insensibility, unconsciousness, and even death. Will a real "live" man habituate himself to a narcotic?
The user of tobacco is flirting with neurosis. Nicotine attacks a nerve as naturally as a fox goes
-24-
after a chicken. The use of a narcotic drug opens the door to a dangerous enemy. He who nicotinizes his nervous system must pay the penalty for tampering with a wonderfully delicate and acutely sensitive device. No cunning mechanism of skilful artisan can compare with this marvelous work of the Creator, designed to give the greatest delight and satisfaction to his beloved children. We should fully appreciate it and properly care for it.
THE FOUNT OF LIFE
The intricate and delicate labyrinth of nerves woven throughout all parts of the body has, as its counterpart and companion, an equally wonderful device called the circulatory system. The one may be compared to the telephone or telegraph; the other may be likened to a water system which, starting from a lake far up in the mountain, through aqueducts, pumps, and an elaborate and complicated network of pipes, carries refreshing, healthful, life-giving water to all the population.
The center and fount of the circulatory system is the heart. No other generation that has lived upon the earth has had greater need of the injunction of the ancient sage, "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it proceed the issues of life." More people die from heart trouble than from any other cause. Tobacco is intimately and fundamentally related to this subject. The increase in fatal-
-25-
ities from this cause has been contemporaneous with the growth of the tobacco habit. This surely is not a mere happen-so.
There is no greater authority on heart disease than Dr. Henri Vaquez, Professor of Medicine on the Faculty of the University of Paris. He says:
"Experiments have given us a knowledge of nicotine, a substance whose toxic influence upon the heart is very remarkable. That knowledge is something worth having. It appears that tobacco cannot be freely indulged without injury to the normal action of that organ. It is beyond doubt that in young persons an excessive use of tobacco quickly induces disturbance of the cardiac rhythm due in all probability to their greater sensitiveness to the poison.
"In older subjects, at the stage when organic lesions actually exist, it is difficult to say, because of the complexity of the etiological conditions, how far the lesions are attributable to the tobacco; but even supposing they are independent thereof, the noxious influence of the weed is none the less visible. It is quite certain that the vascular spasms, located, perhaps, in the coronary arteries, together with the sudden changes in the circulation, caused by the abuse of tobacco, intensify to a more or less serious degree, the morbid effects of the lesions in question.
"For these reasons, in every case, with lesions of the cardiovascular system either manifest or latent, it is my practise to prescribe, not merely a more sober use of tobacco, but its total aban-donment. Otherwise the most rational treatment
-26-
for the essential cardiac condition runs the risk of failure."*
"With such strong testimony on the influence of tobacco upon the heart, what course will a person of ordinary prudence pursue? Will he deliberately encourage the development of a habit against which the highest authority utters words of most solemn warning? What does "safety first" suggest?
A DISGRACEFUL DEATH
Since more people are dying from heart failure than from any other malady, it is worth while to give this subject especial study. And because the tobacconists are trying to convey the impression that their product is not only innocuous but is even to be desired, we are justified in considering the matter further.
Corroborating what Dr. Henri Vaquez testifies (as quoted above) here is the evidence of Dr. Schrumpf-Pierron:
"Some smokers have painful cardiac attacks— palpitations accompanied at times by extrasystoles with retrosternal and precordial pains. These attacks occur in the night, after several hours of sleep, when the patient has smoked more than usual. The clear indications are that they result from tobacco, which has caused the hypersensitiveness of the pneumogastric nerve and certain plex- _____
*Schrumpf-Pierron (Preface).
-27-
uses; and these disappear when the patient leaves off smoking. Albutt, in a summary of the literature, concludes that there is lacking complete proof that tobacco is the original causative factor in arteriosclerosis or true angina, altho it may accelerate such affections or precipitate angina attacks in subjects with latent lesions. Among patients suffering from lesions producing true angina there is no question but that tobacco in-creases both the frequency and the intensity of the attacks. When smoking is forbidden to a patient with hypertension, who is disposed to angina pectoris, one of the factors favoring such attacks is eliminated. There seems to be a unanimity of opinion as to the adverse effects of tobacco in cases with latent or active changes in the cardiovascular system.*
Perhaps a question arises in the mind of some who are inclined to be skeptical about these claims. If tobacco is killing so many people why is it that we do not see that statement in the vital statistics recorded from doctors' reports in the papers concerning the causes of death of their patients. The fact of the matter is you never see in these vital statistics reported in the papers by doctors any statement that a patient died from tobacco poisoning or nicotinization. Shall we conclude from this that no deaths occur from such a cause?
The head of one of the largest sanitariums in the world, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Michigan,
_____
*Op. cit. (pp. 25, 26, 31).
-28-
asserted that one hundred tbousand people died annually from the effects of tobacco using.* Insurance companies have said that tobacco users shorten their life expectancy by seven years. Why then are these statements not found in the daily vital statistics printed in the papers?
Suppose you were to die and the doctor had warned you months before that you would die unless you quit using tobacco ? Would there be any justification for believing that tobacco had anything to do with causing your death? Would you want the doctor to publish in the paper that you died from tobacco poisoning? Would your friends want that fact published? Would you want the preacher to mention it in his funeral sermon? You certainly would not. It would look much better to say that you died from "heart failure," which means nothing. And that is exactly the way the doctors juggle the plain, cold facts in their publication of vital statistics.
If it would be thought a disgrace to have it published m the paper or announced from the pulpit that you died from tobacco poisoning, why is it not a disgraceful thing to use that which is not vital to anyone and is undeniably fatal to many? If we would honestly and truly die undisgraced, should we not live a clean, virtuous life?
_____
*"Tobaccoism: How Tobacco Kills" (Preface).
-29-
ASK THE DOCTOR, HE KNOWS—MAY BE
We should believe in medical science just as we should believe in all true science. But an M.D. after a man's name does not prove everything. It means no more to say that a man is a physician than to say that he is a preacher, a lawyer, or a farmer. There are more than fifty-seven varieties of all of them.
In his book, Tobaccoism [1922], Dr. J. H. Kellogg tells how a man came to him in great distress, saying his family physician had told him that he had only a few months longer to live, because of the effects of his tobacco using. He said he had persuaded a number of friends to invest heavily in an enterprise with him. If he could live two or three years he could make a success of it. Otherwise, they, as well as he, would lose all they had invested in the project. "Doctor, I must live," he said.
When Dr. Kellogg, after careful examination, told him that his doctor was right, and that his days were few, he shouted, "If the doctors know these things, why do they not tell their patients about them before it is too late?"
Doctors do know—sometimes. Some of them tell their patients. Some do not tell. If they do tell, some patients pay no attention to it. On the other hand, some doctors, apparently, do not know. They
_____
*Op. cit. (Foreword).
-30-
have their share of human ignorance. We must not expect more from them than from others.
No one can study the tobacco problem carefully without being convinced that many doctors are ignorant concerning its serious effects. It is equally evident that many of them know considerably more than they tell their patients.
In February, 1929, Dr. Arthur L. Smith, of Lincoln, Nebraska, one of the best known heart specialists in the Midwest, gave an address, illustrated with stereopticon pictures, before the students of Nebraska Wesleyan University. He informed them that more people had died in the State during the preceding year because of heart failure than from both tuberculosis and cancer. He gave it as his opinion that in a large percentage of those dying from heart disease, one of the causes of fatality was tobacco. He knows. He tells.
He narrated the following significant experience: "During the past month, three physicians have come to me saying they feared they were suffering from angina pectoris and would have to give up the practise of their profession. They wanted me to examine them. On careful examination, I told all three of them that if they would quit using tobacco, they would get well." He knew. He told. Those three doctors evidently did not know; how could they tell? Undoubtedly they had told many patients that tobacco would not hurt them if they would use it moderately even as they did—or thought they did.
-31-
Another heart specialist in Nashville, Tennessee, says that in a majority of cases where men come to consult him, he tells them that if they will quit tobacco, their trouble will disappear; otherwise, tobacco will get them.* He then said, "Recently I had noticed that in many cases that came to me, there were complications of symptoms which puzzled me, because the reactions were not those of nicotine alone; and yet, when the patients gave up the use of tobacco they got well. I was nonplussed.
"During the summer I made a trip through the South. I learned that tobacco raisers were killing the worms on the plants by spraying them with Paris green and arsenate of lead. At once I realized that my patients were suffering from arsenical poisoning as well as nicotine.
"Shortly after that, on two different occasions, I was visited by men from Kentucky suffering from heart trouble. I asked them if they used tobacco. They did. I said that was probably the cause of their trouble. I asked them if they sprayed their plants. They did. I said they probably were suffering from arsenical poisoning, as well as nicotine. Both of them said, "We do not spray the plants that we save for our personal use.'" They would not use what they sold the public! Thus does the use of tobacco and the trafficking in it callous the conscience.
_____
*Personal interview with the author.
-32-
WORTHY WITNESSES
In matters pertaining to the human physique no other set of men speak with greater influence and higher authority than athletic coaches. The dean of college coaches is Alonza A. Stagg, of Chicago. Under date of November 26, 1929, he wrote:
"The use of tobacco by athletes in training is almost universally regarded as harmful by coaches and trainers of athletic teams.
"From personal observation of athletes who have been addicted to the use of tobacco, I can speak with confidence, that, as a rule, they do not possess the endurance of athletes who have grown up free from the use of it. Few people smoke without inhaling, which means that eight times as much of the nicotine poison goes into their systems, according to recent experiments by a German scientist, than from the use of tobacco without inhaling. One of the leading physicians of Chicago has personally told me that since he started smoking, his pulse has gone up ten to twelve beats, and another physician, to whom I told this, has confirmed it by his personal experience. Outside of the matter of endurance, I have not exact data, but I am strongly of the opinion that athletes who have used tobacco would not have as steady nerves in tight pinches as non-users.
"At the University of Chicago, the athletic department has been unalterably opposed from the beginning to the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors by her athletes when in training. Several years ago two of our prominent athletes were
-33-
dropped from the base-ball team on the day of our most important contest for smoking cigarets on the sly. I felt at the time that it would mean the loss of the game, and it turned out as I feared, for we lost by one run. However, I have never regretted my action in the matter.
Another coach whose word carries weight with those interested in athletics is "Tad" Jones, of Yale. Under the same date he wrote:
"I was particularly interested and at the same time amazed that there should be any question as to the harmful effects of smoking during the football season.
"One of the inviolable rules in Varsity Football is that no man trying for the football team should smoke. Long experience has taught us that smoking is harmful not only to the physical but the mental condition of the team. The boys at Yale accept this fact without question and I believe a very careful survey of our squad would show that not a single man has smoked from the time they reported on September 15 until after the final game."
No other coach has a greater reputation than Knute K. Rockne, for many years the phenomenal Director of Athletics at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Here is his testimony
"I do not allow my players to use tobacco in any form.
"My experience has shown that tobacco slows up the reflexes of athletes, lowers their morale, and does nothing constructive.
"Athletes who smoke are the careless type,
-34-
and any statement to the fact that smoking helps an athlete is a falsehood."
While on an extensive trip recently with his team he was interviewed in regard to the secret of his extraordinary success in keeping his athletes in fine condition. Among other things he said:
"Contrary to the misinformation contained in advertisements of some cigaret companies, the football team will not smoke cigarets. This is because cigarets slow up the reflexes of an athlete. Furthermore, the boys will take into their systems about five hundred grams of sugar on Friday, which will be stored up in the form of concentrated energy for the game on Saturday. Then on Sunday, they will again eat about five hundred grams of sugar so as to restore content to the liver."
Reliable successful coaches are in absolute agreement upon the fact that if they would have athletes in the best physical conditions, fit for winning in contests, tobacco must be under absolute ban.
COUNTERFEITS
One of the most common excuses offered as a justification for the habitual use of tobacco is that it gives pleasure, comfort, satisfaction. This deserves candid consideration. We live in a good world, full of delights. But there are also sorrows and afflictions. If tobacco is a real antidote for any of these troubles, its use should be encouraged.
-35-
The world is full of fake nostrums. We need to heed the ancient warning, "Be not deceived."
Some folk evidently derive a delightful equanimity out of the sedative influence of tobacco. We should not ask them to give it up or try to take it away from them unless it is to their advantage to do so. They must be shown that they are deceived, that they experience false emotions and that other genuine, much more worth-while pleasures will come to them if they give up tobacco.
If one finds a one hundred dollar greenback he will experience a thrill. Should he learn later that it is a counterfeit, his disappointment will be great. If he spends that much (or more) for something supposed to be valuable, only to find later that it is worse than worthless, he will get little satisfaction in remembering the fond anticipation with which he bought it. A careful investigation of the tobacco " pleasure" will show that it is counterfeit, i.e., not what it seems to be. The sensations produced by it are not genuine, but spurious. Strip off its smiling mask, and behind it will be found an ugly, murderous ogre.
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Washington, D.C., formerly head of the United States Bureau of Chemistry, is one of the best known food experts in America. On the subject we are discussing he says:
"Is the comfort which tobacco gives real happiness? I answer *No, it is illusory.' He who seeks consolation in a drug is going wrong. There
-36-
is something out of condition in his make-up. He has a false view of life. There is no place in the normal life for an illusory delight or a drug-provoked content. Tobacco never has and never will bring any real happiness to humanity."a
In like strain the late Dr. G. Stanley Hall, one of the foremost psychologists of his day, said:
"The basis of intemperance is the effort to secure through drugs the feeling of happiness when happiness does not exist. There are many drugs which cause this pleasure, and in proportion to the delight which they seem to give is the real mischief they work. Alcohol gives a feeling of warmth, of vigor, of exhilaration when the real warmth or vigor or exhilaration does not exist. Tobacco gives a feeling of rest which is not restfulness. One and all, these various drugs tend to give the impression of a power or a pleasure or an activity which we do not possess. One and all, their function is to force the nervous system to lie. One and all the result of their habitual use is to render the nervous system incapable of ever telling the truth."b
If the drunkard or opium addict is foolish for subjecting his nervous system to false pleasures, causing it to lie and deceive him, how shall the tobacco user be classified for choosing habitually to experience equally abnormal and unreal sensations? Why accept counterfeit pleasures when you can enjoy genuine, wholesome delights and satisfaction? Be sane and wise.
____________
aTobacco and Human Efficiency, Prof. F. J. Pack (p. 65).
bIbid (p. 58).
-37-
JUST LIKE ALCOHOL
Tobacconists and tobacco users resent the idea that there is the least kinship between tobacco and alcohol. This is not a question to be settled by feelings or mere sentiment. It is a matter of fact. It must be settled by scientific investigation. "To the law and to the testimony."
Dr. Schrumpf-Pierron says:
"From the anatomical standpoint, prolonged poisoning from tobacco causes chronic inflammation and ultimate sclerosis of the nervous elements, EXACTLY AS IS THE CASE WITH ALCOHOL."a
Schweinitz and Uhthoff in independent investigations come to the same conclusions. Writing in regard to amblyopia, (Blindness) they say,
"In most cases it is the consumption of alcohol as well as tobacco which brings on the trouble. On the other hand there are forms of amblyopia which are caused solely by the use of tobacco which can lead to partial or even total blindness."b
Uhthoff further says that among 327 cases of amblyopia from poisoning 41 were due entirely to smoking.
While it is a well-known fact that smoking and drinking are natural boon companions and cause many similar ills, the testimony of these two authorities gives the impression that the tobacco user,
____________
aOp. cit. (p. 10).
bIbid. (p. 16).
-38-
whether he uses liquor or not, is liable to develop blindness from tobacco using alone, just as certainly as he may do so from the use of 1iquor.
Writing under the head of "Arteriosclerosis," Dr. Schrumpf-Pierron says, "In the last few years the importance of the use of tobacco as a cause of the various forms of arteriosclerosis has received special attention, not as the sole agent, but becuase its influence is added to that of alcoholic stimulants. In all cases the influence of tobacco seems to be preponderant."a Note carefully that last sentence. Where both tobacco and liquor are used, the worst results seem traceable to the influence of tobacco, not liquor.
Once more we refer to Dr. Schrumpf-Pierron. Under the caption, "Nicotinism Associated with Other Kinds of Poisoning," he says:
"From a clinical standpoint, nicotinism is frequently associated with other poisoning, so that it is often extremely difficult to distinguish the effect of the tobacco from that of other coexisting agents. The most frequent combination is that of alcoholism. Undoubtedly, alcohol is more dangerous than tobacco for the nerves, but the effect of alcohol is much intensified by the use of tobacco."b _____
a
aOp. cit. (p. 29).
bIbid. (p. 41).
-39-
That last sentence may suggest one of the reasons why so many tobacco users naturally seem to go on from tobacco using to the use of liquor and other narcotics. If the tobacco addict finds that he can "intensify" the effect of the tobacco "solace, comfort, peace, or satisfaction" by using liquor, is it not natural for him to go after the more intense gratification?
This intimate and even vital relationship between tobacco using and liquor drinking, which is just beginning to be generally recognized, is leading many people who are interested in human welfare, seriously to doubt if the prohibition of liquor can ever become a complete success unless tobacco is eliminated also.
-40-
PART II
THE TOBACCO HABIT
-42-
KEYNOTE
"Train up the child."
"Become as a little child."
"He took a little child and set him in the midst of them."
"Whoso causeth one of these little ones to stumble it were better for him if he were drowned."
"What father among you, if asked by his son for a loaf will he hand him a stone? Or if he ask for a fish will hand him a serpent? Or if he ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?"
"Come, let us live with our children."—Froebel
"We in America are far behind what a national conscience should demand for the public protection of our children."—Hoover.
"What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all children. ''—John Dewey
"In the child lies the hope of the race. The Republic's greatest work is to save the children."—Mrs. Theodore W. Birney
"No boy living would commence the use of cigarets if he knew what a soulless, useless, worthless thing they would make of him."—Luther Burbank
"He who helps a child helps humanity with a distinctness, with an immediateness, which no other help given to human creatures in any other stage of human life can possibly give again."—Phillips Brooks
"If the great army of philanthropists ever exterminate sin and pestilence, ever work out the race salvation it will be because a little child has led."—David Starr Jordan
-43-
FILOSOPHICS
|
No one knows how great a man a lad will be.
Your child is God's child, too. Treat him so.
If you would lead children, lead a childlike life.
A little child offers the greatest opportunity in the world.
Undoubtedly a big part of the trouble with the young people is the older people.
You are not responsible for your ancestry, but you are obligated to your posterity.
|
-44-
A REAL BOY
ASPIRATION
I will be a real boy—be strong:
I will stand firm against all wrong.
With all my might
Uphold the right—
I will be a real boy—be strong.
I will be a real boy—be brave:
I will not be a coward knave.
Courage I'll show
Against the foe—
I will be a real boy—be brave.
I will be a real boy—be true:
I will nothing dishonest do.
Far better die
Than tell a lie—
I will be a real boy—be true.
I will be a real boy—be good:
Simple, genuine, pure boyhood.
Doing kind deeds;
Serving great needs—
I will be a real boy—be good.
SUMMATION
Be strong, be brave, be true, be good;
Be everything a real boy should;
The truest, noblest, best boyhood—
Be strong, be brave, be true, be good.
-45-
CONSUMMATION
Into manhood at last I'll grow—
It takes boys to make men, you know-
I will, I can
Be a real man;
I will be a real manly man.
CULMINATION
Be strong, be brave, be true, be good:
Be everything a real man should;
The truest, noblest, best manhood—
Be strong, be brave, be true, be good.
A REAL GIRL
DREAMS
I will be a real girl—be pure.
'Tis the very best life I'm sure.
Be chaste, be clean,
Do nothing mean—
I will be a real girl—be pure.
I will be a real girl—be bright.
With a soul full of radiant light.
Without a fear,
Full of good cheer—
I will be a real girl—be bright.
I will be a real girl—be neat,
From my head clear down to my feet.
In tidiness
Of mind and dress.
I will be a real girl—be neat.
-46-
I will be a real girl—be kind.
With affectionate heart, refined.
Good-will express,
To help and bless.
I will be a real girl—be kind.
FULFILMENT
Be pure, be bright, be neat, be kind;
In body, heart, and soul and mind;
In every gentle grace refined—
I will be a real girl—a girl.
ACHIEVEMENT
Then a woman some day I'll be,
As the Master intended me.
The highest good
Of womanhood—
A woman most womanly.
ATTAINMENT
Be pure, be bright, be neat, be kind,
In body, heart, and soul, and mind,
In every gentle grace refined—
Be pure, be bright, be neat, be kind.
A PARADOX
I am good, I am bad;
I make happy, make sad;
I am weak, I am strong;
I am right, I am wrong.
Very small, great in size;
A big fool, wondrous wise;
-47-
Helpful friend, tricky knave;
Mighty master, a slave.
I bring joy, I bring pain;
I bring loss, I bring gain;
I bring doubt, I bring faith;
I bring life, I bring death.
The secret? Yon have it.
Best lose it! No! Save it!
Let go of it! Grab it!
Character. Habit.
HABITS AND CHARACTER
Character is life. What a man is determines what he does. If he is weak he will not achieve great things. If he is bad he will not accomplish much good in the world. Having the character of a man he can do many things that no animal can do.
Habits form the warp and woof of character. You are the sum total of your habits. What you do occasionally, infrequently, does not have the permanent influence of the thoughts and deeds that have place in your life constantly, repeatedly. As years go by it becomes increasingly difficult to change our ways.
Habits and character are largely individual. Others influence us, but in the last analysis, each one decides and chooses for himself. I do not have to copy your habits or character nor you accept mine or anyone else's. Habits and character are personal
-48-
possessions. Each is held responsible for his own habits.
A wise person will not deliberately cultivate a bad habit. If he finds such a habit unwittingly developed or growing, he will immediately set about freeing himself from it when he realizes its despicable nature.
Childhood is the golden age of habit formation. It is the period of mobility, plasticity, ductility, adaptability, adjustability. The child is a sponge, absorbing to the limit the moral and spiritual liquidity of its environment. It is clay in the hands of the potter. Its receptivity is both the hope and the menace of the future welfare of the race. If ignorance, stupidity, or malignancy becomes the tutor of the child, the odds are against his developing into noble maturity.
With the arrival of adulthood comes a hardening, a fixity, a "set," an inertia of physical and psychical material and conditions, which render voluntary changes increasingly difficult to make, and less and less likely to be desired or sought. A year of childhood dominates decades of manhood.
By every conceivable art and device the tobacconists are trying to persuade our children and young people to cultivate the tobacco habit. That they are succeeding all too well needs no argument. It is very evident.
If the tobacco habit will add strength and worthiness to character, parents, teachers, preachers, patri-
-49-
ots, and philanthropists should praise and encourage the tobacco propaganda. If the habit of using tobacco will prove a hindrance and a handicap to the future welfare of the rising generation and a menace to the development and progress of the race, it is high time that those who believe in altruism and idealism take aggressive, united action to meet the situation.
The immediately succeeding pages discuss various phases of this seriously vital problem.
A PAGAN PRACTISE
The use of tobacco is not an indication of progress in civilization. It is the opposite. It means retrogression, a reversion to type, atavism, a return to barbaric savagery.
In making a survey one must have an established landmark from which to start. The primary cornerstone at which to begin an historical survey of the tobacco problem is October 12, 1492—the day upon which Columbus discovered America. Up to that time the world in general knew nothing about tobacco. Previously only the Red Man of America knew the effects of using the weed.
Was Columbus able to report to the world a high state of civilization existing among these tobacco-using aborigines? He was not. Their life was steeped in ignorance, superstition, and degradation.
-50-
Meantime, great progress was being made by nations that knew nothing of tobacco. Note the contrast between the backwardness of the American Indian and the advancement of China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Palestine. What names among the Choctaws, Cherokees, Miamis, and Utes will compare with Moses, David, Homer, Cicero, Demosthenes, Plato, Aristotle, Vergil, and thousands of others like them? Tobacco is not a producer of genius.
Of course no intelligent person would affirm that tobacco was the one thing that kept the Indians in a low state of civilization. But when a tobacco propagandist intimates that the weed is such a wonder worker, ask him to explain the historic contrast mentioned. However, anyone who knows the real stupefying, deadening, narcotic effect of tobacco cannot help feeling that it may have been one agency contributory to the backwardness of the American aborigines.
The use of tobacco is in no sense necessary to the progress of civilization. Its habitual use had its origin in barbaric savagery.
DRUG ADDICTION
Tobacco users resent being called drug addicts. No doubt there is a certain amount of shame naturally associated with the phrase. And rightfully so. What is its real significance? It is generally
-51-
applied to the users of morphine, opium, heroin, and other well-known narcotics. Liquor drinkers become addicts to alcohol. These all are, indeed, objects of pity. Are there tobacco addicts?
What is the nature of drug addiction? Often it has a most innocent inception. One becomes stricken with a serious disease or meets with a severe accident. A surgical operation is necessary. An anesthetic is administered. The patient rallies. With the return of consciousness comes suffering of intense pain. Insomnia follows. An opiate is given. It is continued for several days.
The patient reaches the stage where he thinks he cannot rest or go to sleep without the narcotic. Doctors, nurses, friends, argue with him in vain. He has reached a physical and psychical condition where he feels that he must have the drug at any cost. Have it he will despite reason or results.
Tobacco acts in a similar way. One begins to use it because "others do," because "it is smart." Other equally insignificant reasons lead to further indulgence. It is all casual and apparently innocuous. But the practise unconsciously grows in frequency and insistency. Finally the doctor or friend warns against danger. He "can use it or let it alone," yet he does not quit but constantly uses more and more. He dies of "heart failure" or, as Luther Burbank says, he is "half dead," which is a most miserable state of existence. If that is not drug addiction, what is it?
-52-
There is no denying the fact that many folk use tobacco without becoming slaves to it. The same thing is true of alcohol. This does not prove that alcohol is not a narcotic, making slaves of millions. So, also, of tobacco. Nicotine is as correctly classified by science as a narcotic drug as is alcohol, morphine, or cocaine. Its natural tendency is to enslave the one who starts to use it. Millions are suffering from its bondage. The tobacco habit is drug addiction.
AN ABNORMAL HABIT
The tobacco habit is an abnormal habit. No boy who has been well born, has lived in the clean, healthful way that God intended (with good food, fresh air, and proper exercise)—no such boy craves tobacco. His system does not demand it as it demands fruit, vegetables, water, air, sunshine, and other necessities. If such a boy takes tobacco into his system his whole nature revolts against it. It makes him deathly sick.
If he continues to use it, he will pay the penalty. The habit thus formed is contrary to nature. It is abnormal.
Man is endowed by the Creator with certain gifts, powers, faculties, functions, talents, qualities, characteristics. He is healthy, happy, and successful as he uses these enduements in the way and to the extent that they were intended to be used. The natural man breathes, eats, sleeps—lives by the de-
-53-
velopment, cultivation, and enjoyment of his varied gifts and powers.
These gifts are improperly exercised in three ways: 1) partial use; 2) misuse; 3) overuse. Each of these develops bad habits, for which one receives a just retribution. Very few folk breathe as they should, eat, drink, walk, play, or perform their most common duties in a completely normal, sensible, wise way. Most people eat too much, too fast, and the wrong kind of foods, and good food that is improperly prepared. We do not exercise as we should.
It is a foolish man that tries to counteract the results of unnatural living by acquiring abnormal habits, such as drinking liquor, using tobacco, and other narcotics. Tobacco may not be the worst of the narcotics, yet it is the most widely used and brings more harmful results than are generally realized.
The tobacco habit is abnormal.
AN UNHEALTHFUL HABIT
To despise the body is to show contempt for a masterpiece of the Creator. He who would get from his body the highest and best service must respect it sufficiently to treat it with proper consideration. Thus only can it be kept in perfect condition. Anatomy, physiology, and hygiene are fundamentally essential studies, if one would live a happy and
-54-
satisfactory life. The temple of the spirit merits respectful treatment.
Good health is one of the greatest of all blessings. To be in a superlatively fit physical condition is to have a sure foundation upon which may be built the most abiding and satisfactory superstructure of life. Ill health is one of the greatest handicaps in the world.
When we consider the tremendous amount of tobacco consumed today, it is natural to ask whether this is a good thing for the body. No serious minded person can feel that it is inconsequential.
Tobacco companies, led solely by personal, selfish interest, realize that they must meet this issue. Anyone who carefully considers their propaganda cannot help seeing the sophistical subterfuge back of it. Only careless, superficial observers are deceived by it.
One company advertises that its product is kind to the throat; another assures you that there is "not a cough in a carload" of its brand; others make covert suggestions concerning the peculiar healthfulness of their particular offerings. Each of these implies (and rightly) that the general run of tobacco products injures the throat, brings on chronic coughing, and produces other ills. No doubt they tell the truth about others. Each company convicts all the rest and tries to fool you about the exceptional merits of its own particular brand. No thoughtful person will be deceived by such
-55-
camouflage. Tobacco does not give tone, strength, and vigor to muscle, sinew, bone, blood, nerve, heart, lung, brain, or any other part of the human organism. No athletic coach who wishes to win championships or contests will advise the members of his team to use tobacco. He will forbid it. No first-class surgeon when he has a major operation to perform will tell his patient that he has an extra chance for going through successfully because he has been an habitual user of tobacco for years. The opposite is the case. When epidemics sweep the land, tobacco dopers furnish most of the fatalities. The use of tobacco in no form of preparation is kind to any part of the physical organism. It is remorselessly cruel and malevolent. It does not develop fuller, stronger, richer life, but foments debility, disease, and death.
The tobacco habit is an unhygienic practise.
CHEATING THE INVISIBLE "YOU"
Man is spirit. His body is his earthly dwelling. You yourself are not physical. Self is invisible, inaudible, intangible. The body is the medium through which you receive impressions and give expressions. With all of its limitations, the body is a most marvelous instrument—unapproached by any human invention.
The body was made to serve man, not to dominate
-56-
him. The spirit is to be the master. Be the captain of your body as well as of your soul. Make regnant the noblest, the worthiest, the best.
If one injects opium into the blood stream regularly for several days, he will have difficulty in freeing himself from its dominance. The same thing would be true if he used alcohol. Tobacco produces a similar effect. You yield to the body, and instead of ruling it, you allow it to enslave you.
There are those who say, "I am no slave to tobacco. I use it, but I can quit it at any time." It may be no empty boast. On the other hand, many such have never really made the actual test and do not know how much of a dominance the habit has over them.
If you would, beyond all doubt, be master of yourself and retain that mastery, you will beware of that which conquers myriads of your fellowmen. It may prove to be your master, too, despite your confidence in the strength of your will.
Do you wish to be ruled from beneath or do yon wish to rule from above! Fight to keep your freedom. Let Nature's sentinels stand vigilant guard over body, mind, and heart. Heed their warnings of the approach of dangerous foes.
Narcotics, including tobacco, do not give health and strength to bodily organs; they tend rather to produce weakness and disease. Their baneful effects do not stop with the body, but extend to the soul also. Their tendency is not elevating, but debasing.
-57-
"Safety first" is a good motto. Do not be foolhardy. Do not be indifferent to temptation. Do not make Esau bargains. Your best is none too good for you. Why cheat yourself?
All things test;
Choose the best;
Refuse the rest;
And be God-blest.
VOLUNTARY DULLARDS
Neglect of the body is bad; neglect of the mind is worse. Physical defects are regrettable; mental deficiency is lamentable. If the tobacco habit injures any physical power, that alone is sufficient to make it taboo; if it interferes with the highest mental attainment, there are even greater grounds for avoiding its enslaving power.
Tobacco is not a brain-builder. It does not stimulate mental processes; it slows them down. It does not furnish stamina and staying qualities to one engaged in hard intellectual pursuits. Students and thinkers will discover that it is a foe and not a friend to the best intellectual achievements. Those who are interested in our educational institutions must unite against the evil machinations of the tobacconists.
Here are some facts established by Prof. O'Shea's volume, Tobacco and Mental Efficiency. His study
-58-
of that book led Prof. Schrumpf-Pierron to say: "Of the three parts of the book, that relating to the effect of tobacco upon the scholarship of students is the most striking and shows conclusively the generally unfavorable reaction of smoking upon scholarship. The laboratory experiments indicate in general, with but few exceptions, a detrimental effect of tobacco. In the main, the total effect of smoking on the mental processes tested is unfavorable."a
Prof. O'Shea himself says, "Psychological tests show that tobacco as a drug actually slows down intellectual processes." "In every one of the foregoing reports, smokers are shown to be inferior to non-smokers in the work of school and college." "Tobacco exerts a depressing influence upon school work, the depressing influence increasing according as the amount of tobacco consumed increases." "One cannot go over the reports from these two hundred and six schools without forming the conviction that tobacco is either directly or indirectly playing a tragic role in the high school."b
We can only take space here to quote a few cases from the many found in Prof. 0'Shea's book:
"A junior began his career in high school by getting 90's during his first year. Began smoking in his sophomore year. He has failed in two studies this year and has lost "pep" and attention
_____aOp. cit. (p. 49).
bTobacco and Mental Efficiency (pp. 133, 146, 157, 220, et seq.).
-59-
to work. He needs disciplining continually."
Another:
"Began smoking soon after he entered high school. His grades are as follows: First year average, 85.5; second year average, 78.5; third year average, 68.7."
One more:
"A boy of average ability began the use of tobacco during his first year. Afterwards he was a complete failure, not passing in any work. He was irregular in attendance; his word could not be depended upon; he was discourteous to teachers and fellow students. He was even laughed at by other students because of queer actions and remarks."c
Cases similar to these could be cited by thousands. In view of the tragic facts that they disclose concerning the deleterious effect of tobacco, not only upon the mental ability of students but also upon their moral conduct, something should be done in a drastic way to stop the promotion of this iniquitous traffic.
Tobacco stupefies, stultifies, and mortifies the brain.
A USELESS HABIT
Tobacco is not a necessity. Millions do not use it. They are in perfect health. They are able to do a full day's work year after year. Their mental powers are vigorous and alert. They are equal, if
____________cIbid. (pp. 141, 142).
-60-
not superior, to tobacco users. There are many superlatively strong and beautiful characters who use no tobacco. This is indubitable testimony to the fact that tobacco is not essential to the highest standard of living. If they should take up tobacco using, it would not add grace or virtue to their character. It would detract.
Lincoln and Lindbergh, without the aid of tobacco, accomplished what many others failed to do. Alvin C. York, according to Marshall Foch, "did the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe," and this without tobacco. Indeed, the achievement of the highest possible attainments is more easily possible without tobacco than with it. Henry Ford never used tobacco and neither did the Rockefellers. Would its use have enabled them to accomplish more than they have ?
What intelligent man will advise a bright, promising lad to acquire the habit early in life on the ground that it will assure him greater hope of making good by its helpfulness? Users themselves generally warn boys against it as likely to prove a handicap.
If every user today should quit, is there one of them who would, in a year from now, be any worse off physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, or financially? Are not the chances, rather, that they would all be the better off for it?
Is not tobacco using a useless habit?
-61-
AN EXPENSIVE HABIT
The pathway to strong character lies between the heights of prodigality and the slough of miserliness. Successful men appreciate the real value of money. Millionaires may indulge in many things which people of ordinary means should not consider. Yet no man is so rich as to justify himself in purchasing useless or harmful things. Is not tobacco in that category?
The tobacco habit is costing our nation (directly and indirectly) more than three and one-half billion dollars a year. Judged from the standpoint of commendable thrift and economy, can that be put down as a sensible expenditure? Is it not rather worse than wasteful extravagance?
Suppose that a high school boy instead of buying a package of cigarets a day (as many of them are doing) invests the fifteen cents daily in a savings account. At the time of his graduation he will have laid away $219. During the four years this sum will accumulate an additional $13 in interest. Boys of that type are today making their way through college, with no more than that as a starter and reinforced by the advantage of the good habits cultivated in high school.
Every one of discriminating judgment will acknowledge that any boy who carries out that sort of a program has spent his time and money in a much better way than the thousands who are smok-
-62-
ing their way through their adolescent years. But the advantage does not end there. What about the next period of life?
The youth has learned the advantage of little economies, such as saving fifteen cents a day. What about the bigger things? Will he not have had a training that will fit him for them? For example, what about the $3,500,000,000 a year which tobacco is costing our nation? Cannot young men who have practically put themselves through college by means of economic and thrifty habits, of which abstention from tobacco was the foundation, make a better use of this much larger sum than is now being made by those who are spending it for tobacco? Suppose we do a little figuring.
By the time the youth gets through high school and college he finds stirring within his breast an irresistible urge to take unto himself a mate and establish a home. "Home, Sweet Home," the most precious institution on earth. The foundation and inspiration of every other worth while institution. Shall the natural home-making urge implanted by the Creator in the heart of youth be denied or thwarted by poverty or any such cause? Then our nation and every good thing connected with its future welfare will suffer irreparably as a result.
If the money which tobacco is costing us annually was used instead for helping the youth of our nation to establish themselves in business and in home making, 'what a whale of a difference" it would
-63-
make. That sum would enable 350,000 young men of the character described to start off with a $10,000 investment for business or professional career and the entering of a humble cottage home. What frugal young man would not rejoice at such an opportunity! How much better an investment of the money that would be than sending it up in smoke!
Suppose we sit down with these young men and figure out the budgeting of this $10,000. It will be an interesting study:
| 1. Start toward business or profession | $3,000 by 350,000 youth | | $1,050,000,000
| 2. Start toward buying a home | 3,000 by 350,000 youth | | 1,050,000.000
| 3. Start toward furnishing home | 750 by 350,000 youth | | 262,500,000
| 4. For living expenses for a year | 750 by 350,000 youth | | 262,500,000
| 5. For savings, insurance, etc. | 1,000 by 350,000 youth | | 350,000,000
| 6. For religion, benevolence, etc. | 1,000 by 350,000 youth | | 350,000,000
| 7. For recreation and emergency | 500 by 350,000 youth | | 175,000,000
| $10,000 by 350,000 youth | | $3,500,000,000
| | | | | | | |
And we must not forget the 350,000 wives of these young men. The money wasted (or worse) on tobacco, would provide home and support for 700,000 young folk.
Shall the youth of America be encouraged and directed along the wise way of thrift and economy? Or are we going to permit the tobacconists to allure them into the paths of wastefulness and ruin?
The tobacco habit is an expensive habit.
-64-
"THE INNOCENT BY-STANDER"
By no trick of the imagination or license of euphemism can one claim that cleanliness, neatness, and tidiness are natural characteristics of tobacco using. Nearly everything associated with it, starting with the removal from the growing plant of the big ugly green worm that infests it, and ending with the scavenging of the stubs, butts, or quids from streets, halls, and other public buildings, together with the cleaning up of ash trays, spittoons, and other receptacles to which are consigned the final waste, is repulsive to the most refined taste.
Chewing has generally been under ban, not only among the mass of nonusers of tobacco but even by smokers. However, the smoker will have difficulty in making out a satisfactory clean bill of exemption for his practise. Tobacco smoke discolors the teeth, pollutes the air with impurities, deposits these impurities in the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat as well as in the bronchial tubes, the lungs, the blood stream, and arteries. The breath which the tobacco user exhales is fetid; and so, likewise are the odors of the excretions from the pores of his skin. There are many elements of offensive uncleanness inseparably connected with the habit of smoking.
The tobacco habit, in the very nature of the case, cannot be considered a purely personal matter. Others besides himself are bound to be affected by
-65-
the addict. Tobacco users do not and will not (and apparently cannot) smoke and chew by and to and for themselves alone. Millions of non-users are constantly compelled, against their wills, to be offended through the senses of nose, lungs, and eyes by poisons emanating from tobacco users in the exercise of what they wrongfully claim to be their "personal liberty."
The tobacco chewer spits. That is not a personal matter. Others are affected by it. It is prohibited by law as a menace to public health.
The smoker does not keep the excreta of his habit upon his own person. He pollutes God's pure atmosphere, a primary essential of health, and compels others to inhale it willy-nilly.
Whether one smokes or chews he saturates himself with nicotine and other poisons. For hours afterward those poisons exude from him through the pores of his skin and from the exhalation of his breath. Not only are these noxious effluvia annoying and disgusting to uncontaminated folk, they impregnate non-users with the second-hand poison to the injury of their health. And the users prate of "personal" liberty while thus making a public nuisance of themselves! It is plain selfishness.
One of these self-centered personal "libertyites" gets married. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred he seeks for a girl who does not indulge. She must endure his offensive caresses, embraces, and "love." Is that giving her a square deal? Is it practising
-66-
the Golden Rule? Is he doing by her as he would have her do by him? Is he putting himself in her place? Is he willing to quit using tobacco and let her use it instead of himself? Does he even want her to use it as he does? If not, why not? The answer to all these queries is one word—selfishness.
A baby is born to them. With his whole system saturated with nicotine and the other poisons in tobacco smoke, can he be certain that there is no contamination in the transmission from him to the genesis of that new life? Is he sure that it will have no deleterious influence on the health of the prospective mother and the developing unborn child, if she is forced to breathe a tobacco-laden atmosphere day and night during the months of her critical expectancy?
In due season the child is born. Will it make no difference if the first breath and all the succeeding ones taken into the delicate, tender lungs of the babe are drawn from an atmosphere reeking with poisonous tobacco smoke? Will it make no difference if all its infancy and babyhood are lived in such a tobacco polluted atmosphere? Should not every possible precaution be taken to reduce the high rate of infant mortality that now prevails in America? Is it not probable that tobacco using parents have much to do with the present alarming condition along this line? If the mother smokes as well as the father, is not the hazard multiplied? Why do prospective parents smoke? Selfishness.
-67-
The most ardent advocate of tobacco using will not champion it on the score of its altruism. The habit is so flagrantly selfish, and the indisputably baneful results are so many, that it is really anti-social.
In railroad trains and other conveyances, in public halls and various buildings where crowds are seen, signs are prominently displayed requesting the people not to spit and not to smoke. Why? It is generally understood that both these practises are inimical to health. But that is not the only reason. These places are supposed to be kept clean for esthetic as well as hygienic reasons. Public places, like private property, are presumably kept free from unsightliness, slovenliness, slouchiness, and ugliness. This ideal means a constant, persistent fight against tobacco.
The tobacco habit is selfish and anti-social.
A BITTER BONDAGE
The author has received many letters, the substance of which was the same as the following written by a man at Canton, Ohio:
"Will you be kind enough as to give me information about some dependable cure for the tobacco habit? I have tried to break myself of smoking but have always failed. It has a strong hold upon me and has ruined my will-power. It seems as if I cannot resist it. I have tried some remedies but always with the same results."
-68-
This is not a rare, isolated case. There are literally millions of men today who are in exactly that same condition. They are slaves. They do not smoke or chew because they want to do so. They want to quit. They try to quit. They take remedies that are recommended but get no relief. If this is not involuntary servitude, what is it?
Now the tobacconists are determined to bring our women and children, even those of tender years, into the same kind of slavery for the sake merely of the polluted profits they can pile up from the nefarious traffic. Will it be a good thing for the race if they succeed?
The sad part about the whole matter is that it is not afflicting those alone who have an "inferiority complex." It is getting some of the best men and women into the relentless clutches of its deadly tentacles.
Here is the testimony and confession of a man of extraordinary ability. When a man wins the Nobel Prize of $50,000 for special research in physiology, then confesses that he is a slave to tobacco, it shows that nicotine is as deadly a drug as alcohol. Read what Prof. Charles Richet, of Paris, says of this slavery. Here it is:
"Tobacco is pernicious. Tobacco smoke is noxious. It contains dangerous gases—oxide of carbon, hydrocyanic acid, and nicotine fumes. And yet I live in the midst of these poisons. Instead of breathing the pure, free, health-giving air, I injure my appetite, my memory, my sleep, and the
-69-
action of my heart by breathing noxious vapors. To excuse myself I cannot even claim, like many smokers, that tobacco is harmless, since I am well aware that it is harmful, exceedingly harmful.
"In any case, my mania for smoking is a fresh and unexpected proof of man's incorrigible folly. Tobacco is a stupid habit to which I am enslaved, while all the time fully realizing my stupidity. And because I am more alive to it than other men, I am more to blame.
"Weird mania! Absurd aberration! I have fettered myself with this habit with no better excuse than universal folly. A stupid slavery from which I lack the courage to break away.*"
DELIVERANCE
Tobacco produces disease. Various ailments to which humanity is subject are aggravated and less likely to yield to treatment in a tobacco addict than in the case of one whose system is free from the blighting influence of the poisons in tobacco. These are indubitable facts. Is there any remedy for the disease?
Tobacco makes slaves of those who habituate themselves to its use. Many users of the weed do not realize what a terrific grip it has upon them. Others know but are indifferent, preferring to enjoy its lethean torpor rather than put forth the effort necessary to break its shackles. Hundreds of thousands
____________
*Idiot Man (p. 65).
-70-
express a desire to be free, make attempts to do so, only to fail and finally confess their inability to quit it. Is emancipation possible for all who sincerely and earnestly want freedom from the bondage?
There can be no denial of the fact that tho many have failed, others have been cured, have found freedom from the thralldom of Judas Nicotinus. What has proved efficacious in some cases has not been successful with others. For the benefit of any readers who honestly want to be free, we briefly chronicle here the testimony of those who have had experiences of various kinds in the matter.
In the first place, it may be stated emphatically that a primary requisite to success is a sincere and earnest desire to find deliverance and a strong determination to do everything within one's own power to gain the victory. Anything less than this means certain failure.
Some people undoubtedly have more determination and will power than others. There is no use denying the evident fact that many men have quit simply because they said they were going to quit and that settled the matter. Others are not constituted that way, more is the pity. Perhaps more could do it that way than do, if they would really play the man and do it. There is a wonderfully exhilarating satisfaction in being able to do things that way.
Others have felt they could not conquer alone or even with the help of sympathetic friends and loved ones. They felt the need of divine power. They
-71-
claimed the promises of God's "Word. They threw themselves upon his mercy. They sincerely and in faith pleaded from the depths of their souls for the Lord to give them the grace essential to overcome their infirmities. And they have succeeded. There are undoubtedly many reliable cases in this class.
And yet, it is folly to deny that there are many slaves to the habit who, if they must depend upon their own will alone, are doomed to failure. There are probably just as many who seem unable to "pray through" to victory. Is it possible that medical remedies can help anybody? There can be no denial of the fact many sincere people testify to the efficacy they have found in medicine.
The trouble is that unscrupulous quacks, who have the same selfish spirit as the tobacconists, appeal to these victims of tobacco who are so anxious for freedom that they will catch at straws. Various "cures" are advertised that have not a particle of remedial virtue in them.
Dr. Daniel H. Kress, of the Washington (D.C.) Sanitarium has, we believe, one of the sanest and most reliable methods of treatment. He is not using it selfishly for money-making purposes. It is offered freely to all who will try it. It is simple. It is inexpensive. Here it is:
"The first step in giving up the cigaret is to give it up. Many fail because they never really reach this point. "Keep away from smokers and a tobacco-smoke-
-72-
laden atmosphere as far as possible for about three weeks. After each meal, for one week rinse out the mouth with a three fourths of one per cent solution of silver nitrate. This creates a distaste for tobacco smoke and will relieve throat irritation.
"Purchase five cents worth of gentian root (or camomile blossoms) and chew it during the day when the desire to smoke appears.
"To assist in the eliminating of the poison, take a dose composed of half a teaspoonful each of rochelle salts and cream of tartar each morning before breakfast for one week. If possible take a Turkish bath, or a good sweat bath of some kind, twice during the first two weeks. Drink water, orange juice, or grape fruit freely.
"Keep out in the open air as much as possible. Keep the mind occupied. The greatest aid will be found in a change of dietetic habits. Smokers are fond of highly seasoned foods and stimulating drinks. It is necessary to give up the use of pepper, mustard, the free use of salt and coffee and tea, and also the free use of meats.
"The following diet will be found of the greatest aid. If followed carefully, the discovery will be made, by the end of the first week, that the craving has materially lessened and by the end of the third week it is not unusual to find that the craving has almost entirely disappeared. With this assurance held out, the effort is certainly worth a trial.
"For a period of two or three weeks make use of cereal foods, as shredded wheat biscuits, bran flakes, Krumbles, puffed wheat, whole wheat bread, rye or graham bread, etc., with milk and
-73-
cream, buttermilk, cottage cheese, nuts (well masticated). At the close of the meal use fresh subacid fruits, as oranges, peaches, pears, apples, pineapples, grapefruit. Figs, dates, and raisins, apple sauce and canned fruits are indicated. Highly seasoned foods and stimulating drinks should be avoided."
-74-
KEYNOTE
"Behold thy mother."
"Honor thy mother."
"She hath done what she could."
"She hath chosen the better part."
"This poor widow cast in more than they all."
"A virtuous woman who can find?
For her price is above rubies.
Strength and dignity are her clothing.
She worketh willingly with her hands.
She looketh well to the ways of her household.
Her children rise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also and he praiseth her.
Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain:
But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."
"Earth's noblest thing, a woman perfected."—Lowell
"A nation cannot rise above its womanhood."—Howells
"The mothers of the world are shaping its life."—Speer
"A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort and command."—Wordsworth
"For woman is not undeveloped man
But diverse: could we make her as man
Sweet love were slain; his dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like to difference."—Tennyson
-75-
|
FILOSOFICS
Decent women are on the ascent.
No other can take the place of mother.
Nothing else is so unwomanly as uncleanness.
He is most ungentlemanly who lacks respect for woman.
The degradation of woman means the ruination of the race.
No man can rise to his best or sink to his worst without the pull of woman.
|
-76-
THE BRAVEST BATTLE
Joaquin Miller
The bravest battle that ever was fought—
Shall I tell you where and when?
On the maps of the world you will find it not,
'Twas fought by the mothers of men.
Nay, not with a cannon or battle shot,
With sword or nobler pen;
Nay, not with eloquent words or thought,
From mouths of wonderful men;
But deep in a walled up woman's heart—
Of woman that would not yield,
But bravely, silently bore her part—
Lo, there was the battlefield.
0, spotless woman in a world of shame,
With a splendid and silent scorn,
Go back to God as white as you came,
The kingliest warrior born.
|
-77-
IDEAL AMERICAN WOMANHOOD
The United States of America is not materialistic nor animalistic. True, we have produced many of the greatest financiers of the world and have more people in the millionaire class than any other nation; multitudes attend prize-fights and other forms of brutality. But down deep in its soul the nation is not coarse and bestial. It is at heart idealistic.
Our women, especially, have held to high ideals. The men, too, in spite of their own lower standards, in many cases, have been proud of the women because they did hold on to their finer sensibilities. Our women have a world wide reputation for healthful, rugged beauty and attractiveness. Their independence (American at heart), cleanliness of character, keenness of mind, strong intuitiveness, and possession of every trait of genuine womanliness, have placed them at the forefront of the womanhood of the world.
The tobacconists are doing everything that the cunning craftiness and shrewd insidiousness of Satanic sagacity can suggest, to lead our women to use their filthy products. Is that in accord with American idealism? Is it in consonance with the pure, clean, healthful, natural femininity which has marked the American woman from colonial days to our times? Will the general adoption of the allur-
-78-
ing suggestions of the tobacconists make our girls and women more like the one woman whose statue deservedly decorates our hall of fame?
We reprint a word picture of a woman, as described in a recent daily newspaper. This is a fair description of a nicotinized "female of the species." Would you be proud to claim such as your mother or the mother of your children ? Yet this is the kind of a female that the tobacconists are developing among us. Here is the newspaper description:
"Puffing a cigar, Jacquelin Moret, age twenty-four, pretty and tough, started a term in Colorado State Prison for a holdup at Casper, Wyoming. 'Maybe they will have a few big rocks left which can be made into little ones,' she said, blowing smoke rings and spitting with the accuracy of an Ozarker."
The reporter continues his account by telling how she had masqueraded for years in men's attire and says, "To the world in general and to the sheriff in particular, she boasted that she had run liquor across the Canadian border, dealt black-jack at Tiajuana, Mexico, tended bar in San Francisco, and engaged in other tough masculine jobs. 'None of 'em ever found out I was a woman,' she bragged. Asked if she had engaged in usual feminine occupations, she answered, 'Naw,' with a string of oaths. 'Don't you crochet?' mockingly asked a reporter. 'What in the — is that?' she asked."
How do you like that story from life? Is it not poles removed from the picture of an ideal Amer-
-79-
ican woman? And yet, if it is not a fair description of the kind of females into which the tobacconists would transform our mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, and sweethearts, wherein is it lacking? They are not encouraging our girls to maintain the highest ideals of early American womanhood. They are urging them to adopt the standard of what they denominate the "HE-MEN"—not gentlemen, in the truest, best content of the word, but coarse, vulgar, swaggering, cursing, foul-mouthed libertines and toughs.
Which is the better ideal for American womanhood, that of the tobacconists or that of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Young Women's Christian Association, and the women's organizations of the churches?
Real Americans, men as well as women, will always hold in the highest esteem such models as Frances Willard, Jane Addams, Mrs. Evangeline Lindbergh, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Mrs. Herbert Hoover, and thousands of others whose attractive ideals of true femininity are held in reverential respect and sacred esteem by every loyal son of a worthy mother, every good brother of a sweet sister, every faithful husband of a devoted wife, every proud father of a pure daughter, every genuine lover of an idealized sweetheart.
May God save us from the nicotinized debauchery of our womanhood and girlhood.
-80-
SMOKES FOR WOMEN
It is heartening to see leading magazines that appeal particularly to women coming out vigorously against their use of tobacco. Prominent among these magazines is Good Housekeeping. The following quotations from that popular publication are bound to have a wholesome effect. In the introduction to an article in its columns, it said :
"Good Housekeeping is just old-fashioned enough to wish that the women would not smoke. Also, it covets for women only the very best of all possible things, and cigarets cannot be included in that category. At best one has to make excuses for them; at worst, they are positively dangerous. And Good Housekeeping objects to the way in which cigarets are being advertised—taken 'on the wings of song' to the innermost circles of our homes and praised by men and women all our boys and girls admire. That does not seem fair, young folks being so easily led—and misled; so eager to do 'smart' things."
Physicians of the highest reputation were consulted. Here are a few quotations from their statements. Dr. R. A. Bartholomew, Emory University School of Medicine:
"Nicotine increases blood pressure, overstimulates heart action, produces catarrhal conditions of the respiratory passages and reduces the appetite; and furthermore the nervous effects are apt to be more marked on account of the more delicate nervous system of the average woman. As to the _____*August, 1929.
-81-
harmful effects on the unborn child, my feeling is that it may be definitely harmful."
Dr. Floyd W. Bice, Des Moines, Iowa, said:
"As to the physical effect on smoking women the physician has but to observe her—nervous, underweight, sallow-complexioned, with a poor appetite, hacking cough, dark circles under the eyes, husky-voiced, suffering from sleeplessness, and irritable. On numerous occasions I have had patients with exactly such symptoms. When I discovered the habit and persuaded them to stop it, notice the change; nervousness gone, plump, brighteyed, healthy complexion, clear voice, happy and contented. The improvement was miraculous."
In concluding, the author of the article said:
"If the cigaret companies are not to 'get' the girls, there must be swift and effective interference with their power to tempt them. Parents who do not want their daughters to become cigaret fiends should be able to have a radio in their homes without feeling that they are opening their homes to a flood of insidious propaganda."
The case against cigarets has been understated rather than overstated in this article. One could truthfully go much further. If the girls are to be saved from learning by experience what an undesirable habit smoking is, they must be saved by their elders who know what the tobacco habit means.
"This is a debt which the passing generation owes to the one that is coming on and this debt is to boys as well as to girls. The older generation is in a position to discharge the debt."
Let us meet this moral obligation.
-82-
"SMART SOBRIETY"
The Ladies Home Journal in its issue of January, 1929, has an article under the above caption in which it says:
"Not so very long ago smart people were showing how smart they were by drinking cocktails at lunch, tea and dinner, with champaign, highballs, light wines and beers thrown in if they were smart enough to get them, and smoking themselves green—literally—in the face. But suddenly a very queer thing happened. Suddenly it is the fashion to be in perfect health."
It will be a sorry day for our nation if the time ever comes when it is not the accepted ideal among our women and '' the fashion to be in perfect health. Yet too many women are in danger of losing that ideal, because they are being misled by the extensive propaganda designed to bring about the day when our girls and women shall engage in "smoking themselves green—literally—in the face" without realizing that it means the wrecking of their health, and, with it their hopes of attaining the highest ideal womanhood.
The writer shows the correct point of view in associating drinking with smoking. They are toxic Siamese twins. A girl who smokes is almost certain in time to drink.
Speaking of the eyes as a revelator of one's physical condition, the writer truthfully goes on to say:
"The eyes are the best index as to whether you are fashionably healthy. The eyes should not be
-83-
sunken and dull like an old vulture 's, as they will be if you are over fifteen and drink and smoke somewhat steadily. They should be clear, bright, with that half-shut, slippery look of a child's eyes, and this whether you are twenty or forty or sixty. It can be done, and it is being done these days."
But it cannot be done by cigaret-smoking girls. The article goes on further strongly to emphasize the value of fresh air and sunshine for perfect health. This certainly is the opposite of lolling on a lounge in a room filled with nicotine-laden smoke which is the model held before the women by the tobacconists.
"If you are not full of dying cocktails, strong coffee, heavy dinners and nicotine, the strongest sunlight will not hurt your eyes or give you a headache or mottle your skin; it will gild you in the most beautiful suave way you could wish."
How enticing that is! May our women and girls have the good common-sense to prefer it to the unhygienic regime recommended by the tobacconists.
"Well," concludes the Journal, "suddenly people have realized that if prize-fighters, by training, become handsomer, lighter, harder, livelier than before, why shouldn't all of us? If children by having the right food and sunlight, grow up to have teeth as regular as piano keys, straight legs instead of knock-kneed ones, why not we, too? And so the countesses and duchesses and young millionaires are working at it."
May our girls adopt the sensible fashion. The one who has sought and preserved health has
-84-
always been "smart"—now she will be fashionable also.
A BAD ALLIANCE
There is a great deal of indirect promotion of the tobacco business which is most suggestive as well as revelative. The seeming friend of the traffic has proved false and betrayed it with a kiss. Take by way of illustration the notorious example of the tooth paste company that used full page advertisement with pictures of girls smoking cigarets.
Thousands of former customers of that company immediately changed tooth pastes. They did not wish, even in the most indirect way, to contribute a penny or a particle of their influence toward promoting the tobacco trade.
Perhaps the tobacconists congratulated themselves that they had obtained a valuable ally; for the advertisements aver, "Beauty lessons girls can learn from men who smoke." "So fashionable to smoke nowadays." "I smoke a package of cigarets a day." "A cigaret poised in dainty fingers—it does look so graceful!" "It is so very sophisticated!" "All the girls in my crowd smoke and the boys take it for granted." "Smoking brings me a great deal of comfort." All that seems to give a pretty good boost to tobacco.
But read the advertising carefully. Here are some statements taken at random from them:
-85-
"There's a price girls must pay for smoking." "Dreadfully hard on the teeth." "Teeth once white and perfect soon grow stained and yellow.') "Delicate membranes of the mouth and throat become parched and dry." "A vile taste in the mouth—a dried out feeling." "And what is more disastrous to any girl's charm than a stale, offensive tobacco breath?" "Smoke-parched tongue." '' Unhealthy mouth conditions. " " Unpleasant taste in the mouth."
The advertisers, friends of tobacco assume, admit these unpleasant and disastrous effects. People are too sensible to be misled by such superficial propaganda, and will decide that there is no reason for cultivating a habit for the uncertain pleasure of curing oneself of its ills by using a special tooth paste. As well deliberately catch the itch just for the pleasure of scratching.
Furthermore, many will question the ethics of encouraging a vice for the purpose of promoting the sale of a remedy for it. A business that tries to build itself up on the evil effects that come from another traffic, does not deserve the patronage of those who oppose vice and stand for clean, wholesome habits. Tobacconists would do well to ask some of their friends please to keep quiet.
"BACKGROUND"
The caption of this chapter is the inspiration for a striking article in the great little periodical
-86-
Antioch News.a It shows how humanity, chameleon-like, takes on the "color" of its environment. Newspapers, magazines, radios, schools, and many other such agencies furnish man with the background that determines the tint and tinge of his character. Ultimately this even settles the nature of civilization itself.
With regard to the influence of the press the writer says, "Almost the greatest of our backgrounds is the newspaper. We shall not be civilized while this determiner of our outlooks is chiefly a private industry, operated for profit. We allow pursuit of commercial newspaper profits to determine the future character of our people."
As an illustration of the perilous nature of this matter he says, "I am told that the advertising advisers of the American tobacco industry assured their clients that, with an adequate advertising background, in five years they could have more tobacco users among women than among men. Their great expenditure has largely succeeded, and today it is very bad form, as well as a denial of the human freedom, to interfere with a woman's desire to walk a mile for her favorite brand."
There are several suggestions in these two paragraphs worthy of serious consideration by the well wishers of humanity. First, it is another piece of evidence in support of the claim that tobacconists
____________
aPublished by Antioch College (March 15, 1929, issue).
-87-
have deliberately engaged in a systematic, persistent crusade, covering a period of years, with the sole purpose of making tobacco using as common among women as among men. Second, 'Advertising advisers' (who, according to their motto are supposed to be interested in "truth") suggested this matter to the tobacconists and abetted them in its promotion. Third, newspapers and magazines, private industries run solely for commercial profit and not for public welfare, are responsible for the whole project.
The important question is—Are the good people of the nation going to stand for such unethical conduct aimed at the current exploitation of our women and girls? President Morgan rightly adds, "The power to change human outlook by changing background is a sacred trust, not an irresponsible resource. With the development of civilized ethics, to exploit the chameleon character of human nature will be as immoral as for a physician to take advantage of a patient's confidence for the sake of fees."
Newspapers and magazines are as fully responsible for what appears in their advertising and news columns as they are for what appears on the editorial page. A good newspaper carries an understood guarantee of truth. It is a poor publication whose readers have to beware of anything they find anywhere in it. They are being misled by it. A periodical whose pages promote a bad business is responsible
-88-
to the extent of its influence for evil results that flow from that business. By carrying questionable advertising a newspaper undermines all reliance upon it. The public comes to believe that it will print anything for a price.
How far are we going to allow this immoral conspiracy of tobacconists, newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards, and other venal institutions to exploit our girls and women solely for their own great polluted profits, when that exploitation means the ruination of the victims and becomes an incalculable menace to the future welfare of our nation and of the world?
INSIDIOUS SEDUCERS
The tobacconists are after the women customers with a zeal worthy of a better cause. That statement needs no argument. The fact is patent to all. It is brazenly and blatantly emblazoned on billboards everywhere, and spread over countless pages of magazines and newspapers in all our homes. It is inescapable. A large part of the tobacconists' budget for propaganda is apparently set aside for this particular purpose. They are determined to put a cigaret in the mouth of every woman and girl in the land.
What is the motive back of all of this propaganda ? Not a wish to confer benefit upon womanhood. It is the grossest exploitation of girlhood and womanhood spurred on by an insatiable, inordinate
-89-
greed for gold. Tobacconists have no regard for woman's personality; it is her purse they would plunder.
And judging from the general character of their propaganda, it appears that they cannot accomplish their ends by legitimate advertising. If it were possible for them to gain their point by telling the truth, they certainly would not engage in the wholesale campaign of deception and fraud which has characterized their campaigns.
Their special crusade for making cigaret smokers of our girls and women began in 1924. No other campaign was ever conducted with more cunning craftiness. Whatever else tobacconists lack, shrewdness is not one of them. They are past-masters in wily artfulness.
Other lines of legitimate business do not resort to such tactics. They believe that real, abiding success can only be built up by honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, and frankness. When they see the duplicity and deception characterizing the propaganda of the tobacconists, they surely must be filled with amazement, if not indignation.
In their first advertisements women's pictures were introduced unobtrusively and inconspicnously in the background. They were the handsomest and most attractive women whose photographs could be bought and prostituted to the siren purpose of leading to ruin not only men, but women, too, by their
-90-
ingratiating charms. They were young, girlish, fascinating.
After months of cautious advertisements of this character, with women 's pictures occupying such subordinate places in them that the public became "familiar" with her face there, then the tobacconists were ready for the next step. A woman's picture was shown with a replica of a package of cigarets occupying a small space in the corner. A caption in large type was printed, containing a sentiment complimentary to the woman, implying that it also applied equally to the cigaret. The suggestion was that they were alike and belonged together.
Not until the tobacconists had spent millions of dollars, month after month, covering a period of years, did they have the effrontery to show a woman actually with a cigaret between her lips. But it finally came. Had the tobacconists done that at the beginning, they knew the public would not stand for it. The question is—Will American manhood and womanhood stand for it now? Have they been so artfully beguiled that they are now ready to "embrace" the nicotinized woman without protest ? God pity us, if this be so!
The insidious, seductive enticement has reached its climax. The despoilers of our girls and women can go no farther. Are the fair sex going to yield to the blandishments and cajoleries of these rogues? Are the men of America going to sit supinely by and
-91-
permit this seduction to be consummated without protest?
Surely not. There is good reason for holding a higher regard for the womanhood of our nation and a better opinion of its manhood. They have not realized what was actually going on. They have not been aware of the significance of the maneuvers of the enemy. When they appreciate the situation, they surely will meet it as our forebears have met menacing situations in former days. When their intelligent consciences are aroused they will make short shrift of these insidious seducers of our women and girls.
WOMAN'S FINER FIBER
Like all other deceivers and betrayers of womanhood, the tobacconists hypocritically represent themselves as true lovers of the ladies and as their disinterested well-wishers. They are anxious, forsooth, that the dears shall have pleasures and privileges that have been unjustly denied them in the past by heartless, over-scrupulous Puritans. If a thing is all right for a man, how can it be bad for a woman T Since the franchise, formerly the exclusive prerogative of the male, is now freely exercised by the ladies, why should they not also claim other things heretofore under taboo to the gentler sex? Why not? Oh, these smooth-tongued rascals are expert adepts in the seductive artifices of flattery! How plausible their presentation of their specious
-92-
plea! Is it any wonder that so many are deceived by their attractive sophistries? All the more reason that everyone who has a sincere appreciation of true womanliness and a real esteem for genuine feminine graces should chivalrously oppose the snakelike bewitchments of these enemies of Americans mothers and daughters.
Perhaps some will honestly ask, "Is it worse for a woman to use tobacco than for a man to do so?" Yes. It is questionable whether it ever actually is good for a man; it is unquestionably less likely to be of benefit to a woman. No intelligent person will claim that nicotine or any other ingredient in tobacco adds to a man's physical power. Ask Corbett, Dempsey, Tunney, or any other whose fame was won by extraordinary brawny strength and agility. If tobacco has a bad effect on the coarser tissue of man's body, it is absurd to suggest that it will improve woman's finer physique. Beauty specialists warn women against tobacco. So do hygienists. The special efforts of the tobacconists to inveigle and hoodwink the women into using their products is an attempt to coarsen and not refine the womanhood of the world. Every true lover of his mother, his wife, his sister, his daughter, his sweetheart, who has a spark of genuine manhood in him will array himself against this crafty enemy of womanhood.
Another reason for strenuous opposition to the determined attempt of the tobacconists to wheedle the women into using their stuff, is the fact that,
-93-
as a class, the women of the world have maintained a higher, cleaner moral standard than the men. Psychically, as physically, woman is different from man and of finer fiber. Woman is an idealist. The future welfare of the race appeals more strongly to her nature than does her own present self-gratification. Self-sacrifice is a second nature with woman. The effect of nicotine upon these inherent, admirable qualities of womanliness, is not to enhance but to abase them. Nicotine not only injures the optic nerve, it obscures spiritual vision and transforms altruistic sentiment into boorish selfishness. Nothing else will more quickly and thoroughly unsex womanhood than tobacco.
Dr. Samuel A. Brown, dean of Bellevue Hospital, New York City, says, "Women smoke nervously. They cannot smoke moderately. Their nervous condition develops anemia and other ills to which the sex is susceptible. From the standpoint of health, cigaret smoking among women is very objectionable, and on the other hand, it is a let-down of moral standards. Among growing girls, particularly those developing mentally and physically, the habit is extremely dangerous."a
But the evident intent of tobacconists to ensnare the women in a filthy, debasing habit is aimed not only at their highest and best personal attainments—its success would also prove to be disastrous to
____________
aTobacco Under the Searchlight (p. 233).
-94-
women's greatest social power. The fighting male may have subjugated women for ages by mere brute force. But there has always been a quiet, subtle, pervasive influence in femininity by which the master has been unconsciously dominated. In many ways this has been the saving salt that has preserved the race. Nicotinization of womanhood will not mean her exaltation in femininity but rather her degradation in mannishness. Woman will lose her sway over man by lowering her standard of conduct to conform to his, instead of insisting upon maintaining her own inherent, higher standard of life and inviting him to come up to it.
For the sake of her noblest and best influence over man, woman must not listen to the serpentine suggestion of the tobacconists. Man wants in his mate something that is different and lacking in himself. The more mannish a woman, the less attractive she is to man. Every true man wants woman to maintain to the greatest degree her femininity. To call tobacco "Lady Nicotine^ is one of the greatest insults offered to women.
THE QUEEN OF THE HOME
Motherhood is the crowning experience of womankind. No other word in the vocabulary carries with it so much beauty and tenderness as the word "Mother." Dare we affirm that by yielding to the
-95-
tobacco habit the motherhood of the nation will be lifted to a higher, better plane? The habit is already growing at an appalling rate among children to their physical, mental, and moral undoing. If the mothers become tobacco addicts, their influence over their boys and girls will naturally be toward the children's use of it, and not against it. The habit will thus be even more prevalent among the children than it now is, because the motherhood of the land will abet the tobacconists instead of combating them. This will affect the future welfare of the race itself.
The primary precept of the Creator of the race, as recorded in the Bible, is, "Be ye fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it." This is likewise a fundamental desire of normal men and women. Any deliberate and persistent interference with the perpetuation of the race strikes at the elemental principles of life itself. We charge tobacconists with contemptuous flaunting of these sacred ideals.
No poison is more deadly to the life germ than nicotine. Eggs from hens compelled to breathe tobacco smoke during the night are unfertile. Animals nicotinized are sterile. No breeder of fine stock would under any circumstances allow tobacco to be given to sire or dam. Shall we be more indifferent to our human progeny than to animals? Woman, will you choose the pleasure of smoking even at the cost of childlessness?
In how many couples who have been married ten
-96-
years or more and have no children is the husband a heavy user of tobacco? How many cases are recorded where deformed, stillbom, or anemic children have been born to fathers who are inveterate users of tobacco? Science speaks in no uncertain terms regarding these and kindred questions.
If the use of tobacco by fathers is frequently seen to be disastrous to the progeny, what will be the result if the tobacconists succeed in their schemes to make tobacco using general among the women also and thus nicotinize the prospective mothers as well as the fathers of the future? The direful results are incalculable. The heinous prospect should arouse to vigorous activity every patriot, every lover of humanity, and every believer in God.
FADE OR FIGHT
In a public meeting a preacher asked, "What about the spreading of the tobacco habit among women; is it not a fad that will gradually fade out?" It may be somewhat of a fad, but it will not fade out; it must be fought out. It is like the spread of the boll-weevil in the cotton, the corn-borer among the maize, or the bugs, worms, insects, lice, and other pests that infest fruit trees, flowers, and other plants. There is just one way to meet these evils and that is by waging relentless warfare against them. A fad? But a bad habit will tenaciously entrench
-97-
itself within the human heart and grow and spread like a weed in a fallow field. There is just one way to treat it and that is by waging ceaseless, vigorous warfare against it. It only asks to be let alone. It will see that everything good yields to its insidious encroachment. When burdock and thistle naturally die out from a neglected farm, then, and not till then will the tobacco habit fade out from a society where it is carefully cultivated instead of being radically opposed with might and main.
When you read on billboards or in periodicals the insidious propaganda of the tobacconists whose plain intent is to persuade our women to use their produce, will you not remember that nothing else but selfish greed is back of it? The motive is not chivalry but chicanery. Whoever would seek to promote the kingdom of God must array himself against it. Whoever is a friend of womanhood will warn her against it. Whoever is a lover of little children will denounce it. Whoever is a patriot will wage unceasing warfare against it. Whoever desires to perpetuate and bless the race will do all he can to enlist the lovers of humanity to blot it out of existence.
Is it possible that the tobacconists will succeed? Yes, in so far as unlimited capital backed by unscrupulous greed can succeed in carrying out ungodly designs. Millions of dollars are being spent by tobacconists upon their propaganda. From artistic and psychological points of view this propa-
-98-
ganda is as perfect as venal brains can make it. The chance of success is also helped by the fact that there are many foolish women ready to take up any fad which is made sufficiently alluring. Tobacconists know how to appeal to feminine frailties. But their hope of success depends most of all upon the apathy and indifference of those who should know what is going on and who ought to make it their business to counteract the unpatriotic, ungodly work of these enemies of our wives, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and our race.
Will they succeed? We think not. The dollar is mighty but it is not almighty. Deception often gains its point, but the advantage gained is usually temporary. Sincerity alone wins lasting victories. Workers of iniquity have their times of prosperity, but retribution comes in due season. Tobacconists may fool all the women some of the time, and some of them all the time. But they cannot fool all the women all the time, nor many of them much of the time, nor the best of them at any time. This is our ground of hope.
Many women are using tobacco—too many who belong to what are generally regarded as "leading" women, socially and otherwise. Tobacconists, spiderlike, are catching in their deadly web a multitude of the frivolous, foolish, flapper butterfly "society" sort. But they are still far from success in their aim to make the use of tobacco as common among women as it is among men. Most of our women are still
-99-
pure, clean, chaste, and unspoiled. The heart of American womanhood is fundamentally sound. Their ideals are still the highest and purest. The great mass of American women are too sensible to be hoaxed by the camouflage of the un-American tobacco tempters.
Too many men use tobacco. But there are more who are abstainers than are generally supposed to be on that side. These can be depended upon to oppose the spread of the habit among women. In addition to these, an overwhelming majority of men who use tobacco do not want their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and sweethearts to use it. Many of them are saying that the tobacco men are just like the liquor men—they are undermining their own business by their senseless, unbridled greed.
|