A writer in Singing and Playing, a publication devoted to music and drama, has given us this additional glimpse into the way indorsements are sometimes obtained. He says:
"Speaking of cigarettes, I wonder if some of our artists are not going too far in testimonial writing? I sec one tenor's name, for example, attached to two rival brands; each testimonial signed by this man is so eloquent and extreme that
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you wonder he could endure another brand. Yet if you meet this tenor, you will find him puffing a cigarette imported especially for him. Obviously, he signed the American dealers' testimonials purely for the publicity value. This same tenor, by the way, indorses a facial cream, a soft drink, a cigar, two makes of piano (fickle fellow that he is), and a few other items of merchandise.
"This artist, like many of his colleagues of high and low degree, has sold his name and prestige for the sake of the advertising. Very rarely does any money change hands in this testimonial traffic; frequently a solicitor who obtains the signatures of prominent persons is paid about fifty dollars a name, but the artist receives only five dollars and the assurance that his photograph will be featured in a nation-wide advertising campaign in the leading dailies and magazines.
"A few of the more resolute artists, Madame Schumann-Heink, for one, have resisted; but I must record the fact that possibly five hundred musicians have sold their opinion on various brands of cigarettes; in fact, the artist who has not been approached by a tobacco firm may consider himself completely obscure. Of course, the testimonial signer must be granted a poetic license as far as sincerity of sentiment goes, for I know some endorsers of cigarettes who have never smoked in their lives."
Luring Girls and Women
Another phase of this cigarette advertising racket that is most culpable is the direct appeal to girl and women smokers. In times gone by, the cigarette manufacturers have had a little respect for the womanhood of America; in fact, they have not dared to use their advertisements for the purpose of inducing girls and young women to smoke; but nowadays they everywhere try to convey the impression that the best women smoke, that men admire women smokers; that smoking is not incompatible with womanly ideals, that smoking will aid
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in preserving beauty of face and contour, etc. The manufacturers who make these assertions must know that they are absolutely false.
To the lure of these advertisements can largely be attributed the amazing increase in women smokers of recent years. The tobacco men came to realize a few years ago that if they could get a large proportion of the girls and women to smoke, their business would double overnight. The cigarette manufacturers have added to their plants over and over again since women started smoking, and the flood of money pouring into the coffers of these corporations has surprised even the tobacconists themselves. But all this has but whetted the appetite of the tobacco trust, and now they are more resolved than ever to push their advertising until every girl and woman, as well as every boy and man, is puffing away at a cigarette. It is said that in such countries as China they go so far as to hand out free cigarettes to little boys and girls, in order to get the habit formed, and thus to build up their traffic. Referring to the unscrupulous methods followed by the tobacco trusts in this country, Senator Reed Smoot declared in a recent speech in the Senate:
"In many women's colleges resentment has been caused by the free distribution of cigarettes designed to start girl under-
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graduates on the road to cigarette addiction. Another company sends congratulatory birthday greetings with a carton of cigarettes to boys who have reached sixteen years of age. Every temptation that greed can devise is thus placed in the path of our boys and girls."
In view of all these facts, it is no wonder that such men as Charles F. Powelson, general secretary of the National Child Welfare Association, says: "It seems to me it is high time that our schools should teach our children to look behind the methods of the scheming propaganda that in these days is being poured forth by radio, press, billboards, and similar advertising mediums."
Tobacco Advertisers Challenged
It is no wonder that such eminent men as Dr. Daniel A. Poling should declare.:
"I speak first of all as an American father who, with an American father's concern for his own children and for all children, challenges current cigarette advertising. I speak in the second place as the president of the World Society of Christian Endeavor, as the representative, therefore, of more than four million young people who share with me the deep hostility against this advertising. . . . Womanhood is being exploited for trade. Excess is being encouraged as efficiency. Boys and girls in the crucial years of adolescence are being led to stunt their bodies and dwarf their minds."
And it is no wonder that such a statesman as Hon. Reed Smoot, United States Senator since 1903 and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, said in the memorable speech delivered in the Senate on June 10, 1929:
"Mr. President, ten years ago, when in certain quarters of our metropolitan cities a saloon flourished on every corner, when red lights marked houses of Infamy, when blazing electric signs reminded the passer-by that it was time for another drink of whisky, no tobacco manufacturer, despite the vast
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license permitted, had the temerity to cry to our women, 'Smoke cigarettes—they are good for you.' When newspapers were filled with cure-all and patent-medicine advertisements, no manufacturer of a tobacco product dared to offer nicotine as a substitute for wholesome foods; no cigarette manufacturer was so bold as to fly in the face of established medical and health opinion by urging adolescent boys to smoke cigarettes, or young girls—the future mothers of the nation—to adopt the cigarette habit.
"Not since the days when public opinion rose in its might and smote the dangerous drug traffic, not since the days when the vender of harmful nostrums was swept from our streets, has this country witnessed such an orgy of buncombe, quackery, and downright falsehood and fraud as now mark's the current campaign promoted by certain cigarette manufacturers to create a vast woman-and-child market for the use of their product. . . .
"I rise to denounce insidious cigarette campaigns now being promoted by those tobacco manufacturing interests whose only god is profit, whose only bible is the balance sheet, whose only principle is greed. I rise to denounce the unconscionable, heartless, and destructive attempts to exploit the women and youth of our country in the interest of a few powerful tobacco organizations whose rapacity knows no bounds.
"Whatever may be said of the moderate indulgence m the use of tobacco, it is clear that the issue raised before the country in some of the current cigarette campaigns is the issue raised by urging excessive cigarette smoking; by flaunting appeals to the youth of our country; by misrepresenting established medical and health findings in order to encourage cigarette addiction."
It is evident that the tobacco trust stands indicted at the bar of honesty. It is guilty of betraying our youth for gold. It is wilting to seduce our women for profit. It is scheming to debauch the health of millions that it may make billions.
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Tobacco's Effect on Character
NO ONE can accuse ex-President [Herbert] Hoover of being either fanatical or bigoted; yet this is his estimate of the damage cigarettes do to the character of our youth:
"We in America are far behind what a national conscience should demand for the public protection of our children. There is no agency in the world that is so seriously affecting the health, efficiency, education, and character of boys and girls as the cigarette habit, yet very little attention is being paid to it. Nearly every delinquent boy is a cigarette smoker, which certainly has much to do with it. Cigarettes are a source of crime. To neglect crime at its source is a shortsighted policy, unworthy of a nation of our intelligence."
It is an indisputable fact, and one that should give us considerable concern, that although not all cigarette smokers are criminals, yet nearly all criminals are cigarette smokers. This is far more than a mere coincidence: the law of cause and effect undoubtedly operates here. From a medical viewpoint the explanation is this:
The furfural present in the smoke of the cigarette acts upon the brain cells and nerve tissues in such a manner as to bring about a degeneracy of these structures in time. This is especially true with the undeveloped brain. Thus the cigarette habit taken up by boys before the brain is fully developed tends to bring about degeneracy of the brain cells and to produce moral degeneracy. It develops criminal tendencies in these boys. These are the boys that we find in our juvenile courts, reform schools, and jails. Whenever I read of a dastardly crime's having been committed, by inquiry I have found that in practically every such case the criminal was a cigarette addict. Go with me to any juvenile court and ask the judge what percentage of the youthful offenders that appear before him are cigarette smokers. He will tell you that nearly all of them are. I have never heard a lower estimate than 93 per cent.
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At a clinic I conducted at Harper's Hospital, Detroit, for the benefit of those who wanted help in their efforts to give up smoking, a boy thirteen years of age, who had the appearance of being not more than nine years old, was brought to me for treatment. He was stunted physically, mentally, and morally, as many of these boys are. One of the nurses who assisted me said to him, "How long have you smoked cigarettes?" to which he replied, "Since I was two years old." She said, "Who taught you to smoke?" He replied, "My brother." With considerable emphasis she replied, "Your brother ought to be in jail" to which the boy innocently and laconically rejoined, "He is."
John D. Quackenbos, M.D., of Columbia University, has said that"the gravest of all the evils resulting from cigarette addiction is the lessening or complete loss of moral sensibility, with a conspicuous tendency to falsehood and theft. The moral propensities are eventually destroyed because of the destruction of those elements of the brain through which moral force is expressed. The victim degenerates into a sallow, unmanly, irresponsible incompetent, in splendid fettle for the penitentiary or the asylum."
Nicotine's Fetters Almost Unbreakable
One of the most serious aspects of the tobacco habit is its absolute enslaving powers. Very few who become confirmed addicts can break the chains that nicotine forges about them. Outside of such drugs as morphine, heroin, and cocaine, there is perhaps nothing that holds its victims more tenaciously than does tobacco. And, by the way, cigarette addiction undoubtedly leads to the use of these other habit-forming drugs.
The well-nigh unbreakable strength of this addiction was impressed upon me anew by a recent letter from a patient of mine. This gentleman is one of the highest officials in the government of a great state on the Atlantic seaboard. He is suffering from a serious heart condition, and I advised him to
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give up smoking. But here is his reply in a letter just received:
"I note all you write about my smoking, and I expect that you are right about it. It may be sacrilegious for me to say so, but I am very frank to tell you I do not believe that I will ever be happy any more if I attempt to quit smoking. It has such a hold on me that although a strong man in every other respect, I am just a weakling when it comes to a question of giving up cigars. I have been at the head of a great many big business corporations, and have occupied positions of honor and trust most of my life. I have always had firmness of character and will power enough to do anything I wanted to, with one exception, and that is to quit smoking. You are not alone in saying I ought to quit smoking. Practically every doctor I ever had felt this way about it; but I have gone against their advice and kept on smoking and probably will as long as I live."
As another significant testimony as to the diabolical gripping power of tobacco, here is a portion of the sworn testimony given by Mr. Owen Dawson, clerk of the Montreal Juvenile Court, Canada, before the select committee that was appointed by the Canadian Government to inquire into the cigarette habit and its influence on youth:
"I would say that of about three thousand boys who came before the court, 95 per cent made use of cigarettes. I have been interested in the boys of Montreal for eight years, and I have tried to help one way and another about five thousand boys since I came to Montreal. I have never once succeeded in getting a boy to stop smoking cigarettes, although I have tried hundreds of times. On the other hand, in helping boys to keep away from liquor, I have succeeded in getting them to stop. The cigarette seems to get hold of the boy to such an extent that he never can give it up."
One of the well-known educators of the country, Ozora S. Davis, when connected with the University of Chicago, made this observation regarding the fateful power of the cigarette:
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The world's greatest industrial genius has declared that
"the world of to-day needs men;
not those whose minds and will power have been weakened or destroyed
by the desire and craving for alcohol and tobacco,
but, instead, men with initiative and vigor,
whose mentality is untainted by habits which are ofttimes uncontrollable."
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"The power of the cigarette habit is greater than we would
be inclined to think. Boys in school who are in the clutch of it become its slaves. They cannot put their minds on their work. They are incapable of remaining long without the stimulant of another cigarette. Their whole physical and
moral condition is involved. This is the universal testimony of teachers, and it is something that is known to the writer from experience as a high school principal. The fetter of the cigarette habit becomes welded at last with a grip that no act of the weakened will alone can break. This is the terrible and tragic end of the matter in case after case. Boys think that they can smoke a little now and then when they please and
that they can stop when they are ready to do so. They do not know that the very continuing of the use of cigarettes involves their wills so seriously that when they want to stop they cannot. This can be proved from every school in the country."
Personal Liberty Surrendered
How can boys and girls allow themselves to be drawn into the clutches of such a relentless and enslaving thing as the tobacco habit? Is it right, or is it even expedient, to surrender one's will power and self-control to the extent the tobacco habit demands? Should we give up our freedom and right of individualism to "the little white slaver"? Talk about "personal liberty"! The cigarette takes it away forever. Those who begin smoking are selling themselves into a bondage that is well-nigh perpetual and unbreakable.
Another phase of the question that should cause the young to pause before beginning to smoke is the fact that cigarette addiction leads to other pernicious habits. In my medical practice I have had occasion to treat a great many morphine addicts. Never once have I succeeded (nor has anyone else, so far as my knowledge goes) in curing a morphine addict who was unwilling to give up cigarettes at the same time. With nonusers of cigarettes, I have been more successful. I
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am convinced that nicotine addiction many times leads to morphine addiction.
The worst and most hopeless drunks I have had to deal with have been excessive smokers. In treating them, if they refuse to give up smoking, I have found that they invariably return the second time as drunks for treatment. I never consider a whisky inebriate cured who has refused to give up tobacco. The two habits are very intimately associated. The one leads to the other. They are Siamese twins, inseparably joined together." Every bootlegger, without exception, I have found, is also a heavy smoker, and invariably a smoke inhaler. Practically every customer the bootlegger has is likewise a tobacco user. These are facts that stand scrutiny and investigation. That these two forms of addiction are associated, Horace Greeley had evidently observed, for he said, "Show me a drunkard who does not smoke, and I will show you a white blackbird."
The Opinion of Many Judges
In corroboration of my statement earlier in this chapter that the cigarette habit predisposes to delinquency and crime, let me cite the findings of some well-known judges and officials whose long service has placed them in close contact with multitudes of youthful lawbreakers and offenders. Judge Ben Lindsey, former judge of the Denver Juvenile Courty has said:
"One of the very worst 'habits' of boyhood is the cigarette habit. This has long been recognized by all the judges of the courts who deal with young criminals, and especially by judges of police courts, before whom pass thousands of men every year who are addicted to intemperate habits. These judges know that in nearly every case the drunken sots who appear before them, a disgrace to their parents, themselves, and the state, began as boys smoking cigarettes. One bad habit led to another. The nicotine and poison in the cigarette created an appetite for alcoholic drink. The cigarette habit
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not only had a grip upon them in boyhood, but it invited all the other demons of habit to come in and add to the degradation that the cigarette began."
Judge Crane of New York City says: "Cigarettes arc ruining our children, endangering their lives, dwarfing their intellects, and making them criminals fast. The boys who use them seem to lose all sense of right, decency, and righteousness."
Hon. George Torrence, former superintendent of the Illinois State Reformatory, says: "I am sure cigarettes are destroying and making criminals of more boys than liquor. Manliness and good conduct can be aroused and stimulated in most boys, no matter what the offense of which they have been guilty, if only they are not cigarette fiends. We have found that when a boy is guilty of a grievous offense, he is generally found to be a user of cigarettes."
Judge B. S. Shaw of Hart, Michigan, says: "In every instance of juvenile delinquency in this court I have found that the boys were cigarette users."
Judge Allen of Lisbon, North Dakota, says: "Every male juvenile delinquent brought before me for the last seventeen vears has been a cigarette smoker."
Judge Pollock of Fargo, North Dakota, said: "Every boy brought into this court the past sixteen years was a cigarette smoker."
Dr. Hutchinson of the Kansas State Reformatory, said:"Cigarettes arc the cause of the downfall of more boys in this institution than all other vicious habits combined."
Dr. Coffin, who for over twenty years was connected with the Whittier Reform School of California, said: "Fully 98 per cent of all youthful criminals who have been confined to this institution were cigarette smokers, and 95 per cent were cigarette fiends."
Miss Winters, principal of one of the largest schools for delinquent girls in America, has said concerning her institu-
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tion, "Out of over eleven hundred inmates, only twenty were nonsmokers of cigarettes."
What the Schoolmen Say
Educators of the nation have always taken a firm stand against the use of cigarettes on the part of the youth, not only because of the physical damage done, but also because tobacco addiction seems to promote incorrigibility, truancy, and delinquency. In the Journal of Education, Principal John J. Lynch of Holyoke, Massachusetts, writes:
"Much of our serious and unpleasant school discipline comes in consequence of the mental and moral defects caused by cigarettes and their attendant evils. The habitual practice completely changes the temperament and disposition of the boy. He gradually becomes unkind, unsympathetic, unclean, and insolent. He develops an offensive attitude to all school discipline and regulations. His school morality is of a low standard, extremely selfish and impudent. Those moral deficiencies and scholastic dullness demand unusual tact and effort to prevent his total estrangement."
Prof. Templeton P. Twiggs, for many years principal of the largest grammar school in Detroit, Michigan, and later supervisor of the Department of School Attendance, and particularly interested in the backward and incorrigible class of pupils, says:
"The physical development of the young habitual smoker is irreparably checked unless he has an unusually robust constitution. In any case the physical development is noticeably arrested. He has no ambition to enter into games or any boyish activities. He apparently cares little for his personal appearance, and could be classified as of the 'down-and-out' type.
"If he is under sixteen years of age, and the habit is well formed, his mind is a blank. He can not memorize and retain for even a period of twenty-four hours such easy matter as ordinary words in spelling. As to mental calculations required
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in the courses of arithmetic
, he is practically helpless. He seems to have no control over himself in making a determined effort to accomplish definite things. Mental paralysis seems best to describe his condition.
"Through his loss of self control, he has no moral standard. He seems unable to distinguish between right and wrong, or to possess sufficient will power to enable him to do what is right even if he knows. He is absolutely untrustworthy, and there is usually no extreme to which he will not go."
This high-power bomb was thrown at the cigarette by the late Hudson Maxim, the inventor of high explosives:
"If all boys could be made to know that with every breath of cigarette smoke they inhale imbecility and exhale manhood; that the cigarette is a maker of invalids, criminals, and fools, but not men, it ought to deter them some."
Thus we see that the most serious charge against the cigarette is its powers of ruining character. Bad as it is to injure physically, yet a hundredfold more culpable is it to break down the morals. And who is there that dares to say that the widespread moral delinquency and crime that is ravaging our civilization to-day has not been in some measure at least worsened by the almost universal use of the cigarette?
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What Shall We Do About It?
AFTER all this delineation of the evils of tobacco upon the body, mind, and morals, the question arises. What are we going to do to help remedy the situation?
The primary need, it seems to me, is an aggressive educational campaign the nation over, calling the attention of our youth to the injurious nature of tobacco. While the nicotine trust is spending tens of millions to convert the people to tobacco, it certainly seems that those who are alive to its dangers should spend thousands in an effort to counteract this universal propaganda?
Let the truth about tobacco and especially about the cigarette be known. Truth is all powerful. Let us begin with our boys and girls. I am aware that very few adults who are confirmed addicts will ever give up the habit; our hope of the future lies in educating the youth against tobacco before the habit grips them. In California and several other states the teaching of the injurious effects of tobacco in the public schools is compulsory by law. Every state in the Union should pass similar legislation, and see that it is faithfully and efficiently carried out in every grammar school and high school. Let regular instruction be given as to the poisons in tobacco and their effect on mind and body. The case of medical science and common sense against tobacco is so overwhelmingly convincing that it appeals to boys and girls if they are put in possession of facts pertaining to it.
We are urging legislation to protect our boys and girls, not from the viewpoint of narrow-minded reformers who want to take all the joy out of life. We arc justified in such a step by the fact that we owe it to society and civilization that "the next generation" shall not be rendered deficient physically, mentally, and morally by this unnatural habit.
Along with the educational campaign that all the schools of the land should put on should go a similar campaign on
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the part of the churches, Y.M.C.A.'s, Y.W.C.A.'s, etc. Surely it is not out of harmony with their program of uplift and enlightenment to give frequent instruction on the serious physical and moral effects of the use of tobacco. If they fail to do this, it is because they are unfaithful to their trust. If the church has any duty toward the youth, it is to save them from the formation of handicapping habits and from moral injury.
Let the young people's societies in the various churches give consideration regularly each year to the fruits of the nicotine habit. Let the pastors schedule annually or semiannually a sermon on this and other habits of intemperance. Let the teachers in the Sabbath schools and Sunday schools, under whose tuition the young and formative minds of hundreds of thousands of children are, give regular instruction in the evils of the tobacco habit.
Every state should also pass legislation making it impossible for tobacco advertisers to flaunt their lure to the young. Such advertisements as the one on tens of thousands of billboards recently, showing a young girl smoking, should be prohibited by law. Indeed, all advertisements urging women to smoke should be outlawed in view of the acutely detrimental effect that the smoking of mothers has on their infants. If we are justified in requiring by law that a baby's eyes be washed out at birth with a disinfectant to prevent infection and blindness, surely we are justified in demanding that tobacco companies must cease this campaign to urge women to smoke, the effect of which is actually transmitted to the babe both before and after birth.
Advertising Should Be Controlled
The tobacco trust should be prohibited from advertising tobacco as a food when it is in reality a poison. Furthermore, they should be required to state the poisons contained in tobacco on every packet of cigarettes, on every can of pipe to-
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DR. HARVEY W. WILEY
Dr. Wiley did a monumental work in sponsoring the
Pure Food and Drug Act, which requires manufacturers
to list the poisons in their products on the outside of the
container. By a technicality, tobacco escapes this provision.
bacco, and on every plug of chewing tobacco. Our Pure Food and Drug Act requires the manufacturer to print upon the container the name and the amount of any deleterious substance, adulterant, etc., in the product he markets. We owe that bit of praiseworthy legislation to that great physician and advocate of public health, the late Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Time and public opinion have fully justified that enlightened
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act. Can any good reason be given why this legislation should not apply to tobacco?
It is only a technicality that allows tobacco to go unregulated by the Pure Food and Drug Act. That act stipulated that it controls "all medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopœia." Since tobacco is not recognized as a medicine, it does not come under the Pure Food Act. Tobacco used to be included in that Pharmacopœia, but has been dropped. It is no longer recognized as possessing any medicinal value. In a late revision of the Pharmacœpoeia a very significant reason is given why tobacco has been left out. It reads:
"Tobacco, the leaves of Nicotiana tabacum, was official in former Pharmacopœias, but was dropped in the last revision. It was formerly highly esteemed as a vulnerary, but is little used as a drug by intelligent physicians. A decoction of tobacco in which corrosive sublimate has been dissolved makes a satisfactory bed bug poison."
Our legislation for the control of foods and drugs should be so revised as to regulate the sale of tobacco.
Why should we allow the tobacco companies to get by with such an atrocious campaign of misrepresentation as they have put on in recent years? They seek to make the public believe that tobacco is more healthful than candy, cake, pie, ice cream, and other sweets. The public is entitled to know the truth in the matter. Our innocent children should at least be protected against such flagrant falsehoods. France will not allow tobacco to be advertised as a food product. Japan goes still further. In the year 1900 a law was unanimously passed by parliament in which it was urged,"If we would make our nation superior to the nations of Europe and America, we must not permit our children, who will be the future fathers and mothers, to smoke cigarettes."
Why should America lag behind France and Japan in protecting the health and morals of her youth?
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A concerted effort should be made to bring pressure to bear on reputable magazines, newspapers, and radio stations to debar certain forms of cigarette advertising that are deceptive and untruthful. Hearty approbation should be given such magazines as Good Housekeeping, the Ladies' Home Journal, and others, which, at great financial loss to themselves, have refused to run cigarette advertisements that arc intended to increase cigarette business among our youth and women. But "the love of money" is still the "root of all evil." Few possess principle and moral stamina sufficient to withstand the tempting offers as do the journals named.
The Rights of Nonsmokers
All tobacco smokers should be educated as to the rights of nonsmokers; for certainly nonsmokers do have some God-given rights. Why should we who of our own free will choose not to use tobacco be forced to inhale nicotine-laden smoke, and at secondhand? Can there be any justification for smokers' preempting all the space in the world and polluting it with their smoke? Smokers should be courteous and thoughtful enough to realize that those who do not smoke have a right to the clean, pure air, untainted with their exhalations. Why should not smokers, if they feel they must smoke, at least be willing to do their smoking where the smoke does not reach the general public, especially in public buildings, hotels, restaurants, conveyances, etc.? Is this too much to expect and demand on the part of nonsmokers ?
While I admit that tobacco chewing is one of the filthiest habits imaginable, one thing can be said in its favor, and that is this,—while the one who chews tobacco injures himself the same as does the smoker, he does not by his presence injure those with whom he associates, as does the smoker. When he spits out the poison, he does not spit into the water others have to drink. On the other hand, the smoker contaminates the air others are compelled to breathe. Compared
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with the smoker, the chewer is quite polite and harmless.
Is not every human being entitled to heaven's pure air? If so, no man has a right to pollute it with opium smoke or with tobacco smoke, and yet this is what every smoker, thoughtlessly perhaps, does. The tobacco smoker has no more right to pollute the air others have to breathe than the chewer has to spit into the water others have to drink. Municipalities carefully protect the water supply of our cities; why should not the same protection be given the air supply?
John Burroughs, the well-known naturalist, who used to accompany Edison and Henry Ford on their vacation tours, once said,"I am an implacable enemy of tobacco in any form. The habit is one of the filthiest and most offensive mankind ever formed. A smoker is a nuisance indoors and out. He poisons the air even on the street, and in cars and hotels and restaurants the taint of his foul fumes is over all. A public smoker is a public nuisance of the most disgusting kind. He should be compelled to retreat to some underground cave or cell when he indulges his passion for the poisonous weed. The cigarette habit is undermining the health of tens of thousands of our young men."
That may seem like pretty strong language. We may not agree with Mr. Burroughs in every particular, but it is nevertheless a fact that smokers, as a rule, are brazenly callous of the welfare and rights of others. As David Starr Jordan has said,"consumers of tobacco soon lose consideration of the rights and comforts of others. If they could or would consume their own smoke, the affair would be their business mainly, and. not ours. But this they do not do. They pollute the air almost everywhere, and in greater and greater degree. To the man of normal nerves there is nothing in the way of odors more offensive than that of stale tobacco."
The tobacco advertisers aver that they are seeking to make the public "tobacco conscious." Why can't we in turn seek to make the tobacco users "courtesy conscious"?
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The Bad Example of Adults
One of the most serious aspects of the constant increase in cigarette addiction among our youth is the example of adults,—parents, teachers, doctors, and even preachers. It is an uphill fight to persuade boys and girls to pledge themselves against the use of tobacco when most of the elders whom they highly respect are constantly puffing smoke around them. Example is far more influential than precept, and while nearly every adult solemnly tells the young not to smoke, yet just as soon as the sermonette is given, out comes the cigarette, the pipe, or the cigar, and the effect of good words is obscured or obliterated by the smoke of the bad example.
At a mass meeting where an appeal was made to boys to sign the pledge against smoking cigarettes, a manly boy stepped forward, accompanied by his father and mother, and said, "I want to sign the pledge." The father and mother encouraged him to do so. But this was not all. The father, who stood by the boy's side, felt that he had a duty to perform. He said, "For the sake of my boy I will give up cigars," and he too signed the pledge. I feel certain that this did more to keep that boy from breaking his pledge in the future than anything that father could have said. It was the consistent thing for that father to do. Why expect his boy to do what he was not willing to do?
At a meeting of ministers in one of our large cities, a prominent minister, who had for twenty-five years been a smoker, arose and said:"I have signed this pledge so that I can advocate it with a clear conscience among the schoolboys. And I would advise you brethren who smoke to quit. I don't know how many of you indulge, but I know that some of you do. I saw the light when I saw that any father in my congregation, in trying to persuade his boy to stop smoking, would find it difficult to get around his son's retort, 'But, papa, the preacher smokes.' Gentlemen, cut it out; it does not pay."
This was the consistent thing for that preacher to do. Preach-
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ers are paid to be good, and to set a worthy example before their flock. Certainly they, above all men, ought not to defile God's living temple with tobacco. In this as in all else they should be an example to their flock.
We wonder why boys and girls smoke. A little juvenile offender, who was questioned by an officer in Judge Arnold's court of Chicago, explains it. The officer said to him, "Why do you smoke?" The boy hung his head and replied, "Because I like to smell like a man." Boys smoke because they consider it one of the evidences of real manhood. The fact is, boys smoke because men smoke, and girls smoke because women smoke, "and this being so we shall never meet with success in influencing our boys and girls until fathers and mothers begin to teach by example. It is said of Christ that He " began both to do and teach," hence it was witnessed that He spoke with authority and power and " not as the scribes," who said and did not.
What Manly Men Will Do
After I had given an address at the Central High School in Detroit some time ago, a number of young men came forward and said, "Doctor, what you have said appeals to us; but tell us, why do doctors smoke?"
What could I say? All I could say was, "Doctors are human; they smoke for the same reason that lawyers smoke. They formed the habit in their youth, and now find it just as difficult to give it up as do the lawyers; and they possess no more power than do the men in other professions. Doctors know better than they do. They do not always practice what they preach, that's all."
That afternoon I was introduced to a physician who was in the act of smoking a cigarette. When he heard my name, he smiled and said, "Well, doctor, you do not approve of this, I know. If I had a boy, I would not smoke." I replied, "My dear friend, other men have boys that are influenced by what
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DAVID STARR JORDAN
This world-renowned educator made this observation:
"Cigarette-smoking boys are like wormy apples;
tbey drop long before the harvest time."
Dr. Jordan here alludes to the blighting effects
of tobacco physically and mentally.
you do." I then told him of what the boys at the Central High School said to me that morning. Doctors should be the guardians of the health of the people. They certainly should not do that which they know will prove an injure not merely to themselves but to those who are influenced by their example.
A short time before leaving Chicago, where I was conducting a clinic, one of the leading ministers called me up over the
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telephone. He said, "I am anxious to to see you." An appointment was made. When he came to my office, he said, "Doctor, my church is near a high school. Smoking is very prevalent among the boys. Teachers are doing their utmost to discourage the practice. When the mothers and fathers speak to their boys about it, they are met with the retort, 'But dad, the pastor smokes.' Now," he said, "what am I to do? When I attempt to give it up, I get as cross as a bear. I cannot study or sleep. Is it safe for me to give it up ?" I replied, "It is perfectly safe. It is unsafe not to give it up."
A month later I was invited to present the educational work along this line that was being carried on in the schools of Chicago, after which it was moved and seconded that this work receive the indorsement of the Ministerial Association. Before it was voted, however, this minister arose and, in speaking in its favor, said: "Gentlemen, you all know I have been a smoker." He then related how a month ago he had come to my office, and after receiving the assurance that it was safe to abandon the use of tobacco at once, he said he gave it up and had not smoked since, and never expected to again. That afternoon a picture of this pastor appeared in the paper, and also the remarks he had made before the meeting. He telephoned to me a day later, and said, "I am receiving a great deal of publicity. My telephone is ringing almost continuously. People are calling me up and expressing their appreciation."
I said to him, "That is splendid. Our confessions should always be as widely known as our transgressions, in order to counteract our wrong influence."
Let all of us adults who, though we may not at all times be aware of it, are nevertheless the constant patterns by which the younger generation arc fashioning their lives, resolve that they shall not be stunted physically or injured morally because of our example. Let us be able to say to them, "Do as I do," as well as, "Do as I say."
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"Twas a sheep, not a lamb, that strayed away,
In the parable Jesus told,—
A grown-up sheep that had gone astray
From the ninety and nine in the fold.
"Out in the meadows, out in the cold,
'Twas a sheep the good shepherd sought,
And back in the flock, safe into the fold,
'Twas a sheep the good shepherd brought.
"And why for the sheep should we earnestly long,
And as earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger if they go wrong,
They will lead the young lambs astray.
"For the lambs will follow the sheep, you know
Wherever the sheep may stray;
If the sheep go wrong, it will not be long
Till the lambs are as wrong as they.
"And so with the sheep we earnestly plead,
For the sake of the lambs to-day;
If the lambs are lost, what a terrible cost
Some sheep will have to pay!"
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A Cure for the Tobacco Habit
MY EXPERIENCE with tobacco addicts warrants me in saying that but few of them ever succeed in giving up the habit when once it is acquired, even when they have a desire to do so. I do not say that the habit cannot be given up. I know it can. I have seen it done again and again. But I have also seen repeated failures,—many more failures than successes; the fact is, it is about as hard to sever company with the cigarette as it is to break away from any other form of drug addiction. Every one who is a smoker of cigarettes and has attempted to give them up, knows that what I am saying is true. But it can be done by going about it in the right way.
Before closing this booklet, I must give you what has proved helpful to many hundreds of tobacco addicts who have come to the place that they want to break the bonds of nicotine. In my general practice over the years and out of the contacts with many tobacco users, I have found certain things to be very helpful in ridding one's self of the appetite for tobacco.
Don't Try to Taper Off
The way to go about it is not by tapering off, that is, by smoking a few cigarettes less to-morrow than to-day, and thus keep cutting them down gradually to three a day, then two a day, then one, and finally none. I have seen this tried again and again, and I must confess I have never known it to succeed. If you are desirous of giving up the smokes, do not adopt this method, for it is almost certain to result in disappointment. In fact, it might be compared to amputating a leg or an arm by sawing oft a little each day. The process is too painful to endure.
The first step in giving up tobacco is to give it up. Many fail because they never reach this decisive point. They may
want to, but they do not will to. Their determination is not
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set as a flint toward the conquering of the habit. All the will power and determination must be mobilized for action. The will placed determinedly on God's side becomes omnipotent thus making the impossible, possible.
Keep away from smokers and from a tobacco-laden atmosphere as far as possible for about three weeks. As a valuable aid, 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 also relieve throat irritation.
Purchase five cents' worth of gentian root (or camomile blossoms), and chew it during the day when there is a desire to smoke.
To assist in eliminating 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 juice freely. When tempted, reach for an orange instead of a cigarette.
Keep out in the open air as much as possible and keep the mind occupied.
Diet a Big Factor
One of the greatest physical aids, however, is a complete change of diet. Smokers are as a rule fond of highly seasoned foods and stimulating drinks. The one who is resolved to break away should stop the use of pepper, mustard, hot sauces, and all other condiments, since these help to create the appetite for narcotics and tobacco. When their use is stopped, the craving, it will be found, will be greatly lessened in a short time.
Of course, it is hardly necessary to say that if one is a drinker of alcoholic beverages these must be absolutely abstained from, for it is practically impossible to break with
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tobacco if alcohol is used. The two are so closely united that it is absolutely necessary for John Barleycorn to be buried with Lady Nicotine.
The smoker will also find it a great aid to stop the free use of meat. The adoption of a vegetable and fruit diet largely takes away the appetite for tobacco.
The following diet will be found of the greatest aid, and, 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 Biscuit, bran flakes, Krumbles, Puffed Wheat, whole-wheat bread, rye or Graham bread, etc., with milk and cream, buttermilk, cottage cheese, and nuts (well masticated). At the close of the meal use fresh subacid fruits, as oranges, peaches, pears, apples, pineapples, grapefruit. Figs, dates, raisins, apple sauce, and canned fruits are also indicated.
A patient who had used tobacco for forty-two years, after adopting this simple treatment for three months, wrote: "It seems wonderful to me that I now have no craving for tobacco or drink."
Another one wrote me: "I am glad to say I have not used tobacco in any form in three weeks, and have no desire for it." These testimonials might be multiplied.
Natural Foods Best
There can be no doubt in the mind of anyone who is at all observing that there exists a very intimate relation between the unnatural food men eat and the unnatural craving that they possess for narcotics. I was especially impressed with this several years ago while conducting a clinic for smokers in the cities of Chicago and Detroit. I inquired of each applicant as to his fondness for certain foods. In every case, with-
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out one exception, I found that those who were great lovers of meats, tea, and coffee were also among the heaviest smokers. A chef of one of the large hotels in Chicago came to the clinic for treatment. He was a heavy cigarette smoker. After I told him what to eat, he said: "Doctor, I cannot eat that kind of food. It is tasteless to me. I have the finest fruit in the city of Chicago pass through my hands daily, and I never eat it."
"Well," I said, "what do you eat?" He then told me that for breakfast he had ham and eggs and a couple of cups of coffee,—sometimes three cups. Dinner and supper were composed largely of highly seasoned foods and meats. Such meals create an unnatural craving that leads either to the use of alcohol or tobacco for relief. It creates a thirst that water cannot quench. It is a thirst, not for water, but for a narcotic. In the absence of beer or whisky, a cigarette will quench such a thirst more effectively than will water. This explains why, immediately after meals, the cigarette is in demand. Grains, nuts, milk, and fruits, on the other hand, lessen the desire for both alcohol and tobacco.
A young smoker who came to me for aid, after I had advised him to use milk freely, especially buttermilk, and to eat freely of ripe fruits, especially oranges and grapefrult, assuring him it would lessen the craving for the smoke, said:"Now I have the explanation of an experience I had some time ago. I was stealing a ride in a box car containing nothing but apples. The door was sealed on the outside. For three days I had nothing to eat but apples. I had cigarettes and matches with me, but I found that after the second day smoking was distasteful to me. Not until after I was released and again began my accustomed diet did the desire to smoke again appear."
Fruit a Foe of Tobacco
It is, in fact, impossible for anyone to live exclusively on oranges, peaches, pears, or other sweet or subacid fruit for
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any length of time without becoming conscious that the craving for the accustomed smoke is lessening. In time it will disappear. This is no mere theory. As a physician I have had opportunity to observe this in many instances.
My attention was first called to this thirty years ago. The president of a city railway who was suffering from ulceration of the stomach came under my care for treatment. I ascertained that he was an inveterate user of tobacco. No doubt the symptoms accompanying the gastric irritation that finally resulted in ulceration were temporarily relieved by the smoke. He promised faithfully that he would give up its use. From the time he first began treatment his diet was simple and non-irritating, excluding irritating foods and condiments. At the end of six weeks he called at my office and said: "Doctor, I have ]ust returned from the city. On the way I passed a man smoking a cigar, and the smoke was actually offensive to me. I never thought such a thing possible." His firm will and determination, combined with the aid received by a carefully prescribed diet, made it comparatively easy for him to give up the use of tobacco. I have since seen this experience repeated again and again.
The Aid of Religion
What I am about to say may not appeal to non-Christians, but those who are really acquainted with the transforming power of Jesus Christ in the lives of men know that the gospel is a mighty help in overcoming such habits as that of tobacco.
In the first place, I do not believe a Christian can consistently be a user of tobacco unless he is entirely ignorant of its effects. Note that challenging declaration of Paul's, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself." I Corinthians
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3:16-18. It is beyond dispute that tobacco is a defiler of the human body, and that man who has given hmself to God cannot deliberately and knowingly, defile his body-temple without sinning against his God. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.''
Life, after all, is not a possession. It is a grant. We are but the caretakers. It is a serious matter, willfully and knowingly to destroy the body God has lent us. It needs no extended argument, I am sure, to point out the inconsistency of the use of tobacco with the Christian life. Certainly no one can imagine the Lord Jesus Christ, were He on earth today, going about with a cigarette between His lips. Christ in us will to-day do as He did when walking among men. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."
"Oh, I say," said a trader to Missionary Wicks in the Solomon Islands, "I have not been able to sell one case of tobacco in this lagoon the last two years. You must have great power over the natives to compel them to give up tobacco."
"No, my friend," the missionary replied, "there is no compulsion about it. We are simply teaching the people that it is important for the Christian to keep the inside of the body as clean as the outside."
"Well," the trader replied, "whatever you do, I know this, that I can't sell tobacco here. But I sell more calico, blankets, cooking utensils, etc., so it is all the same to me; but it is wonderful how you do it."
There is a power in Christianity that helps men to break with evil habits. Many times the craving for tobacco is so strong in a man's life that he knows he needs some outside influence, some superhuman force, to overcome it.
The Case of an Actress
Two years ago there came to me a woman asking if we would admit into our institution a friend of hers, a very brilliant woman, an actress and playwright who was in a most
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pitiable condition. She was extremely nervous and smoked incessantly, she told me. I said to her, "Yes, we will admit her on one condition; that is, she must understand before she comes that she cannot have one cigarette after arriving here." This seemed rather hard and unsympathetic, but two days later they brought her. The first two days I kept her in bed with a nurse constantly by her side, giving her the treatments indicated.
On the second day, she called me to her room. As I entered she said, "Doctor I cannot stand this any longer. I am so nervous, I am afraid I will do something desperate. I will jump out of that window. I must have just one cigarette." Then she added: "Before coming here, I consulted two nerve specialists. They both said it would be unsafe for me to cut out the cigarettes entirely since I smoked so incessantly; they advised me to smoke only five or six a day."
I said: "Did you do it?" She admitted she could not hold herself down to that number. Then I said: "Of course, you could not. Your mind was thus kept continuously upon the cigarette, by looking forward for the time to pass for the next smoke. This was a continuous torture. The only way for you to do is to come to the point where you will say, 'I will give them up altogether, regardless of what I may suffer.'"
She said: "I can never do that."
Then I said: "I shall have to give up your case as a hopeless one."
This startled her. I then said: "I know you are up against a difficult task, but provision has been made for you. Jesus Christ came to help those who cannot help themselves; and we are all poor, helpless creatures. If we were able to help ourselves, His sacrifice would not have been necessary." I assured her of God's willingness and anxiety to help her. After a serious talk for a few minutes, I had prayer with her. When I was through praying, she snapped her fingers, and said: "Doctor, I will never smoke another cigarette, never, never, never! How can I smoke after this?"
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Two weeks later she came to my office and said: "Do you know that I have now no desire whatever for cigarettes? It is just wonderful to me. It seems like a miracle. Can you explain why this is so?"
I said, "No, a miracle cannot be explained, only in the words of the scripture: 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.'" [John 3:8] I then told her that when her will was placed without reservation on God's side, it became omnipotent, and the impossible was made possible. This was the only explanation I could give. This woman gained over thirty pounds in weight. She left the sanitarium with calm nerves, and was the picture of health.
Ferrin Quits Tobacco
During the year 1893 I aided in opening up a medical mission in the city of Chicago to help the many "down and outs," as they were termed, who had flocked into the city. Among others was a man by the name of John Ferrin. He was one of the most hopeless characters to be found in the city of Chicago. He was on the point of having delirium tremens when he appealed to me for help. Day after day I gave him his bath and dressed his sores, and after doing so would read a few verses from the New Testament about the life and works of Christ. Then we would bow in prayer, and Ferrin would go out in search of something to do. Although an inebriate of many years, he at once gave up drink. He did not taper off.
One day he came to me and said, "I see you do not smoke. Tell me why not."
I told him I did not smoke because I considered my body to be God's temple, and that Christ dwelling in men would not resort to a habit that would defile His Father's dwelling place. Without a moments thought he handed me his pipe and tobacco and said, "I will never smoke again."
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I said to him, "Ferrin, you will have a hard time of it."
He was an inveterate smoker, but he replied, "Oh. yes, I can give it up. That little Book you gave me [referring to a small New Testament] says, 'Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
From that day to the last day he was associated with me in Chicago he never mentioned tobacco. The craving for it was gone.
In the same mission Tom Mackey was converted. Tom had been the terror of that terrible community known as Customs House Place, where the mission was located. He was a confirmed drunkard and a heavy smoker. At one of the night meetings Tom was converted. He dropped drink and tobacco. One year after this he was recognized in that same community as one of the most successful gospel workers. For more than thirty-five years Tom Mackey was engaged in evangelistic work. Thousands were converted under his ministry.
Needless to say that my experience among these so-termed "down and outs" greatly increased my faith in the gospel of Christ to save.
Divorced From Lady Nicotine
In conclusion permit me to give my own experience in obtaining my divorce from Lady Nicotine, for I too was once a heavy smoker.
At the age of twelve I began to smoke occasionally. I had the experiences that others had [Ed. Note: Examples: Dr. Thorn and Dr. Jackson] , of sickness, but, believing smoking to be a manly accomplishment, I persevered until I was able to smoke and really en)oy it. I had been married about three years when one night my wife persuaded me to attend a gospel meeting with her, which I did. During the meeting something was said that touched my heart, and I there determined to give up my former life and become a Christian.
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On our way home I told my wife of my resolution, and added, "I do not see how I can be a Christian and continue to smoke." No one had said anything to me about tobacco. I simply could not harmonize Christianity and tobacco. My wife said, "Well, give it up." On our arrival home, the first thing I did was to get my cigars and pipe and a can of tobacco, and hand them over to her for safe-keeping.
I got on very well that night, but in the morning about ten o'clock the craving for my accustomed smoke was so intense that I felt I could not endure it any longer. I called my wife and pleaded for just one smoke, no more. Fortunately, she knew better than I what would be involved in that one smoke. She did not yield, but invited me to accompany her into the bedchamber, where we knelt and asked for divine help. I there on my knees promised the Lord, regardless of suffering, never again to smoke.
With Paul I wish to say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Help has been provided for the tobacco addict to break the bonds that hold him, if that aid is sought. Liberty has been proclaimed to every captive. [Isa. 61:1]
[The End]
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Related Books by Dr. Kress
The Tobacco Habit (Washington, D.C.:
Review and Herald Pub. Ass'n, 1900)
The Cigarette or Tobacco Smoke Inhalation
and its Influence on Civilized Races:
Is the Habit Curable?
(Chicago: Methodist Book Concern, 1916)
Economic Repercussions of a Common Habit
(London: Science and Society, 1937)
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Other Books on Tobacco Effects
by Other Authors
