Why Condemn the Tobacco User?

Why Condemn the Tobacco User? BY CHARLES W. KINGSTON

The evil effects, on the human system, of tobacco, are too well known to need discussion here. Revelation and science, each has sounded their timely warning. Thoughtful parents and the schools are doing all in their power to stem the tide. While considering these facts, and the strong influences working in his favor, we might wonder why the boy or young man will still become a slave to the tobacco habit. One thing that, in having associated with young men who used tobacco, I have come to believe, is that the habits of smoking or chewing, in the tobacco user, is associated with moral weakness to such an extent that I would not consider a young lady safe in the company of a young man who uses the weed. While kings and senators, judges and other high dignitaries, often distinguish themselves by being the constant companions of — a cigar their friends could not form a mental picture of them — unless the cigar is there also yet it would be impossible for any of the faithful members of our Church to picture their pres- ident, or any member of the Twelve, with a cigar in his mouth. The former distinguished men, while they are great intellectual- ly, would appear to be lacking morally, while the latter are also men of moral greatness, the kind that counts for something with God. Yet, I believe, the tobacco user is not altogether to blame. In most cases, he became a slave to the tobacco habit in his youth, and seems unable to give it up, although he knows its evil effects. But steps should be taken to remove the cause of young men starting to use tobacco, if the cause can be found. I am going to lay the blame for the tobacco situation, as it exists, at the feet of the people as a whole— both tobacco and non-tobacco users. I fear that we are all guilty before the bar of justice. Thousands of the brightest and most promising young men have lost ambition, op- portunity, and in some cases life itself, as a direct result of their slavery to the tobacco weed. So, I believe, we should make use of any honorable means within our power to save the thousands that will yet be sacrificed in the same way. I am of the opinion that boys find a desire to smoke growing within them, because they have been influenced by bad example. There are very few boys who do not know the harmful and blighting effects of tobacco. Science and the schools have long taught the truth on this subject. Numerous tests of strength and

598 IMPROVEMENT ERA endurance have been conducted along this line which have proven conclusively, the inferiority of the tobacco user. Many employers of labor discriminate against the cigarette smoker, and nearly all parents among us use their influence against its use because they know it will lessen their boys' chances of success in any line of endeavor and yet, in spite of all this, tobacco exacts the same ;

deadly toll year after year, from among our young men, many times, it would seem, the best and brightest. Most boys have born within them the ambition to succeed, and even cherish the hope of greatness. They have the desire within them to learn to do something well and admire its accom- plishment, no matter how trivial the thing is the actor brings to near perfection. Perhaps it is this element in his character, mis- directed, that causes the young man to take a fancy to tobacco. Maybe, while a small boy, he has watched the expert smoker make a cigarette, which he does with that exactness of movement that can only be acquired by years of constant practice. The cigarette which he makes is as round and symmetrical as if it had been turned out of a mold. The small boy standing by watches every movement and may even desire to be able to do the same thing as well and this desire or fancy may be the cause of his using to- ;

bacco in after years. There are also other strong influences at work against the boy who would resist tobacco, and I sometimes feel that the boy is not altogether to blame when he is overcome by them. These influ- ences contradict the truth as taught by science and revelation. These agencies of truth tell the boy that tobacco is poison and is not good for man, that it will lessen his chances for success by stealing part of his brains and weakening his body, so that some disease can easily carry him off but the example of our civiliza- ;

tion tells you that tobacco will not hurt you it will help you suc- ;

ceed, add distinction to you that will help you up in society and, ;

as for health, it will preserve the teeth, disinfect the mouth and throat and as for your brains, why don't all great men smoke ? ;

—the doctors, the lawyers, the politicians, and, in fact, all the men who are worth while? We will suppose that there is sickness in the family which needs the attention of a physician. You step to the phone and call Dr. So-and-So. He will be there in a few minutes. Your little boy stands at the gate watching for the doctor'.s car. He is going to be a man some day, and he is vitally interested in all that men do. He sees the dust up the road and presently the car comes in view. It slows up at the gate, and the little man at the gate knows that the man inside must be the doctor. "I wish I was a doctor and owned a car," the boy thinks to himself. The doctor is now stepping out of the car. He speaks very pleasantly to the little fellow. As he approaches the house, he takes a few short puffs

WHY CONDEMN THE TOBACCO USER? at his cigar, lays it on the outside window sill, and is ushered into the house, the little boy quietly following. The doctor quickly feels the patient's pulse, takes the thermometer from its case and tests his fever, asks a few questions, tells you what is wrong, leaves a remedy, tells you he has another call to make and quietly leaves the house. "What a wonderful man," thinks the boy to himself, "well dressed, tidy, and so kind. Surely I should like to be a doctor." Do you think you could ever cause that boy to believe, seriously, that tobacco is not good for man ? He will know the doctor wher- ever he sees him, and don't ever think he overlooks the cigar, either. The doctor has used it so long that it is almost part of his personality. If the boy should draw a mental picture of that doc- tor, or see him in a dream, the cigar would be there. Very likely the doctor has helped the sick but what has he done for the small ;

boy? Time will tell. Now this same thing might occur with reference not alone to the doctor but with most any man who uses tobacco. Of course, men whose businesses require them to be always well dressed are most to be feared with regard to their example. And these examples are alike dangerous to both boys and girls, for while girls may never smoke, yet they become rec- onciled to the habit in men, and thus their powerful influence, that might otherwise be of full force against the tobacco habit, is dead. A great many popular novels, some of which are written by women, contain allusions to the use of tobacco. Perhaps the hero of the story is some great, strong personage, who excels in everything he ever attempts to do. He is handsome, and meets every emergency with that promptness and skill that is possible only in imagination, but never in life. His leisure moments are generally spent sucking some old pipe or cigar. Then we have the fashion plates, plays, moving pictures, and advertisements, all doing their part to make the use of tobacco popular. Perhaps you may be looking at a newspaper or maga- zine where you will notice many different tobacco advertisements. One I will describe in detail, because it is typical of the lie that is on the face and life of our civilization. It is a picture. In the background are tracks, trestles and steam shovels. It evidently is taken from a photograph of a part of the Panama Canal while

it was being built. In the foreground are two well-dressed young men, one of whom is resting his hand on a solar transit. He ap- pears to be conversing with the other young man who is in the act of putting a neat plug of a certain kind of tobacco up to his mouth. Below the picture you will read the following:

"Men who chew are men who do. The men who built the Panama Canal, thousands of robust, clear-thinking, quick-acting workmen, and thousands of skillful, far-seeing engineers, made thinking easier and

!

600 IMPROVEMENT ERA labor lighter by chewing tobacco waile at work. For many years men from other countries — non-tobacco chewing men — tried to build the Panama Canal. They couldn't stand the strain, their machines fell down at critical moments — their best attemptsfailed.Our Amer- ican men tried —men who are chewers and doers —they built the Pan- ama Canal!

Think of giving tobacco credit for the success in building the Panama Canal As I have briefly discussed some of the examples and influ- ences that are working against the boy who might otherwise not use tobacco, I would like to offer a few suggestions as to a rem- edy which, to be effective, should strike at the cause. In the first place, I believe, it should be unlawful to use to- bacco on the street or in any public place. Then a league should be formed whose duty it should be to awaken the public conscience on this subject. The members should pledge themselves to each other, say not to employ any doctor or any other professional man who persists in smoking or chewing tobacco where others can see him or to trade or bargain with any merchant, dealer, or other ;

business man who is known to be a smoker or user of tobacco in any form or, to hire any one who persists in using it, in public. If ;

any business or professional man should lose even a small per cent of his business, it might mean the difference to him between suc- cess and failure. Thus it would soon be apparent, if they must use tobacco, they would retire to themselves to do it and thus their ;

example would be largely destroyed without affecting their per- sonal liberty. All who are interested in the banishment of the tobacco business should write to the editors of papers that carry tobacco advertising and ask them either to stop the advertisements or their subscription, and work against every agency that Satan has at work in the tobacco line, thus allowing the teaching of revelation, science, and the schools, to do the work for which they are intended. But so long as we sit idly by and let tobacco get its yearly toll, without even a struggle, on our part, I wonder if

we will not be held accountable, along with the rest, for the ruin these bad influences and examples work among us? IDAHO FALLS, R. D., NO. 3, IDAHO