--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Grant, Heber J. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 1 published: 1917-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Heber J. Grant, "The Soldiers and Tobacco," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 1 (November 1917): 64–65.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2101unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2101unse start_page: 64 end_page: 65 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2101unse publication_year: 1917 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Soldiers and Tobacco — ; The Soldiers and Tobacco By President Heber J. Grant [In his sermon to the assembled multitude at the general conference of the Church, on the fifth day of October, Elder Heber J. Grant gave some excellent counsel to the Saints against raising money to purchase tobacco for the soldiers. His advice is timely and richly worthy of observance by every member of the Church, and it is particularly applicable and valuable to the soldiers who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Editors.] I want to say just a word or two of counsel to the Latter- day Saints. There has been some agitation in the papers advo- cating that men and women show their generosity and their loyalty to the young men of Utah who have volunteered and offered their lives in defense of their country. It is to be done by supplying those young men with tobacco! It is being argued in the papers that it is not particularly harmful, that it is very mild, and so on, that our tobacco is better and milder than the tobacco of France, etc. As Latter-day Saints, we have received a revelation from Almighty God forbidding us to use tobacco, and it behooves each one of us to use his or her influence to the uttermost to see that our boys keep this commandment of the Lord, and pay no attention to the sophistry, the ideas, and the reasoning of the men in favor of the use of tobacco. The end of all controversy has been reached for every true Latter-day Saint, because the Lord has said: "Tobacco is not good for man." It issuggested that the tobacco sellers are advertising their wares. I want toread to you, and the book, the Doctrine and Covenants, has opened at the place I want without my hunting for it, what the Lord promises if you and I will refrain from hot drinks, (which the prophets of God said were tea and coffee) and from liquor and strong drinks of all kinds and from tobacco. He says: "And all saints who remember to keep and to do /these say- ings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel, and marrow to their bones, and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; and I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them." THE SOLDIERS AND TOBACCO 65 He might have added, "And I the Lord do not give a prom- ise thatthe destroying angel shall pass by them and not slay them, unto those who fail to obey these commandments." I find in this same book that when the Lord commands and men obey not his commands, then they fail to get the blessing. Then men say that the promises of the Lord are not true and fulfilled, "But woe unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath, and not from above." I find in this book, among the revelations of the Lord to you and to me, that when we do the things that the Lord commands he declares: "Then am I bound." As Latter-day Saints, we want to set our faces as flint against any proposition or any propaganda of any kind which will so affect our children, if they follow that propaganda, that they will not be entitled to the promises and the blessings that come from keeping the commandments of the Lord. Russia was proclaimed a republic on the 16th day of September. The proclamation was issued from Petrograd, and was dated September 14. The declaration proclaiming the Russian republic is signed by Kerenski, minister and president, and by Yaroudni, minister of justice. All the affairs of the slate have been intrusted to Kerenski, as premier, and five members of the cabinet. During October the Germans, from their base in Riga, made further headway towards Petrograd by seizing two important islands in the Copyright Underwood & Underwood, \ T . Y. Bay of Riga. This is a new picture of Kerenski, president of the Republic of Russia. This photo shows Kerenski in uniform with other ministers watching the funeral of several Cossacks who were killed defending the government in the recent Korniloff rebellion. This scene was taken in the streets of Petrograd and Kerenski is shown in the middle foreground.