The Cigarette Evil

The Cigarette Evil By the L. D. S. Social Advisory Committee

Bulletin No. 1, issued pursuant to a resolution passed by a Convention of Social Welfare workers, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2, 1919.

In view of the increasing use of cigarettes throughout the nation and among the youth of our own people, the Social Ad- visory Committee, representing all the auxiliary organizations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, deems it ad- visable to call the attention of the Saints to this growing menace, in order to arouse and crystalize a public sentiment that shall effectually stem this tide of evil.

Tobacco Dims the Line that Marks Right from Wrong That the cigarette habit is a great evil there can be no ques- tion. It almost invariably attacks the heart, the lungs, or the brain, and often all three organs; it blunts the intellect and the sensibilities, hindering mental and spiritual growth, especially in the young; it is harmful morally in that it tends to diminish the sense of responsibility, to dim the line that marks right from wrong, and to weaken the will power. It is particularly injurious to one who has been taught all his life both in the home and in the Church that he should not use tobacco, since it often proves the gateway to greater evils. The Lord has specifically declared in our day that "tobacco is not good for man."

Three causes for the Increase of the Use of Tobacco Then, too, there can be no doubt that the consumption of cigarettes is increasing at an alarming rate, not only in the

world generally but among our own youth. In 1917 forty bil- lion cigarettes were made and consumed in the United States alone. This means four hundred for every man, woman, and child in our country. Two years ago a former president of the tobacco trust declared that after the war twice this number would be required to satisfy the demand, and according to pres- ent indications this statement will not unlikely represent the fact. Everywhere an increasing number of women are becoming addicts to the cigarette. Notwithstanding the States where our people live have laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors

1034 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and its use by them, these laws are pretty generally disregarded, and little or no attempt is made to enforce them. The causes of this increase in the use of the cigarette may be grouped under three heads: First, it is one effect of the War. Under the pretext that the soldiers needed tobacco to keep them contented, cigarettes were lavishly bestowed, often literally thrust, upon them, so that thousands learned to smoke who otherwise would not have done so. And then, too, as long as the War continued, patriotism either ignored or minimized the harmful effects of tobacco. A second cause lies in the fact that many States, including those where our people live, have adopted prohibition; and pro- hibition, we are told, increases the demand for narcotics. The third, and probably the main cause, is the extensive advertising campaigns that the tobacco interests have carried on in recent years. These interests, during the lull in the pub- lic conscience just referred to, took advantage of the psycholog- ical moment to push their trade to the utmost. In the street- car ads, on the billboards, in the pages of the magazine and — the newspaper, and on the motion picture film wherever, in short, your eyes may rest — you will see alluring invitations, sometimes open, sometimes covert, to indulge in smoking. And always these advertisements are associated with what attracts — the youth beauty, ease, leisure, wealth. Lately special efforts are being made in advertisements to induce women to take up the habit of smoking cigarettes.

Work of the Tobacco Trust The youth of our own communities, it would appear, form a special target for the tobacco trust; first, because our states are "dry;" and second, strange as it may seem, because our peo- ple have heretofore had the reputation of being comparatively free from the tobacco habit. Listen to these sentences from two letters by Professor Wm. A. McKeever, of the University of Kansas, to a friend in Utah: "Five years ago you were the cleanest and freest people in the civilized world so far as the use of tobacco is concerned. I have repeatedly told about this condition in the course of my lectures throughout the country. But I have reason to believe that the cigarettes are slowly getting the mastery of your boys, just as they have encroached most seriously upon our boys here in Kansas. Four years ago an agent of the big tobacco trust told me that hey were determined to 'getf you, that he was out in your country planning an aggressive campaign of publicity. When the story of the aggressions of the nicotine trust comes to the surface it will be shown up as a twin brother to the alco-

THE CIGARETTE EVIL 1035

hoi trust. Now, it will be a most grievous affair and personally- very disappointing to me if you permit the tobacco enemy to dominate you as he has done in nearly all parts of the country." Is not this one of "the evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days," against which our Word of Wisdom was given as a warning?

What Shall the Answer Be? What will the Latter-day Saints do with this direct chal- lenge? Will they ignore it and allow the tobacco interests to fatten upon the degeneracy of boys and girls? Or will they not rather take up the gage of battle thus thrown at their feet, and wage a strong defensive war? The time is past for mere talk. The time is here for work. We must fight with all the weapons at our command. Already organizations are forming in various parts of the country to combat this growing evil. We must aid these forces to drive the cigarette from our commu- nities. It is a struggle for the boy and the girl. The men and women of the future will not be so likely to use tobacco if the boys and the girls of the present do not form the habit. But the shrewd nicotine trust levels its guns at the growing genera- tion, knowing that a youth who learns to smoke means from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars more in its pockets than one who picks up the habit later in life. We, too, taking our cue from the enemy, must work with young people. If they can keep from forming the tobacco habit till they are past the habit- forming period in life, they will be saved from the money-grub- bing tobacco interests.

Recommendations and Methods of Procedure In order to meet this challenge to action, the following specific recommendations are made: First, as to organization. The social advisory committees in ward and stake should take the initiative and assume the responsibility of seeing that action is taken. They should co- operate with all the uplift forces in the community in an anti- cigarette crusade. Second, as to general aims. The first objective should un- doubtedly be the enforcement of the present laws against sell- ing: or giving tobacco to minors and its use by them. We can- not hope to get other laws against tobacco as long as these are not enforced. But, secondly, we should seek to destroy the power of tobacco agencies working through advertisements to entangle the youth. Public sentiment should be roused against tobacco; local authorities should be induced, as in Murray, Utah, to put a ban on the use and sale of cigarettes, and if possible to

1036 IMPROVEMENT ERA

pass ordinances forbidding bill-board advertising of tobacco in any form. Finally, we should not forget that our work is to culmi- nate in state laws banishing the cigarette forever. Third, as to methods. Public meetings should be held for the purpose of laying the facts and the laws before the people. Invite the local civic and police authorities to your committee meetings to show them that you are willing to aid them to en- force the laws.

Let All L. D. S. Storekeepers quit the Sale of Tobacco Work with the store-keepers to induce them not to keep on sale tobacco, or at least cigarettes. It ought not to be diffi- cult to get Latter-day Saints shop-keepers to agree to this. At all events, where store-keepers persist in violating the law in this respect, complaints should be filed against them before the proper civil authorities. No one who breaks this law deserves any sympathy. Where store-keepers say that they cannot tell the age of young men who ask for tobacco, local civil authorities may be induced to require birth certificates. In any event, however, the burden of obeying the law is on the one that sells, and if he is wise, he will be on the safe side. It is within your rights to secure the passage in any community of resolutions pledging the people not to patronize stores that keep on sale tobacco, and not to subscribe for papers or magazines that carry advertisements of tobacco; only, of course, no place of business or publication should be particularized beforehand.

Arouse Public Sentiment Against Tobacco It would be well to send protests, either individually or col- lectively, tonewspapers and magazines that advertise tobacco. Also work with those who operate motion pictures so as to secure the elimination of all plays that show the characters us- ing tobacco in any form. The film is one of the most impressive means of instilling into the minds of the young any ideals, since these come through the eye, the most powerful of the senses. Inasmuch, therefore, as so many of the pictures on the film nowadays show the characters in the act of smoking, usually the cigarette, this becomes one of the most insidious ways of advertising tobacco and thus corrupting young men and women. If in any particular community all announcements and ad- vertisements of the cigarette in any form can be cut off, and merchants can be induced not to keep cigarettes on sale, and if this can be kept up indefinitely, a vigilant and active public sentiment can be created so that the generation that is growing up will thus be kept from falling a prey to the "evils and

THE CIGARETTE EVIL 1037

designs" of those who would coin the nation's manhood and womanhood into filthy lucre. The Church has for many years taught the harmful effects of tobacco; the practice of the great majority of its member- ship has always been and is now against its use. At present the sentiment throughout America is growing strongly against the use of tobacco in any form. Finally, the laws in every com- munity where the Saints live forbid the sale to and the use by minors of tobacco. Surely, with the backing of both the state and the Church all that is necessary is to awaken the public sentiment, now more or less latent in every community, into an active force that shall sweep away from our towns and cities the cigarette evil.

Laws Against Selling to, or Use of Tobacco by, Minors Utah Any person who shall sell, give, or furnish any cigar, cigarette, or to- bacco in any form * * * to any person under twenty-one years of age in this state shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. — Compiled laws of Utah, section 8442. Any person under the age of twenty-one years who shall buy, accept, or have in his possession any * * * cigar, cigarette, or tobacco in any form, * * * shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon con- viction therof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $100. Compiled — Laws of Utah, section 8443. The penalty for a misdemeanor "except in cases where a different pun- ishment is prescribed by law," is "punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine in any sum less than $300, or by

both.

Arizona be unlawful for any person in the State of Arizona to sell, give, It shall

or furnish, or cause to be sold, given or furnished any cigars, cigarettes or cigarette papers, smoking or chewing tobacco, of any kind or character to any person under the age of twenty-one (21) years and it shall be unlawful for any minor in the State of Arizona to buy, accept or receive from any person, any cigars, cigarettes or cigarette papers, smoking or chewing to- — bacco of any kind or character. Session Laws of Arizona, 1917, p. 8. (An amendment of the section passed in 1913.) The violation of the preceding section shall be a misdemeanor and the person guilty thereof shall be fined for each offense not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars.— Revised Statutes of Arizona, 1913, p. 66.