The Cigarette Menace

The Cigarette Menace [At a recent conference held at St. George, Utah, Elder Richard R. Lyman, of the Council of the Twelve, in speaking upon this subject, made use of the following quotations with respect to the use of cigarettes. We think that they are worthy of consideration by every young man in the Church, and by every salesman of tobacco, everywhere. With Elder Lyman, the editors of the Era will be made happy when it can be said that there is not a boy smoker in any ward in the Church, under the age of 21; and, furthermore, if it can ever be said that there is not a smoker in any ward at all, nor a salesman of tobacco, who is a member of the Church, we shall be greatly delighted. — Editors. A boy who smokes cigarettes is like a cipher with the rim knocked off. — Bob Burdette. Boys who smoke cigarettes are like wormy apples. They drop off long before harvest time. — David Starr Jordan. One-half the truth has never been told about the evils of cigarette smoking. It blunts the whole moral nature and has an appalling effect upon the physical system as well. I have seen bright boys turned into dunces and straightforward, hon- est boys made into cowards by cigarette smoking. — Dr. A. C. Clinton, physician to several boys' schools. No boy living would commence the use of cigarettes if he knew what a useless, soulless, worthless thing they would make of him. — Luther Burbank. The yellow f_nger-stain is an emblem of deeper degr dation and enslavement than the ball and chain.- — Hudson Maxim. Acrolein in the smoke of the cigarette has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes. — Thomas A. Edison. I consider cigarette smoking the greatest menace devast- ing humanity today, because it is doing more than any other vice to deteriorate the race. — Charles B. Towns, in Century Magazine. I do not believe there is an agency more destructive of good morals than the cigarette. The fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization. — Frank W. Gunsaulus. Boys must be educated so they will know why cigarettes are bad for them. You will find that almost any criminal is a cigarette smoker. Boys, through cigarettes, train with bad

THE CIGARETTE MENACE 145 company. They go with other smokers to poolrooms and saloons. The cigarette drags them down. — Henry Ford. A well-known judge of Chicago once said: "I cannot be- lieve that our laws and our times would tolerate for a single moment the cigarette if the desolation it works could be fully realized." Smoking by women of all classes is on the rapid increase. Men who are themselves smokers are realizing the tragedy of women smoking. As when the Titanic sank in mid-ocean, so in this time of peril, true men hold to the slogan, "Women and children first," and are willing to sacrifice their own use of cigarettes to safeguard those whom they are bound to cherish and protect. Until our civilization exterminates the cigarette, "the young, the weak, and the unwary" will continue to "put into their mouths things that steal away their brains." Fabulous sums are appropriated for cigarette advertising, and for the corruption of legislatures. "I consider any young man at school, in college, or in any professional school is seriously, indeed, almost fatally handi- capped by the habit of smoking." — Andrew D White, President of Cornell University and for fifty years in close association with college students. "I am not much of a mathematician," said the cigarette, "but I can add to man's nervous troubles, I can subtract from his physical energy, I can multiply his aches and pains, I can divide his mental powers, I can take interest from his work and I can discount his chances of success." — David Starr Jordan, President of Leland Stanford University. "Boys who smoke cigarettes are like wormy apples. They drop long before the harvest time. They rarely make failures in after life because they don't have any after life. When the other boys are taking hold of the world's work these are con- cerned with the sexton and the undertaker." — David Starr Jor- dan, President of Leland Stanford University. "The tobacco habit leads to vice, and is frequently the fore- runner of crime. This is because tobacco is a drug, and dulls the moral sense." — The No-Tobacco News. "We stand for the non-use and the non-sale of tobacco." — Slogan of the M. I. A. and other auxiliary organizations of the Church.