To Cut Out Tobacco Is Business

To "Cut Out" Tobacco is Business By Christen Hansen Some months ago I was walking alongside of two young men, one of whom said to me, "I understand you have quit smoking; is it true?" I told him I believed it was, for I hadn't smoked for nearly two months, and I believed the hardest part of my battle was over. He looked at me with a queer grin and said, "You will soon be so religious that wings will grow on you." However, most of my friends encouraged me, but I recognized the fact that this particular friend was making light of my effort to "cut out" tobacco, and for a few moments I didn't know what to say. After a second thought, I turned to him and said: "Religion alone isn't the cause of my action. To 'cut out' tobacco is. business." "Business?" he said, looking up. "Yes; business, and I can prove it." He then replied, "I can't see how that can have anything to do with business." I then remarked something like this, "You work for wages most of the time, do you not? Before you accept a job you want to know what the business is, do you not? And if you find- that the expense to 'rig up' to do that job will demand more money than the job will bring you in return, you wouldn't have anything to do with the job, would you?" He answered, "Yes" to the first two of these questions, and "No" to the last one. I then proceeded, "If you went to buy a farm, you would first figure out how much it would cost you to live, then com- pute your state, county, village and school taxes, the interest on the money invested, your village water and irrigation assess- ments, hired help, and all other expenses. Then if your crop that the farm would produce would not suffice to bring you enough money to cover these expenses and a small dividend for your own work, you wouldn't buy the farm, would you?" "No," replied my friend, "I should say not; that would be poor business. But what's that to do with tobacco?" "I will come to that. You mean to tell me you will not have anything to do with anything that will not bring you a profit?"

TO "CUT OUT" TOBACCO IS BUSINESS 349 "I want to see where I am really going to get ahead, or I don't want anything to do with it." "All right! You smoke a package of cigarettes every day, sometimes more; that costs you 20c a package, and in ten years you will have smoked $730 worth of cigarettes. How often do you smoke a cigar?" He answered that he thought it would average two a week or more, and besides that, he stated that he chewed a little once in awhile also. "Your expenses, then," I said to him, "on the two would at least be five cents a day wouldn't it?" "Yes; all of that." "In ten years that would cost you $182.50; the total, $912.50 that you pay out in cash for tobacco in ten years." "That isn't very much money," he said. "Ten years isn't a very long time, either," I replied, "and that isn't all the expense. How long does it take you to smoke one of the cigarettes?" "Oh, I don't know, about five minutes, I guess." "What's your time worth?" "Not very much now, but I received $5 a day single handed when the war was on. It isn't worth now more than about $3 for ten hours' work." "Well, even at that, it costs you $1,825 in ten years to smoke your cigarettes. When you are working for someone else you don't use your own time, either; you rob the man you are working for. You still have your cigars; it takes longer to smoke them than it does cigarettes, and then, too, it may affect your health. If you get sick, there's your doctor bill, and your wages while you are in bed. You fill the house with smoke for the rest of the family to inhale, and possibly that has been the cause of most of the sickness in your family, which has been a great expense. But your expense alone, which we have figured up, amounts to $2,737.50. That is your expense for tobacco in ten years. Now you take a pencil and paper and figure out the profit!" He refused to do it, and I don't blame him. First cut out your own bad habits, and then assist your neighbor. If you always strive to do this you will find much joy in your labor. Look before you leap, And don't go in too strong, It is better to sometimes creep, And you may never go wrong. Advance quickly, slowly. Mink Creek, Idaho