--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Fillmore, Charles M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 1 published: 1927-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Charles M. Fillmore, “Child Training and Tobacco,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 1 (November 1927): 32–36." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3101unse 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: improvementera3101unse start_page: 32 end_page: 36 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1927-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3101unse publication_year: 1927 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 1927, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Child Training and Tobacco Child Training and Tobacco By Charles M. Fillmore, General Secretary of the No-Tobacco League of America WHAT a profoundly simple thing is life! The destiny of the race slumbers in the soul of childhood. The mighty Moses of the Red Sea and Sinai was cradled in an ark of bulrushes on the bosom of the Nile. The Matchless Master-Teacher of the Mount of Transfiguration, of Olivet, of Calvary, was born as a babe in Bethlehem. Who can fathom the greatness implicit in the least of these little ones! Herbert Hoover wrote President Coolidge, "We in America are far behind what a national conscience should demand for the public protection of our children." Look out for your little ones, O land of liberty! The hope of our nation is not in congress but in the kindergarten. A Moses was born this morning. Where? God knows. A Pharaoh is plotting his death. Are you an Egyptian or an Israelite, indeed? "Unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior." Herod seeketh his life. Are you among the friends or the foes of childhood? The malignant spirit of Pharaoh and Herod and satan (his name is Legion) persists through the ages and dwells today in the traffickers in tobacco. Again we quote from that great lover and benefactor of children, Herbert Hoover. He says, "There is no agency in the world today that is so seriously affecting the health, education, efficiency and character of boys and girls as the cigar- ette habit, yet very little attention is paid to it. Nearly every de- linquent boy is a cigarette smoker, which certainly has much to do with it. Cigarettes are a source of crime. To neglect crime at its source is a short-sighted policy unworthy of a nation of our in- telligence." Surely the time has come to discard the "short-sighted policy unworthy of a nation of our intelligence," develop "a national con- science for the public protection of our children," and save them from the agency that is so "seriously affecting their health, education, efficiency and character," and making delinquents and criminals of them. There is no more important or urgent duty devolving upon America today than To keep the young folks clean from the To teach th; youth the truth about to- blight of nicotine bacco. CHILD TRAINING AND TOBACCO 33 What can we do? Plenty. Here are a few simple, practical sug- gestions: 1. Pray. "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God." The babe is the child of God as well as of father and mother. Do all you can in cooperation with the Father in heaven to prevent the child from going to the devil. 2. Appreciate the value of children. See them as God sees them. Study them. You must learn of them before you can teach them. They are weak rather than wicked. They are worth more than money, houses, farms, mines. A soul out-weighs the world. Instill self-appreciation in them. 3. Idealize the child. "It doth not yet appear what he shall be." Make great plans for him. Encourage him to dream dreams and see visions of great goodness as possibilities for him. Do not debase him. Exalt him. 4. After appreciation and idealization comes the long, hard road to realization. Castles in the skies are usually inhabited by those who first pioneer in log cabins on earth. Sweats are appetizer for sweets. 5. Consecration. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all — and thy neighbor." Selfishness is suicidal. Sacrificial service assures success that satisfies. "But I thought you were to tell us about tobacco," you say. That is what I am talking about. No one who appreciates a child will encourage a habit that de- files and destroys God's temple, the human body. "Pipe dreams" (and likewise those of cigars, cigarettes and "chaws") differ from heavenly visions as much as works of the flesh differ from the fruit of the spirit. A wise teacher said of the boy who persists in smok- ing cigarettes, "He need not worry about his future — he has none." The most selfish, anti-social set of sinners on earth today are tobacconists and their tarnished tools. Please re-read the five suggestions above through the lens of the last paragraph. There are many phases to the tobacco question. Let us con- sider it further from other angles. There is the age-long discussion of the relative importance of heredity and environment. Just now the papers are debating whether cigarette smoking by a prospective mother has a deleterious influence on her child. Dr. Holmes on being asked how early one should begin training a child, replied, "Begin with its grandmother." Does tobacco using affect progeny? In human beings as in other creatures there are invariable, fundamental biological laws. When you show me a successful breeder of horses, cattle, hogs or 34 IMPROVEMENT ERA other live ptock, who regularly feeds tobacco to male or female progenitor of the species with good results or without evil con- sequences, then and not till then will I listen when you tell me that it makes no difference whether mothers and fathers of boys and girls use tobacco. Of how much more value is a child than a colt? A man said to me, "My old grandmother used tobacco and I believe she was a good Christian woman." I replied, "I am not in- terested so much in your grandmother as I am in my grandson." But heredity only provides the seed corn, prepares the soil and starts the plant. The crop must be cultivated. Habit formations begin early. Mother and father cannot wait for years or months or even weeks to elapse before beginning the training of the child. A smoke-laden atmosphere is not the kind God meant for the tender lungs of an infant. Nicotine in a mother's milk does not add to its nutritive value. If a babe dies in such surroundings let not the preacher discourse at the funeral about mysterious dispensations of Providence. That will make the devil laugh. The school, the church and the community soon add their in- fluence to that of the home. It is going to be hard for the boy or girl to keep clean if associates use tobacco. How much worse if the teacher is an addict. Still worse will be the example of a tobacco using preacher. The home, the church, the school and the community are not the only institutions which play a part pro or con with regard to the influence of tobacco upon the child. What the child reads plays a large part in shaping his character. Newspapers, magazines, books and other printed matter come constantly under his eye. If these advocate the use of tobacco, especially in an attractive way. they cannot be innocuous. Be on your guard with respect to your child's reading. To this must also be added the bill boards and moving picture shows. Too many of these are constantly on the wrong side of this as well as other great moral questions. They are Pharaohs and Herods. But the institution that is the arch-enemy of the child today is the nation-wide organized and country-wide operative tobacco busi- ness. Its propaganda is carefully prepared in such a way as to make an insidious, sinister appeal to children that is all but irre- sistible. Herbert Hoover is right in saying that there is no other agency in the world today that is so seriously affecting our chil- dren in so many deleterious ways as is the traffic in tobacco. Every patriot, every lover of childhood and home, every believer in him who was the Babe of Bethlehem and the ideal child of Nazareth should see the hand of Herod in this institution and recognize its in- herent character and purpose as a cause of alarm and a call to arms. CHILD TRAINING AND TOBACCO 35 as well as a challenge to the parental instinct that will fight to a finish rather than see his offspring maimed and destroyed by this monster. The tobacco business has become so gigantic and the struggle against it so titanic that a victory for the rights of childhood against this foe can only be won by a nation-wide organization enrolling in its membership every man, woman and child who believes in the ideal of the perfect life enjoined upon his disciples by. him who said. "Follow me." To those who wish further and more specific information in regard to practical plans of activity, the writer refers them to a leaflet "The Loyal League of the No-Tobacco League," naming six- teen things to be done; also a booklet on The Galahads which ex- plains a set of societies that takes in grade pupils, high school pupils and adults. Sample copies will be sent free on request. Lest some one should read into what has been written a note of pessimism or discouragement, I end this article by quoting the closing paragraphs from my last annual report to the No-Tobacco League: The fight is on. The lines of battle are being formed. The cause of conflict is no petty one. It is universal. Every man, woman and child on earth is affected by it. It involves the weal or woe of unborn generations. The clarion call to arms sounds crisp and clear around the world. The days of neutral ease and complacent peace are over. The clock of crisis strikes the noon hour of decision. On which side will you stand? Are you no-tobacco or pro-tobacco? You cannot be both. The choice is yours. "God has sounded forth a trumpet that Oh, be swift my soul to answer him, be shall never call retreat; jubilant my feet; He is sifting out the hearts of men be- Our God is leading on." fore his judgment seat; But timid, indecisive souls ask us, Do you think you have any chance to win? We quote the reply of the heroic leader of another cause, who, when asked about his hope of success, answered, "My prospects are as bright as the promises of God." Are we going to win? Sure! We cannot fail. Tobacconists may gain some battles against us in the preliminary conflicts but the ultimate victory of the war will perch upon our pennants. For what do the tobacconists fight? Why do we dare stand against them? They fight for personal, selfish gain; we cham- pion the welfare of the race. They traffic in tobacco, whose pe- culiar, essential element (nicotine) is a virulent narcotic poison; we urge mankind to keep their bodies clean from ruinous dopy 36 IMPROVEMENT ERA drug addiction. They foster filth and foulness; we counsel clean- liness. They promote their ease by means of propaganda filled with misleading, lying, deceptive camouflage; we preach the truth in love. They make abject slaves of their votaries; we insist that God made man to be free. Death, despair and devastation follow in their train; health, happiness and hope are the guiding stars that shine in the firmament of our heaven. What right-minded man or woman can question which side should win — and shall! When one digs down to fundamental principles he discovers that we are not mere advocates of a transient, temporary plea. Our contention is an eternal one. We stand for the identical ideals of life that brought Cain into conflict against Abel; Noah against his ungodly generation; Moses against Pharaoh; Gideon and his im- mortal three hundred against the mighty men of Midian; the shep- herd lad, David, against the giant Goliath and the Philistines; the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ against the ruinous corruption of the Roman empire; William Lloyd Garrison against the despicable slave power; Neal Dow and Frances Willard against John Barley- corn; Susan B. Anthony against the senseless, sensual strength of the fighting male enslaving the weak, but winsome womanhood of the world. The conflict against Judas Nicotinus is of the same inherent, fundamental character as these and others too numerous to men- tion. We have as reasonable hopes for the ultimate success of our cause as these had in their day. Judged from a worldly standpoint, the tobacconists have every advantage over us. Our hope is based upon the potency of the eternal spiritual realities. They have unlimited money, great social prestige, strong political pull, the world, the flesh and the devil. We believe that morality is mightier than mammon; that self- sacrificial service is superior to the social swim; that principle is more potent than political expediency; that truth, righteousness, goodness, and love will prevail because they are infinite and eternal. This is the victory — even our faith. Indianapolis, Ind., 821 Occidental Bldg. In life's eternal round, who lives the most, As ebbs and flows anew each passing day, The Christian with his living faith and hope, Or doubting atheist in his dismay? O. F. USENBACH