Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-19
THE. CIGARETTE HABIT.
Efforts of Edinburgh Authorities to
Combat the Evil.

From the ST. James Gazette.
The fight against the cigarette for boys,
which has been taken up by the local au-
thorities Of Edinburgh, has been growing
in force during the last few years. There
1t little doubt that one OF these days some
thing Will have to be done at Westminster
such as is now being done By educational
authorities and employers of labor in
smaller ways all over England The Ply
mouth school board has largely circularized
the parents of the children under its care,
calling their attention to the growth of
| cigarette smoking among boys; and at
Leeds the school board has sought the as
sistance OF eminent medieaE authorities in
its efforts to put down the pernicious habit
The school management committee Of the
Liverpool school board has declared in q
special report on the subject that Cigar
cite smoking affects the system generally
and arrests the physical development" and
the chairman of the Glasgow school board
asserts that the boy who smokes is mot
mentally or physically able to study"
From schoolmasters and school boards
everywhere comes the same testimony. In
nine cases out Of ten. says the head master
or Portsmouth Grammar School, the un-
satisfactory boy Is a smoker. Mentally and
morally, according to their teachers boys
suffer from the cigarette habit. The boy
VINO smokes at school is not only worse
student in consequence. but too often be-
comes sneak. Juvenile smoking" said
the chairman of this school board OF West
Ham, Leads to lotfing and deterioration
generally; in my opinion, both mental and
moral"
More and more the habit is telling in
the workshop, If we are to believe the tes-
timony OF those who should know best A
newspaper advertisement the other day for
sharp, oblfging, Intelligent lad warned
all boy smokers that they need not apply,
and such advertisements are by no means
rare. There is sound economics in them.
IL n a~la he
that he would certainly not choose a smok-
ing boy to do any work for him If he could
get a non-smoker, and Sir Thomas Upton
has set himself strongly against the prac-
Sir Christopher Furness has been that ju-
venile smoking mot only causes detertora-
ton of physique but tends to develop loung-
Ing habits with the result that the Juvenile
smokers work Is less conscientiously done
and he is lacking in sprightiiness and alert
ness" .---- :, ~
The doctor. it goes without saying is the
strongest enemy Of juvenile smoking
Probably the action of the local authori-
ties In Edinburgh owes something to the
influence ofSir Henry Littlejohn, the city's
medical officer, WHIP is one of the Oldest
public officials in Scotland. Sir Henry Is
sued not long ago a statement Of the evils
of Juvenile smoking which startled a good
many people? It is not quite clear what, II
anything: can be done to check the growth
OF a habit W hich is seriously affecting the
rising generation. There are parliaments
which have thought 1t well to prohibit the
sale of cigarettes to boys and to punish
boy smokers. with heavy hand; but such
course seems out Of the question at pres
ent In England. Years ago the minister OF
public instruction In France issued a. cir
cular to all directors of COLLEGES and schools
forbidddng smoking because it checked the
Development Of mind and body The remedy
may not be perfect but 1t is better, at any
rate, than inaction, and It does not seem
too soon for members of parliament to be-
gin to think about the peril of the Cigarette