Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-08-29
CIGARETTES ARE
BAD FOR WOMEN
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson Has De.
cided Views on Subject.
AN ERROR IN NAMES.
Wife Of Democratic Candidate Gives
Out Letter Taking Strong Stand on
Smoking Habit.


New York.-For the first time since
Woodrow Wilson became the Demo
cratic presidential candidate has Mrs.
Wilson appeared. She attended in
person her husbands daily conference
with reporters, although hereto .e
she has made special requests that he
be not quoted nor written about in the
papers.
What Mrs. Wilson wished to have
fully understood was that if she be-
comes the first lady of the land she
will not, as has been said in Il widely
distributed interview, have packages
of cigarettes in her personal desk at
the White House and indulge in smok-
ing them with her callers.
Through Governor Wilson, Mrs. Will
son asked that publicity be given to Il
letter she had written to the editor of
the State Journal at Columbus, o..
repudiating an alleged interview with
her in which she defended cigarette
smoking for women. The interview
had come to her in letter signed
"American Citizen" which said:
Dear MADAME can scarcely think OF
any greater calamity to the young wom-
en- OF the nation than to read such
preachment as your interview offers them.
am a workingman. and l see men lose
their jobs almost every day because they
are incapacitated for work by the use OF
the cigarette. II smoking does this for
strong men what will it do for girls and
women?
The "interview" was indeed a cor
dial Endorsement of the woman smok-
er. Here are some Of its assuring
phrases, all credited to Mrs. Wilson:
"A woman writer for syndicate Of
Sunday newspapers asked Mrs. Wood
row Wilson If she agreed with Ger
trude AthertOn's opinion of the smOk-
ing Of cigarettes by women. She smil-
ingly exhibited three cigarette boxes
piled in the corner OF her desk. all but
empty.
"'Why shouldn't woman smoke If
she enjoys itT she queried.
"'Why hasn't she just as much right
to a cigarette as man? Certainly
agree with Mrs Atherton that any ex-
listing prejudice against women smok-
ing is to the last silly and absurd.
Smoking cigarettes is question
Of manners, not morals. 1t promotes
good fellowship.
"'Some women feel that cigarette
Gains their nerves and helps their
brains into working order. Personally
smoking diffuses my thoughts instead
OF concentrating them. I enjoy 1t as
enjoy after dinner coffee. Both are
pleasant ways Of ending and finishing
off; both add to conviviality and good
fellowship"
The editor of the Ohio State Journal,
at the apologies for the cigarette habit
among women attributed to Mrs. Will
son, as he wrote on Aug. 10 an edito-
rial in which he called for the defeat
Of Governor Wilson or repudiat ton
from his wife. If there was no mis-
take about it. he wrote. Mrs. Wood
row Wilson shouldn't be mistress Of
the White House."
If the Ohio editor was emphatic Mrs.
Wilson was certainly not less so. Aft
er the reporters had said they would
gladly publish her letter to the Ohio
editor she asked for an hours time in
which TO write one. This was what
she prepared:
Dear sir-I have inst received a copv of
the Journal with your editorial entitled
Smoking Women and | beg leave to in
rrora ~ v"ms s enc sot niaare .tts Tba
interview upon which your editorial was
hke me cis"fe'te s4iloHins haolt Tor WON
snhinct that NV, rnaI don@o,, ,fas !, hainr
unjust and tutind in my Judgment Of