Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1912-09-18
CIGARETTES ARE
BAD FOR WOMEN
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson Has De-
cided Views on Subject.
A CONFUe CT NJ l5ES

-.!;fe of pemocr"sio Candidate e.1es
CT .-etter I Strong stanl on
Smoking Ha
lev York.-F.. - first time since
- 3ourow Wilson became the Demo
cratic presidential candidate has Mrs.
Wilson appeared. She attended III
person her husbands daily conference
with reporters, although heretofore
she has made special requests that she
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 widely
distributed interview, have packages
of cigarettes in her personal desk at
the White House and indulge in smok-
inc them with her callers.
Through Governor Wilson, Mrs Will
son asked that publicity be given to a
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
mad come to her in letter signed
american Citizen" which said:
Dear Madam can scarcely think
Of any greater calamity to the young
women of the nation than to read such
a 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
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 a 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
efspty.
"'Why shouldn't woman smoke II
she enjoys it?' she queried.
"'Why hasn't she just as much right
to a cigarette as man Certainly
agree with Mrs. Atherton that any
existing prejudice against women
smoking is to the last silly and alb
surd.
Smoking cigarettes is a question
of manners, not morals. 1t promotes
good fellowship.
"HSome women feel that a cigarette
calms their nerves and helps their
brains into working order Personally
smoking diffuses my thoughts instead
of concentrating them. l enjoy it as
enjoy after dinner coffee. Both are
Pleasant ways of ending and finishing
off: both add to conviviality and good
frl, Iwship."
The editor of the Ohio State Journal,
it was clear, had been much incenstd
at the apologies for the cigarette habit
among women attributed to Mrs. Will
son, as he wrote on Aug. 10 an edit0-
rial in which he called for the defeat
of Governor Wilson or a Reputation
from his wife If there was no mis-
take about it, he wrote, Mrs. Wood
row Wilson shouldn't be mistress IT
the White House"
If the Ohio editor was emphati, ,
Mrs. Wilson was certainly not less so.
After 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 just received
copy of the Journal with your edito-
rial entitled Smoking Women and I
beg leave to deny Indignantly the
statement that l approve of women
smoking cigarettes. The interview
upon which your editorial was based
is a pure invention. l intensely dis
like the cigarette smoking habit for
women--in fact, SO strong is my feel
ing on the subject that my real danger
lies in being unjust and unkind in my
Judgment of those who differ with me
in this respect.
"But certainly no woman in our
household ever has or ever will smoke.
lutte apart from the bad taste of it,
believe with you that it has an e.
tremely injurious effect on the nerves.
"ELLEN A. WILSON
("Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.'D
Governor Wilson, in approving the
letter sent out by Mrs. Wilson, offered
what he thought might prove an ex-
PLANTATION for the interview.
'1 do not think it was maliciously
invented" he said. There is a rather
we'll known writer who signs herself
Mrs Wilson Woodrow, and she no
doubt has been confused with Mrs.
Wilson"
Mrs. Wilson Woodrow was formerly