Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-06-12

finished products. This represents a
tremendous growth Of the industry dis
covered five hundred years ago at a
camp fire. when Columbus sailors re-
turned to their ship moored by the
Cuban shore and reported, 1.-THE naked
savages twist large leaves together.
light one end at the fire and smoke like
DEVILS"
COST-Our 1914 tobacco bill con-
tains nearly the following items:
Farm value Of the crop (1S13). $122, 4S1 900
Imported tobacco, 4S3O5, 042
Excise and customs on tobacco, 1O3,53S. 900
Value added by manufacture
$500. 39509, 900
Wholesale value Of tobacco. ssh, So, O42
Deduction Of exported Tobacco. 1857 SIS
Wholesale value Of consump-
ton. $45s. 1s5.oss
Jobbing and retail profits
$3.50, lb3,065, 0N
Retail value Of consumption. $751;. 26o. Osi
Our national tobacco bill equals the
value Of all our gold in circulation. the
coal mined or wheat grown. 1t is
500, 000, 900 in excess of the cost of
our army and navy in 1912, and half
more than that Of building the Panama
Canal or maintaining our public
schools. 1t is double the national post
office receipts and five times the ex-
penditure for the care Of the insane.
feeble-minded, blind. dumb and poor in
55OS public institutions. We spend
each year for tobacco sum equal to-
one-tenth of the peoples accumulations
for a century in savings banks. The
average smoker burns up the price OF
a good farm in forty years and on this
FIRE there is no insurance.
FIRE RISK-More than fifty billions
of cigars and cigarette stubs ana
matches are thrown down annually by
smokers Exclusive Of those using
pipes), reckoning only one match to
smoke. In millions of instances the
matches. stubs and pipe ashes contain
fire and fall on more or less 1nham-
able material in stables, storehouses,
dock buildings. lumber yards, mines,
forests or on the prairie. The smoker
naturally tries to conceal or disprove
his responsibility for confiagration.
but in this effort he sometimes fails.
The fire marshal Of Indiana reported,
as the cause Of 100 fires in that state
last wear, Careless smoker E. F.
Croker, chief Of the New York fire de-
partment, reported in 1911 that 1882
fires, or nine per day, were caused by
cigars, cigarettes and matches. Some
Of the most fatal mine explosions and
destructive forest fires have been
caused by smokers. Such was the
origin of the Asch Building fire in New
York Q911) with 145 deaths; the
100000 fire at Forth Worth (1909)
with six deaths and fires costing one
to seven million dollars at Bangor and
Coney Island. Items like the follow
ing are common: Equitable Building
Fire Started by Smoker in Savarin
Restaurant" Cigarette Starts Fire on
Steamer Yale" 100000 Fire in Phila-
delphia Music store Caused by Smok-
err and Lighted Cigarette Starts For
est Fire, Makes 100 Homeless" Ameri-
can combustible buildings are specially
endangered by smokers, who cause a
large part Of our $225.000,000 annual
fire loss on structures and contents.
WOMEN SMOKERS = The male
population formerly consumed about
all Of the tobacco. A few old crones
chung to their clay pipes. mountain
white" women dipped or shifted snuff
and some estimable old ladies had their
private stock Of rappee or -maccaboy,
but each hid her weakness or became
the laughing stock Of other women.
With the advent Of the cigarette in
America. the women Of the UNDER
world adopted smoking. The fashion
spread among theatrical women. The
smart set" found in the cigarette
another pleasing dissipation. Lastly
1900 picture theatres began introduce
ing the young womanhood Of our coun-
try, to the girls Of the demi-monde,
who wear finery, smoke, drink and
tango. Tens Of thousands Of women
are now habitual smokers and the
habit prevails most among the wealthy.
In some foreign countries we have a
forecast Of our future. A professor of
the University of Illinois toldsthe writ
er that last summer, at a respectable
pension in Paris. his wife and daughter
We're the only ladies of about forty
there who did not smoke. Passing the
sentimental reasons for the double
standard for the sexes in this in
diligence. it is a physiological menace
to the future Of our race that mothers
as we'll as fathers are fast adopting
the most injurious form Of using to-
bacco.
JUVENILE SMOKING-Half Of the
boys In cities smoke occasionally be-
rore they are twelve years Of age and
about that proportion become habitual
smokers at sixteen years Of age. ac-
cording to my investigations in dealing
with this issue in many states. A
majority acquire the habit from smok-
ing cigarette stubs, which they uick nm
IN the streets. At first I ala not -.
heve their confessions to thu spractioa.
but supposed that they were 9fy1nS g,
- s-6ss.l1s-@ss-.-.