The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-07
AN APPEAL FOR THE BOYS.
 D,,....ott

By c. $. Burnett.
 A question in importance overshad- l owing all others faces us today. 1t is this. What is to be the character of
 our citizenship in the new century we are so soon to be entered? However
 great our interest in politics, in tar 1 if. or silver, or labor we realize there l Is still a greater question-one which. indeed, Is the end of all politics and government-thc child.
 Building character is the great work of our public schools. We want to place on this broad domain a peo- pie "who shall know their rights. and knowing. dare maintain"
 The putting into the generations that shall follow us the character that can be trusted anywhere is the thing to be aimed at. We want our boys to be
 "Truly equipped for life's mystic bat Helmet fastened and sword in hand"
 We must fight the great battles of the world through the children. The secret which decides the fate of any battle is found in the preparation which goes before. It is true of battles for reform.
 The eye of this generation should be fixed upon the young. There is an army marching forward, in which every man may be a hero made strong in mi ghty conflict. Put your ear to the ground and you may hear them, Tramp. tramp. tramp, the boys are marching
 Whether they march to victory over self victory over foes without as well as foes within. depends upon the hab- its they are forming during childhood and youth.
 Within recent years an insidious vice has sprung up all over our land. and our brightest boys are falling victims to its prey.
 . This vice is the narcotic habit in all it's forms, and especially in it's worst form--the cigarette. The evil has grown to such mighty proportions that state legislatures and school boards have listened to the appeals of the brave hand of white ribbon women and nave given legislation and secured the en- forcement of the laws in many places
 Parents, will you aid in the educa- tional work? Will you aid in the en- forcement of law? l ask you to look in the faces of so many of our boys who have formed this habit and see how the better nature is being crushed out by this vice. and know that no boy is safe so long as our laws are violated with impunity. Your boy may be, tempted and may fall. Just as good boys have fallen. Place the barriers oA CAAOA SCo idV o1Oul iHCih. IT., Iiail who would wrong your son by selling this poisonous drug to him deserves greater punishment than he who robs you of your property; yet you are raising no voice, lifting no hand to protect them. Why? Partly because yon do not know the dangerous nature of the deadly cigarette" A committee of United States senators appointed to investigate the nature of cigarettes, when legislation against their sale was pending, brought in report that they are all injurious to youth, and Con- gress passed the law that the women petitfoned for. A petition for this law was signed by the teachers and minis ters of the District of Columbia, and 257 physicians.
 The president of Ada, O., school. where are over 2000 young people fit ting themselves for teachers. says: Several boys from here died last year from use of cigarettes" Two boys were sent to the insane asylum from Hiram college from their uses in one year. The school boards of New York. San