The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-24
THE LOWLY CIGARET.

The war on liquor ended with the
ratification of the federal prohibition
amendment, and DR.. Clarence True
Wilson. general secretary of the
Methodist Temperance society. now
announces that his organization will
take up arms against tobacco. This
action was generally foreseen and will
occasion little surprise or comment.
Doctor Wilson makes a bad start,
however, when he declares that cigar
cts are charged with opium. He will
find it difficult to make anybody but
a fanatic believe that opium at pres
ent prices can be placed in harmful
quantities in cigarets while these same
cigarets are sold SO cheap.
The opium story in connection with
cigarets is an old one but few persons
ever took it = seriously, especially
among the smokers. who are in a po-
sition TO obtain first hand knowledge.
Doctor Wilson and his followers
have undertaken a big job. Accord
ing to the men at arms of the forces
which brought the Prussian monster
to its knees, particularly the Ameri-
cans; their officers, from the highest
to the humblest; the physicians.
nurses, chaplains and bear
ers, who labored to save the wounded
and minister to the dying; the women
of the Red Cross; the secretaries of
the Y. M C. A. forces, and the repre-
sentatives of all the other phiIanthrop-
ic agencies which labored for tie men
battling for the cause of humanity
tobacco was one of the most p. o.
nounced blessings of the struggle, one
of the greatest factors in preserving
the morale of the troops
Not only did the military agencies
of the allied governments promptly lay
in vast stores of the weed" but many
newspapers and specially organized
bodies began soliciting funds with
which to purchase tobacco to be sent
to the men in uniform. And the Red
Cross and the Y. NJ. c. A. at once pre-
pared to handle tobacco as a part of
their services The, latter. as soon as
this country entered the struggle, was
designated by General Pershing to
maintain canteens for the American
fighting forces, and among the innu-
merable supplies handled, cigarets,
cigars, pipe tobacco and chocolate
were most in demand turnout the per-
iod of fighting, and will continue to
be while rehabilitation is taking
place.
Figures testify to tobacco's impor-
lance in this connection. For Deem
Der last the Y. NJ. c. A. ordered TO-
900, 900 cigarets and nearly 100000
cigars to supply the demand for
smokes" among the American Expe-
dictionary Forces in Europe.
Those who have talked with the men
in the battle zones or those who have
returned to these shores. with the doc
tors, nurses and representatives of the
various philanthropic organizations,
says writer in Leslie's, have learned
first-hand of the important part to-
bacco played both on the fighting
fronts and behind the lines. Men
without food for hours, ometimes
days, have soothed their nerves, kept
their courage and gone into battle Gag
| erly. terribly and effectively, because
the supply of tobacco held out. Men
wounded unto death have gone west
smilingly after a few puffs of a cigaret
and Smokes in the field and in the
hospital have mitigated pain and even
restored nerves, which meant the saw
| ing of lives.
And, Ne adds. cigarets also
played a conspicous part in the
driving of the Germans out of the
| c.
From airplanes, 10000 packages Of
cigarets were dropped to the infantry
men and artillerymen pressing for
ward in their victorious squeeze which
dislodged the enemy from the strong
hold he had held for more than three
years.
The smoke of the greatest of al
worlds conflicts has been dissipated
he concludes, but the smoke of tobac-
CO will linger on as long as there re-
mains an American soldier, and ther
long after that. And what care we
whether it was the Chinese or the
American Indian who first made us'
of the weed, or whether it was Sill
Walter Raleigh or Sir Francis Drake
who first introduced smoking to tht
Europeans. 1t is sufficient for us tina
We had tobacco for our boys in uni
form. and that we were able to suppl!
it in sufficient abundance to those
who went across to make it one o
the mightiest factors for ma gnificen
morale in the history of armed con
flict.