The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-28
State Officials Plan War on the
Cigaret Evil.
High School Students Who
Smoke VIII Be Suspended.
MISS WOOSTER BEHIND MOVE
Twenty College Teachers Must
Swear Of Smoking.
Shortage of Talent in Kansas
May Be Made Greater.

Raids by state officials on cigar
stores and other methods of eradicat-
ing the alleged growth of the cigaret
evil among college and high school
youths in Kansas is the next onward
and upward movement of the reform
element, according to announcement
today in the state house. The fight
will be directed by the, attorney gen.
erals office while at the same time a
campaign equally as drastic will be
carried on thru the office of the super
intendent of public instruction.
Suspension of all youths from the
high schools who smoke cigarets
has been threatened by numerous
boards of education, according to Lor-
raine f Wooster, superintendent of
public instruction. Information Is at
hand showing that in some of the Kan
sas towns. high school tanitors are
stated.
Evil Beyond Control.
Secretaries of several school boards
have written to me that the cigaret
evil is beyond all control and that the
attempt to educate the youthful vic
tim of the habit is a waste to the tax
payer in a financial way and a dead
loss in time to the teacher" said Miss
Wooster. They have informed me
that it is their plan to suspend all
youths, victims of the habit, and have
insisted that concerted state action be
taken in checking the sale of cigarets
to minors"
These complaints have been turned
over to the attorney generals office
and a statewide compaign of prosecu-
ton is promised which in time prom
ises to be Is intense and far reaching
as the prosecution of the liquor ven
dors in the old days. First steps
/ rd Sf ~ Of n a N
sale of the cigarette were taken last
week when letters were written to
county attorneys insisting upon en-
forcing the anti-ciGarette law, as well
as the law concerning the sale OF
tobacco to minors.
Make Law a Joke.
However, it is feared in many
Esounties and cities the political mex
pediency of persistent prosecution OF
ci ar stores and other store. selling
cigarettes will make the enforcement
of the law joke, the same the en-
forcement of the prohibition law in the
early days. With that condition to
face, persor~l prosecution OF violators
of the anti-cigarette laws is being
planned in the attorney generals Of
flee.
IAN state schools in Kansas have
no business permitting students to
smoke on the campus" said Miss
Wooster today. There are laws
against this and it will be enforced
during the coming school year"
Miss Wooster further declared that
twenty school teachers. or rather col
lege teachers, charged with being vic
Tins of the habit would either have to
comply with the rules and regulations
pertaining to the tobacco habit or look
for work in some other state.
The younger brother, the high
school youth. always apes the older
brother and nova days the older
brother is a soldier boy back from
France who smokes cigarets," said
Miss Wooster "Of course the young
er brother follows in his brother S
footsteps. The chances are ten to one
the older brother didn't smoke the
cigarets until he had grown to man
hood and went into the army where
the habit was nearly forced on him."