Arizona republican., 1920-11-08


 every time you go down town the sign Enlist for the navy, ages II to 45, and we we'll know what happens when our boys get into the navy or the army. If they cannot get their own cigarettes some solicitous friends or organizations sends them a wholesale shipment.
 Personally, I think we should as- semble our juvenile laws and settle upon some uniformity of age or defini tion of a minor. At this very time it is not an uncommon sight to come upon school boys in groups or singIy, smoking cigarettes or pipes. They no longer do it surreptitiously. We may ask them where they get their supply; they boldly reply. anywhere. with few exceptions" !" Why? Not because our officials have not caused to be published warnings to these mer- chants. At least this is true of Mari copa county. They why this viola tion of the law by the merchants? Then why this disregard of the boys to their parents entreaties and their | teachers admonitions?
 l ask these questions Now friends brothers, sisters. in the cause of God and home and humanity. let us here together, try to answer them.
 Do We not often fail in our support Of and encouragement to our officials? :? Do we not stand back and criticize and expect the all powerful law to do everything? Do we not censure the l individual boy and seek to destroy his packet of cigarettes instead of linking our arm with that of our police of ficer and going straightway to the ! merchant who sells the vile stuff and tell him in plain English that this | thing must stop? Should we not go l still farther and encourage the move ments to divert the cultivation of to- bacco lands to something that will nourish rather than destroy?
 Then on the other hand, if we try cansew not get closer to the boy Surely there is at least one penetrahle l spot in every boys armor of reserve and independence in which he en- velopes himself at a very early period He must be inspired by example as well as precept to respect the law be- fore he will obey it, and back of and l better than all else is the building oi a character big enough to respect his parents teachings and to look with pride and a sense of awe upon the | perfection of his own body The 1 thou shalt not plan seldom proves | successful.
 Years ago in my home town of To. peka, Kansas, the famous Carrie Ma ton went about our streets and ac.
 
 i the cigarettes from their mouths witt some such come-off as each being case of a roll of poison with a fir, at one end and fool at the other Excellent as were her intentions, sh, was merely bruising the noxious wee, Tar above ground; She root was who'll. unharmed.
 Perhaps I am surprising and disap pointing you in not pouring out sta tistics, telling you of the billions o cigarettes sold annually, of the ten Of millions of dollars wasted in smoke Of the thousands of acres of valuabl land devoted to the culture of tobacco but what is the use of doing this? To can all read figures as we'll as l. an even so, that gets us nowhere. . Frankly, that is what I fear we hay ] been doing too much of heretofore an too little about the holy influence ( q 1 the grand old home fireside and mini mixing the incalculable evil lurking O , our city streets. This summer whe n l entered heart and soul into the cam paign for a curfew ordinance fc :, Phoenix some of the officers told m . candidly that one great trouble the q encountered in this problem of youtf II on the streets at nights was that
 not finding the parents af home
 receive these children when they wei q picked up and taken there.
 T This being the case do we need n wonder how bad habits are formed d Does it not show that there is a dee h down cause which must be remedied
 And if one remedy does not prove e
 ficacious we must try another Pel Is sonally, I am great believer in unit n Of effort,-a constructive rather ths '. destructive policy. This I know to
 is the policy of every true Sunds school worker. When we can bit s bit. construct in child's mind.
 fdeai so big and fine that right stan
 out clearly as right and wrong shoy
 forth boldly as wrong we have a bu
 wark against which the avera
 temptation will beat in vain
 Let me close with the definition of
 cigarette as penned by John Bison
 Cornell university:
 What Am IF
 1 am a far too common sight in f h. neighborhood of every high school. r. 1 am small and innocent fin appes ut /<~