The Washington herald., 1921-02-06
SMITH SCORES
ANTI-SMOKINC
MEASURE HERE
Rallies Forces, He Says,
Against Those Who Cur
tail Liberty.
OPENING WEDGE IN
BLUE LAW CLAIM
Offers Final Effort as
Protest Against So
Called Pretenders.

A call to arms against the in
fringement of personal liberties in
the United States was sounded yes
terday by Senator Smith. OF Arizona.
who in four weeks more will retire
10 private life. An amendment TO
the sundry civil bill designed to pro-
hibit smoking in executive depart
ments of the government was the
text upon which the Arizona SEN
ator drew for a speech that pos
sibly will rank with the panegyric
which Senator George G. Vest, of
Missouri, delivered on the dog, a
subject as humble as tobacco. whose
champion appeared yesterday.
Influenced by opposition which
Senator Smith helped to roll up the
Senate eliminated the provision
which would have prevented the
President and members OF the Cab
met from enjoying a smoke while
Congress could still partake of the
fragrant weed and substitute en-
powering the heads OF tbe various
departments to prohibit smoking
adopted instead.
Not known in CemsIttee.
4 knew nothing about this
amendment in committee" said Sen
atOr Smith, as he rose to his feet,
or l would have opposed it as the
entering wedge OF a most contempt
ible and restraining blue law
backed by the government of the
United states to suit the particular
tastes of gentlemen who find great
pleasure in looking over all parts of
the human body to see n they can
find a boil. No one who stands for
this smokes at all, probably.
Men have the habit OF smoking,
like the old country farmer with his
pipe, his only solace in his old age.
Ii may have been a habit he ought
not to have formed, but he did form
II; 1t was something of a stimulus,
something of a consolation to him.
and he must be robbed. We fnd Of
fered in the Senate OF the United
States an amendment advocated by
alleged statesmen that he must rot
only stop his habits of taking slim
ulants in the way Of drings at any
time, but we are going to fix him
ready with wings Of heaven by put
ting on him another embargo in the
shape of a provision that he shall
not even have the consolation OF a
cigar after a day of hard work.
We may do without the other.
have tried many times to stop the
use of tobacco. have found. as far
as my health and happiness is con-
cerned that it was an impossibility
with me. Under this amendment,
We in the Senate, could go through
the corridors and smoke, but We
would say to a Secretary OF State
who likes a cigar, and l see a dis
tinguished ex-Secretary of Stae be-
fore me now-that he must carry on
the multifarious and responsible
duties of that great office without
the consolation of a cigar, and if
you agree to the amendment to stop
smoking, pushed by men who never
smoked in their lives, you will drive
out of the departments for hours in
the day every responsible head.
Calls IL ImpossibiIity.
Mr.. President, l would be prob
ably less affected by it than any
body in this body, but I protest
against any effort to raise the great
American of the future under a
glass globe, as you would protect
the delicate tints of a frail flower,
not lettinf the winds of heaven visit
his damask cheeks too roughly.
You will raise a generation of dudes
and nincompOops.
"A men must be brought up in his
. environment. He must feel the
touch with other men. He must
avoid their frailties, and, Of all
things, their crimes; but you cannot
isolate him, you cannot put him off,
you cannot make him an earthly
angel by taking from him those
habits exercised among the men
with whom he comes in contact,
which raise his character as a man
and make him powerful to resist
temptation.
Il am sorry that the Senate Com
mittee did it, and 1 not want to see
the Senate of the United States give
any expression TO the determination
to insist on such blue laws, that
men shall not do things that are
harmless TO other people and harm
less to themselves, as far as my
experience goes, and say that my
conduct and yours shall be regulat-
ed by the dictates and ideas and
conceptions of somebody else.
Il have no doubt there is too much
smoking in the departments but 1
deprecate the manner of attempting
to suppress, not because Of the ef-
fort to suppress, but because of the
example it sets. 1t is an entering
wedge backed by the government.
of the United States in its denuncia-
ton of smoking in public buildings.
Mr.. President, this is my final
protest in public life against the
effort of the Senate of the United
States or the Congress of the Unit
ed States to reach out its hand un-
der various pretenses Of power to
go into the homes of the people Of
the United states and regulate, or
attempt to regulate, them all in
their conduct where that conduct,
even If 1t is not exactly the right
thing, takes no right from anyone
eise, and leaves them at least in the
possession Of some of the natural