Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-09-03
cigare+ Habit
Condemned
As Nuisance
Peeler Won't Crusade;
He's Victim, Too
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER


tobacco generally. quite a brisk
agitation has blown up against
the dirty weed, in which I am
glad to raise my voice as one
who has suffered much. not that
the clamor will do any good.
The smoking habit is q
damned nuisance. and II you
want to call II a plague that will
be all right with me. too.
Certainly nothing good can
be said In favor of the cigaret,
THE growers. the farm hands,
i the factory workers and ma
chinists, countless thousands OF
men and women in the sales de-
partment of the business, and
advertising men. would suffer;
property owners would lose
rents and federal and state gov.
ernments and some municipali-
ties would take a deep cut In
their tax revenues IL every one
quit using cigarets.
Some people, Harold Ickes
among them, have suggested
that our press has been unwill.
ing to tell the truth about the
poisons that people put into
themselves by smoking, because
we would sacrifice some degree
OF the public health for the
money we get from cigaret ad-
vertisements.
/ don't believe this Is true, al
though goodness knows the
money Is a help at the box
office.
I THINK people would continue
L to smoke anyway, even il
we did dig out and print hor-
ribly all the old propaganda of
the Anticigaret League.
To most of us the cigaret has
become as much a part of our
diet as bread. and youngsters
seem to take to 1t just naturally,
even though their elders tell
them from early childhood that
smoking is bad for them and
that the habit, once formed, Is
hard to break.
/ can't say that I ever got any
pleasure out of smoking except
two or three first cigarets after
two or three heroic but futile
attempts to swear of. the long
est of which lasted about three
months when I was in high
school.
1t is a nuisance, because the
victim must always be sure 10
keep cigarets and matches or a
lighter in his pockets and feels
something like alarm or fear IL
he finds himself fresh out and
unable to get any.
ONCE, around dawn In New
" ton. Kan, many years ago. I
had 10 change trains and was In
a mild panic when the fellow in
the lunchroom or newsstand told
me he couldn't sell me any Gig
arets because there was a law
against them.
He then took pity and said
that IL I would walk TO the end
of the platform and come back
he would slip me a package
rolled up in newspaper. After
that I would have voted for him
for king.
This business about tobacco
soothing the nerves or stimulate
ing thought Is just nonsense. be-
cause a nonsmoker Is much less
likely to need soothing in the
first place, and there Is no testi-
mony that the great thinkers OF
the world were smokers or that
smoking had anything to do with
the cerebration of those who did
smoke.
MY PERSONAL experience Is
A'A that smoking irritates the
nerves. but my trouble, and I be-
lieve the trouble most smokers
have, when they try to quit, is
that the doing without after
long and steady usage also
causes irritation.
For few days you go nuts
and kick the cat and slam things
around and then you give in and
irritate your nerves in another
way.
Tunney Is one of the few men
I have ever known who doesn't
smoke, which is way of COM
menting that the nonsmoker
these days Is a member of q
small minority.
He got that way as a young
kid with ambitions to be an ath-
lete and never started, but, on
the other hand, I have known
hundreds Of star athletes who
smoked as soon as they broke
training and others who smoked
somewhat in training.
THEY all recognized that
L smoking Is bad for an athlete
and II that is so il certainly
doesn't do a nonathletic person
any good, but you just try 10
stop IL by law and you will have
a nation of maniacs in "a hours
Furthermore, people would
start smoking all kinds of hay
and weeds and probably stumble
onto marijuana in the hack ward
and develop into leapers.
/ am sorry cigarets have got
such a hold on us, but don't