The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-12-13
Nv WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1914, by King Features Syndica

|
| NEW YORK-In all our excitement over
the cigarette shortage the most practical and
+ beneficial solution has been completely lg-
nored That is to cut them out entirely. In
stead rationng has been suggested and the
voluntary curtailment of individual quotas and
so firmly are the people held In the grip OF
this narcotic addiction that we have gone at
the problem with an obviously false assump-
ton that the lack of them impairs the eff
fciency of war workers in the factories, OF
soldiers and Of men and women who work
with the brain rather than the hand
This impairment is real in the sense that
| smokers become worried and some OF U.s.
almost frantic when cigarettes are not to be
had OF supplies dwindle In that situation, as
we heard last week, people actually take time
| off from their jobs to hunt from store to
store or stand in line and, in that immediate
sense, war production probably would suffer
The actual cause of the impairment, how
ever, is not the shortage OF cigarettes but
the cigarette habit itself through which the
American people consume every day tons of
dangerous poisons and constantly reduce our
normal efficiency. No honest physician can say
| that cigarettes are good for any person IN
any circumstances. No honest doctor can deny
that they are harmful in many ways fer there
is much scientific literature never disputed
to show that they impose strains on the heart
and circulatory system and cause irrltations
in the throat which invite infections.
A few years ago, as an excuse for another
new deal attack on the American newspapers
one OF the more noisy Washington bureau
Gratis accused the press of sitting minimiz
ing a report condemning cigarettes on ap-
proxmately these grounds. 1t must be ad-
mitted that the document received small at
tention but me insinuation that this editorial
judgment was dictated by consideration of the
advertising revenue from cigarette companies
did not logically follow The story might have
been played across the top of page one with
out diminishing cigarette sales by as much
as a single pack in the entire country be-
cause the habit is so strong to be almost
| incurable as I realize at this moment with
a cigarette burning in the tray on the desk.
| The competition between cigarette compan-
les depends on individual taste. They have
no problem OF creating a general market
And newspaper editorial judgment in such a
| situation is based on a practical il forlorn
acceptance of the fact that any paper or
chain Of papers which should crusade against
cigarettes would accomplish no good and
would only invite derision and get it in good
measure. Nor is it necessary for cigarette
companies to give away samples to the young
| to catch them in the tolls of the vice. The
young, as they reached their advanced teens
| take naturally to smoking in such overWhelm-
ing proportion that the few boys and girls
who stand off the habit regarded &C.
centres rather than as normal youngsters who
| prefer to stay normal. Whether this inevitable
drift into the unhappy state of addiction is
matter of emulation an effect of heredity
is less important than the fact that it is in
evitable. 1t is apparent that majority OF
each new generation are doomed to be Gig
arctic smokers and, judging by the statistics
on consumption, the proportion grows year
by year.
T1oo oft f,11o ~ in c
here The best that any reputable scientific
man can say of cigarette addiction is that
an occasional cigarette, of itself, does little
harm that it may be smoked without any
thought of the consequences. The minute guam
tity Of poison in one cigarette or one a day
would cause no inconvenience to any normally
healthy person. But all medical men know
that there is, practically, no such thing as
one cigarette or one day. Smokers consume
twenty more none at all, as all medical
men know, and the effects of such quantities
cannot be denied. They are definitely bad
and many of them irreparable. Yet few snok-
ers are fatty ordered to quit the habit cold
until they have so far impaired their health
that to continue might be fatal
Oddly strong as habit is, patients who
are put on warning that they must break it
off sharp or die, usually are able to do so
with no great inconvenience: Let the doctor
warn patient that he has dangerous heart
condition aggravated by cigarettes or an L.
ritation which might be malignant and the
victim, has no trouble quitting.
Smokers, by the way, are, as a class the
most inconsderate of all human beings, in
Guiding their vice to the distress of those
who do not smoke in all manner of places
where, by good manners, smoking should be
forbidden A reasonably polite male who may
take some pride in his consideration of women,
will remove his hat when entering an elevator
in hotel where women are fellow passengers.
hut continue to blow fumes from a cigarette,
pipe or cigar, unconscious that he is nflict-
smoke in railroad cars sitting right under
'No Smoking signs to the distress of scores
of others and ignoring the facilities OF cars
reserved for smokers. They light up in dining
cars and. of course, in all restaurants and IN
the sitting tunnels of Grand Central as the
neople leave the cars and inch their way IN
close Jams up the ramps to the open air OF
the waiting rooms
In this war, we have lost important produc'
+ion because factory regulations, dictated by
safety and efficiency, forbade. smoking ana
tho smokers, unable to restrain Themselves
walked out Many miners have lost their hVes
through explosions caused by smokers WINK
Struggled matches and cigarettes oelo"
Ground concealed in their shoes and caps.
Altogether il is vice with no compensa''
|, ~. GOOD effe% the abolition Of which, now