TO PROHIBIT TOBACCO

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16725, 7 January 1920, Page 7

TO PROHIBIT TOBACCO

CAMPAIGN DT AMEEICA.

(FKOil or It OWN CORRESrONOKNT.) SAX FRANCISCO. December 11Is prohibition of tobacco to follow prohibition of alcohol ? Have tho forces which engineered the prohibition amendment to tho American Constitution started the drive that is to end in tho suppression of tobacco in Amcrica? An unbiased investigation into tho influences and forccs nt work leads to tho conclusion that thcro is a well-defined campaign under way, backed in a largo part, by tho forccs which backcd proliibition of tho liquor traffic, whicli lias for its ultimate object tho prohibition of tho sale and use of tobacco >n every form. Besides tho many subsidiary groups and organisations, which, like the auxiliary branches of an army, contribute to tho success of tho actual combatant "roups at tho front, there aro four welldefnied forces at work in tho campaign ( against My Lady Nicotine. They arc: "l. The Anti-Cigarette league, with headquarters in Chicago, of which Lucy Page Gaston is the president, and which plans to secure 10,000,000 membcre in tho United States. 2. The Temperance and Moral Hoard of" tho Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, headed by Dr. Clarence True Wilson, with headquarters in Washington, D.C\ 3. The Women's Christian Temperance Union. •1. The "Committee of Fifty, headed by Dr. Alexander Lambert, of New York, and including somo of the most prominent physicians and scientists in tho United States, which is making a study of the effects of nicotine on the humnn system. There is no present intention on the part of tho nnti-tobacco forces to work for n constitutional amendment to prohibit tobacco. The work which is going en is very similar to the work which was undertaken by the _ prohibition forces against tho use of liquor m tho first stages of its campaign. It. ronsists of education, ngitation, publicity, directed against tobacco, and partiriiiiarlv at tho present time against tho ciira'rette. Tho first legislative attempts will centre in an effort to secure nnticimrctte lecislation in tho States, where the chances of success aro best, and also to secure tho enforcement of nnti-cigarette leirislation in those States which already have such laws, but where they nro a "dead letter. ' OPENING BATTLE. The legislative attack has started in Oregon, where, on September 17th, thero was filed with the Secretary of State of Oregon, by I>. E. Frost, of Oregon City, an initiative petition covering tho prohibition of "the sale, use, and possession of cigarettes" in Oregon. Attorney-General Brown, of Oregon, hns T>rcpared tho ballot title for this j 'Anti-Cigarette Bill, and if it recoive a sufficient number of signatures —over 10,000— it will bo voted upon by the people of Oregon in' tho general election of November, 1920. Predictions of its overwhelming defeat aro | worrying tho anti-cigarotto forces. They regard it merely as an entering wedge. Oregon has been selected because it has no interest in tobacco growing, and because it is regarded as one of the best fields for tho start of the movement. The attempt to secure a drastic anticigaretto law for Oregon follows the revival of enforcement of tho anticigarette law in ?sorth Dakota. For vonrs the law there has been a dead letter, but last May officials began to put life into the law, and dealers •were advised that they would be given a certain length of time in which to dispose of stocks of cigarettes on hand, after which time the law would bo strictly enforced. Many dealers ceased selling cigarettes altogether; otherß put up the price 5 cents a package to recompense them for the risk they were taking. The practice is to evftde tho law by "keening tho cigarettes out of sight, but selfing them just the same. Arkansas, lowa, Kansas, North Dakota. and Tennessee have anti-cigarotte laws: Wnshinirton, "Wisconsin. Indiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Minnesota hnd anti-cipnrctto lnws, but repealed them: nnd South Dakota declared unconstitutional its anti-cigarette law.

A TTiossn?® to the Australian papers from New York, tinder (Into nf ftocomber 23rd, states that tho Presbyterian Church leaders hnvo formnlnted a programme for world-wide prohibition, and th» abolition of cigarette smokng.