100 years ago in The Record

Tuesday, July 3, 1917

A new debate breaks out in The Record’s “Pulse of the People” columns this week on the risks and benefits of smoking during wartime. The debate began yesterday with a letter submitted under the name, “Clean Living,” who writes: “It seems to me in war time that we ought to boycott tobacco throughout the land for there is a lot of money simply used up and literally going up in smoke, all in tobacco, which leaves nothing but a bad throat, a hot, dusty breath, and sometimes a headache.” “Clean Living” calculates that American men spend between ten and seventy cents on tobacco. “If we could cut out tobacco using for the period of the war it would not be necessary to go out and ask people for voluntary subscriptions for the Red Cross,” the writer claims. Smoking may undermine the U.S. war effort. “Tobacco undoubtedly undermines the strength of the heart,” the author asserts, “and if a tobacco using man were wounded in battle he would not have the recuperative powers that the non-users have.” Noting also that “The men who do not use tobacco have always been the brightest men,” the writer calls on the government to ban tobacco use in the U.S. military. In today’s paper, “Smoke” tries to disprove some of “Clean Living’s” claims. “I’ve often heard it said that smoking would stunt one,” he writes, “Well, I am 19 years old and stand six feet two and three-quarter inches in my stocking feet. As to dulling the mind, I passed out of grammar school with an average of over ninety-five per cent.”

“Smoke” warns the original writer not to “advocate the abolishment of tobacco” in the presence of soldiers. “If he does do so, I have little sympathy for him…. I will bet a good cigar that if any of our boys are unfortunate enough to get wounded in this war, the first thing they will ask for is something to smoke.”

Using the initials S. L. J., another writer tries to disprove “Clean Living’s” arguments by noting that America’s most famous inventor, Thomas Edison, is a smoker, as are “the majority of our college professors.”

S.L.J. holds that “there are valid reasons for the use of ‘the weed.’ Tobacco has been described by doctors as a preventive of disease.” Where there’s no obvious health benefit, the country benefits from tobacco taxes. For his part, “Smoke” writes that “I never have had any use for doctors.”

To S. L. J., “Clean Living” sounds like someone who resented having to give to the Red Cross and is blaming smokers for it.