Matches, carelessness with 1,629
Cigars, cigarettes, etc., carelessness with 1,273
Gas, illuminating, carelessness in the use of
gaslights, ranges, radiators, etc. 849
Bonfires, brush fires, igniting fences, etc. 849
Stoves, stovepipes, furnaces, steampipes, heat
from 844
Chimney fires and sparks from chimneys 784
Children playing with matches or with fire 657
Candles, tapers, etc., carelessness with 500
Total number of fires 15,633
Not ascertained--suspicious 506
Not fully ascertained 4,797
-----
Total not ascertained causes 5,303
-------
Number of fires, causes ascertained 10,330
It also seems safe to say that in the large cities of the East, where
it may be assumed that the records are more accurate than in the
country at large, the percentages agree closely enough to justify the
estimate made by Fire Commissioner Johnson of New York City that 15 to
20% of our fires are caused by the careless throwing away of lighted
matches, cigars and cigarettes.[10]
[Footnote 10: American Industries, June, 1913, p. 21.]
The late chief of the fire department of New York, Mr. E. F. Croker,
writes: "I am certain that an examination of the fire losses in our
cities and towns, the loss of life as well as property, which has been
caused by the cigarette habit would be found appalling. The paper and
light tobacco used in cigarettes holds fire for some time, usually
until the entire remnant which has been thrown away has been consumed.
The majority of cigarette smokers are careless in the disposition of
these remnants, and usually throw or drop them wherever they may be."
So great is the menace of the smoker to property and life that New
York has passed a law forbidding smoking in factories. Under this law,
as interpreted by the corporation counsel, "the smoking of a pipe,
cigar or cigarette in or about a factory using or containing
inflammable material, is a public nuisance within the meaning of
Section 1530 of the Penal Law, which provides: 'a public nuisance is a
crime against the order and economy of the State,'" etc.[11]
[Footnote 11: Annual Report of N. Y. Fire Department for 1912, p.
13.]
The figures of fire losses given above apply to cities and dwellings.
But tobacco is also the cause of many forest fires. The state forester
of Massachusetts estimates that smokers are responsible for more
forest fires in that state than any other single agency. The number
which could be directly and positively traced to them in the single
year 1908 was 111, involving a loss of $33,000. But it is clear that
it is peculiarly difficult to trace the causes of forest fires on
account of the fact that smokers throw down their matches or cigarette
stubs, or cigar stubs, and pass on, quite unconscious of the damage
which follows in their wake. "That the careless smoker, who persists
in the habit when in woodlands or traversing the country during a dry
time, whether at work or play, is the greatest menace to future
forestry, it is believed there is little question."[12]
[Footnote 12: Sixth Annual Report of State Forester of
Massachusetts, 1909, p. 40.]
In Connecticut the state forester reports that, out of 116 fires, of
which the cause was ascertained in 1912, 25 were due to smokers.
Regarding the 58 fires attributed to "Fishermen," "Hunters,"
"Matches," and "Strollers," he says: "It is evident that most of
these fires were due to carelessness in handling matches, throwing
down cigar butts, etc., or leaving fires unextinguished."[13] The loss
of life due to smokers' fire must be enormous, but this is all that
can be safely said in the absence of reliable statistics.
[Footnote 13: Sixth Annual Report of State Forester of
Connecticut, 1912, pp. 461-2.]
The responsibility of the smoker is not limited to the destruction of
property and of life. If he causes a certain percentage of fires, he
must also be held accountable for his share of the cost of maintaining
our fire departments, of the injuries suffered by firemen in
performing their duties, of the cost of fire prevention, and of the
cost of insurance.
A careful report made by the United States Geological Survey a few
years ago estimated the annual loss and expense due to fires in the
United States in the year 1907, including fire protection and
insurance, as over $456,000,000. If smokers cause but 10% of this they
cost us $45,000,000 under this item alone. If they cause 20%, as they
obviously do in some places and as they are estimated to do by
Commissioner Johnson, the cost under this item is $90,000,000, and the
figures have undoubtedly increased since the government report was
made six years ago.
3. In studying the effect of any expenditure upon society, we must
take into account the diversion of social activity from one line of
production to another. The consumer is the ultimate director of
national production. If he elects to drink whiskey, instead of buying
bread for his children, this means that the country produces more
whiskey and less bread. If rich men elect to take large tracts of
arable land for game preserves, they prevent that land from being used
to raise food for the people. Likewise, if smokers elect to spend a
certain part of their income upon tobacco, they determine that a
certain area of land shall be devoted to the cultivation of this
plant, which would otherwise be devoted to the cultivation of
vegetables, or to dairy farming, or to raising whatever commodities
their money would otherwise have been spent for. The amount of land
thus preëmpted for the preserves of tobacco users in the United States
is very large. It amounted in 1912 to no less than 1,225,800 acres or
over one-sixth of the area devoted to raising vegetables. The value of
the tobacco product was $104,302,856, or one-quarter of the value of
all vegetables including potatoes. This must play no small part in
maintaining the high cost of living in the United States.[14] Tobacco
culture, moreover, tends, as is well known, to exhaust the soil and
thus to rob future generations, unless fertility is artificially
maintained at great expense.
[Footnote 14: See Abstract of the Census, p. 360.]
4. The demands made by smokers upon public conveyances increase
materially the capital required to equip railroads and other means of
communication. Smokers are never charged an extra fare for the
inconvenience and expense which they cause, although special cars or
parts of cars are provided for their use. On some of the smaller
railroads, where the traffic is light and a single car would be ample
to carry all of the passengers desiring to take a certain train, the
train regularly includes a smoking car, thus adding 100 per cent. to
the car accommodations required without adding to revenue. On the more
crowded trains and on roads with heavier traffic, the space wasted is
naturally not so great. But there is always some additional investment
required, for which the railroads get no return. There were 47,095
passenger cars in the United States in 1910. Assuming that only 10%
are for smokers, 4,709 cars are necessitated by the smoking habit;
assuming an average cost of $15,000 per car, over $71,000,000 of
capital, on which interest and depreciation have to be charged, must
be invested, in order to serve smokers. And yet smokers are treated in
our parlor cars as a privileged class, for, while ordinary travellers
are entitled to but one seat, smokers get two seats for one ticket.
Not infrequently a smoker will engage a seat in a parlor car and leave
it empty during the greater part of his trip. He uses the additional
seat provided gratuitously for him in the smoking section of the car,
or in a special smoking car, while a delicate woman or an invalid, who
fain would occupy and gladly pay for his seat, is debarred from doing
so.
5. The cost of keeping the world clean must be enormously enhanced by
smokers, though there is no political arithmetic which will give us
any figures on the subject. Anyone who will take but a casual glance
at the floors of railway stations, smoking cars, hotels, clubs, and
other places of public resort will realize how much disagreeable work
in the way of cleaning up the smoker forces society to do for him.
6. The effect of tobacco upon the health is an important item in the
cost of the habit to the country, though one which can obviously not
be expressed in figures. Dr. von Frankl Hochwart, the eminent nerve
specialist, has written an article dealing only with the nervous
diseases of smokers, and though this paper was read at a meeting of
neurologists and eight physicians took part in the discussion, not one
of them expressed dissent on any essential point.[15]
[Footnote 15: von Frankl Hochwart, in _Deutsche Zeitschrift für
Nervenheilkunde_, Vol. XLIII, pp. 360-387.]
This distinguished authority based his statements on the study of
1,500 of his own patients who were heavy nicotinists. After
eliminating all of the other poisons or diseases which might have
affected these cases, he reached the general conclusion that, among
smokers in general, about one-third complained of troubles which they
attributed to tobacco. These symptoms were particularly strong in the
case of heavy smokers, of whom half showed bad effects, lasting
sometimes for a considerable time. The troubles were especially
noticeable in the case of cigarette smokers. The most common
complaints were palpitation of the heart and general nervousness, but
a large number of other nervous affections were diagnosed as
specifically attributable to nicotine, such as loss of memory,
meningitis, aphasia, deafness, and dyspepsia.
Particularly striking was the unconscious evidence which was given to
the public at the time of the attack upon the life of Ex-President
Roosevelt in October, 1912, when his physicians used the following
expression in a public bulletin: "We find him in magnificent physical
condition due to his regular physical exercise, his habitual
abstinence from tobacco and liquor."
The manufacture of tobacco is generally regarded as an unhealthy
occupation, and many assert that it tends to produce miscarriage in
the case of women.[16] Some, like Sir Thomas Oliver, think the
evidence on this point not conclusive. But this eminent English
authority holds that tobacco is bad for the health of English soldiers
and speaks of it under the head of occupational diseases.[17] "Tobacco
especially," he says, "I believe to be a cause of heart trouble among
soldiers, though many authorities doubt it. I have known a man who was
anxious to be invalided out of the army produce the most marked
cardiac symptoms by the surreptitious use of strong cake tobacco."
"Smokers' cancer" is a term familiar to physicians. It is not
necessary to discuss at length the effects of tobacco on health in an
article dealing mainly with the economic and social phases of the
question. Suffice it to point out the fact of its harmfulness, leaving
to physicians the consideration of the mode and extent of nicotine
morbidity.[18]
[Footnote 16: See Appendix to Report of N. Y. Factory
Investigating Committee, pp. 492-513. See also von Frankl
Hochwart, l. c.]
[Footnote 17: _Dangerous Trades_, p. 794.]
[Footnote 18: See article by Dr. Charles B. Towns in _The
Century_, March, 1912.]
7. That tobacco is bad for the mental development of children is so
commonly conceded by teachers that the Boy Scouts organization has as
one of its main purposes the discouragement of the cigarette habit
among boys. General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy
Scouts, is said to have gone through the campaign in West Africa
without smoking and to have escaped fever when thousands of others
were attacked by it.[19] The attitude of the Boy Scouts is seen in the
following resolution, passed November, 1912, by a large conference of
scout commissioners held in New York City: "Resolved, That the local
councils of the Boy Scouts of America recommend that all scout masters
and other officials while in uniform or on duty refrain from the use
of tobacco in any form as being detrimental to the general aim of our
movement in the development of healthful habits of life in the growing
boy." In the state of Wisconsin, a movement has been inaugurated to
discountenance smoking on the part of all persons, teachers or pupils,
connected with the high schools.[20]
[Footnote 19: _School Physiology Journal_, April, 1909, p. 122.]
[Footnote 20: See files of _Wisconsin Journal of Education_.]
8. That tobacco causes a considerable loss of time must be obvious to
anyone who has observed the habits of the smoker. Not only is a
certain amount of every day devoted to this occupation, but personal
experience shows that this loss is not confined to those who smoke. It
is now a very common thing for people to smoke at committee meetings,
and it seems to the writer that the proceedings always become slower
and less brisk when the dope of tobacco smoke fills the air.
9. Tobacco often seems to have a distinct effect in weakening the
social sense. This is a statement which cannot be buttressed by
statistics, but in such a matter we can put a good deal of reliance on
the testimony of smokers whose prejudices would naturally be on the
other side. The editor of the _Outlook_ says: "Of late years men who
smoke without any regard to the comfort of others have so greatly
increased in numbers that it is not surprising that an organization
has been formed to limit smoking."[21] A more striking piece of
evidence, because obviously unconscious, is that which is given by a
well-known English author, Mr. G. K. Chesterton. A friend of his had
been dining with a man who was both a teetotaler and a non-smoker. In
relating the story he says: "It ended with the guest asking the host
if he might smoke, and receiving a stern reply in the negative. My
friend (I am happy to say) immediately lit his pipe and vanished in
smoke. Having sufficiently and properly perfumed all the curtains and
carpets with smoke, he purged the house of its smoker."[22] Note the
parenthesis "I am happy to say." Here is a well-known author who is
willing to publicly claim that it is proper and right for a guest to
knowingly and intentionally commit a nuisance in his host's house in
the matter of tobacco. "Senatorial courtesy," dominant as it is in the
matter of appointments to office, gives way before tobacco, and a
senator, whose health is seriously affected by tobacco smoke, has
appealed in vain to his fellow statesmen to spare him this infliction
in the executive sessions of the senate.
[Footnote 21: _Outlook_, Aug. 5, 1911.]
[Footnote 22: _Illustrated London News_, Nov. 2, 1912.]
The Triangle shirtwaist fire in New York made so slight an impression
on smokers, that, when in July, 1913, the inspectors visited the same
premises, they found the elevator boy smoking a cigarette and the
proprietor of a factory in the same building smoking a cigar, in
violation of a law passed in consequence of this very fire. It would
be a mistake to regard the New York factory owners who have recently
been fined for violating the anti-smoking law as peculiarly obtuse and
unimaginative. They are simply examples of the fact, familiar enough
to non-smokers, that the nicotine habit tends to make smokers
indifferent to the social effects of smoking. There is nothing
paradoxical in saying that a habit which is often associated with
sociability leads to anti-social conduct. The same is true of the
alcohol habit, the opium habit, and indeed of all similar habits. Even
the lady-like tea habit may have anti-social effects, if it so
dominates the life that a person will neglect an engagement or a duty
rather than lose the pleasure of the afternoon cup.
10. That tobacco affects the will power, and therefore national
efficiency, was recognized years ago by the genial "Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table," who said: "I think self-narcotization and
self-alcoholization are rather ignoble substitutes for undisturbed
self-consciousness and an unfettered self-control."[23] And again he
says, "I have seen the green leaf of early promise grown brown before
its time, under such nicotian regimen, and thought the umbered
meerschaum dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will
enslaved."[24]
[Footnote 23: _Over the Teacups_, p. 184.]
[Footnote 24: _Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, p. 102.]
_Cr._
Having now considered what tobacco costs the United States let us
endeavor to ascertain what it does for the United States.
1. The first and most tangible item to be put on the credit side is
taxation. In the year 1911-12, the amount paid by tobacco users
towards the support of the government was as follows:
Internal revenue tax $70,590,151
Customs duties 25,572,000
-------------
$96,162,151
We may estimate the figures for 1912-13 as about $105,000,000. Thus it
is clear that the tobacco habit is a means by which the government is
able to secure a large contribution, albeit an involuntary one, from
the users.
2. The typical and commonly recognized advantage of tobacco is in the
satisfaction of a certain craving and the production of a certain
enjoyment which may be briefly designated by the medical term
euphoria. This gratification is apparently not an entirely simple
sensation, if we may credit the testimony of smokers, nor is it
uniform in all persons. Some claim that tobacco quiets the nerves and
therefore makes them more peaceably inclined, more ready to effect
compromises in a dispute, and altogether more sociable. Others on the
other hand, claim that it stimulates the mind and enables them to do
better intellectual work.
In all cases the effect is personal, not social, and the evidence with
regard to it is entirely subjective. Thus the claim that tobacco
stimulates a person's brain, rests upon his own testimony. There is no
reason to believe that the effect of nicotine on literary output can
be detected by others, and the many cases in which smokers have
deliberately given up the habit and yet continued to do their brain
work with no diminution of effectiveness, create a strong presumption
against attaching much weight to the subjective testimony on the
subject. Equally indefinite and even less susceptible of objective
measurement is the feeling of gratification or enjoyment which comes
from the taste of the weed, and the narcotic effect of the nicotine.
There is reason to suspect, however, that its comforting effects are
often exaggerated. In such a case we shall avoid a prejudiced
opinion, if we take the testimony of those whose interests favor the
use of tobacco. The following statement occurs in an advertisement
distributed by a tobacco company: "How have your cigars tasted for the
last two weeks? Haven't you a mouthful of crumbled cigar now? Do you
like a cigar that tasted like a dried cornstalk? Do you enjoy having a
cankered tongue and a tender throat?" "You are smoking cigars, aren't
you? Your throat tickles, your head is 'swimmy' in the morning, you
have to steady your hand to sign a check, your stenographer hates you
and your wife breathes a sigh of relief when you leave in the
morning." This is not from the tract of an anti-tobacco society, but
reflects unconsciously the opinion of the sellers of a certain brand
of Havana cigars regarding the effects produced by other brands, in
other words, by those which are in most common use by persons who
cannot afford the more expensive grades. Indeed, it seems very
probable that in many cases smoking is done, not because of the real
enjoyment which comes from the practice, but because it has become a
habit which the nicotinist cannot break himself of.
These facts point to the conclusion that while a part of what tobacco
users spend is contributed by them towards the support of the
government, and therefore should be credited to their account, the
only clear and definite advantage is their euphoria, the purely
subjective feeling of satisfaction which is indefinite and vague, and
which there is reason to think is often exaggerated.
Our balance sheet, based upon this discussion might thus be formulated
as follows: