If such be the case, then the school and its
auxiliaries should feel it a duty to generate public sentiment. If
cigarettes are harmful, then they should be banished, and the task is
not an impossible one by any means. As to the injurious effects of
cigarettes, as distinguished an authority as Thomas A. Edison says the
following:
"The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the
burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is called
'acrolein.' It has a violent action on the nerve centers,
producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite
rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is
permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes
cigarettes."
We have eliminated dangerous explosives from our Fourth of July
celebrations, and the ban can as easily be placed upon any other
dangerous product. Just here we inevitably meet the cry of paternalism,
but we shall always be confronted by the question to what extent the
government should stand aside and see its citizens follow the bent of
their appetites and passions over the brink of destruction. It is the
inherent right of government to maintain its own integrity, and this it
can do only through the conservation of the powers of its citizens. If
paternalism is necessary to this end, then paternalism is a governmental
virtue. Better, by far, some paternalism than a race of weaklings.
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