Tobacco Documents Online

CONFIDEI~!TAL FOR ~,~ERS ~/ Cendensed from Public Sources by Hill and Knowlteu, Inc. NEWS~/~S 69. Eight Member~ of Congress Ask Veto of Labelin~ Bill 70. T~CCO ~WS Sl~E~2dCf Noa~ 69-7P- July l~. 1965 O~ZTED P~ES I~tETTONAL, July 16~ 1965. United Press International reports that a letter askTh~ President Johnson to veto the cigarette labelil~g bill has been signed by Sens. Gaylard Nelson (D-Wis.), Paul H. Douglas (D-Ill.), Joseph S. Clark (D-P~.), ~'~d Robert P. Kenroedy (D-N,Y.), and Reps. John A. E!atnik (D=Minn.), Richard Bollil~g (D-No.), Jo~m E. Moss (D-Calif.), ~md Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.). IIPI says the letter protests particularly the bill's pro~.sion that w-ill post- pone the Federa& Trade Comzisslen's rule requiring a hnalth hazard warning in cigarette advertising. ~is delay is inexe~o~"~ble~'~ the letter s~. "This l~gislation, instead of protecting the health of the Amerlcau peaple~ protects only the cigarette industry." b~?I reports the letter says. "We cannot emphs~dze too strongly our belief that there i~ no justificetion ~-hatever for this bill." '~.D. Urges Veto of Smoking Bill.~ Letter to the Editor, THE I~ YORK TIi~S, July 16~ d965. Dr. David D. Rutsteiu~ who has frequently spoken out ~gair~t cigarette smoking, writes to T~E ~W YORK T-~S supportiug its editeri~l urging the President te veto the cigarette labeling bill. Rutstein says~ s~ong other things, the folloving: "The bill on the President's &esk, if signed by him, ~ii give the cigarette industry ~u unrestricted hunting license for the next four ~ears to 'hook~ otu, youngsters into ~ h~blt ~hich will lead to disease and death. "L~ig cancer Is but a small parb of th~s harvest. Our cigarette smoking yo%a}g l~le~ with their shGrten~d life expectancy, ~-l]. ~lso suffer ~ increased risk of coronary ~seas~ c~ron!c lung dlsease~ hlood-~ssel disease feB,drug to g~ngrene. Cigarette-sr~okln~ ~o%~hers ~!l ~ve ~ore ~emat~lre babies~ who, in turn~ will h~ve a higher tr~-nt death rate, more meat~l retemds~tion a~d more cerebral ps,lsy.~ ~g~l~g 71. (A~v~uce) "Weaned at l~tJ~ THE ~EADE~IS DIC-EST~ August 1965. The August issue of THE ~READER'S DICEET has a one-page feature by I<uxt A~i ~e!led "A Picture Perabla" i~hich sho~'s & series cf drawings starting ~Ith a wcm~! nursing a bs, by, a b&by f~ading from a bottle~ a child sucking hi~ th~b, an ol~er child licking ~. lelli~op~ a ~'teenager" smoking a cigarette and~ fir~lly, a clue,-cut leeRing young ~an doing ~nothing but looking clean ~0 cut. q~'~e caption for the piece is "WEAh~D AT L~T.~ (~ore)

( < Paga 2 -- TC~ACC0 NEWS SU~V~Ry Nos. 69-72 J~iy 16, 1965 72. "'~nere ~sere's Smoke There's Ire." PLA~CIY M~gazine~ August 1965 (P. 9O) This artlole, subtitled "An thfL~m~tery excurslon into the trials of tobacco fanciers beset ~ self-appolnted ~eed killers," runs over ii ps,ses~ including a color illustration of various antl-tobacco carlcatures poinh!ng their fln~ers of scorn ~t a caricature of a ma~ lighting a cigarette. (See ~ ~o. 47, I~ay 13, 1965.) The article recounts in detail various antl-tobacco accusations and campai~ over the centuries with emphasis on the e~r~palgae~ of the late 19th and early S0th c~nt~ry, including Dr. Charles g. Pease. The aTtiele begins as follows : "Aesop's fable@ shepherd hoy~ the one who fooled the neighbors wifS~ so V~ny fBlse cries of 'WoL~: ' that they simply went back he sleep when a real wolf flnal~appeared, evokes little sympathy. Most people feel he got exactly ~t ~as cc~sing to him (the wolf, a good trencherman~ ate him along with the sheep)~ but today there is concern that the same thing could be h~ppening with the Surgeon general's 1964 report li~Ing elgerette smoking with lung cancer. The concern is justified, whether or rot one personally accepts the report as a genuine cry of wolf -- and there does exist a considerable body of informed opinion that is dubious on the point. There are those, too, who belle~ the zeport~ Just ~s they believe the annus, l statistics on ~otor- vehicle mortality~ but they have no more intention of giving up cigarettes than they do of abandoning the pleasures of motoring for pedest~ianisI~l. "But one thing is certain -- ~sd it ta/¢es the form of a nonni~otlnlc smoke clo~d. The issue of real wolf or no wolf is thoroughly obscured by the lesions of joy killers who associate plesst~e of any sort ~ith profligacy, i~uerality~ sin, vice, crime and voluntary servitude to Satan himself. These are the people who believe in their hearts that a medicine can only be efficacious if it tastes terrible; they ar~ the ~irwhlrt hoard thai helped promote Prohibition, blue lows and -- lu an earlier day -- the stocks, the ducking stool and the scarlet A. ~ey ~md tob~co have ~ long curious association in the l~ght of ~hlch their ~uccusly tri~phant 'I-told-you-so's' when the report ~as issued have cast additional doubt upon it, totally ~unrelated to questions of seie~tifle evaluation, t~eir enthusiastic support of antic!garotte legislation is about as useful to its proponents as Co~munlst support would be for a Dixtecrat Presidential c~ndi~%te..." ~xDc~- O~ &l