Tobacco Documents Online

~I]~ Ju).y ~, J.~ ¥0~A£~0 Smoke & Ire At a House Commerce Committee meeting last we~k. several critical Con- gressmen talked tough to Federal Trade Comn~ssion Chief Paul Rand Dixon. They wnnted him to forgel his Flan to m~lie eigarelte manufacturers pluto pohonlike warning lubels on their prod- uct. it w~s too lute. replied Dixon, who then shocked everybody by disclosing thut the order had already been written. Distributing copJe~ to the Congressmen, he remarked somewhat sarcastically: "'We hurl our priater~ working all night in case you wumed The timing was surp;Jsing, und ~o was the harshness of the order. If the FTC got its way. the cigaretle makers would have Io print health warning~ on their packuges by next |an. I, and write them into all adverlisements by July I, 1955. While the wording was left up to the companies, the FTC made clout thai the messages would have to indi. cute clearly that "c|Bareue smoking is danseruus to health and may cause death from cancer und othe~ diseases." Speaking for ~he industry, Reynolds Tobacco Chairman Bowman called the order "unwise, unwarranted." Tobacco men charged that the FTC had exceeded its uuthority, made plans to test the case in the courts. They got plenty of support |ram Southern Gay. ernors and Congressman. Officials ~n the departments of ~griculmr~. Commerce, and Health, Education and wondered whether.lhey should have jur- isdiction in the matter instead of the in. de,endear FTC--or whether an)" label. ing rule should be enforced at all. I:ven some of the sharpest erittes o! the in. dustry questioned the legality and pro- prJety of the order. Surgeon General Luther Terry, whoso ~uct-flnding body tri~ered it all with the eepor| last Juun- a~ on smoking end health, doubted that the F'I'C had jurisdiction, su~ested that the mutter be turned over to the Food and Drug Adminis~'ution. With a long dispute certain in the courts and Consress, Dixco himself aE~eed that the [~J'C order would not take effect for yesn--J| ever. Mean. 'while. climbing sales o| cigarettes showed that ~mencans may ~e enloy- ing it le~ itow, but they ~.~ smokins more than befure the Surgeon Gen. eral's report, ~O.y 6, 196~ THE FTC: Label on the Pack? AL-nos~ casually, burly, soft-spo~en Federal Trade Comm~ion ch~drman Paul Rand Di~on fired his thunderbolt ~ week while testifying before the House Interstate Commerce Commission in tA'ashingtun. Beginning next January, said Dixon, the FTC will require all cigirette labels to "cloudy and promi- nently" warn smokers that smoking could kill them, and by next July, all cigarette ads will haxe to carry the warning too. The tsew FTC rule, set J'orth in a 90,e~-paga book (devoted mainly to out- lining the legal and moral basis of the foLd.man commission's action), left the Dixon: ~We~e decided' exact 'w~olding of the warning up to the eiBarette companies, But Dixon con- ceded the phrasing, to win approve], wo.ld have to slick fair])' close to the commhsiou's own blunt statements that ~cigare;:.te smokin~ is dangerous to health and may cause death from can. car and other diseases." Counterattack: The FTC's ruling, pro. dictabl~,, raised a storm among tebaeeo interests. Madison Avenue ad agencies handling cigarette accounts discreetly referred reporters to ~eir clients. And the comment of o~e Philip Matrix o~cial was ~licaI. "There's a lot of room and time t~ fight thi~.~ he said. °Any good lawyer would say to concede nothing,~ added a P. Lodllard & Co. spokesman. Most oqtspokep were tobacco-state poll. ticians. North Carolina Gay. Terry San- ford stid he would support lawsuits against the FTC. and North Carolina Democratic Rap. L.H. Fountain termed the health warning "capacious, arbitrary. unrees0nuble, and unsupported." Faun. rain a~d four other Southern House members qu|ckl? inhnduced five msolu. lions ~ned at crippling or barring out- fight a~y FT~ action against cigarettes. Dixon's rebuttal to all this is: '~Ve have made oar decision." Congressional action either for or against the FTC stand, however, is unlikely this ,year, And a compro- mise between the FTC and the indus. t~. isn't considered likely either. (Dixon, though, indicates the eommis. stun ~mlght" lift its requirement that the health label appear in ads it the industQ would accept the label xvaming and oilier progress is made.) In any event, the tndnstry's only real alternative ~'ould seem to be to'c.l~al- lenge the FTCs legal rights to make such a ruling. R.J, Reynolds' chairman Bowma~ Gray, ~esking for the tobacco b~dus~, ut the House committee hear- ings lasl week, agreed. ~We opposed the L~suance of this rule during the mane of the [FTC] proceedings," he said. ~We shall oppose it in the courts.~