Tobacco Documents Online

~4- ~ ~GOnrIArl PortI;and, Oregon May 31, 1902 Senators And Vices .... OVIou can't fauit our senators from Oregon for looking, after the health of ' their constituents. When President Kennedy dropped by the Senate chamber one evening re- cently, on his way to a cocktail party opening a new roorn, in the Capitol, Sen. Wayne Morse was in, full gallop on a speech denouncing the serving of' booze in public rooms of the Cap- itol. The President grinned, remarked! that things hadn't changed since he was in the Senate, and joined Morse's less finicky colleagues across the hall, leaving the "LFive O'clock Shadbw" to complete his oration to a deserted chamber. Now, Sen. Maurine Neuberger, who doesn't claim to be a teetotaler, has called upon the President to back up her efforts in Congress to reduce "the cigaret epidemic." Specifically, she wants to require cigaret advertising warn that smoking is unsafe. But Ce Federal Trade Commission has passed the buck to the Public Health Service which has yet' to make a flatt statement that cigareets cause lung .. cancer. ,-mr= Our impression is that President Kennedy may be a little too busy these days, what with the economic. situation and' trouble all over the world; to say nothing of his major leg- islative program, to get himself wrapped up in the alcohol and cigaret causes. Oregon's senators seem to - have more time to worry about' the popular vices. We'll make a deal. if they'll do sornething to stop discrim> ination against our lumber industry, we'll go back to branchi water and chewing tobacco. 1~(t 3~3'`~:~v~l" ~~ - OREGONIAN Portland, Oregon June 3, 1962 Big Brother Know Besf? Ih asking that the federal govern« ment require that cigarette adt=er- fisemenfis contain a statement that "smoking is a health hazard,"' Sen. Maurine Neuberger is following the lead of Great Britain, where, in an unprecedented carnpaign, the govern- ment has plastered the billboards with advertisements designed tb discourage. ci arette smoking. s a new twist to the philosophy of prohibition. Big Brother doesn't out- law supposedly harmful habits, as did America through the hapless 18th. Amendment; he just takes the sturnp to promote his view of the right and healthful. VN'hatlever view one may holdi of' smoking or, the advertisements pro-, inotirng it', the measures advocated by Sen. Neubergier have truly appalling implications: Autornobiles, too, can be fatalL Must one, therefore, be required to stress that fact in offering them for .sal.e? . What about selling aspirin in quantities sufficient for a fatal dos- age?' And will refrigerators and other appliances be soldonly with the pub- lished admonition that the buyer must not close the door from the inside?. Itwould be possible, perhaps, for the government tio provide a book of fa-_ therlyy advice with every product to instruct against its misuse by damned fnols without minds of their own.. But we hope we db not live to see the day. 11he buyer who does not yet know of the possible causal chain, between cig.- arettes and cancer or of the probable effect of' driving a car into a pedes- trian or swallowing a bottle of aspirin or bleaching fluid i; not, worth the savirrng at, the risk . of deadening, ir, a!1 the rest of us, the responsibility of xboiee. 1003,5377 07 B THE NEWS AND OB'SER`IEft' Ftaleigh, li<orfih Caroliine. May 341962 T'lia Same S}~zoon Of course, if' a d'ependablle study provides cLezta• evidence of health hazards in the use of'to• bacco, the Federal Trade Com- missien would be ;,ustified in' requiring warnings in advertis-' i}ag. This would only be justi- ' fved, however, if the possible dangers in every n+iner arardiuct• were required to be similarly stressect. : Strange as it r,aay seem, bread aidi dairy products when used to excess can be da~nggr-• oustohuman health. So~ m~aysugar and pork. The dangers in the excessive use of alcohol are obvious. In our times nu- tritionists have pointed possible dangers in other food products. Automobile fumes can be fatal: No one should doubt that the ' excessive use of' tobacco„ like the excessive use of anything else; is dangerous. 1$ut' all afiould know' that it is not' t'hee only product which is danger- ous when so used. And it shotildd not be treated as t:.e only such commodity: