Tobacco Documents Online

r t, r , Y PHILIP MORRIS COMPANIES INC. TO: FROM:, SUBJECT:. INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE 120 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10017-5592 the School of Med~~~ue presented an affirmative case for divestment before we entered the meeting. On the whole the atmosphere was friendly and we were treated most courteously. We were asked to comment on various issues most of which were covered in the remarks we had prepared for the meeting (see copy attached). The Trustees had been wrestling with the issue of divestment for some time and are well aware of and troubled by the "slippery slope" argument. They are aware that Eastman Kodak and Kimberly Clark, for example, are suppliers to the tobacco industry. In fact one of the Trustees stated that if it weren't for the "slippery slope" problem, he would vote for divestment in a minute. DISTRIBU OP DON FRIE /~;, THE JOHNS HC At the invit Trustees of The J and I attended a on December 10, 1 Committee. Attac.. University who we at least one pers. attend. We did ni believe the Deans We were asked questions about the placement of warningg labels on our cigarette packages overseas and about our advertising to the extent it might be directed toward youth (We were specifically asked whether we made Camels.) The Trustees seemed to be under a misapprehension as to the extent-of labeling requirements overseas and we attempted to set the record straight. The argument for divestment was stated most cogently by one of the Trustees who is from Virginia and not an enemy of the tobacco industry. After describing the Johns Hopkins preeminence in medical education and indicating that medical education was the "special charge" of the University as a whole, he asked how the University could profit from cigarettes which one of its alumna (the Surgeon General) describes as "the most preventable