Tobacco Documents Online

FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES, INC. CINCINNATI, OHIO OFFICE COMMUNICATION : To Mr. J. Paul Sticht Date 8/6/71 From Robert M. Fuoss I have finally gotten around to reading "The Cigarette Controversy" and, in view of your Reynolds directorship, I think you might want to know how I feel about it. Three general observations: 1. I was surpris ed and impres sed by the volume of "counter-evidence" that has been assembled by the tobacco people. They have a better rebuttal than I would have guessed. 2. The presentation of that evidence in "The Cigarette Controversy" defies popular consumption. I found the text heavy-handed and lifeless. The over-use of footnotes is probably intended to suggest the technique of the medical and scientific journals. The result, however, is to,make the story that is told impersonal, drab and hard to follow. 3. There is a shallow pretense of objectivity in the presentation that does the tobacco people no good at all. If they really want to convince readers that they are honestly seeking the truth -- and I believe they are -- then they should, in publications of this kind, be as careful to state the case a ainst cigarettes as they are in preparing their own counter-argument. In short, this booklet commits the same sin that has so often been committed by the anti-tobacco people: It does not do justice to the opposing view. That is a fatal flaw in debate of any kind. Perhaps because I am an old mass-magazine editor I tend to believe that the tobacco people would do themselves a lot more good if they enlisted the talents of an experienced popular journalist to write a modest-sized paperback book on this whole subject. When I say "whole subject" I mean literally "whole subject"-- the views of the Public Health Service, The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association and other anti-cigarette medical and scientific commentators, told in their words and, hopefully, with their endorsement. Coupled with'this, of course, would be the best case that the tobacco people can make in their own behalf. In both cases, the approach would be in the human and anecdotal style of the story-teller rather than in the argumentative polemics of the present booklet. The intent of such a production would not be to make a case for cigarette smoking but rather to put down all the pros and cons in one ~ place -- something that, to my knowledge, has never been attempted. C) 0 0 O C>Q