p. 111 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 7. (2/16/1915)

A Mighty Factor in Degeneracy

By Daniel H. Kress

What the Cigarette Is Doing to the Children — All Nations Are Suffering — Military Men, Jurists, and Physicians Alarmed — Is Your Boy Safe?

By DANIEL H. KRESS, M. D.

This is the second of Dr. Kress’s two articles on the cigarette. This one is independent of the one that appeared last week, and hence may be profitably read whether you saw the other or not. The articles are most timely indeed, and should cause parents and guardians to arouse to earnest, faithful action. Editor.

During the Spanish-American war, ninety per cent of our young Americans who were rejected as unfit for the army were tobacco users. Out of sixty-seven medical graduates who volunteered to enter the medical department of the army, forty-three were culled out because they had what was termed “tobacco heart.” At the time, considerable comment was made upon this unfortunate condition, from the platform and by the press; but amid the bustle and rush of American life, it seems to have been forgotten. Since then, the habit has rapidly increased.

Only One in Five Can Pass

Surgeon-General Rixey, of the United States navy, has said: “Cigarette smoking is becoming a serious impediment to robust health in the navy. This habit,” he adds, “seems to have taken a decided impetus in the service since the Spanish war, and has spread with incredible proportions.” So degenerate are the young men becoming upon whom we must depend to defend our country, that only one out of five applicants for the navy was able to pass the required physical tests in 1911 in Massachusetts. It is safe to say that ninety-eight per cent of the rejects were cigarette addicts.

In the Canadian navy, three out of every four of the young recruits have to be rejected for the same reason.

What Will the Third Generation Be?

Some time ago a judge of the juvenile court, in commenting upon the prevalent use of cigarettes by boys, and its terrible effect upon the national life, remarked to me, “If this practice continues to increase among our boys, I cannot conceive what the third generation will be like;” to which I replied, “Judge, there will be no third generation.” While this may be overdrawing the dark picture somewhat, there is no doubt in my mind that the cigarette habit among our boys, more than any other one evil, is responsible for the rapid degeneracy that is everywhere so prevalent, and that is threatening our national life. In spite of our efforts to arrest tuberculosis, one third of all who die between the ages of twenty and thirty still die of this plague. It has been found at the Phipps Institute that the mortality from tuberculosis is twice as great among smokers as it is among non-smokers. Pneumonia is responsible for almost as many deaths in the United States as tuberculosis. The mortality in this disease is due frequently to tobacco-crippled hearts. Degenerative diseases, as heart failure, apoplexy, and Bright’s disease, are responsible for over three hundred and fifty thousand deaths annually, or as many as are caused by tuberculosis and pneumonia combined.

Old age extends forward into middle life. The vital organs, from the abuse that is heaped upon them, wear out prematurely. Men die at an age when they should be able to enter upon the period of their greatest usefulness. In the United States, the mortality between the ages of forty and fifty has increased thirty-five per cent the past thirty years. There has been an increase of over one hundred per cent in the number of deaths from degenerate diseases, as heart failure, apoplexy, and Bright’s disease has increased over one hundred and sixty per cent during the same period in Chicago, and possibly in other large cities.

Chronic Invalids Increasing

There never have been so many chronic invalids in proportion to the population in the United States as there are at present. Three million are constantly disabled on account of sickness. There have never been so many feeble-minded and insane among us. There have never been so many youthful criminals. There never has existed so great a demand for doctors, hospitals, sanitariums, drug stores, insane asylums, reform schools, etc., to accommodate this great army of physical, mental, and moral degenerates. Already we have as many confined within insane asylums as we have students in our universities and colleges; and in addition, there is a great army of insane and feeble-minded at large, for whom no provision has as yet been made. In the state of New York alone, over twenty-two thousand are at large for whom no provision is made. During the past thirty years, there has been an increase of insane altogether out of proportion to the increase in population. A similar condition prevails in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and other civilized countries.

The World Going Mad

Dr. Forbes Winslow, the famous authority on lunacy, in referring to this, said: “The world is rapidly going mad. Civilization is on the road to perdition. To-day there is one certified lunatic in every 269 of our population; and if the increase in lunacy continues at the same rate as it has done for the past fifty years, there will be one lunatic in every four of the population by A.D. 2159. One quarter of the world will be mad. I have no patience with those who ascribe this terrible condition of affairs to increased competition, and the wear and tear of modern life. If there is but one sane man left in the world of lunatics, he will be muttering the same absurd excuse. No. It is mere shelving of the responsibility. The true causes of insanity are the vices, not the worries, of civilization.” He adds, “I should put the causes of insanity in the following order: drink, cigarette smoking, heredity.” Dr. Winslow then calls attention to the fact that while the amount of alcohol consumed in England has diminished somewhat during the past ten years, insanity has been rapidly increasing with the increase in the use of cigarettes. Suicides now reach the enormous total of fifteen thousand annually. Nine thousand murders are annually committed.

Cigarettes and Domestic Bliss

Divorce is increasing at an alarming rate. This peril is threatening the American home. Recently a noted authoress of Chicago, in seeking a divorce from her husband, brought the charge: “On arising in the morning, he would prepare a cup of the strongest coffee obtainable, and then devote the remainder of the day to cigarette smoking. He is never without his smoke. It’s the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night.” The cigarette addict makes a poor husband, generally, as does any other drug fiend; and naturally the use of cigarettes leads to the divorce courts.

The prevalent use of cigarettes is responsible for a large share of the crimes committed. This is recognized by all the judges of juvenile courts. Judge W. N. Gemmill, of the Court of Domestic Relations, Chicago, recently made the statement that of the twenty-five thousand or more criminals who had passed before him, those who had so degenerated morally that they “had lost the faculty of blushing, smoked cigarettes.” It is estimated that anywhere from ninety-three to ninety-eight per cent of all youthful criminals are cigarette victims.

Produces Criminal Insanity

The cigarette produces in the undeveloped mind a form of criminal insanity, making of the addict an irresponsible being, who should be confined in an insane asylum rather than in a prison. Judge Brumm, of Pottsville,

Pennsylvania, in charging the jury in the case of a young man who had committed murder, said, “The fact that he is a cigarette fiend must be taken into consideration.” The use of a pound of tobacco each week in cigarettes was considered as proof that the fellow’s brain was affected. He was declared an irresponsible by the jury, and was released.

Invariably Becomes a Degenerate

The cigarette is threatening to become a greater national evil than alcohol; for it strikes down or blasts the tender youth of our country, interfering with physical, intellectual, and moral development. The boy who begins to smoke cigarettes at the age of nine, ten, or eleven years, invariably becomes a degenerate. Should the use of cigarettes increase at the same rate during the next ten years as during the past ten, what can we hope for or expect in regard to America’s future? The boy with a crippled leg or arm is handicapped in life’s battles, and is an object of pity. He may make a success of life if he has a sound mind; and if he has children, they will be born with two sound legs and arms. But the boy who has ruined his mind and morals by the use of cigarettes, seldom makes a success of life; and if he marries and has children, they will be defectives. Already seventy-five per cent of the twenty million children attending our schools in America are in need of attention for physical defects. That the prevalent use of cigarettes the past thirty years has greatly helped in bringing about this condition, none will deny.

We pass rigid laws shutting out of our country criminals and defectives; but in the use of cigarettes, we are permitting an evil that is changing our most promising youth into irresponsibles, defectives, and criminals. When the boll weevil was discovered in the South, we turned our government scientists loose, and authorized them to spend the taxpayers’ money liberally in an effort to protect our national cotton crop. Shall we feel less concerned in regard to our national crop of boys? Shall we continue to close our eyes to this monstrous evil that is blighting our future prospects as a nation? Shall we permit this juggernaut to pass unmolested up and down our main thoroughfares, crushing out the very life and hope of our country’s future by maiming and crippling our boys in whom its future centers?

“More Blessed to Give than to Receive”

By Mrs. H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins

THESE are inspired words, recorded for the benefit of humanity. Though one may possess limited means, should he withhold entirely because he cannot see where more is coming from?

Whence come all our blessings? Are they not from the bountiful hand of Him who sits upon the throne in the heavens? Is His all-seeing eye not able to discern the ways and means whereby anything needful can be supplied? Why should we doubt?

Faith as a grain of mustard seed enables one to surmount obstacles, and in some way accomplish wonders.

“Great is our Lord, and of great power.” He “taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.” “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” Ps. 147: 5, 11, 9. “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.” Ps. 104: 14.

If even the tiny insects, the fowls of the

air, and the young lions, all wait upon the Majesty on high, why should man, the noblest of all His creation, permit the least doubt that in some way the Lord will provide whatever is needful? It is not the business of weak human nature to see how it can be brought about. The Creator having all power, He understands. Let us not forget that all we possess comes from our kind, loving heavenly Father; and if we expect Him to trust us with more of His gifts, should we not show our faith in making a right use of what He has already committed to our keeping?

MRS. H. E. SAWYER-HOPKINS.

The Best Route to and from California

Two Great 1915 Expositions

At San Francisco

February 20 to December 4, 1915

At San Diego

January 1 to December 31, 1915

There will be no postponement for any reason

INQUIRE OF ANY AGENT, OR MR. C. S. FEE

Passenger Traffic Manager, Flood Building, San Francisco, California

SOUTHERN PACIFIC

It Does Not Pay

It doesn’t pay to have fifty workingmen poor and ragged, in order to have one saloon keeper dressed in broadcloth, and flush of money.

It doesn’t pay to have ten smart, active, and intelligent boys transformed into hoodlums and thieves, to enable one to lead an easy life, selling them liquor.

It doesn’t pay to have one thousand homes blasted, ruined, and turned into hells of disorder and misery, in order that one wholesale liquor dealer may amass a larger fortune.—The Clarion Call.

EXPOSITION

By Editor

(MARCH) NUMBER

Panama-California Exposition — Panama-Pacific Exposition

SEE the expositions. If you cannot attend in person, don't fail to see the pictures and description of them in the Signs Magazine for March. 36 fair pictures, one a double-page panoramic view of the Panama-Pacific Exposition grounds, showing the Golden Gate and charming Marin hills in the background. Nor does it lack its usual message, as the following paragraphs show:

Since prehistoric times, populations have moved steadily westward, until there is no further west; beyond is the Orient. A forbidding, untraveled ocean, savage tribes, a wilderness, ferocious beasts, all combined, did not stay the onward march of mankind. These thoughts and others are embodied and developed in “Westward the Course of Empire.”

One of the most striking pieces of architecture at the Panama-Pacific Exposition is the Arch of the Rising Sun, typifying the nations of the East, upon which are quotations from sages, philosophers, and wise men of the Orient. Millions probably will gaze in wonderment and admiration upon this magnificent creation, which symbolizes so much. It supplies a text for the surpassingly good article “Sun Worship and the Sabbath.”

It is said that art, science, and invention, all of which will be seen in great magnitude at San Francisco, made far more progress in the last hundred years than in the previous six thousand years of earth's history. This feature of the exposition forms the basis of an article that appears under the head “An Exposition for Our Times.” You never read a better presentation of the subject.

The expositions furnish ideas for other articles equally as good as those mentioned, notably “The Circle Almost Circled.”

And consider these: “Russia and the Open Sea”; “Then Shall the End Come”; “The Grand Finale of Armageddon.”

The yawning wastebasket will wait in vain for this March number. Your friends to whom you mail or hand it, or your customers to whom you sell it, will wish to preserve their Exposition copy for future reference.

The magazine will sell on sight. Orders should be routed through our depository in your state. Prices: 5 to 40 copies, 5c each; 50 or more, 4c each. 1,400 new subscribers in December, 1,600 new ones in January. Special inducement to subscribe now. Send two new yearly subscriptions at $1.00 each and we will give you a year's subscription free; or we will accept five new yearly subscriptions at a 60c a year rate.

SIGNS of the TIMES MAGAZINE

“Shiloh, the Man of Sorrows”

Many who have read this story, or parts of it, as it appeared in serial form in the SIGNS, will be glad to order a copy for their own library, or for a beautiful and useful present to a friend.

The volume should stimulate a desire for Bible study, and is just the book for aggressive missionary work among the Jews and the unconverted. It is beautifully bound in cloth, gold stamped, 377 pages. Eight full page illustrations. $1.50 net. Agents wanted. Author’s portrait suitable for framing. Let the orders come in.

Fourteen cents postage extra

Address the author, Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle, 1215 Vermont Avenue, Lansing, Michigan.

A Bible Argument Against Christian Science

THOUSANDS have been attracted to Christian Science. Is it all that its name implies? This 112-page pamphlet is one of the strongest Bible arguments against it to be found. 15c, postpaid. Order from our depository in your state or

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. Mountain View, California

Dark Valley Railroad Folder

A powerful 8-page temperance document. Printed in two colors, in the form and appearance of a railroad time-table, with names of stations, time of trains, and map of the route. Begins at Cigaretteville and ends at Perdition. $1.50 a hundred, postpaid. Address our depository in your state or

Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California

COLDS: Their Cause, Prevention, and Cure.

A little 25c book that tells how to treat colds successfully without drugs. Better yet, it tells how to live so as not to “catch” colds. Address our depository in your state or

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION Mountain View, California

MAGAZINES

Those of our readers who believe the message which this journal represents, and who wish to propagate the principles among their Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and German friends and neighbors, would do well to consider the three magazines published at our branch house in Nebraska.

LYS OVER LANDET — Danish-Norwegian

TIDENS TECKEN — Swedish

ZEICHEN DER ZEIT — German

These magazines are issued quarterly. The character of their contents is about the same as the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The splendid covers in colors, good illustrations, and excellent printing combine to make them most attractive.

Prices: 10c per copy; 35c per year; 5 to 40 copies, 5c each; 50 or more, 4c each. Order through our depository in your state.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN.

Mountain View, Cal.

Three Propositions TO YOU

By Editor

No. 1

That you earn a free yearly subscription to the Signs Magazine by inducing two others to subscribe at the regular rate of $1.00 a year.

No. 2

That you accept our lowest clubbing rate of 60c each a year for five subscriptions. We will send these to any one person, or to separate names and addresses, as desired. This is a saving of $2.00, you see.

No. 3

That you order 25 or 50 of the Exposition (March) Number, to sell, or to give to friends. For 25 you pay $1.25, and sell them for $2.50; for 50 you pay $2.00, and sell them for $5.00. A good work; possible to earn a living at it.

Over 1,400 increase in our December listing, and better than 1,600 in January. Let's make February “one better.”

Our depository in your state will fill orders promptly.

SIGNS of the TIMES MAGAZINE

Mountain View, California

Do You Use Tracts?

BUY THEM BY THE PACKAGE

Tracts have been the means of converting hardened sinners, of reforming drunkards, of cheering and comforting Christians, of conveying light on little understood questions.

Give them to neighbors, hand them to fellow passengers, leave them in seats of cars and railroad stations, place them in reading racks, inclose them with letters.

BUY THEM BY THE PACKAGE (Three Sizes)

$5.00 Package

Practically wholesale. $7.00 worth for $5.00. Price so low transportation cannot be prepaid. 775 tracts on 25 different subjects — 10,400 pages, with 100 printed envelopes.

$1.00 Package

Ideal assortment for individual and family use. 68 selected tracts on 8 different subjects. A great favorite with many. 6,503 packages already sold. In German, Danish, and Swedish also. Postpaid.

25c Packages

Four of them in English. No. 1, Miscellaneous; No. 2, Prophecy and Coming of the Lord; No. 3, The Sabbath and Law; No. 4, Temperance. 400 pages in each package. Assorted packages on leading topics may also be had in 20 other languages. Postpaid.

A free copy of the new booklet “Speaking Leaves” will be sent upon request. Methods for using tracts, lists and descriptions of them, and encouraging incidents, fill its pages.

Order of our depository in your state.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

Kansas City, Missouri Portland, Oregon College View, Nebraska Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Anti-Catholic Publications

A PRESS dispatch conveys the intelligence that plans have been completed “for an organized campaign against anti-Catholic publications and movements.” Prominent men are connected with this campaign, and fifty thousand dollars has been set aside to carry it forward. The activities of this propaganda are shown, among other things, in bills now before Congress providing that the postmaster-general can throw out of the mails publications that are objectionable to the religious views of certain citizens of the commonwealth.

Politicians as a rule do not stand for principle. Their great object is to secure and hold office. Those who are in politics know this; and all who are out of politics know it just as well. Hence the politician will always bow to any strong influence, regardless of the principles involved. And when an organization of religious people begin to seek to carry forward their work by influencing politicians in their favor, they have shown themselves to be on a very dangerous road.

History has ever been repeating the experiment of uniting religion with the state and undertaking to have a code of civil laws to regulate men's faith. Some have thought that the world was done with that kind of experimenting, but we see that it is not. The enlightened Catholic people of America ought to oppose any plan that would curtail open, frank discussion. No worthy cause was ever hindered by being discussed. Even persecution and martyrdom do not stop or seriously obstruct the progress of truth.

These are principles that Catholic and Protestant alike should be able to see, and we should alike be able to see that only bigotry and a bad cause are afraid of being discussed or considered in the most public manner.

Rendered Obsolete

PROF. EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN, of Mount Lowe Observatory, southern California, has recently said that “nine tenths of all books now in print are practically obsolete. Even discoveries made since January 1, 1900, make nine out of ten obsolete.”

Mr. Larkin doubtless has reference more particularly to scientific books. Of course books that tell the definite facts of history, in the very nature of things could never become obsolete, because facts do not change. But it is a very easy matter to be led astray in the field of science, for the reason that men are continually proclaiming theories that are based upon partial facts and insufficient knowledge.

But apart from all these books that are continually becoming obsolete, there is one that stands in a strong class by itself. It is ever telling the same story. Every little while, some one arises with imperfect knowledge, or with a partial fact, to try to show us that this great Book has made a mistake. But a few years later, fuller knowledge and a better acquaintance with the facts cause us to see that the Book was right all the time.

It is a splendid thing, in this shifting old world, to have an anchor; and there is no knowledge more blessed or enjoyable than to know that the Creator, or divine Father, who has perfect knowledge in all things, has given us a Book that will stand the test. We can depend upon it at all times and under all circumstances. Its prophecies, its promises, and its history will stand every scrutiny. The individual who is drifting without the anchorage given in the Rock of Ages as revealed through the Book of books, is truly in a sad condition.

Both of the Same Root

ONE prominent correspondent to the Catholic Western Watchman speaks of the persecution and slaying of Roman Catholic priests in Belgium, monstrous and cruel if the reports are true. No man should be persecuted for his faith, whether Catholic or Protestant. Every Christian should forever repudiate such actions. But in the same paper, another equally prominent correspondent tells with satisfaction that “the statue of Giordano Bruno is destitute of decorations other than the stale vegetables which the pious huckster women throw at its base. This is as it should be.”

Now it is the same spirit and principle which moved the Italian women to do what they did to show contempt for Bruno, that moved the “Protestant” soldiers to slay Belgian priests. The difference in the deeds was not in spirit but in degree. The Spirit of Christ would do neither.

Jews in Jerusalem

It is estimated by Dr. Hertz, a Jew, that 1,000,000 Jews have left Russia for Anglo-Saxon lands, and not a few Jews from Russia and other lands have gone to Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is said to have a population ranging from 95,000 to 110,000. Of these, 12,000 are Mahommedans, 13,000 are nominal Christians, and about 70,000 are Jews. Some are looking upon this as the fulfillment of various prophecies. Many will be disappointed.

Christian Literature for North African Moslems

The World's Sunday School Association is doing some active work in the way of circulating Christian literature among the Moslems of North Africa. Among the things that have been prepared are notes on the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. These are very important portions of the Bible; and it is to be hoped that in their notes on the Ten Commandments, they will not endeavor to make the law of God say something different from what it really says in the Bible. The Ten Commandments plainly tell us that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord; and to make theological dogma teach anything to the contrary, is wrong.

Aeroplanes as Agents of Destruction

The impression that has been made in England by the aeroplane as an agency of destruction is very forcibly illustrated by the above facsimile advertisement. The aggressive real estate man proposes to build bomb-proof cellars, so that the residents may have a place to hide from the air craft. Certainly no more diabolical thing was ever invented than the war aeroplane. To be bombarded from the sky, with no place to flee, is one of the modern terrors that has no precedent anywhere in history.

Italy and the Pope and Peace

THE Rome correspondent of the Western Watchman of January 28, referring to Pope Benedict's effort for peace, and the favor with which the nations of the world regard it, says:

“In the Italian nature there is still a large element of latent pride in the power and influence of the papacy. Rome to-day is justly proud of the new pope, whose influence has been exerted to mitigate some of the horrors of war. Many here believe that peace will ultimately come through his intervention. The cables of acquiescence from the rulers of the warring countries are reproduced in all the daily papers, even in the Messaggero, and favorably commented upon.”

Who Knows?

By M. C. W.

IN an editorial in a recent issue of the Sunday School Times, entitled “Can the Great War Be Explained?” the writer refers to the “military experts, students of diplomacy, historians, those who have delved deep into the ways of nations, kings in high places,” as those who might be “qualified to weigh the great issues involved in a war of the nations.” But they are not. He continues, “Yet the truth is that the only persons who are on vantage ground from which clear judgment can be pronounced here, are they who accept the whole counsel of God as revealed in the Scriptures.”

This is emphatically true; and in the light of it, how foolish it is to pore over the columns written by this man or that man, over this person’s opinion or that one’s, regarding the ultimate of this country or that nation, this people or that race. What does God say? With Him are the issues of life or death. We may know that what He has revealed is true. For what He has not revealed we can wait. Nor need we seek to force a fulfillment of what He has predicted. M. C. W.

Another Branch Office

By C. H. Jones

At the request of the International Publishing Association, and in harmony with the counsel of the General Conference Committee and the North American Division Conference Committee, the Pacific Press Publishing Association has taken over the assets and liabilities of the International Publishing Association, of College View, Nebraska; and hereafter, the publishing work at that place will be carried on as a branch of the Pacific Press Publishing Association. The present corps of editors will continue in charge of the various periodicals, and Brother F. F. Byington remains as manager. Brother J. R. Ferren, who for several years was connected with our circulation department, and later acted as missionary secretary of the Pacific Union Conference, will take the position of circulation manager. All orders for German, Danish, and Swedish periodicals, and such other publications in these languages as have been formerly ordered from the International Publishing Association, should now be addressed to the Pacific Press Publishing Association, College View, Nebraska.

C. H. JONES, General Manager.

Gold and Petroleum Production

ACCORDING to the United States Geological Survey, the value of the gold that was mined in this country during 1914 was $3,000,000. This was an increase of some $4,000,000 over 1913. The production of the petroleum industry is also phenomenal, particularly during the last eight or ten years. The increase of 1914 over 1913 was thirteen per cent.

The World Cannot Understand True Christianity

The world cannot understand true Christianity. Men of the world cannot appreciate its motive of love. They cannot understand why a man should love his enemy, or how. Only as men receive the Spirit of Christ can they truly know Him. And to know Him in truth is eternal life.