1896 - Cigarettes and Children

Perhaps it was best that the Times did not print the Thomas Morris letter to the W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) until a Saturday edition of the newspaper. More room was needed as it was a very long letter, and one that had to be published fully, no editing to be done.

On Saturday January 25, 1896, the Times printed the Morris letter under an equally long, proportionately, headline:

‘The Sale of Cigarettes : Mr. Morris Reports to the Narcotics Department : Minors Can Buy the Weeds : What the Doctors Say About the Effect on Growing Boys : Remarks on Police Enforcement.’¹

¹ Hamilton Times.   January 25, 1896.

The letter was a reprint of a report which Thomas Morris had sent to the W.C.T.U.:

“To the Superintendent of the Department of Narcotics, W.C.T.U.:

“Dear Madam:

          “As requested by you, I herewith submit the following report to your department, with the hope that it will assist you in your noble work of saving the children from that which tends to corrupt and demoralize their young lives. With you, I believe it wiser and less expensive to save children than to punish criminals.

“It is only within the last few weeks that my eyes have been opened to the enormity of the illegal cigarette business, which is threatening the lads of our city.

          “I find the evil to be firmly entrenched in our midst, and I have come to the conclusion that the responsibility for the recent growth of cigarette smoking among small boys is almost entirely due to the indifference of the police authorities, the men whose obligation before God and man is to shield virtue and make vice difficult.”¹

                By the start of 1896, Thomas Morris had become very well-known in Hamilton as a temperance advocate. The cause of the sale of cigarettes to children, contrary to Chapter 52, Ontario Statutes, had become something that occupied a substantial amount of his time.

Morris, a lawyer, knew where to start with his crusade to prevent the sale of cigarettes to minors, the Hamilton Board of Police Commissioners

At meetings of the Police Commissioners, Morris tried, in his own words,

‘to impress upon them the laxity of law enforcement but without success”

          Morris went out of his way to not criticize the police constables on the beat:

“I have not the slightest desire to blame the policemen in the ranks. The police constables on the force are brave, honest men, who are willing and anxious to enforce the law strictly, if those in authority really desire it. The police constables can stop the sale of tobacco to minors just the instant that they get orders to do so.”¹

“If one but opens his eyes he cannot but see and be amazed at the large number of small boys on the streets puffing away openly and with the greatest possible unconcern. Little newsboys from eight years old and upwards, school boys on their way home from school, think nothing of indulging in this iniquitous habit

“In talking with a prominent grocer recently, he assured me that in some instances, cigarettes were given to boys free of charge, the object being to create a growing class of customers with a craving after tobacco. Can you imagine any action more cowardly than thus to deliberately traffic in the innocence and defenseless condition of childhood?

“Almost any night going along King or James streets, you may see little fellows with cigarettes in their mouths. I remember passing, not many weeks ago, a well-known tobacconist shop on James street, and saw two boys, about 12 years old, coming out with a package of cigarettes, which they were proceeding to divide between them. I said to a policeman who was near, ‘I wish you would go into that cigar store for me and say to the proprietor that this is not the first time I have seen small boys coining out of his shop with cigarettes, and if I see it again, I will have him up before the Police Magistrate.’

“The policeman very courteously agreed to report to him what I had said but stopped me long enough to volunteer the information that the practice was all too common.”¹

Morris provided the three Police Commissioners (The Mayor, the Wentworth County Judge and the Police Magistrate) with his own eyewitness observations of children and cigarettes:

“If one but opens his eyes he cannot but see and be amazed at the large number of small boys on the streets puffing away openly and with the greatest possible unconcern. Little newsboys from eight years old and upwards, school boys on their way home from school, think nothing of indulging in this iniquitous habit

“In talking with a prominent grocer recently, he assured me that in some instances, cigarettes were given to boys free of charge, the object being to create a growing class of customers with a craving after tobacco. Can you imagine any action more cowardly than thus to deliberately traffic in the innocence and defenseless condition of childhood?

“Not long ago, on King street, two small boys with papers under their arms and cigarettes in their mouths, accosted me and asked me to buy a Times, Spec. or Herald. While looking for some coppers, I asked them their ages. They answered 7 and 9 respectively. They also told me their names and where they got their cigarettes. Here were two little fellows too young to understand the injury they were bringing upon themselves by early indulgence in cigarette smoking.”¹

Various Hamilton doctors replied to questions as to their views on the health effects of smoking on children. Two of the several responses show what was the general opinion of the Hamilton Medical community:

“Dr. John McCabe : ‘I believe cigarette smoking to be the worst form in which any person can smoke tobacco. In the case of a boy, you have all the narcotic effects of ordinary tobacco smoking intensified. The cigarette is more loosely constructed and is shorter than a cigar. Its mode of preparation allows it to burn more quickly, and consequently, a proportionately larger amount of the volatile oil of the tobacco will be developed, and reach the mouth. It causes functional disease of the heart. Digestion is injured. The immediate effect on boys would be a lessening of their mental capacity in dulling their intellect and considerable loss of memory.

“Dr. J.D. Macdonald: ‘In boys or young lads, the use of tobacco is a most serious matter. It is not only an unnecessary indulgence, but, in the imperfectly developed condition of their frames, the depressing effects of the drug, especially on the heart and digestive organs, not infrequently is disastrous to the health during life, and, by the effect upon the heart especially, may shorten life in a very distressing way. The worst effects, however, are upon the morals of the young, seen so often in habits of gross self-indulgence, dissipation and sensuality. As to the effects of the cigarette, apart from those of tobacco, I will not venture to say more than it is probable that the former contains some other intoxicant besides tobacco. The rapid growth in favor of the cigarette seems proof that it contains some substance the pleasures from which are felt to be greater than those from tobacco.’

The substance of the Commissioners’ reply to Morris’ multiple appearances was not published but presumably hard evidence, not occasional personal observations was requested.

Morris then undertook to provide the Police Commissioners not a few observations of illegal sales to children but fifty of them:

“I happened to meet a boy whom I knew to be honest and trustworthy, one also who was , on principle as much interested as I I was in bringing about reform with regard to the unlawful sale of tobacco to minors. At one time he said he had visited cigar shops and bought cigarettes for his own use, therefore he had no hesitation now in visiting cigar shops from an unselfish motive. I said to him, ‘I want to act naturally, and by no means attempt to deceive the tobacconists with regard to your age or in any other way. . Go into the shops without reserve, ask for a package of cigarettes and write on the package the name of the proprietor with his address. Report to me every day and when you have visited 50 different shops we will total up the results.’

In all fifty shops were visited, 47 dealers out of fifty, or 94 per cent violated “in an open and fearless manner a law placed on the statute book for the protection of childhood, a righteous law, which should be guarded by every chivalrous heart in the community.”

“I simply desire to draw the attention of the police commissioners to the fact that the law is not enforced, and I am in a position to prove what I say. I was prompted by a desire to protect and shield the youth from the cupidity of the tobacco dealers and the indifference of the police authorities. In spite of adverse criticisms and false slanders from certain quarters, I believe I have acted wisely in the interests of childhood and I am pleased to know that so many ladies and gentlemen in whose judgment I have the greatest confidence appreciate my efforts.”¹

Morris concluded his letter to the Times as follows :

“I sincerely trust that the ladies of the W.C.T.U. will bring this question before the proper authorities with a request that they will strictly enforce the law. If this is done, the children of Hamilton will have at least one dangerous pitfall removed from their pathway, and it will be much easier for them to grow up to become good men, loyal and patriotic subjects of our Queen and country. – Yours sincerely, Thomas Morris, jun.”¹