Use of Cigaret Condemned

I feel grateful to my Heavenly Father for the privilege I have of attending this wonderful Conference of his Church. As I sat upon my seat during the sessions of the Conference of the Church yesterday I thought to myself : Is there another place in all the world where a congregation such as this gathers, with one thought in mind, with a devout faith in God our Eternal Father, and with all of the Priesthood, and with all of the joy that comes to him or her who serves the Lord, knowing that he has established his Church in this dispensation, and that we are members of that Church. ¶

Use of Cigaret Condemned

We all have our faults, some more than others. I sometimes think that among the growing faults, of a few at least, of the members of our Church, is the use of tobacco. In a speech I delivered in the United States Senate on June 10, 1929, I called attention to the baneful effects of the use of tobacco, and particularly on the youth and womanhood of our nation. The reason I decided to deliver that speech was what I had witnessed, as to the use of tobacco by women, not only in Washington, but wherever I went. ¶

At that time it was not so universal, I was going to say, but perhaps I had better modify that and say that the practice had not reached the length that it has today. In that speech I condemned the insidious cigaret advertising campaign that so often appears in the press of our nation, promoted by tobacco manufacturers and their interests, whose only god is profit, whose only thought is the balance sheet, and whose only principle is greed. And above all, I denounced the unconscionable, heartless, and destructive attempts to exploit the women and youth of our country. ¶

I saw a statement in a New York paper the other day, in which statistics were given regarding the use of tobacco and the amount that was consumed in the United States, and also the purposes for which it was used. I was dumbfounded when I noticed in that report that the women of this country are consuming or smoking a large part of all the cigarets that are manufactured and sold in our nation. ¶

I am going to try to learn if I can if that practice reaches beyond the shores of our own dear country. I wonder if the women of the world — I mean of the great countries of the world, the civilized countries — are using that dirty, nasty weed as much as are the women of our own dear United States. ¶

Years ago in the larger cities of our nation saloons nourished on the principal corners, but at that time no tobacco manufacturer had the temerity to cry to our women : "Smoke cigarets, they are good for you." The human appetite is a delicate mechanism, and the attempt to urge that it be destroyed by the regular use of tobacco is essentially wicked. The number of cigarets manufactured in the United States in the year 1913 was 13,000,247,891, and for the year 1928, 102 billion. During those thirteen years the use of cigarets in our own dear America had increased nearly 900%. The cost of our public schools, elementary, secondary, and collegiate, in the year 1926 was $2,255,251,557. The amount expended during that same year for tobacco was $2,087,000,000, or nearly as much as the United States spent for educational purposes on her children and men and women, in the primary schools, in the high schools, in the colleges, and wherever education was given. Is not this a sad picture ? And it seems to me, my brethren and sisters, that when it is called to the attention of the people, particularly our people, there should be a reformation. And if what I say here today brings about a reformation, small or large, I will thank my Heavenly Father for it. ¶

Scriptural Passages

I had prepared at my office some of the wonderful statements found in the Bible and other publications of a religious nature, and I took particular pains to copy some that appealed to me personally, and I think they ought to appeal to every honest man and woman in the world : ¶

Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. (Psalms 120:2.) ¶

He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life : but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3.) ¶

Death and life are in the power of the tongue : and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21.) ¶

The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. (Proverbs 18:8.) ¶

Who steals my purse steals trash, * * * but he who filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed. (Shakespeare.) ¶

There are so many of them. I love to study them. I love to take the Bible and turn to the two pages that I have here of similar quotations, all beautiful in expression and Godlike in purpose. ¶

Safety in Living the Gospel

My brethren and sisters, I thought yesterday as I sat upon this platform looking over that mass of men and women who believe in the revelations that God gave to the Prophet Joseph, who believe in all of our Articles of Faith (and there is no reason for mentioning them because you are all acquainted with them), I thought that if we live by these things and by the examples of the Authorities of the Church since its establishment by Joseph Smith the Prophet we shall not go very far wrong in this life. ¶

May God give us strength to live our religion, not only talk about it, but live it, and live it every day. If we do we shall never have any regrets. And another thing, we shall win the respect of people not of our faith when they see we live what we preach. ¶

May God be with us with his Holy Spirit and bless our families and our loved ones ; may his Church grow and increase in numbers and in power, just as fast as our Heavenly Father sees that the people are qualified to carry on to greater heights. ¶

God bless us all, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶