A State Representative Takes the Pulpit Against Cigarettes
A Snohomish church hosts a union meeting where a lawmaker decries the 'cigarette habit' as a greater evil than alcohol.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The announcement that Representative Roscoe would occupy the pulpit of the Congregational church last evening attracted a crowd that filled the big auditorium of that edifice. It was the occasion of a union meeting of all the churches to discuss tobacco in its physical, legal, moral, social and religious aspects. Mr. Roscoe observed that he was never in a pulpit before and felt a little out of place. He was informed that 40,000,000 cigarettes are smoked annually in the state of Washington, and he believed that no habit, not even the liquor habit, caused so great harm. He learned that even women, leaders of fashion and of society, were becoming cigarette fiends. The vast injury led him to introduce and support the anti-cigarette bill. One member of the legislature, himself a cigarette fiend, voted for the measure and declared he would give $500 toward enforcing it.
“He learned that even women, leaders of fashion and of society, were becoming cigarette fiends.”
This reflects the moral crusades of the 1890s, where legislators looked to the pulpit to solve social ills. Today, the target has shifted from cigarettes to modern digital addictions, yet the rhetorical strategy of 'moral panic' remains remarkably similar.
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