Advertisers Push Tobacco, Cigarette Propaganda By Appeals to Fake Medicine and Pseudo-Science
Harding, Swann
Advertisers Push Tobacco, Cigarette Propaganda By Appeals to Fake Medicine and Pseudo-Science By T. SWANN HARDING ItWIAKERS of cigarettes have always had a hard time "* of it when recommending...
...The Senate would be preserved as a small advisory council with, at most, power to hold up legislation in some such manner as is still within the power of the British House of Lords...
...At the height of his power, a Mozart could write genuine folk-music—in his Magic Flute—and the people understood him...
...No Hitler has yet got to the top, no election has yet been postponed...
...come tax...
...Mahler, on the other hand, was a philosopher of music and consciously devised his compositions to draw listeners...
...In consequence of these facts, cigarette makers have had to invent purely fictional qualities to differentiate, their brand from other brands...
...These testimonials often did not reflect the personal experience, knowledge, or beliefs of the writers who were frequently non-smokers...
...what sort of folk music is this which the common people cannot understand ? But is other music of our day actually so difficult to understand...
...This interesting exhibit shows how Sard pressed cigarette makers were six years ago to get some touch of originality into their advertising...
...Sometimes the tea prac-tically froze in the saucer and had no taste except that ¦ ef the dregs...
...Since the premier and cabinet would be set up by Congress and would administer the measures passed by Congress there would be a complete absence of the sort of checks which often enough render our present rulers impotent...
...Often enough the composers never transcended the frivolous desire to be new, to be different...
...Incidentally, the author gives full discredit to the proportional voting system for its part in Europe's downfall...
...A lot of the restlessness over there is due to the conviction that a Conservative majority has long outlived its mandate...
...The real service of this man lies elsewhere...
...He stood alone Since this parallel is not to be disregarded, a good many persons in this country think that Shostakovitch derives from Mahler...
...We don't have that sort of government now, and we should get it as quickly as possible...
...But he has sat out on thla path, undertaken this task, not because he is under this or that influence, but because, like Mahler and others, he i* a real personality, a man of genuine emotions, an original void speaking from the depths of nature and of mankind...
...Years ago (Printer's Ink for February 2 and April 6, 1938) the makers of Camels adopted a curious advertising line, that of exposing the tricks of magicians...
...Whether one brand is better than another is purely- a matter of the smoker's individual taste...
...It stems most of all, however, from the fact that this music lacks the elementary, the connection with the folk-song and folk-dance and the basic appeal to the emotions...
...It was—to him—like the '-saucer in which the tea is* cooled to the taste...
...But the more one thinks of Shostakovitch, the less important this question becomes...
...The argument against the present Senate is devastating...
...Hazlitt suggests, in .the book which is reviewed in the following article, that we form a Constitutional Reform League...
...He is among the few who have recognized the fact that music must return to the people, and he is doing his part toward this great change without neglecting the enrichment whereby musical composition has benefited in our time...
...Here is actually the problem of this symphony, of this composer, of the entire school of the newest Russian music...
...A reasonable and democratic people will make the old jalopy go...
...A government must have a balance *f flexibility and continuity—not too much of either...
...But the greatness of a Mozart, of a Beethoven, had its effect on the audience...
...Hazlitt that mechanisms don't cut much ice...
...He can point to Britain...
...So even some of the radicals took another look at things, sheered off, found new beauties in our written and fixed and stable-seeming basic law...
...We began to see a new light...
...Every chap behind a typewriter was shouting that the eternally wise electorate has turned in a verdict agreeing precisely with his own views...
...The Commission coyly said: "Factory throw-outs are desired by-cigar smokers who believe they are made of high-quality tobacco available at low prices because of slight imperfections...
...Bruckner did not think of a public but he achieved one...
...The two senators from New York represent one hundred and twenty-five times as many people as the two senators from Nevada...
...Only formal functions would be left to the president...
...His main contention, that we should have a responsible parliamentary government, he makes good on with room to spare...
...It is reported, at least, that only recently has he had Mahler's scores sent to him in Russia...
...Shostakovitch seems to be saying to his listeners: It is said that our modem music is unintelligible to you...
...There is no imaginable argument against prompt action...
...This volume is the latest in a long series of discussions by critics like Lord Bryce, Charles A. Beard, and others...
...our Russian music, at least, shall belong to the people...
...Let us look at the new music of our time, of the twentieth century', and especially the music since the first World War...
...To be quite honest, one must regretfully reply: Yes, in no small part...
...We had grown a bit weary of having our finished legislation served to us '¦in the cemetery...
...Congress is run in such a manner that no clear issues are presented in a congressional election, j While I was witnessing this demonstration of the ' failure of our political machinery I was reading Henry Hazlitt's clear and patient analysis of the things that are wrong with our Constitution...
...Hazlitt is gently scathing about the 47 standing committees in the present lower chamber and the 33 committees of the upper one...
...But what has happened in Europe during the past -.twenty years sent creeps down our spines...
...Henry Hazlitt's Argument: U. S. Democracy Needs a! New Constitution By WILLIAM E. BOHM I ONCE made some deprecatory remarks about Henry ¦* Hazlitt's ideas on the Constitution...
...He had me at a special disadvantage...
...I am ready to acknowledge that our governmental machineiy should be overhauled as fast as we can get to it * ¦ * TEN years ago nearly all intelligent Americans were * hot for constitutional change...
...I have done some thinking...
...John Mulholland, the editor of the official publication, the Sphinx Magazine, headed a delegation of protest...
...Here in America the frequenters of symphony concert* stick consistently to Tschaikovsky and Sibelius...
...At some future time—perhaps in a crisis which will follow this war—such an interim of impotence might lead to a final fall...
...The livelihood of hundreds of magicians was being destroyed, they declared...
...It was not always so...
...I have, in fact, made a second mistake...
...His Seventh Symphony does not lose through repeated hearings...
...not without reason have I been called the composer of the people...
...We should not judge Shostakovitch's new symphony—or...
...After a brilliant interpretation, such as only Mahler could achieve, the composer came to give thanks to the great director and was told in the most kindly way: "But don't get the idea, my dear sir, that your composition is as good as it sounded here today...
...Responding to a physician's query, the Journal of the American Medical Association said: "There seems to be no evidence that the acidity of tobacco smoke is of the slightest importance in relationship to the health of the smoker or to irritation of his throat by tobacco...
...One ought never to allow an opponent to drive him to such extremities...
...4795 against the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co...
...Hazlitt turns to Australia, from which commonwealth we have already borrowed to our advantage...
...I think he should be on my side about elections by the calendar...
...And the music of these last decades actually brought to expression a few real geniuses...
...But he desired a public which would come to him on his own terms, one which would be swept up to the level of his own thoughts...
...Hazlitt's suggestions here...
...Koussevitsky is credited with the remark that no woWt^since those of Beethoven has more deeply affected hinv Toscanini, too, is counted among the enthusiasts—and this is as it should be, for how else could we have an inspired presentation...
...Advertisers Push Tobacco, Cigarette Propaganda By Appeals to Fake Medicine and Pseudo-Science By T. SWANN HARDING ItWIAKERS of cigarettes have always had a hard time "* of it when recommending their product...
...59 to 73 of this book...
...Our only guarantee of safety lies in a democratic government constantly able -to act and constantly ready to act...
...I recall saying to myself when I read the constitution of the German Republic: "These Germans have a more democratic set-up than ours...
...And we have proved again and again that an election in the midst of war is a help rather than a hindrance to the nation's effort The point is that elections recurring with the turns of the sun and the moon give democracy the advantage of habit, and habit is one of the most powerful things in the world...
...Secondly, there has for a long time been no essential difference in quality between the many brands of cigarettes...
...To his people, thus drawn to him, he spoke very directly and simply...
...In the Vienna Prater, a place to be compared with Central Park, passages from Beethoven's latest quartets were performed in the open—promenade music, if you please—and these are works which even today offer difficulties of understanding...
...In the first place, some expert opinion can be cited for the idea that cigarette smoking is mildly injurious...
...And we didn't know what we had decided...
...There have been other great symphonic composers...
...Radio voices said at times to belong to such testimonial writers were actually those of other people...
...On August 3, 1942, the Federal Trade Commission again called attention to Camel advertising in Complaint No...
...I will write it so that you can understand...
...172-3...
...Think of Debussy and Ravel, Honegger and Milhaud, Schoenberg and Alban Berg, Hindesmith and Stravinsky...
...Of course, Camels were made of "costlier tobaccos...
...Legislation could be batted about—from the House to ;"th'e Senate to the President to the lower courts to the Supreme Court...
...This anecdote has no reference to Shostakovitch...
...Hazlitt's proposal on their agenda this minute...
...Only this year the makers of Camels decided to recommend them as remarkable adjuncts to good health...
...They were conscious of the fact that a genius was speaking...
...One of the fundamental difficulties of labor in its effort to secure legislation is the rotten-borough system which gives agricultural states unrepresentative preponderance of power in the Senate...
...In Europe they are loyal to Bruckner and Mahler...
...Actually he used no such method...
...This work may...
...George -W^M#i» had defended the Senate *with a charming analogy...
...No doubt, continuous cigarette smoking is at least as injurious as taking a couple of drinks daily, a confirmed addiction to coffee, or.consuming, too much chocolate...
...But, that is about all that can be said...
...Moreover, there seems to be no evidence that the difference in acidity between the several leading brands of cigarettes is any greater than the difference in acidity between varying specimens of the same brand...
...Our checks and balances, he thinks, are a peril to the whole democratic process...
...And our old" outfit, the One the fathers drew up in 1787, is awkward and illogical and contradictory, but by the bones of all of its critic?, it still goes lumbering on...
...The complaint stated that all these representations were inaccurate, deceptive, false, and misleading, and that the respondent also paid for testimonials from users and mere purported usere of Camels...
...The joke is on the smoker, as usual...
...Hazlitt's main point has overwhelming validity...
...In the dangerous days ahead they may paralyze our government at a moment of crisis...
...Eventually, Camels did drop that kind of advertising, but probably only after it got ready to do so...
...Besides tobacco, cigarettes contain such things as glycerine, vanilla, tonka-bean extract, rum, alcohol, fruit flavors, essential oils, sugar, resin, and so on, for flavoring...
...We sell cigarettes—not medicine...
...The fraud was large-scale...
...TTWO THINGS constantly reappear in striking fashion in the * development of music...
...Here we certainly have a great musical creator composing a mighty symphony under the extraordinary conditions of working in s beleagured city in the moments which he could steal from his duties as civilian defense warden...
...therefore, doing thirty or more yeare ago precisely what Shostakovitch does today—excepting that behind him stood no official Soviet power...
...Many were pre-written by the manufacturer's representative, the supposed writer being paid only for the use of his name...
...Is it possible that he has not been acquainted with them...
...Elections would occur as they do in Engfand and Australia, whenever the premier and the Congress differ on an important policy...
...They asked only his permission to take a picture of him making cigars by hand for a series of industrial photographs...
...He proposes that a majority of Congress be empowered to start an amendment on its way and that a majority of the people in a majority of the states be sufficient to add it to the constitution...
...Here we were, we American people...
...He was...
...But it will be remembered that one company invented the repulsive phrase: Spit is a tLorrid word, and tried its best to make cigar smokers think that all other cigars were somehow sealed together with saliva...
...Hazlitt was—and is —against the third term for the President...
...Thirty millions of us had journeyed to the polls and pulled levers or marked ballots...
...It made people receptive even if they had no notion of pure music...
...If you don't believe it, read pp...
...be concluded) Shostakovich Controversy Raises Issue of Modern Music and the Masses By PAUL STEFAN POUR MONTHS have passed since that sultry summer day wher...
...Since then this work has been given a regular concert performance by Serge Koussevitsky and another radio performance by, Toscanini...
...We wanted more fiexi-^.MKty...
...IN recent times, cigar makers have perhaps erred less * than makers of cigarettes because cigar smoking has been'a waning vice...
...and that Camels did not affect the wind adversely or irritate the throat...
...It took us twenty years to get an income tax after the people wanted it From 1919 to 1921 we practically stood still, held our breadth, to all practical intents had no federal government...
...The proposals for streamlining activity in the House, too, will gain general adhesion as quickly as they are stated and understood...
...The combination of the types, plus the flavoring matters used, results in the blend the smoker thinks he can recognize...
...We think there's a large enough market, of intelligent people who smoke only for the simple pleasure of smoking...
...No native Hitler can ever get round this American routine...
...How can the public be roused...
...Then think of our own way of doing things...
...When Camels began to say: It is fun to be fooled, and to tell how certain tricks were done, the Society of American Magicians got up in arms and protested volubly that the honor of the magician's cult had been besmirched...
...The method was in actuality one of merely selling a five-cent cigar for five cents, but so poor ib the ability of the average smoker to tell quality that the purchasers thought they were buying and smoking fine cigars...
...When the music characteristic of this period was heard for the first time, many were inspired by its novelty and conceived the hop* that from this would develop a new age, a change in the direction of a new greatness, a magnificent upward swing of the sort that musical history has exhibited only rarely...
...Democratic governments fell because they were stymied by their own awkwardness...
...DUT, as I said, I have been looking and;thinking and reading this book...
...With a single elective house responsible for legislation and in control of administration, the remaining link in the chain of a responsive and flexible government mechanism would be an easier method of constitutional amendment With regard to this vital point Mr...
...very well...
...Also false is the claim that Prince Albert or any other brand is 86 degrees or any notable degree cooler burning than other tobaccos...
...Since then I have made a great mistake...
...Indeed, smoking Camels was said to soothe irritated nerves in a unique way and to prevent jitters...
...There is only one point about our constitution with regard to which I think he is wrong...
...It may gain from an especially good performance, but it is not dependent on it...
...False also were claims that Camels were made of costlier tobacco, that the makers bought only choice lots of tobacco to make Camels, that Camels were far and away the choice of tobacco growers, that they burn a fourth slower than competing brands, giving five extra smokes per package...
...Law and New JJENRY HAZLITT is convinced that the re-* * vamping of the Constitution is one of the urgent problems of our time...
...We offer these people a fine cigarette of better-than-usual tobaccos made more enjoyable by a touch of menthol that does nothing but produce a pleasing sensation of coolness...
...What Henry Hazlitt has in mind is a cabinet system centering round a premier chosen by a single-chambered Congress...
...in fact, be unique...
...He suggests improvements in our system of balloting, but the detailed accounts of the impossible patchworks of parties in the European parliaments are enough to drive Americans forever away from the notion of guaranteeing representation to every minority...
...It furnishes us—against the upstart fascist —as much security as can be found in solemn words, regular political habits and slow-motion ways of doing things...
...It didn't scare anyone...
...But, under- controlled blindfold test, he is usually unable to distinguish even the brand he always smokes because he likes it best...
...He points to legislative councils now in operation in six state legislatures as practical models of a better procedure...
...T*HE one point about which I am still the unrecon-* structed conservative is the fixed term of office, the regularly recurring election...
...This word, abyss, now haunts -every discussion of the relation between music and the public...
...The tobacco in a cigarette usually does come out of several barrels, each of which contains tobacco of a definite type...
...Their government will be the last word'in flexibility...
...We wanted a constitution under which we could get ' what we want when we want it...
...However, this lead was not generally followed...
...Unique in this respect: there are today few musical works— or none—which have been so consciously written for the masses without degenerating into vulgarity...
...The advertising had been claiming that Camels were good for and aided digestion, as was proved by science and millions of smokers...
...Whatever was—or was not —settled, one thing was clear...
...Congress and the people wanted an in...
...piVE or six years ago also, certain cigarette makers * conceived the idea of telling the public that acid smoke was what injured them and that the smoke from their brand was not acid...
...And I want to keep it...
...But he said the picture later appeared with a caption stating that spit-tipping was used by him...
...The trade unions of this country should put this point of Mr...
...in fact, the art of Shostakovitch as a whole—on the basis of all sorts of incidentals such as echoes from other composers or comparisons with Beethoven...
...Some of them have shown remarkable imaginative genius.in this...
...because they used his photograph at work in some of this advertising...
...Notable examples of both tendencies are to be found in Wagner's "Meistersinger...
...Pp...
...Then Hindenburg appointed Hitler to the chancellorship—and that was the end of the beautiful constitution...
...This caused considerable trouble...
...the radio brought us the new symphony of Dimitri Shostakovitch...
...On the one hand, great new works are often persecuted and denounced as heresies by professional musicians...
...I have read his book...
...And out of this hell of noise and confusion has come a work—leaving aside all stupid comparisons with the great of other centuries—the like of which we seldom hear...
...Very well...
...For it was said that two dozen corporations, partnerships, and individuals engaged in cigar making signed the agreement to quit calling cheap cigars factory throw-outs...
...In this connection it is well to recall a remark once made by Mahler...
...Babes in arms could grow up and become voters while the refrigerating process proceeded...
...It is wanting in ethical values...
...But often enough greatness and significance were lacking...
...The unintelligibility results less from unfamiliar sounds than from the overloading of the symbols as well as of the color...
...Britain, with an all-powerful House and no written constitution, looked good to us...
...This fact could not be hidden...
...Twenty years after the bill was passed we - finally got what a previous generation had wanted...
...I read this book of .his while the election returns were coming in and while the editors were deluging us with a veritable crazy-quilt of interpretations...
...The cards were stacked against me...
...If he could get it across to a majority of our voters we should have a constitutional convention as soon as it could be called...
...often enough, nothing more than an almost mechanical form without content...
...A majority of the national population* in 1930 was in the sixteen states of the industrial Northeast, but these states were represented by only onerthird of the members of the Senate...
...Then it will be too late...
...When the New York Daily News said Roosevelt would postpone the popular plebiscite, it failed to make a dent precisely because we had faith in the regularity of our political rhythm...
...Thibsconcerned the sale of cheap-grade cigars as "factory throw-outs" (cigars with minor imperfections) of high-^rade cigars...
...Perhaps it will turn out to be the one which tips the scales toward action...
...I think Britain would be better off this minute if the present Parliament had been turned out long ago...
...A few years ago, a Pittsburgh cigar maker actually sued the American Cigar Co...
...We had gone through the expensive motions of an election...
...This lack is sensed by the audience...
...So we all plumped for a responsible and flexible government...
...It was just about at this point that the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation of Louisville hit a new high in original cigarette advertising by placing this advertisement in the same Journal for August 8, 1936: "NOT OFFERED AS A REMEDY for frayed nerves, indigestion, or acidosis...
...In this mood I said to ,Mr...
...that Camels also gave an energy "lift" and thus increased bodily strength and relieved fatigue, hence aided athletes, as testified by them...
...There was also a stipulation issued by the Federal Trade Commission on April 7, 1934, in the old days when it pursued its activities with an anonymous secrecy regarding the companies in question...
...By careful analysis of what happened in Italy, France and Germany he shows that the tragedies over there came—not because their governments were flexible but because they were irresponsible and crazy...
...And I am willing to go almost the whole way with Henry Hazlitt...
...On the other hand, the "unlettered" masses have often enough understood new music and received it warmly...
...The experience of Australia proves that this method does not lead to frivolous and unnecessary attempts at change...
...When the public took note that music was being produced like any other merchandise, as mere merchandise, as propaganda, it lost interest Between men to whom mere change had become the motivating principle, to whom increasing mechanization was the chief object—between them and the public appeared an ever widening abyss...
...This opinion is justifiable and is far from being deprecatory It seems to be the fact however, that Shostakovitch is only unconsciously indebted to Mahler...
...It pre-• vents the burning of the public mouth by legislation 'too radical and hot But we had seen too much of this temperature-reducing delay...
...Brute forces may wreck the whole fabric of our political life...
...The music of today is...
...William E. Bohn, editor of The New Leader, discusses Mr...
...I must be allowed to question, however, whether the composition and the composer are to be ranked with Beethoven...
...If he is right, what is to be done...
Vol. 25 • November 1942 • No. 47
