1910's Medicine and Health | "Tobacco: A Race Poison"

Presentation

By: Daniel Lichty

Date: January 1914

Source: Lichty, Daniel. "Tobacco: A Race Poison." Proceedings of the First National Conference on Race Betterment, Battle Creek, Mich.: Race Betterment Foundation, 1914, 222–224, 225, 226, 229, 230, 232.

About the Author: Daniel Lichty, M.D. was a vigorous anti-tobacco crusader who brought his firsthand experience with lung diseases—especially tuberculosis—to bear on the problems of smoking.

Introduction

During the Progressive era, while the crusade to prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages was a major issue, a lesser campaign targeted yet another perceived public-health menace—tobacco. While the opponents of alcohol scored a spectacular political victory with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution mandating at least a partial national prohibition (the manufacture,...