o you mind if
I smoke?" was a polite question two hundred years ago when tobacco was
rare enough to make smoking a distinction, or fifty years ago when
everybody smoked at home and in public. But it is effrontery to-day
when people do mind, when smoking pollutes the air of drawing room and
office, and while soothing the excited nerves of the smoker lowers the
vitality of nonsmokers compelled to breathe smoke-laden air. It is
selfish to intrude upon others a personal weakness or a personal
appetite. It is selfish to divert from family purposes to "soothing
excited nerves" even the small amounts necessary to maintain the cigar
or cigarette habit. It is selfish to run the risk of shortening one's
life, of reducing one's earning capacity. Because the tobacco habit is
selfish it is anti-social and a nuisance, and should be fought by
social as well as personal weapons, as are other recognized nuisances,
such as spitting in public or offensive manners.

The economic motive for avoiding and for eliminating tobacco is gaining
in strength. The soothing qualities of all drugs are found to be
expensive to physical and business energy if enjoyed during business
hours. Strangely enough, employers who smoke are quite as apt as are
nonsmokers, to forbid the use of tobacco by employees at work. Some of
this seeming inconsistency is due to a dislike for cheaper tobacco or
for mixed brands in one atmosphere; some of it is due to the smoker's
knowledge that "soothing nerves" and sustained attention do not go hand
in hand, while "pipe dreams" and unproductive meditation are fast
companions; finally no little of the opposition to tobacco in business
is due to fear of fire. These various motives, combining with the
anti-nuisance motive among nonsmokers, have led many business
enterprises to prohibit the use of tobacco in any form on their
premises or during business hours, even when on the premises of others.
Notable examples are railroads that permit no passenger trainman to use
tobacco while on duty. (Freight trainmen are restricted more tardily
because the risk of damages is less and the anti-nuisance objection is
wanting.)

From penalizing excessive use and prohibiting moderate use in business
hours, it is a short cut to choosing men who never use tobacco and thus
never suffer any of its effects and never exhibit any of its offensive
evidences. No young man expects to obtain a favorable hearing if he
offers himself for employment while