Daily Doc: TI, Dec 11, 1979: Tobacco Industry Zealotry
Daily Doc: Tobacco Industry Zealotry
Title: HORACE KORNEGAY SPEECH TOBACCO & ALLIED INDUSTRIES DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE [DRAFT OF KORNEGAY HR SPEECH TO TOBACCO AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES DIVISION OF AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, RE: EFFORTS OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY TO COMBAT CIGARETTE CONTROVERSY AND BENEFITS OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY.
TI, Dec 11, 1979
Bates #: TIMN0094652/4662
January 8, 2001
When tobacco industry representatives use their time-worn strategy of portraying members of the anti-tobacco movement as nothing more than a bunch of shrill, over-emotional zealots, pull out this wild speech by Horace Kornegay of the Tobacco Institute.
Kornegay gave this speech to theTobacco and Allied Industries Division of the American Jewish Community on December 11, 1979. In the speech, Kornegay ingratiatingly likens attacks on the tobacco industry to the repression experienced by Jews, and likens the tobacco industry's struggle for survival to Jewish historical efforts to
"[combat] bigotry and [protect] civil rights... "He repeatedly invokes passages from "the Jewish Bible."
Kornegay refers to federal health advocate Joseph Califano "Ayatollah Califano" and compares anti-tobacco supporters to axe-murderers, declaring that,
"The hatchet-swinging heart of Carrie Nation beats within the breast of the typical anti-smoking zealot."Yet, after all this frenzied buildup, Kornegay tries to minimize his over-the-top emotionalism, saying:
"Naturally, some people will suspect that we at the Tobacco Insitute have spent so long fighting the cigarette controversy that we have become a little paranoid. But let me assure you that paranoia is justified. They are out there; they are out to get us;"Kornegay goes on to make "dire" predictions that smoking will eventually be banned on airlines, in Federal buildings, and that the industry would (*gasp!*) have to place tar and nicotine numbers on the packages, and strengthen the health warnings, predicting that these measures will cause the industry great harm. Then, ironically, he goes on to make what we now consider to be a very strong case in favor of policies to eliminate public smoking:
"Consider this: If the pressure of anti-smoking laws and regulation succeeds in stopping each American smoker from lighting up just one cigarette each day, the annual consequences are devastating:
Cigarette consumption would drop by more than 18 billion units. Personal spending for cigarettes would decline by more than half a billion dollars."
CITATION
Title: HORACE KORNEGAY SPEECH TOBACCO & ALLIED INDUSTRIES DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE [DRAFT OF KORNEGAY HR SPEECH TO TOBACCO AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES DIVISION OF AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, RE: EFFORTS OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY TO COMBAT CIGARETTE CONTROVERSY AND BENEFITS OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY.
Type of Document: Speech (confidential draft)
Author Horace Kornegay, Tobacco Institute Recipient: N/A (Tobacco and Allied Indutries Division of the American Jewish Committee)
Date: 19791211
Site: Tobacco Documents Online http://www.tobaccodocuments.org
Page Count 11
Bates No. TIMN0094652-4662
URL: http://www.tobaccodocuments.org/view.cfm?docid=TIMN0094652/4662&source=SNAPTI&ShowImages=yes
Litigation Usage: None yet
Search Criteria: "Combat and confidential and speech" on Tobacco Documents Online.
QUOTES
(Excerpts of a speech given by Horace Kornegay of the Tobacco Institute to the Tobacco and Allied Industries Division of the American Jewish Community, December 11, 1979):
It is with a sense of mixed emotions as I stand before you on this occasion. Deep humility and great pride surge within my consciousness as I contemplate this distinguished audience...
I am humbled by David Gillespie's achievements for his company, his industry, and for his fellow man. Yet, at the same time, his towering example imbues me with great price--pride in tobacco, pride in the tobacco family--for the good work that our much-maligned industry and its leaders have done, are doing, and will continue to do to advance human relations for all people everywhere...
...This dinner is a fitting occasion for us to strengthen our resolve and to renew our dedication. For the American Jewish Committee is a pioneer in combating bigotry and protecting civil rights...
I believe it is no coincidence that the Liberty Bell, which sounded to announce the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, is inscribed with a motto taken from the Jewish bible. Leviticus 225:10 -- "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." This passage was a critical part of Jewish history and American history. It was given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai as a condition for the life of the Israelites in the Promised Land--and it was a rallying cry expressing one of the highest aspirations of our founding fathers. When Jacob wrestled with the angel and won, he was given the name "Israel," which means he will prevail in his struggles. ... We too will prevail--if, and only if-- we struggle.
Let me warn you that we have much to struggle against in order to prevail. The anti-smoking movement seems to go out of its way to surround itself with negative symbols, invoke mean-spirited emotion and appeal to violence. Ant-smoking group acronyms and names reflect the negativism: LASH (Legislative Action on Smoking and Health), GASP (Group Against Smoker's Pollution), SMASH (Society for Mortification and Smoker Humiliation), SHAME (Society to Humiliate, Abuse, Mortify and Embarrass Smokers)... People who use tobacco are made to feel dirty and unattractive by slogans like "Kissing a smoker is lick licking a dirty ashtray." They are made to feel irresponsible...guilty by leaflets that imply that smokers do not love their children. Tobacco companies are called "merchants of death" and their customers are called "addicts." ...Innocent people whose only offense is puffing a cigarette have been shouted and screamed at, sprayed with aerosols, doused with water, they have had lemonade poured over their heads, have had their cigarettes pulled out of their mouths, or sheared off with scissors...
But even more serious than their individual acts of hostility and aggression, the anti-smokers have managed to draw the power of government to their crusade. Public smoking is sweeping the state and local levels. Individual liberty is losing ground to prohibitionist legislation. What should be handled by tolerance is decided by pressure politics...The unfortunate result is the effective criminalization of smoking and smokers. Millions of citizens who use tobacco are subject to segregation, fine, arrest, harassment and humiliation at the hands of the very same government which their taxes support and which was created to defend their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
As public smoking laws proliferate, a dangerous precedent is established: the government chooses sides in a controversy over lifestyle. The government extends its heavy hand of regulation upon individual identity and personal style...
Rational arguments are insufficient to explain the momentum of the anti-smoking movement...for there is no scientific substance to the charge of health hazard to the nonsmoker...
A sociologist who believes that "anti-smoking is the new anti-Semitism" goes too far. Yet, there in an ugly undercurrent of repression under the surface of the anti-smoking crusade...The hatchet-swinging heart of Carrie Nation beats within the breast of the typical anti-smoking zealot.
In 1977, Ayatollah Califano, who had been a three pack a day smoker, decided that smoking was anathema. To the cheers of a coterie of rabid anti-smokers representing no opinion but their own, he moved toward ultimate prohibition...
The tobacco controversy is now a deeply political matter...What the government can do to tobacco and smokers today, they can do to other products and other consumers tomorrow. Don't be decieved by noble aims and lofty claims; tyranny usually comes cloaked in good intentions.
Naturally, some people will suspect that we at the Tobacco Institute have spent so long fighting the cigarette controversy that we have become a little paranoid. But let me assure you that paranoia is justified. They are out there; they are out to get us; the threat is real.
Consider this: If the pressure of anti-smoking laws and regulation succeeds in stopping each American smoker from lighting up just one cigarette each day, the annual consequences are devastating.
Cigarette consumption would drop by more than 18 billion units. Personal spending for cigarettes would decline by more than half a billion dollars. Federal excise tax revenues would be reduced by nearly $70 million. State excise tax collections would slip by almost $110 million.
But remember, the anti-smokers have much greater ambitions than just one cigarette a day.
The conventional wisdom of linking tobacco with disease has become deeply entrenched in the American mind...Therefore, I look ahead to hostility in Congress. Although, thanks to the presidential elections, 1980 might bring us a period of all quiet on the National front...
Nevertheless, we can expect a conglomeration of adverse legislative proposals, such as:
Bills to strengthen the language on the warning label. Bills to place tar and nicotine numbers on packages. Bills to regulate smoking in Federal buildings. Bills to increase the excise tax on cigarettes. Bills to restrict or prohibit smoking on airplanes and other interstate transportation...
The anti-smoking activists will be as unrelenting and ingenious as earlier prohibitionists in their efforts to harass this industry and its consumers. They will attempt to drag smoking into other controversies! Air pollution, occupational disease, fire safety, life insurance, worker's compensation, oral contraceptives...
Now having painted a picture of Hell, it behooves me to point the way to salvation...I believe we have the wherewithal to meet--and defeat--this massive attack. I draw my confidence from scripture, from the Bible--Exodus, chapter 19 verses 21 to 25....
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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
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