THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARMY.
By S.
IN an article in a recent number of the Outlook, Chaplain O. J. Nave, of the regular army, explains the power of the liquor influence in the army, showing the terrible trend toward dissipation and drunkenness. He also declares positively that there are no army orders or regulations for curtailing the evil, while everything conspires to break down any and every barrier of resistance to drinking on the part of new recruits. We give the following extract from the chaplain's article:— “Drinking, from an occasional glass to excessive indulgence, is almost universal in the army. Officers who graduate from West Point, or who are appointed directly from civil life, many of whom are total abstainers when they enter the army, become drinkers, with few exceptions, soon after they go upon the active list. “Soldiers who are total abstainers when they enlist (and I aver that there are many such) soon fall into the pernicious habit, not only of moderate but of immoderate drinking, so that drunkenness is one of the blots on the army. “Serious as these two facts are, fruitful as this indulgence is of breaches of good order and military discipline—and it is almost wholly accountable for disorders in the army—there has never been any effort made to discourage the initial steps toward this vice. No line or word in Army Regulations or Army Orders, or by inspection inquiries or administrative regret, so far as I have any knowledge, has ever appeared to discourage the initial indulgence in drink. On the contrary, the attitude of the government has encouraged the drink habit. It licensed traders to furnish alcoholic liquors, giving all necessary facilities and encouragement to them, and latterly has maintained co-operative saloons, going so far as to force them upon commanders who were adverse to them as a post policy, so that the only conclusion to which officers and men can arrive is that the government has been entirely favorable to the use of alcohol, even in the face of the degradation and disgrace to the service, as well as to officers and men, consequent upon its use. “The traditions of the service, as well as the codes of conduct, have been entirely favorable to drinking. They are so to-day. The officer or soldier who is persistently a total abstainer is the object of jest, and too often of mockery. He is regarded as peculiar, eccentric, affected, and too often is not fellowshiped by his associates. The drinker prates about his loathsome indulgence as a virtue, and typical of his profession of arms. He does this with no fear of disfavor, but, on the contrary, knowing that he is in harmony with the ruling customs and traditions of the service. An officer informed me not long since that when he graduated from West Point, he, with twenty other members of his class, was a total abstainer and member of a total abstinence society at the Academy. But he stated that when he reached his regiment, he was forced to give it up. The officers made it so hot for him that he had to choose between resignation, transfer to another regiment, and yielding to the customs of the service, and, he said, he yielded. It is a rare man who can resist the tremendous pressure, let him be officer or soldier.” The influence which the army exerts upon those whom it rules can not be better than the influence exerted by it upon its own members. What, then, has the Christian to expect from the army in the way of advancing the cause of Christ in any part of the world? The “gospel of powder and ball,” administered under the stimulus of alcohol, is not a God-ordained precursor of Christianity. The Christian must look to Christ, and not to such an agency, to open the doors and hearts of heathendom to the Gospel message.