AGAINST THE CANTEEN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1905

AGAINST THE CANTEEN.

THE sale of intoxicating liquors in army posts, under the auspices of the government itself, finds an ardent opponent in Col. Noel Gaines, inspector-general of the Kentucky State Guard. While the Army and Navy Gazette would fain ridicule his opposition to the "canteen," it gives him credit for good service while an officer of the army in the Philippines. The army officers who favor the sale of liquors in the garrisons argue that it keeps the soldiers from seeking strong drink in low dives on the outside. Colonel Gaines makes the point that if strong drink at a distance is bad, it must be worse when brought within closer range. On this point he says:

If pointing a loaded rifle at you from a distance of a hundred yards would be considered dangerous, would the danger be lessened by bringing it closer to you? Would you not rather say, Take it farther away! or, rather, take it away altogether? . . . Tempting is the devil's business, and should be his business only, and not the business of a free government.

On the point of raising the morale of the army, about which a good deal is said in this connection, the people might as well understand that armies are not moral institutions at best. The drilling of men in the use of deadly weapons and in the art of killing their fellow-men, and the glorifying as heroes those who are the most successful in this line, is not calculated to improve their morals.

Much has been said about strong drink causing desertions, but that is not generally the cause. Drinking is the cause of most of the petty offenses of soldiers, and the lowering of the naturally-low morale of military association; but when it comes to the matter of desertion, the drinking men are not usually the ones who desert. Desertion, under ordinary circumstances, is caused by utter disgust with the service, especially disgust with the petty tyranny and pomposity of autocratic "rank."

Drinking and gambling are the principal causes that bring men to the point of enlisting in the army—excepting in times of special call in a temporary emergency. And the argument of army officers that it is necessary to provide opportunity for strong drink in the army posts in order to hold the men, is not very commendatory of the class of men who compose the army. It is a very poor inducement, from the standpoint of association, for the young men of "character" whom the government is always seeking as recruits for the army.