San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-01-25
ARMY NEWS.

REPORTED SPECIALLY FOR THE LIGHT.
Everything has quieted down
after the storm raised yesterday
over the mess hall affair. The food =,
1t Is reported, has become better, but
this improvement cannot be ex-
pected to last, as it is impossible to
run a large mess like this and keep
up the quality Of food on the ration.
While it Is admitted that the pres
emit army ration is a first class one,
and superior to the ration served
in any military service today, new
ertheless, the officer in charge Of
the mess, nor his stewerd, be they
ever so competent, cannot be eX-
pected to take the interest in max
ing exchanges and "rustling" that
would be taken by a nome ON
missioned officer in charge of his
own company mess. An occurrence
like that OF yesterday was never
known where an organization has
messed by itself.
The fact of the matter is, the
post mess hall system is dismal
failure, and along with this, is the
most unpopular institution in the
whole service. This can be demon
strated by hearing men assert
time and again that they would
rather serve on frontier post with
a company mess than serve in the
heart of civilization with increas-
ed pay, and be compelled to put
up with the Post mess sys-
tenn under the most favor
able circumstances. The Post mess
system is unpopular. Take for in
stance that institution at the Ca.
valry and Artillery school at Fort
Riley; here the mess has several
hundred acres under cultivation lit
owns numerous cows and hogs;
they try to do the best they can
and they do fairly we'll, but the
men are dissatisfied and claim that
with all these advantages the post
mess there is not equal to the COM
pany mess.
A soldier receives little pay, his
ration is all sufficient when proper
~ managed, and he ought to be con-
sidered when it comes to cooking
and serving his food, but this mess
hall system has been institut-
ed evidently as an expert
ment by those whom it
would appear know little
about the soldier practically. 1t is
true his regimental and company
commanders were asked for their
opinions as to the advisability of
establishing such messes, and it is
still further true that in nearly
every case those regimental and
company commanders were OPP
posed to it's Introduction, but the
thing had been cut and dried; it
was introduced against most vigor-
Gus protests, and now that it has
demonstrated itself to be failure
those who are responsible for its
introduction lack the necessary
backbone to acknowledge it.
The post mess hall system
Is dead failure and will
always continue so it is looked
upon by the men as fake it is de-
cidedly and deservedly unpopular
and is one more Of the new ideas |
in the wrong direction that has a
tendency to destroy any little es
prit de corps that still continues to |
exist in the service. There is no |
one individual in this or any other |
garrison where the Post mess |
exists, at whose door the blame for
the failure of the mess can be laid; |
it, is an unpopular and detested in
and the sooner the au-
thorities realize this and abolish |
it the sooner will peace and happi.
ness be restored to the minds and |
the stomachs OF those most direct
ly interested in its discontinuance,
the enlisted men.