Evening star., 1899-03-11
FAVORS THE CANTEEN

without saying anything that could be
construed into criticism of that recent
convocation of ladies here in Washington
who demanded the abolition of the post
canteen I'd like to exude remark or two
on that subject from another point Of view
than theirs" said an army officer to Star
man the other day This assemblage OF
ladies maintained that by the continuance
of canteens in army posts Uncle Sam is
encouraging drunkenness, etc. Wen, II
they succeed in getting the canteens aboi-
ished, we won't have such a good. we'll
disciplined army as we've got now, by a
long shot. The canteen is actually the sal
walton of the American regular army sol
der, who has a natural or cultivated in
clination to drink rum. I wonder If these
ladies understand how the canteens are
run? In the first place. beer. and beer
alone. is the fluid sold over the canteen
bars. There Is no hard stuff, no nippy, red
liquor-only beer. Men who are husky
enough to pass the examination that a
man must pass to get into regular army
soldiers uniform don't get drunk on beer,
or anything like drunk. They don't even
drink canteen beer when there is anything
for them to do in a military way. The
cauteen is only open at certain hours OF
the afternoon and evening. and when 1t is
open there is nothing in the way of drills,
fatigue duty, or that sort of thing, for the
men to do. So they go to the canteen, those
OF them that want to, and sip their beer
They don't guZZle it, for a man who gets
only s13 month pay can't afford to guzzle
anything except water. The soldier pays
3 cents over the bar for big, generous
glass of beer, and If he wants two or three,
or even five or six of those beers, he is en-
titled to them, providing he has the neces-
sary number of nckels. But he Is not per-
mitted to buy more than is good for him.
The soldier stationed behind the bar, dis
pensing the beer. can at any time choke
Off the supply Of a comrade who indicates
by his manner that he has a-plenty aboard.
and this is something that very, very rare
ly happens. Besides the beer, the canteen
provides little delicacies in the way of
lunch dishes for the men at very moderate
rates, and, all in all, the canteens in Ameri-
can military posts are positive trlumphs
in the manner in which they are managed.
Moreover, the profits that accrue to the
canteen are distributed equally among the
companies, troops or batteries stationed
at the posts, and these canteen profits are
devoted to the purchasing of butter, milk
eggs and other table delicacies not pro-
vided for in the regular soldiers ration.
If the canteens were to be abolished
what would happen? Well, you're not go
ing to keep soldiers of the regular army of
the United States from drinking something
or other. If they can't get beer they'll gS
something worse. If, for instance, the SOL
diers out 1t Fort Leavenworth-where I've
been soldering good deal during the past
five years-had no canteen at which they
could get good article of beer. they'd just
sit down and wait for pay day. and then
they'd gallop over to the city of Leaven-
worth on pay night, fill themselves up TO
the hilt with raw, red booze of the wrought
nails kind. slug each other and everybody
else, get poked into the town calaboose for
disorderly conduct and have a dickens of a
time generally. A lot of 'em would get
thirty days in the Leavenworth Jail, and
then. when they returned to the fort after
having served their civil sentences, they'd
find themselves declared deserters and have
to stand trial by general court-martial for
desertion, this entailiRg sentences to mill
tary prisons of from two to three years
The canteen is maintained on the presump-
tion, which has been found exact ever
since armies were mustered, that soldiers
are going to have rum in some form or
other whether or no, and the canteen is
simply the safest and most charitable way
of giving the soldier the rum he is bound to
get. It will be bad day for the American
military service when the canteen is abol-
ished. and I know just exactly what I'm
talking about, at that