The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-07-27
TIE rRonisIrloNrsrs.

business. to demoralize the temperance
habits of young men and to brine
Christian practices and requirements
into disrepute than any other president
this republic has had"
ExaeIefation Is the common vice Of
great moral movements and " accounts
In some degree for the fact that the
Prohibition party was reduced from the
third to the fifth place in national pol
itics by the election OF 1896. People
who never drink alcoholic beverages
and who would like to see the traffic In
them suppressed declined to have any
thing to do with movement that was
as fanatical in some of its ways as The
one which sent the selectnen OF Salem
out at night with lanterns To watch for
witches on broomsticks.
Every reasoning person knows that
President Mckinley has done nothing
Intentionally to encourage the liquor
business or to demoralize young men.
What the Prohibitionists mean is that
he has executed the peoples will as
expressed in an Act of Congress per-
mitting the sale of light wines and beer
In Army garrisons. But was this
bad thing for temperance? Before that
went to the low groggeries and booz-
ing-kens that skirted all Army reserv-
ations on the Mainland and spent their
earnings on the polsons there dispens-
ed. Murder. robbery and vagabondage
were the three graces at the feasts ana
the morale of the Army was nearly
ruined. Finally at the earnest request
of our military officers, especially sur
IN
the sale of wine and beer to soldiers
and check the use of spirits. by estab-
fishing "canteens." In these places no
soldier was tempted to over-indul-
gence: what beverages he got We're
mild and pure and he was kept from
drunkenness The percentage of army
drinking fell off and the liquor trade,
especially the retail part of 1t, protest
ed bitterly. So marked was the i'm
provement in the young men of Uncle
Sans service that Congress. though
importured by enormous petitions to
abolish the canteen, has refused to do
SO.
Upon these points we note the fol-
lowing comments in Harper's Weekly
journal which surely cannot be call
ed an organ of the um-sellers:
Believing that the persons who knew
best about the effect OF the canteen on
the soldier were the officers OF the army,
the War Department lately asked the
opinions of the commanding officers of
troops, batteries, companies. and regi-
ments as to the effect of the canteen
system, and espec' ally of the sale of beer,
on the morality and discipline of the en-
listed men. The replies of commanding
officers in the Philippines have not yet
been received, but about fifteen hundred
answers from other officers have come In,
and of these the number opposed to the
canteen system is about forty, The rest
heartily approve the carefully regulated
sale OF beer. on the ground that 1t keeps
the men away from saloons and evil re-
sorts outside the posts, and promotes
temperance and good discipline.
These reports will presently he printed,
and will be ohtainabe by persons who
care to see them II Is very much to be
hoped that conscientious persons who
have agitated. and expect to ag tate fur
ther. for the abolition of the canteen sys-
tenn Will procure and read them. 1t seems
to the Weekly impossible that the testi-
mony they cffer as 10 the merits of the
present system. and the evils that preced
ed II and which would follow its destruc-
ton. can fan to convince reasonable peo-
pie In and out of Congress that IL makes
for Righteousness ard sobrlety to let the
Canteen system alone.
Contrast these statements with the
fanatical charge that President Nc.
Kinley has done more to encourage
the liquor business, to demoraliZe the
Temperance habits of young men and
to bring Christian practices and re-
qurements into dlsrepute than any
other President this republic has had"
TIE attitude of the ProhibitonIsts re-
n pf 10 ot Of hot i,t,
ual forebears, the Abo,itionists. towards
Abraham Lincoln-the one man whom
Wendell PNill'rs. the great orator of
the ant.-slavery movement. delighted
to grill over TIE fires of his rhetoric.
'Lincoln," said Phillips in Faneuil
Hall, "is the slavehound of Illinois" |
That was because the future great
Emancipator did not see his way clear |
to act on the slavery question contrary |
to good policy and public sentiment; |
he would rot launch the ship of reform |
while the waters were at an ebb. 1t
was his desire as we quote the words |
of Lamartine. ito place his bark on the
highest rromontory of the beach and |
wait for the rising of the tide to make |
IL float" Events proved the wisdom |
OF his course When he declined to in |
terfere with slavery in still-loyal States |
lest they might be driven to rebel. VIM.
Lloyd Garrison called him a "time- |
server and "poltroon." Erratic |
Horace Greeley called the flag "a
Haunting lie. whose stripes are bloody |
scars" and We'd with the Richmond |
Times In nventng eplthets of hate for
Lincoln. Greeley even demanded the
dissolution OF the Federal compact so
as to LET the 'errnp aiaterap taba .to,,
cry with themselves out OF the Union
sentiment which Wendell Phillips re-
peated and anplauded The demand OF
the Abolitionists was for Immediate
ana unconditional abolition" but Il
was never achieved. Finally. as war
measure, Lincoln proclaimed the slaves
free In all rebelllous States and the
Garrisonian prints assalled him as one
Mln In nxnaIatlla.. I.-..a-i i