Washington sentinel., 1900-04-14
Chaplain Defends Canteeu.

A defense of the dminiStration OF
affairs at Manila IS contained IN a report
Just made to the War Department by
Chaplain Charles c. Pierce. This officer
particularly antagonlzes the ex chaplain
OF volunteers, who has been so severely
criticising the morals of the American
troops in the Philippines, making the
charge oil wholesale intoxication, and
telling of the enormous increase in the
number of liquor drinking saloons in
Manila.
Chaplain Pierce declares that the
figures as to the saloons have been
perverted that the American saloon
took the place of an uAtOd number OF
native gin shacks, which dispensed
liquor poison with deplorable effect
upon the American troops, and that the
substitution of the regimsntal canteen
has resulted in an improvement in the
sobrietY Of the troops.
The chapIain's report on this question
reads as follows:
LAS to matters ofmoral import, have
been panied to note in many alleged
interviews in newspapers a disposition
to give to the facts but a partial publ
cation. have read the statement that
but two saloons existed in Manila at tn
time OF its occupation BY the Americans.
AS I first saw that city, only eight days
later, can say that this figure is too
small; and, although it is a fact that
more public saloons exist today, 1t is
also true that there are not so many OF
them as to involve a net increase in the
number Of places in Manila where liquor
may be procured, but, on the contrary,
a dimInution. The truth is land have
not vet seen a statement of this fact in
any newspapers purportLg to give an
interview with persons who have re-
turned from theTe) that the American
saloon has superseded something else.
What it has superseded is most impor-
tant question in this interesting con
troversy. When I first saw Manila, the
streets were practically lined with little
nipa huts, perhaps about twelve feet
square, in which the natives we're selling
at a merely nominal price, not only fruit
and tobacco, but also native gin. These
gin shaks' should certainly be included
in the number Of drinking places existing
at the beginning; there number was
very large The character ofthis native
drink was so fiery and vIllainous that
its effect upon such OF our men as used
it was deplorable.
at became my 'utY to bury two
soldiers who never covered from the
effects Of drinking it. One of them had
been in the service about eighteen years,
and received from his officers, in
D PERSONAL conversation with me, com
mendation so aattering with regard to
his character Tor sobrietY and soldierly
honor hat 1t might be coveted by any
man. He had never been drunkard,
but this native poison was so virulent
in its effect that he became maddened,
and fingered in his dellrium a whole
week, never having recovered his
reason, at the time of his death. Our
authorities set to work to restrict this
traffic by a system which finally resulted
in its prohibition
81 am not personally an advocate OF
any saloon, but am forced to give my
testimony that the substitution Of regi-
mental canteens in which only beer was
sold, in place OF this trafilc in native gin,
resulted in a most immediate and per-
ceptble Improvement IN the sobrIety OF
the troops. l should welcome the day
when all men out oi the army, as well as
in it. might find it agreeable, by their
absence, to crush out the market tor all
malt and spirituous products. That
millennial age, however has not dawned'
and my opinion is that it is better to
accept such forms OF restrictions as are
feasible than to insist upon a theory
which, however ideal, is impossible oi
enforcement
The Pure Beer bill was effectually