The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-23
THE CANTEEN MISERY.

The national administration has been
subjected to a deal of criticism during
the past two years and over, and will
doubtless be subjected to a good deal
more during the remaining period Of its
existence. But it is doubtful whether
in all that has been said in criticism or
condemnation there has been anything
which has touched more closely many of
the most devoted adherents of that admin.
istration than the report of the recent
Methodist general conference on the army
canteen law. That document represents
the views Of men who have always enter
tanned the greatest personal admiration
for President Mckinley. They have been
able to distinguish very little i'll the ad-
ministration outside of the personality of
the president
1t is hardly surprising under those cir
cumstances that the members of the
Methodist conference should pe heard ex-
pressing themselves regarding the can
teen decision il the following excessively
personal terms concerning the head of the
administration: Upon the president, as
commander-in-chief of our army" says
this report, rests the responsibility for
the canteen saloon, an evil which he has
ample power to suppress, and which, to
quote the episcopal address, is a more
deadly foe to the soldier than bullet or
tropic heat "
The 0 e does not pretend to even
guess how heavily the responsibility rests
on the shoulders of the president His po-
Htical friends have made all the political
capital possible to be made for him out
of the circumstance that he Is an active
member Of the Methodist church. He Is
therefore, naturally enough, looked to for
the embodiment in his own conduct, pub
lie as well as private, of the views of the
ultra church clements Of social life That
he is held personally responsible for the
canteen decision of Attorney General
Griggs merely shows how close Mr.. Nc
Kinley is personally to the class of men
for whom that conference is regarded as
speaking.
The decision of the attorney general was
plainly labored and deliberate evasion of
the plain requirements of the canteen law.
The construction placed on that law by
the presidents legal adviser is so strained
that every one must regard the decision
as being dictated by what it's author re-
CARDS as considerations of public policy.
That it is sustained by the common sense
OF the situation no one will deny who
looks at the question from any other
standpoint save that of the radical pro-
hibitionists. The anti-canteen law ought
never to have been passed. It's enforce
ment. according to literal interpreta-
ton of its provisions, would entail the
gravest wrong and danger to the soldier.
AS construed by the attorney general and
approved by the president it is shorn of
its worst dangers to the soldier at the
military post, in saving him from the de-
basing influence of the low groggeries
which are to be found in the vicinity
of military posts and of the bottled
hydrophobic virus which is dispensed as
whisky at such resorts.
The president and his advisers may not
have merited the unrestrained condemna-
tion visited upon them by the conference
report, but they certainly do merit the
severest condemnation for the part they
played in the passage by congress of the
anti-canteen law, which is a rank express
sion of cowardice and demagogism, the
passage of which was made party meas
ure designed to placate just the element
of society which is now in arms against
its non-enforcement.