The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-18
THE cANTEEN QUESTION.

1
The question of prohibiting the sale of
| beer and other intoxicating drinks upon
ANY military premises. has again become a
very live one IN administration and mill
| tary circles. The General Conference OF
the Methodist Church. now In session in
Chicago, criticised the President severely
a day or two ago for permitting the estab-
lishmsnt of canteens at military posts.
The last Congress enacted law against
the sale of intox.cants on military prem
ises, but it seems there was a loopho!e
in It which the Attorney General found,
and so the sale of intoxicants in army
canteens goes on just as If no such law
had ever been enacted. Naturally
the opponents of the canteen have not a
very kindly feeling for the Attorney Cen
eral, and they are disposed to blame the
President for not everything the decision
of that Official.
Another auti-canteen bill has been in
PRODUCED into Congress. and is now pend
ing before the Military Committee of the
House. In our dispatches yesterday Mr..
Root. the Secretary of War. and Adjutant
General Corbin were quoted in respect
10 lillS DAli. LHcy are DOtIl against IT.
Secretary Root said that he thought the
effect of the bill, IL ii should become
law, would be injurious to the temperance,
morals and discipline of the enlisted men
of the army. Gen. Corbin said that if
the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating
drinks at military posts could be made
effective. he would favor the pending bill
but he declared that it could not be made
effective Just as soon as the canteen
is closed at an army post "blind tiger
saloons spring up all around the post and
encourage the soldiers to drink. AS a
result, there is far more drunkenness
among the soldiers where there is no can
teen than where there is.
The canteen is kept under the supervis-
ion of the officers of the post, and drink
ing 90 excess by the soldiers is not per-
mitted. In fact, the soldiers, knowing
they can get liquor when they want it, do
not seem to have such thirst for It,
They take an occasional drink and are
| satisfied. Where there is no canteen,
however, the soldiers patronize the drink
| ing places in the vicinity of the posts
and It not infrequently happens that they
drink to intoxication. The keepers of
these blind tigers" use all sorts of means
to entice them to enter their places, and
squander Their money for drink.
1t does seem strange that the advocates
Of prohibition cannot see that the closing
of the army canteen would be an injury
to the soldiers rather than protection. Tine
| testimony of army officers is that the en-
listed men ae very much better off with
| the canteen than without it. The extreme
| enti-liquor people refuse to look at the
| question in a practical manner. They
do not seem to care for the interests of
the soldiers; they simply want to force the
army to accept their method of dealing
with the liquor ques ion.
1t would not be surprising II the anti
canteen bill should pass. The people who
are urging its passage are influential with
| congressman and the President does not
like to be criticised by the church TO which
he belongs. If the evidence of expert
enced army officers is worth anything,
however, the suppression of the canteen
would not tend to promote temperance
among the enlisted men.