The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-31
CANTEEN NOT MISSED.
Commander of One Post Sees No Diff
ference Since It's Abolition.

St. Paul Pioneer Press.
During an experience of forty years in
the army" said yesterday Maj. P. Henry
Ray, of the Eighth Infantry, commandant
at Fort Smelling, "the character of the
enlisted men has never been so good as it
is at present." This opinion was advanced
in connection with some comments that
Major Ray was making upon the effect of
the recent law abolishing the army can
teen.
Yes" declared the major, 1.-THE charac-
ter Of our men is so good now that the
new law has had practically no effect at
Smelling. There is no more drunkenness
among my men and no less, for there
never was very much. Among the 200 men
at the post / don't believe you could find
a single habitual drunkard. That means
a great deal. 1t means that there isn't 10
per cent. as much drunkenness in the
ranks as there was a dozen or fifteen years
ago..
For a long time past we've been weed
ing out the drunkards and the bad char
acters. The law provides that after a maj
has been punished five times by a sum-
mary court his case may be referred TO a
general court, and that general court has
the power to recommend his dishonorable
discharge. And this procedure has been
generally adopted of late years to purify
the service.
why, you can judge how false is the
general impression that all soldiers are
drinking men when i tell you that for a
considerable period before our post canteen
was closed the daily receipts from the sale
of beer didn't average more than So. and
that divided among zoo men. The outside
saloons are welcome TO this sum. L don't
think il will make 'em rich very fast.
But for my part I'm glad the canteen is
abolished. The profits from the sale of
beer, you know, went towards buying things
for the soldiers mess. Thus the canteen
was particularly bad for young recruits.
Perhaps they had never been in the habit
of drinking at all. But the older soldiers
would bring them around and say, Now,
understand that the more beer you drink
the more food you'll have to eat That,
quantity of food. Because no nation in the
world feeds its soldiers as generously as
we do. The quantity and variety of a SOL
dier's food has been increased of recent
years. But l never saw a time when a
careful captain couldn't give his men
abundance and save 10 or 10 per cent. right
along.
yes, 1 think the canteen ought to have
been abolished. For if the men needed the
extra food the Nation was rich enough TO
provide that food without making the men
url1k peer. anu IL peer user was HeceS-
sary it should nave been served ont as part
of the regular ration. If beer wasn't neces-
sary it should have been kept out Of the
post entirely.
Another difficulty was that with the car
teen was consolidated the post exchange,
where tobacco and miscellaneous articles
were sold at cost. But there. was only one
exchange, and IT was some distance from
the company rooms. No other exchanges
were permitted. But now each of my COM
panies has its own exchange. Here tobacco
and small luxuries are sold in the 50 ne
building in which the men sleep. They have
a comfortable little club right at home ard
they are under no temptation to stay down
town."