Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-11
ANTI.cANTEEN IN ENGLAND.
Lord Roberts Strikes at British Army
Cantsen-Gen. Booth With Him.
lLondon Correspondence.l

[London Correspondence
The temperance question has come to
the front in sensational way. Two
famous army officers are arrayed on
one side; on the other stands the
chancellor of the exchequer. The army
men belong to different organizations.
One is Lord Roberts of Kandahar, COM
1nander-in- chief of the British forces:
the other is Gen. William Booth, leader
OF the Salvation Army
The former hits at the canteen; Gen.
Booth strikes at the drunkard in gen.
eral. Moreover, the latter looks for the
assistance of keepers of public houses
to aid him in the work of reform by
refusing liquor to persons known to be
habitual drunkards. 1t is the further
purpose of Gen Booth to list the drunk
ards, follow them to their homes, and
by moral suasion seek to have them
abandon the downward path
1t is stated that the good results fol-
lowing the wiping out of the army cam
teen in the United States have
prompted the initiation taken by Lord
Roberts. While he does not aim at the
humiliation of the canteen from the
army establishment here, he desires re-
forms that shall remove from the pri-
yate soldiers clubs the glamour of the
music hall and relegate to the back
ground the mere traffic In liquors. His
aim is to have the regimental insti-
tutes under one roof; that the buildings
shall be properly fitted out with read
ing rooms, billiard rooms, ETC.; that
soft drinks shall have special privileges,
and that the liquor bar shall be by 1T
self. where 1t can not vie with the at
fractions of the other departments.
Gen. Roberts further desires that
control shall be vested In the hands of
one committee and that profits shall be
system, IL carried out, will be a blow to
the brewer and to the free regimental
music hail. Heretofore they have al
ways run in partnership. and generally
the brewer has provided the entertain
ment. All these temperance plans have
won the high commentator of teeto-
talers and nonconformists, but the pro-
hibition has received shock from an
unexpected direction-from Sir Michael
Hicks Beach, chancellor of the ex-
chequer. The statement of this high
cabinet officer was distinctly to the eff
feet that the liquid agency that provid-
ed so much revenue for national expen-
ses is under the protecting wing OF the
government
Sir Michael was guest the other
night of the Bristol Licensed Victualers'
Protective and Benevolent Association.
and there inveighed against the prohib-
ition propaganda. He declared not only
that it was the hope Of the government
to place no more tax burdens on the
liquor trade, but he rallied at the teeto-
talers and their crusade against strong
drink The chancellor said there was
in the minds of many persons deep
and rooted belief that the making or
the consumption or sale of alcoholic
liquors is a sin and ought to be pun
ished by parliament as a crime. This,
he asserted, was absurd. To propose to
prohibit the manufacture or sale and
consumption of Intoxicating liquors be-
cause comparatively small-he was
happy to say, decreasing-number of
persons went to excess was as reason
able as it would be to say that because
a certain number of men yielding to the
sin of immortality. therefore. every good
looking woman should be compelled to
veil herself and to shut herself up as
they did in eastern countries in order
that the temptations of beauty might
not be offered to the sons of men.
All this, of course. has had rasping
effect on the prohibitionists and the
chancellor of the exchequer. obviously.
for the purpose of winning friends
among the publicans, managed also to
arouse the ire of other members of the
community. These are the club men of
various grades. He declared that clubs
are in many cases only drinking places
and spurious in their character, and he
hoped that parliament would direct its
attention to the suppression of the
places that are mere drinking resorts.