The Washington times., 1905-09-02
Drinking in the Army.

The Taggart case, unpleasant and
unsavory as 1t is. presages a cam
paign before Congress which is likely
to be even more Improbable. unre-
strained, and unwise. A dozen re-
form associations promise to divert
the energies of thousands of good
citizens to a task for which they have
no capability and which is, plainly,
none of their business. The case it
self is bad enough-but these cam
paigns to correct" the army will be
worse.
On the assumption that army and
navy circles are given over to gam
bling, drink, and other vices, these
good people intend to ask Congress
&c take both services in it's hands.
and by some means not now made
known, and hard even to conjecture,
so to restrain the officers of our ma
tional defense that neither they nor
their wives can continue in these
offenses. II there were no other diff
aculty, it would be interesting to dis
cover the specific methods by which
Congress could accomplish this re-
form But there are, of course, other
difficulties The chief of them is that
the very basis for the demand Is a
mistake.
Undoubtedly, there is more drink
ing among our officers than there
ought to be. But there is not so
much as the reports of the Taggart
case would indicate A second lieu
tenants income is fourteen hundred
dollars year. His legitimate and
unavoidable expenses are large. What
remains when they are met will not
buy many champagne suppers or pro-
vide for many fairy balls. Even a
captain has only eighteen hundred
and champagne. continued libations
OF Scotch, and uninterrupted society
will eat up eighteen hundred dollars
in two months, instead of twelve.
The Taggart entertainments were
made possible by a private income Of
fifty thousand dollars year. If, then,
the Taggart case were an indictment
of the whole service-which il is not
it would involve only those officers
whose private means are of proper
tons rare both in the army and out
of ii.
The officers of the American army
and navy are selected men. Most of
them~ have had their characters
shaped in two institutions noted for
the high standard of personal honor
they inculcate-the academies at Az
napolis and West Point That is the
spirit of the service today, despite the
appointment of hundreds of officers
from civil life and the poiiiticalization
of the service by the war with Spain.
With that spirit. the service can be
trusted to reform itself. if ever re-
form is necessary. Indeed. il is the
only power which could ever effect
such a reform. All the laws in
Cbristendom will not suppress drink
ing If men and women want TO drink.
But social standard which con-
dennis it can make il social i'm
possibility.
Except for two attributes the COM
missioned force of the army and navy
corresponds in character and breed
ing exactly to that of citizens OF the
same rank outside the army and navy.
The two exceptions are important:
the existence of caste in the best
sense of the word. due to the fact that
a surprising number of our officers
are the sons of officers: and the estab-
lishment by training of standard of
personal conduct TO which no work.
men In civil life. save perhaps clergy
men and schoolmasters, are made TO
subscribe.
hampered they kept the officer toe
ing the mark. Men who have risen to
the rank of major have been CASH
tered merely for talking to loose wo-
men In public With all the dilution
consequent to the war with Spain and
the subsequent enlargement of the
army, that spirit still prevails. IL
can be relied upon ultimately to pre-
vent the debasement of the service
by any means, and interference with
1t. either through Congress or any
other channel, will defeat it's own
ehject-