Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-01-14
THAT CANTEEN
 QUESTION AGAIN Many Letters and Petitions Reach Captain J. Walter Mitchell, of the Spanish War Veterans.
ICOLONEL'S DAUGHTER
Writes From Monterey, California, and Tells of the Bad State of Affairs Which Exists in That Lit tic Place.

Washington, D. C., Jan. 14-Among the many letters anl petitions reach- l ing Captain J. Walter Mitchell, of the 1 Spanish War Veterans, urging Con- gress to repeal the present laws pro- hibiting a canteen in the United States army, is one that has attracted un usual attention from those who have seen it. The writer is lady in the army post at Monterey, Cal. She had first signed her name, bur with a pair of scissors had cut it off the bot tom of the letter and then signed A Colonels Daughter. It is as follows
 T have always understood that the W. C. T. L. were the ones responsible for the abolition of the army canteen, and since we have had a garrison here, have often wished that I could get hold of some of these wellmean ing women and trot them around the Main street of Monterey on pay day.
 If they thought for an instant that by abolishing the canteen they would eradicate drunkenness from the army they were mistaken. for, as a matter of record and fact. they have it on their conscences that conditions are a thousand times worse than their widest dreams Of fancy could paint them.
 This is a small town, but five years ago there We're five saloons; then the soldiers came, and now there are nearly thirty. Not only that, the sol diers are drugged, according to the complaint made recently to their own colonel. They are tempted in every way to spend their time in these places Gambling devices Of every sort, all more or less dishonesty run, are tolerated and even taxed by the town trustees. There are fly ladies of sorts in apartments, either above Or next door to these saloons, and the streets at night are utterly unsafe for respectable women And only five years ago this was the incest, simplest little Spanish town imaginable.
 Some of the better class soldiers, having formed small clubs where they could meet and drink at least pure beer and liquor, the saloon men ap- pealed to the town trustees and they to the commanding officer, saying these clubs ruin the business of the saloons
 So that is what the W. C. T. [. has accomplished. They have made fat and easy living for the sa- loon-keepers. Into their pockets goes all the money the soldiers get from Uncle Sam, and indirectly from each and every citizen of this country. We are paying for an army of drunken gamblers. weakened and ruined by every sort of low vice, and the merchants 0f this place military with joy, have realized to their sorrow that no other trades man, excepting an occasional shoe maker, ever sees anything of the sl5, 900 that is paid to the men at the Presidio on pay day. =.
 Why do these women. try to make over lot of grown up n1en2 Let them devote their energies to bringing up their own families to be decent and not to drink to excess. I, who have a half-grown boy. find the job an ample one, and. if my son turns out to be q good man, with honest principles and clean life, l will think I have done the part God intended I should.
 As for the canteen. surely that is the business of the officers in charge of the soldiers"