New-York tribune., 1912-01-18
STAND BY CANTEEN LAW
w. CT. u. Officials to Call Meet
H., ing for Defence.
DENY INJURY TO SOLDIERS
Local Leaders Would Make a
Dry Zone Of Five Miles
Around Posts.

The guns trained upon the Woman s
Christian Temperance Union at the meet
ing Tuesday at the Waldorf-Astoria, where
army women and ministers urged the res
,oratlon Of the canteeen to the nation
army soldiers, and blamed the Woman
christian Temperance Union for its abolish
ment may provoke an answering Volley'
Mrs. Ella Boole. president Of the state
Wonan's Christian Temperance Union ana
Mrs. Helen J. Andruss, head Of the Ne"
York County organization. both said yes
,erday that they were thinking OF calling
meeting TO discuss this canteen matter
from their point of view.
q believe we can get up just as good
meeting as the one Of Tuesday Mrs An
druss said. Perhaps we can't get so large
an audience or such we'll known women
for patronesses, but we can have speakers
WIN will be second to none. Richmond r
Bobson will come over from Washington TO
talk for US, know
Mrs. Andruss said II did seem as II the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union got
the blame for everything that was not
uksd and none OF the credit for the things
a. did that we're liked. AS matter OF
fact" she said, all OF the temperance So
cietjes and most of the Protestant minis
ters Of the country stood in 1901 for the
massage of the law prohibiting the sale or
louors on military reservations. II WASH
the Womans Christian Temperance union
any more than 1t was the others
Several ministers and army chapidlns
spoke for the canteen at Tuesdays meet
ing" Mrs. Andruss was reminded.
For every minister who spoke that way
there are thousands who feel as We do'
she said. And the Woman's Christian
Taunerance Union stands just where il did
ten wears ago Even if keeping the sale Of
uouor off the reservations didn't lessen
drinking among soldiers, I would still be
for that policy
HAS II lessened drinking among the SOL
diers?'
II don't know; l can't say as to that.
But the point is that the government
mustn't sanction the sale of liquors on It's
military reservations. And II had son
in the army" said Mrs. Andruss, II should
resent having him told off TO serve as a
barkeeper-and that was what happened.
Each soldier on the reservation had to take
his turn at presiding over the beer ana
wine counter"
Major Louis Livingston Seaman at Tues
days meeting quoted General Frederick D.
Grant as testifying that crime had In
creased in the army since the canteen was
abolished. Mrs. Andruss triumphantly pro-
duced printed statements by General Grant
70 the effect that the army was better and
h.Us moral since the act Of 1901 I'oesnt
hat show that any one can prove any
thing they want to?' she said. It's Just
so with the statistics that Major Seaman
quoted about the increase in vencreal dis
eases in the army.
Figures can lie. We shall prove those
Etatstics wrong in a pamphlet we are get
ting out-an article by Colonel l. MerVin
Maus. chief surgeon OF the central division
Of the United States Army.
by the way, what a foolish statement
Mrs. Charles Z. Roe made at that meeting
s.-that prohibition never accomplished any
q thing I fancy she has never visited one
z Of the prohibition states. or she would
know how many jails and almshouses II
has closed And what did she mean by
saving that a woman high in the prohibi-
ton party thought the canteen was a
bottle slung to the soldiers belt" The
prohibition party consists Of men. If she
meant high in the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union can tell her that
no Woman's Christian Temperance Union
woman is as ignerant as that
Mrs Boole would not only firmly oppose
the restoration of the canteen, but she
wants Congress to pass law making II
Illegal TO sell liquor within five miles OF
an army post, camp or reservation. III
! is q matter Of history" she said, that bad
characters follow the army everywhere
The esta ablshment Of a hve-mile zone
where no liquor could be sold, would do
much to bar them out. II the government
would make total abstinence a condition
Of entering the army just as railway COM
panies impose it upon their engineers, il
would be a splendid thing, and raise the
standard of the army immensely.
Il was At that meeting Tuesday AMI
heard what Major Seaman said about the
- Increase in vcnerea1 diseases In the army.
Specialists tell us that the army is not