The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-01-14
|FAvORS ABOLITION
OF ARMY CANTEEN

(From the San Francisco Argonaut.)
The question of the army canteen is
once more brought to the front by
Secretary Stimson report on the
manners and the morals of the sol
diers. Probably Mr.. Stimson might
just as well hold his tongue for all
the effect that his utterances will have
upon the little group of noisy agitat
ors whose persistence first secured
abolition of the canteen and whose un-
yielding prejudiees have prevented
restoration. But Mr.. Stimson, as sec
retaiy of war, is bound to present the
facts, and il is well that he should do
so for the benefit of those who wish to
know the real causes of army vice and
to lay the blame at the right doors.
And the blame very obviously lies at
the doors of those who supposed that
the soldier could be discouraged from
drinking by the simple expedient of
sending him from the barracks, where
he could be supervised and restrain
ed, to the infamous dives outside the
barracks, where he could be neither
supervised nor restrained. That few
pious women by the mere force of
clamor should be able to regulate the
barrack life of soldiers and to enforce
their own will against experience and
prodence is one of the marvels of our
civilization. If il were less serious it
would be laughable. But it is not
laughable that a small number of ere
formers should stand so obstinately
as barrier between the soldier and
his protection from the most degrad
ing bodily ills.
Mr.. Stimson tells us that he has
personally visited forty nine of the
army posts. In every instance he
found nest of vile and filthy dives
just beyond the reservation gates, laid
and baited as traps for the damnation
of the soldier. He found. upon in
quiry, that certain uncomfortable dis
eases were claiming more victims in
the American army than all other i'm
portant diseases combined, more vie
tins than in any other army in civih
zation And Mr.. Stimson has no
doubt as to the cause for this cruel
and abominable state of things. He
tells us that ii is due to the abolition
of the canteen and TO the fact that a
maiden-aunt legislation has driven the
soldier into these dens of iniquity
where alcohol is the very least of the
evils that await him. In the old days
the soldier drank beer in the army
canteen, and presumably il was god
beer. He had neither the temptation
nor the opportunity to drink to ex
cess, and still less to debauch himself
Left to himself and treated as hu
man being, his natural tendencies
would lead him to do neither the one
or the other. And il may be said in
= l. Al. a.
a right to drink a glass of beer as to
eat his dinner, and as good right as
woman has to drink d cup of tea. To
say that he shall not drink glass of
beer in barracks has no other effect
than to snd him straight to the dives
that are thus invited to collect around
the reservation gates and that are no
less than miniature Tells in the varie
ty of moral and physical damnation
that they dispense.
Mr.. Stimson has said no more than
his predecessors, and probably he has
said it just as fruitlessly. 1t is one of
the disheartening mysteries of our civil
lization that small organization OF
elamorous preiudices and ignorance
can outweigh in influence the careful
voice of prudent experience, and .Aat
III is aDle To cOtTCt SoNtibihcHtdi
authority that remains unmoved alike
10 demonstrated fact and by the
warnings of knowledge and intelli-
gence. But it is just as well to place
upon record that the debauehery of
the soldier is due far less to himself
than TO the social pieties that are men
ally unable either to see things as
they are or to interpret them in the