The Catholic bulletin., 1914-05-02
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
DRUNKENNESS IN THE RUSSIAN
ARMY.


rescript Of the Car to the new min
lister of finance, urging the necessity
of so directing the administration of
the state monopoly of spirits as to
save the country from drunkenness,
comes the imperial order abolishing
the time-honored custom of army com
manders to raise cup" to the health
of the Car and the imperial family
in front of the troops at the conclu-
sion of parades and maneuvers. This
new proof of the Cars earnestness in
the matter of temperance has not
come a moment too soon, for if the
ravages caused by the drink habits
among the masses of the Russian peo-
pie are frightful enough, they are
doubly dangerous in the case of the
army, on which the very safety of
the empire depends.
The physique of the Russian youth
from which the army is recruited is
none too good. In large number of
ocalities-especially in Siberia-the
percentage Of reflections reaches as
much as 70, and the general recruiting
standard is lower than in Austria,
France and Germany. AS General
Rodiger, the former minister of war,
once stated, the adoption by Russia
of the Austrian standard would result
in a loss of over IL per cent of the
army. A physique so unsatisfactory
as this is incapable of resisting the
influence of any considerable quantity
of alcohol, and what this means in
the case of an army has been recently
shown by experiments in Sweden.
Death to Discipline.
1t has been proved by them that
the absorption of but half a litre Qess
than one pint) of beer half an hour
before shooting reduces the marks
manship by nearly 40 per cent, and
that the effect of daily consumption
of but one bottle of beer for a period
of twelve days continues for a whole
week after. Yet, according to the in
vestigations of DR.. Lvanoff, in one par
ticular recruiting locality only fifty
young men out of total of 838 turned
out to be teetotalers, while DR.. Shapir-
off has found among the specially Sc
lected corps of the frontier guards
only rs per cent not addicted to drink.
But alcohol hampers the Russian
army in yet another and perhaps still
more important respect. The Russky
Invalid, which is the official organ of
the ministry of war, has recently drawn
attention to this aspect in a series of
alarming articles. 1t is the effect Of
the drink habits on mobilization Each
time, it pointed out, the reserves are
called out for their periodical training
the authorities have no end of trouble.
with the drunkards. The men come
to their training centers not merely
dead drunk, but also provided with
large quantities of vodka in bottles,
which they then endeavor' to smuggle
into the barracks. Last year this is
what took place in Moscow:
"The drunken cohorts stream into
the gates and two powerful soldiers
search every reservist. The astound-
ed peasants and workmen see their
bottles, with the state label on them,
seized from their kits and flung on
the stones i'm the courtyard. The air
is filled with the sound of broken
glass A reservist without bottle
Of vodka is quite rare phenomenon.
One individual, without a shirt on his
body and clad in rags, brought with
him whole basket containing eleven
bottles. Eleven times the glass rang
against the pebbles, and each time the
drunkard dropped tears.
The heap of broken glass grows larger
and larger, and stream collects un-
derneath Several reservists throw
themselves upon their knees and ap-
proach their lips to the drunken
stream They are only kicked away
by the feet of the receiving soldiers.
Finally three large carts fill
ed with broken glass leave the court
yard"
Scenes in Barracks.
Can anything be more sinister than
this spectacle? The same journal con-
tfnues it's narrowing description as
follows: In the barracks, and subse-
quently in the train which carries the
reservfsts to the camp, one can wit
ness almost a drama; the sober fight
with the drunken, one against a hun
dred. The commandant of the station
is simply in despair. He has had 300
men sent to him without a convoy,
and on their way they succeeded in
getting drunk. For six hours he has
been trying in vain to put them into
the train. At last the dead bodies
of the drunkards are thrown into the
carriages, but no fewer than sixty-four
of them had to be picked up at the
intervening six stations. 1t was not
until seventy hours later that this
drunken set, after tremendous strug-
gle, was got back to a sober tsate,
and then only could the training COM
mence." Tbo ron,o, cton1,ord
NATE NE TILE nIo~nUEnU AE