The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-11-17
LIQUORS FOR SOLDIERS.

| One J. P. Collins, the London CORE
spondent of The Boston Transcript,
has been talking with our troops at
the front. An American officer told
him that arrangements were being
made to supply the soldiers with
candy lin good round quantities." No
one will find fault with that. but the
officer went further in outlining plans
He said:
las for liquor, that's tougher mat
| ter to arrange. We want to fall in
with the British idea, and follow the
dry plan, but our boys, temperate
as they are, look forward to their Ii
quor, just as the French do to their
ration of wine, and we are trying to
see what can be done'
Evidently there will be little trouble
in securing the supply. According to
William T. Ellis, who writes in the
same issue of The Transcript, on 1.-The
Wars Effect Upon Religious Condi-
lions in Canada" liquor is one of the
problems that must be dealt with
This testimony directly contradicts
1 ..
Concern for the moral welfare of
the soldiers is deep and resolute in
Canada. The hysterical stage is past
A clear-eyed facing of the facts and
fearless expression of opinion have
come instead. Thus Canada is open
ly indignant that in Britain the dry
canteen provided by the Canadian
Government has been supplanted by
the wet canteen of Britain"
The presence of this wet and wide
| open canteen is a moral peril that the
powers that be seem unable or I'M
| willing to suppress. The Spectator and
other journals have warred against the
liquor evil in vain, and have cited ter
rible instances of the effect on young
soldiers, exposed to the danger, and
| far from the restraints of home.
| 1t is safe to say that among the
young men who have gone to the
front from this country there are many
who did not know the taste of liquor
| For years practise has obtained in
many of our parishes, to give the
pledge to boy graduates of the parish
schools, the day after they get their
certificates. This pledge has proved
a safeguard for the majority, and re-
suits have shown that when boy
leaves liquor alone until he is TWEEN
Ity-one, he is apt to remain a total alb
Istainer.
/ There are thousands of these young
Catholic Americans in the troops, and
we cannot believe that they look
forward to their liquor as the Amer
lean officer asserted to The Transcript
correspondent. There are also thou
sands of other young soldiers, non
Catholics, who have also been taught
to abstain from liquor, and who are not
thirsting for it abroad.
| But example is powerful, particular
| ly to lads removed from familiar en-
Vironment and sadly homesick if the
truth were known. If they see their
allied brothers, seemingly care-free
and joyous as the result of the glass
that inebriates, they, too, may be led
to drink.
/ Our Government is already provid-
ing for reconstruction of our soldiers
who will be MANNED and disabled in
service. Experts are being engaged
to reconstruct a man physically, but
we have yet to hear of an expert who
can reconstruct a drunkard
| America has the right to demand Of
England that her boys who escape
death be returned to her, after the
war, morally sound. Let not American
mothers be forced to voice the cry of
the English mother, who said: Il do
not so much mind giving you my sons
body, but have no right to sacrifice
his SOUL
| Sacred Heart Repfew.