1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Righteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a re- 

 proach to any people. — Prov. 14:3-1. 



A subscriber sends me a newspaper clipping 

 containing Gen. Corbin's defense of the army- 

 canteen system, and suggests that I use it for 

 Our Homes. I shall not take space to give 

 Corbin's letter here, for I suppose most of you 

 have seen it, or heard more or less in regard 

 to it. The circumstances, as I take it, are as 

 follows : 



Our administration decided, some little time 

 ago, that it was not best to let the majority 

 rixle, especially in regard to temperance mat- 

 ters. The temperance and Christian people 

 worked hard to get a law banishing the can- 

 teen from the army. Everybody understood 

 that law — the whisky people most certainly, 

 or they would not have worked as hard as they 

 did to defeat it. In spite of all they could do, 

 the Christian people, the temperance people, 

 and the good people generally, outnumbered 

 them. They gave up, and admitted they were 

 defeated. After thinking the matter over 

 quite a while, however, in their desperation 

 (at least it seems so to me) they got Attorney- 

 General Griggs to make his famous decision 

 (or " infamous,^'' as the Chicago Advance calls 

 it). The Griggs decision, however, could not 

 have stood a moment against the indignant pro- 

 tests of those who worked so hard for the law, 

 and fairly secured it, had not President Mc- 

 Kinley indorsed Griggs. The whisky ele- 

 ment evidently expected we would give up 

 and drop it there. But it has not been drop- 

 ped ; and, God helping us, it never will be 

 dropped. Our administration has been so 

 worried that it evidently felt something had 

 to be done ; therefore we have had letters and 

 speeches in favor of the army canteen as it is. 

 Of course, the rum power has done every 

 thing that could be done to get influential 

 men, and those who stood high, to help it 

 out of its shameful predicament. As soon 

 as I read the Corbin decision I was satisfied at 

 once it was a skillfully gotten-up aflfair managed 

 to pacify the churches and law-abiding citi- 

 zens in general. To show you that it is such, 

 permit me to quote from the Christian En- 

 deavor World. Surely no one will attempt to 

 say that this periodical is a political organ : 



We are glad to note that the War Department has 

 thought best, in the person of General Corbin, to is- 

 sue a defense of liquor-selling in the canteens. Of 

 course, we should infinitely prefer a condemnation of 

 it ; but since that is not to be expected, the next best 

 thing is that the temperance sentiment of the country 

 should have put the department on the defensive. 

 The reference, in General Corbin's letter, to the "un- 

 warranted anxiety of temperance people about the 

 army," shows what has stimulated this official utter- 

 ance, and the appearance of the defense at the open- 

 ing of the presidential campaign is decidedly timely. 



General Corbin's desire to uphold regimental sa- 

 loons has led him into statements that are positively 

 ridiculous, and that go far, in themselves, to offset his 

 argument. For instance, he soberly claims the army 

 to be "a model temperance societj', a practical one, 

 one where rea.sonable abstinence is the rule and where 

 excesses are the exception ; a society whose precepts, 



no less than its example, could be followed by all peo- 

 ple in safety and sobriety." "The army of^ to-day," 

 lie declares, " in comparison with all other citizens, is 

 the most abstemious body in our own country." 



To support these startling propositions General Cor- 

 bin states that, since the canteen was established, the 

 health of the men has improved, the number of trials 

 by courts-martial and the number of desertions have 

 decreased, the savings-bank deposits have increased, 

 1019 commissioned officers have reported that the can- 

 teen is " an etl'ective temperance measure," and the 

 average expenditure for beer is only twenty cents a 

 month. 



The most plausible of the general's arguments are 

 based ( u a misstatement of the temperance posi- 

 tion. We object to no feature of the canteen but the 

 liquor-selling. The arrangement for games, for let- 

 teis home, for reading, for co-operative store-keeping, 

 we commend most heartily. We believe they have 

 been productive of all the good that General Corbin 

 claims for the institution as a whole. WeVjelieve that 

 if liquor-selling should be eliminated from the army 

 canteen, as the naval authorities have with energetic 

 conviction eliminated it from the canteen of the navy, 

 far greater improvement in our army could be record- 

 ed. We believe that the official sale of any liquor on 

 which men can get drunk, and the detailing of soldiers 

 to act as saloon keepers, is entirely harmful. With 

 no purpose of defaming our soldier boys — »nd they 

 are mere boys, most of them — but with the nio.st pro- 

 found reverence for their bravery and patriotism, we 

 have, nevertheless, abundant evidence that the agita- 

 tion for the removal of this great temptation is far 

 from unnecessary. Calling tiie army "a mcdel tem- 

 perance society " is a bold but scarcely a convincing 

 expedient. 



Now, there is another point to this matter, 

 and to me the most painful (I think I might 

 as well say shanieful) one. The question be- 

 fore us is not whether the liquor-selling can- 

 teen is a good thing or a bad thing. That 

 part has been settled. It has been voted out 

 of the army as fairly and squarely as could be, 

 for Congress passed a law abolishing the can- 

 teen from the army. The President and At- 

 torney-General Griggs know this, certainly, 

 as well as anybody else. The only question 

 to be discussed at the present crisis is. Shall 

 the majority be permitted to rule? or, in other 

 words, shall our laws be enforced after they 

 have been honestly secured? The adminis- 

 tration has, without question, decided that it 

 is not best to let the majority rule, on the 

 ground that the voters of the United States 

 are not, as a whole, wise ; that they are not 

 capable of grasping these great problems ; 

 that it would not be best to permit them to 

 have their way about the liquor-trade, even if 

 they were in the majority. Let us suppose 

 for a minute that this is true, and that there 

 are times when our chief oflScers know better 

 what is best for the people than the people do 

 themselves. The next question is, " When 

 the people are too ignorant or too narrow- 

 minded to decide what is best, who shall stand 

 over all and above all, and decide?" We pro- 

 fess to be a Christian nation. It says on our 

 coins, " In God we trust ; " but it is not God 

 who is ruling when the people are incapable. 

 It is the whisky power. Hanna said recently 

 here in Ohio, " There must be no temperance 

 legislation in Ohio this year" — that is, just 

 before election. Foraker owned up, when he 

 was pressed so he could not help owning up, 

 that he had said it would not be best to let 

 Ohio have the local-option law. In his opin- 

 ion it would not be best to let the people of 

 Ohio decide whether they should have liquor- 

 selling right around their homes or not. He 

 said in substance. No matter how strongly the 



