Posted on 01/09/2018 6:28:28 AM PST by NRx
A shocking indictment of the American Army in France on grounds of intemperance, immorality and depravity is contained in a "Clip Sheet" prepared and published by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The board is a regularly constituted and authorized adjunct of the Church. Its chairman is Bishop W F McDowell. Its headquarters is at Washington.
The "clip sheet" has been sent broadcast to religious periodicals and is intended, as the name implies, to be reprinted, in part or in whole. It is, or purports to be, a piece of temperance propaganda.
Headed "Appalling Drunkenness Among Troops Imperils the Safety of the Army Abroad," the statement gives an alleged account of conditions as they exist among the American fighting forces in France. The only authorities cited are a letter from "the son of America's most distinguished citizen" and a lady writing from a French seaport. The former, obviously is one of the sons of Theodore Roosevelt, although the article does not so state.
(Excerpt) Read more at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov ...
“How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?”
- grandson of WWI vet
Prohibition is the only answer!
;-)
If I had to go through with those soldiers went through, I’d be drunken too!
My grandmother’s cousin — aged 18 — came back from France in pieces. I hope he got a little enjoyment over there before that happened.
No more drunken than the French Army. Probably less, on the whole.
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paree?
How ya gonna keep 'em away from Broadway
Jazzin' around and paintin' the town?
How ya gonna keep 'em away from harm, that's a mystery.
They'll never want to see a rake or plow,
And who the deuce can parlez-vous a cow?
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paree?
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
“No more drunken than the French Army. Probably less, on the whole.”
Or any army for that matter.
The saloon.
And sane, moral Christians brand Methodists as heretics.
If that’s the only pool of volunteers, then that sounds good to me ... it would take a whole boatload full of liquor to even get me into the same room!
“How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?”
My first thought on reading the summary on the FR front page. Yet the WCTU still had their decade-plus run of the 18th Amendment to prove just how wrong-headed they were. It’s too bad other such progressive pap survive today in the Constitution: 16th, 17th, & 19th come to mind.
I was baptized and joined the Methodist Church. Then I learned that they were run by communists. Left them and moved to mush better.
Forgotten in the post-WWI morals debate was...smoking.
Most doughboys learned to smoke cigarettes for practical reasons:
A pack of smokes fit neatly in a soldier’s tunic pocket and a cigarette lasted five minutes, about as long as a “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” break.
The inevitability of picking up the cigarette habit is celebrated in the recruit song “Good Morning, Mister Zip-zip-zip”:
“Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
“If the Camels don’t get you, the Fatimas must,
Today they are trending that way—the UMs, not the Wesleyans nor the Free Methodists, that is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.