Nearly everything which has been published on the subject of the army canteen has been written by strong opponents or advocates. The inevitable consequence of such partisan discussion is that people who have little knowledge of the matter and less interest in it have not had access to any judicial summing up of the good and evil, so that their judgment has been biased by the tenor of the particular literature which has fallen into their hands. What is far worse, the subject has become a political one, so that it is now practically impossible to discuss it without being suspected of partisanship, bias or worse.
Having been an advocate of the canteen for twenty years, I, therefore, must necessarily condemn my own paper in advance, for I can not ignore my long experience, and must remain a partisan. I can nevertheless bespeak a respectful hearing from opponents by stating