The Caddo Herald
October 13, 1942
Josh Lee Again Urges Measure to Prohibit Liquor in Army Camps
Declaring that the Christian people of the United States are very much concerned, Senator Josh Lee again urged Monday that liquor and vice be prohibited in and around all military camps.
Lee made his proposal as an amendment to the bill now pending to draft 18- and 19-year-olds. The Senate Military Affairs committee, of which Lee is chairman, has the matter now under consideration.
Senator Lee proposed the liquor ban as a military measure. When we think of a soldier, he said, we think of a man who stands erect, who walks with a firm quick step, who salutes with a vigorous gesture. To us he is the symbol of all the characteristics of manliness.
Therefore, when we see an intoxicated man wearing the uniform we are cut to the quick.
Lee pointed out that if the nation would draft boys under 20 years of age, the least the nation can do is to keep the military camps in which they train and live free from the temptations of liquor and vice.
So far as I know there is no one who denies that the use of liquor lowers resistance and destroys moral inhibitions. Therefore, if we do not prohibit liquor and vice from military camps we will make it so easy for the moral standards of our men to be lowered.
Lee read petitions from a number of church groups in Oklahoma who have written him urging the adoption of such a measure.
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