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In the 1880s, the U.S. Army established on-post canteens as a way of curbing excessive drinking in off-post taverns. Army officers supported the canteen concept, but when large numbers of citizen volunteers entered the army in 1898, the temperance movement, particularly the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), successfully advocated for the canteen’s abolition. The ensuing public debate revealed contesting popular images of soldiers: innocent boys or adult men. The canteen debate focused the attention of Progressive Era activists on moral and social conditions in the army, and engendered a long debate over the role of the army in American society.
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