BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S
ADVICE ON RUM

“We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually serv’d out to them, half in the morning, and the other half in the evening; and I observ’d they were as punctual in attending to receive it; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty: ‘It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only just after prayers, you would have them all about you.’ He liked the tho’t, undertook the office, and, with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally and more punctually attended; so that I thought this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on divine service.”

A simple, successful and pragmatic solution.  While the militia was not always punctual in attending religious services, Franklin observed that the troops were always punctual in lining up to receive their twice-daily rations of rum.

Obviously, rum was a motivator of the highest order.  What better way then was there to galvanize the troops into attending the minister's services than to have the good chaplain serve the rum only after the services had concluded?  With remarkable prescience, Franklin predicted the chaplain would be surrounded by the troops.