Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1911 — Organizing the Boy [ARTICLE]

Organizing the Boy

It is easier to organise boys than any other kind of business. They are standing around waiting to be organised into almost any kind of band that they or their kind friends can think of, for almost any kind of purpose boys can be used for. The boy has the honor of having inspired as many “movements" as any one of the other groups in whose behalf the various historic movements have been started —Young Men, Young Women, Wornen. Young People, Men and the rest He also has the satisfaction of having precipitated a “crisis,” now and then, of more or less large dimensions, and he can get up a local “crisis" any morning, before he gets up himself. He was the main child in the “Children’s Crusade," centuries ago, and he almost started the modern Sunday school movement, single handed and alone. He can excite more kinds of interest than anyone else and a great deal of anxiety as well. For him all kinds of factories are at work, with day and Hight shifts, turning out shoes and caps and pants and medicine and surgical instruments and school books and doctors and teachers and bread and meat and musical instruments and sweethearts and all the other products needed by him in his allabsorbing business of being a boy. He is an unconscious patron of all the Industries and starts a few himself. But of all the lines of business which his presence with us has stimulated, that of organising him as one of the most flourishing. And be needs all we have ever done for him, and more. But what is more to the point, he likes it even better than we do. Something like twenty years ago the Boys' Brigade was started for bls benefit and served with great effectiveness. It caught hold of him by his military and millinery ligaments, put regimentals on him and held him to a course of instruction in the manual of arms and field practise, as- a soldier of righteousness. It failed to address itself to all his Interests or addressed them tn a defective way, and ft has gone. But each movement, as ft passed, left him a wiser and better equipped boy and left its place vacant for another movement, still better adapted to his needs. Local modifies tlons of the main ideas are still used effectively. The “Knights of King Arthur," with each lodge a castle, founded by Dr. Forbush of Boston, is popular In the east. The "Order of the American Boy” is a growing organization The “Seton-Woodcraft Inby

“Sons of Daniel Boone” is also popular. But the latest claimant for the privilege of serving him is the "Boy Scout" movement, and it is spreading with a rapidity and a momentum never before known in any boys’ movement. It originated in England in 1908 under the leadership of Sir R. 8. S. Baden-Powell, who has followed a plan of organization used with the boys of Mafeklng at the time of the Boer war, though he has also very carefully studied the methods employed in former work for boys, especially in the Boys’ Brigade of America. There are now over 400,000 scouts in Great Britain and it has spread to all the British colonies and to France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Argentina, the United States, and is still going. In our country it is spreading fast, with national officers, whose headquarters are In New York, and scout masters in every state in the Union, who have applied for instruction in methods of work. Roosevelt is first vice-president and Gen. Leonard Wood is a member of the general council. The Y. M. & A. has taken it up and appointed Mr. Alexander, their most expert worker with boys, to direct the whole movement in their organisation. This movement ought to be the best yet, and it looks so. Its whole alm is to make efficient character and it starts at the right point, with the boy’s honor. “On a scout’s honor” is as solemn as any oath can be. It disparages war except against wrong of any kind, and therefbte omits the military drill, on the ground that it injures, individuality and versatility and narrows one’s interests. This is the judgment of General Baden-Powell, who ought to know. It trains him in things that will fit him for danger and duty, but does it by stages—first as a Tenderfoot, next as a Secondclass scout, then as a First-Class scout. The instruction that goes with each degree is surprising, tn its variety and fresh interest Within the ranks a "First Class" scout may gain honor badges for ambulance work and for marksmanship and pioneer work. He learns by practise rather than In books—wood craft, animal nature, out-of-door sports, first aid to the injured, and much more; and each boy is expected, and expects, to do a good turn each day to some one. It is said that an accident can scarcely happen anywhere tn England but boy scouts are the first on the ground and render the moot intelligent aid. It is democratic and will not allow any social -distinctions among the boys them-