Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1920 — Trail of the Boy Scout In Deeds [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trail of the Boy Scout In Deeds

a fitting celebration of their tenth annlversary, 365,470 members of the Boy Smwiyt nf America are urging every y | citizen and every child in the United ryr <n States to adopt for one week the boy J scout practice of doing a good turn A daily for some person or some cause. I What is a good turn? It is an act of —* unselfish service done with no thought of praise or reward, simply and sincerely rendered for sheer good will's sake. A scout is helpful. Nearly every individual. Institution and organization in this country has become accustomed by thia time to seeing khaki-clad boy scouts bustling about, lending a hand here and there and everywhere, wherever and whenever there is something to be done. The latter day version of theadage: “If you want a thing well done, you must ■do it yourself” seems to be “If you want a thing done well, get the boy scouts to do it.” What scouts haVe done towards winning the world war and their usefulness generally in times of peace is now fully'realized by the American people. No agency called into service by the government in war’s emergency responded with more enthusiasm or with greater efficiency than -did the army of almost half a million-boys who constitute the Boy Scouts of America. In the five Liberty loan campaigns, boy scouts, acting always as gleaners after the reapers and working as solicitors only in the last few days of each drive; secured 2,328.308 separate subscriptions amounting to $352,122,975. Reducing this total to an average for la ch scout, it means a sale of SBBO worth of bonds a boy. The treasury department has recognized this eervidi by awarding to scouts 66,914 war service emblems and 28,497 bronze bars, making a total of 95,411 awards to scouts for distinguished service in Liberty loan work. —— ; t Soliciting Liberty loan subscriptions was a patriotic service done at definite, stated times. But thrnnghont the war—and they are st Hl hard at it—these boys sold 2.189.417 War Savings stamps to the total amount of $43,022,044. For exceptional work in the sale of stamps the treasury department has given 23,111 achievement buttons, each button representing sales made in 25 different homes, and 13331 ace medals for sales totaling $250. But It is only a small part of scout war service that can be measured in terms of money. In the soliciting of funds for Liberty loans scouts were only used as “Moppers Up,” and while their usefulness and achievements in this respect are things of which scouts are proud, they are proudest of their other work that was more individually characteristically, scout “Good Turn" service. There is much that Is included in the term scout service, but an analysis of individual good turns as applied to the community or nation reduces it simply to the job to be done next. As a rule there were so many jobs that there was no next— they all had to be done at once, and what is more —they were. In connection with Uncle Sum’s loans there was a great deal of publicity sot the scouts to spread broadcast. Between local headquarters, scout messengers strengthened the lines of communication; scout messengers helped out the banks and made lighter the work of city and federal officials. Those posters on the windshield of practically every automobile in the land were put there by scouts. At the loan rallies, and other big patriotic meet<ings in every community in the land, at was a Jboy scout fhw t ushered you in, a boy scout that wave you the subscription blank, a boy scout that meted as orderly for the speaker; it was a boy scout band very often that played and it was Iboy scouts who formed a corps of assistants to •the police. . ' : ’ Scouts at the outdoor rallies attracted the atstention of pa—ers-by with scout demonstrations or loan speakers and everywhere “served in any capacity in which the scout uniform and what ft •stands for" gave prestige to the occasion and ihelped sell bonds. - ~ Anotheft big item in war service was scout gardens. Ne plot was too large or too snail for the efforts Of the scouts whose slogan was “Every •scout to food a soldier and one other.” In cities 4008tt vegetable gardens grow in back yards Za>Twwrt t» be a mass of unkept grass and who have no back yards asked ISAM * vacant lots to let them cultivate the paid rental with some of their choicest products. Country scouts planted war scale, and bad the advantage

over their city brothers’ of being able to raise pigs and chickens, a The boys whose gardens more than enough for their own families marketed the rest; those boys who had no gardens of their own gave

of their time to farmers and helped them harvest and market their crops. Then comes the immense help that was given to the Red Cross, particularly in membership drives, and to the library association in collecting bdoks by the carloads to be sent to men overseas. Millions of feet of standing black walnut were located by scouts, and hundreds of carloads of peach pits were collected. Scout war service is by means over, and upon armistice day in 1918, the slogan “The war is over, but our work is not” was adopted as the peace' cry of scouts, and right now the war risk insurance and treasury departments are asking scouts’ help in placing posters and getting citations from employers who are taking back all their former, employees who enlisted in the army or navy. Each separate service was in its own time the most important and boy scouts haye achieved a record for a very- large share in winning the war. Besides definite war service, scouts were always prepared to jump into every local emergency, and kept up their civic good turns, their individual good turns, and as time permitted their regular scout program. Helping the police direct street traffic and manage unruly crowds, distributing anti-tuberculosls literature or Red Cross posters, directing strangers, helping somebody fix a tire, restoring somebody's doorbell, finding lost children, dragging small boys out of the water, collecting your old newspapers, helping timid old ladies across the street, removing unsightly signs, building bird houses, planting trees, raising community flags—there is no end to the things scouts find to do with their time and energy and vigorous good will. The good turn the scout does is done quietly and without ostentation; it is not a matter to be boasted of. You never hear scout boasting of the good turns he does. By that principle will be differ from some men when later he comes into the larger activities of manhood, Lincoln used to say that a certain public individual reminded him of the Mississippi river steamboat that had a 6foot boiler and a 10-foot whistle, and every time they blew the whistle they had to stop the boat. A boy scout is expected to do at least one good turn daily. The good turns reported for one scout for the year, the record probably having been kept by some kindly, watchful aunt, said that he got 174 buckets of coal and 129 buckets of water, carried out the ashes 124 times and the dishwater 125 times, and did' other miscellaneous good turns amounting to 1.694 distinct efforts of cheerfulness during the year. He brought in corncobs for the fire, went after the washing, fixing up the mail, cleaned up the waste paper, picked up a limb from the sidewalk, cut some tall for a kid’s kite, went to town for mother many times, picked up glass from the sidewalk, replaced a brick in the pavement, stopped a dog fight, loaned his knife, wound the clock and set the alarm innumerable times, fixed the fire and made his bed, telephoned messages, changed a five-dollar bill, fed the dog and cleaned up some ink. baked the pancakes for breakfast, fried some bacon, put on the coffee, washed the potatoes and fixed the fire, fed the chickens, also watered the flowers, taught a younger boy his lessons in school, picked up needles and pins from the floor, lit the lamps and darned his own sweater, mopped up some water, and swept off the back porch, mailed letters and put up curtains, fixed a pair of scissors, got the fruit cans for his mother, opened cans of salmon, tomatoes and beans, dug out a rat and set a mousetrap, turned the washing machine many times and hung pictures. The scout is bound by his oath to be “helpful to all people at all times." Little by little, the good-turn habit becomes ingrained In his daily conduct and attitude of mind. Helpfulness to others becomes not an occasionally gratified impulse, but an essential element of his character. There are 365,470 Boy Scouts of America in the United States, all more or less consciously acquiring the habit of acting and thinking and feeling. Does anybody believe that these 865,470 boys with their all-round nth power friendliness of spirit aren’t going to help leaven the

mass of human selfishness and human indifference to the needs of the other fellow? Can anyone deny that the good turn multiplied by thousands and multiplied again by the 365 days of the year is going to make an appreciable dent in our social order and bring the kingdom of heaven a » little nearer this sordid earth? Why should we let boy scouts have the monopoly of the good turn? Why shouldn’t we all have a try at it? What if you, and you, and yop, should pledge yourself to the daily good turn for on# week, at least, and see what it would feel like? What if everybody in this town, every map, woman and child, decided to do the sama thing and eventually set to work embedding ths good turn as a regular feature of our community life? Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference in things as they are and as they ought’not to be, but the chances are to the contrary. It ts a safe bet that we, as a community and as individuals, would come out healthier, happier, richer, in every way for the experiment. Why give the good turn a trial? It can’t do any harm. It may do an incalculable amount of good. All over the country boy scouts are celebrating their tenth anniversary this« week and renewing their obligations to the scout oath and law, and especially to the daily good turn. In most towns the boy scouts are celebrating the anniversary and renewing their obligations along with those other three hundred thousand boys plus who belong to the movement. Why shouldn’t the rest of us get into the game and do ourselves a good turn? Let’s raise our right hands and say all together, “I pledge myself for- the period of one week to do a good turn every day to somebody or something.” Let’s have an “era” of good feeling right here and now in our town and thank our boy scouts for showing us the way. Before he becomes a scout a boy must promise: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” A scout is trustworthy. A scout’s honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor by telling a lie, or by cheating, or by not doing exactly a given task, when trusted on his honor, he may be directed to hand over his scout badge. A scout is loyal. He is loyal to all to whom loyalty is due; his scout leader, his home and parents and country. A scout is helpful. He must be prepared at any' time to save life, help injured persons, and share the home duties. He must do at least one good turn to somebody every day. A scour is friendly. He is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout. A scout is courteous. He is polite to all, especially to women, children, old people, and the weak and helpless. He must not take pay for being helpful or courteous. A scout la kind He Is a friend to animals. He will not kill not hurt.any living creature needlessly, but will strive to save and protect all harmless life. , A scout Is obedient He obeys his parents, scoutmaster, patrol leader, and all other duly constituted authorities. A scout is cheerful. He smiles whenever he can His obedience to orders IS proront and cheery. He never shirks nor grumbles at hardships. A scout is thrifty He does not wantonly destroy property. He workh faithfully, wastes nothing, and makes the best use of his opportunities. He saves his money so that he may pay his own way, be generous to those in need, and helpful to worthy objects. He may work for pay but must.not receive tips for courtesies or good turns. A scout is brave. He has the courage to face danger in spite of fear and has to stand up for the right against the coaxings of friends or the jeers or threats of enemies, and defeat does not down him. 'r'