EDITORIAL 



The Value of Boy Scout Training. 



I have recently been vividly impress- 

 ed by the improvement that Boy Scout 

 training makes in boys. The Scout 

 like other persons, is not perfect, but I 

 have been for a long time convinced 

 that the boy as a Scout is a far better 

 boy than he would be if he were not a 

 Scout. There is surely much in the 

 standards and ideals of Scouting that 

 develops the manliness that a boy pos- 

 sesses, even if that is not much. When 

 I see a Scout that does not live up to my 

 highest ideals, I try to imagine what he 

 would be if he were not a Scout. 



But to make my lesson more impres- 

 sive, more specific, let me relate this 

 experience. I have just returned from 

 Pittsburgh, where I was engaged by 

 the City Education Department to give 

 four lectures in different parts of the 

 city, under the auspices of the Boy 

 Scouts organizations. At the first three 

 of these lectures, I was amazed at the 

 perfect order. Never before in my life 

 have I been in the presence of a com- 

 pany of young people who entered the 

 hall in such perfect order, nor where 

 the attention w^as so absolutely un- 

 divided. I was so encouraged by this, 

 and by the fact that some of the Scouts 

 had walked five miles to hear the lec- 

 ture, some even coming from a distance 

 of sixteen miles, that I was tempted by 

 this evidence of interest to make the 

 lecture longer than I would otherwise 

 have done. In three of the centers, I 

 lectured until ten o'clock, speaking in 

 each place for about one and a half or 

 one and three-quarters hours. 



But at the fourth center, I received a 

 severe shock. My good opinion of Boy 

 Scouts was impaired. In trooped a 

 noisy mob of at least five hundred boys 

 with a few girls and fewer adults. It 

 was with difficulty that the superinten- 

 dent of the school was able to secure 

 order so that he could make himself 

 heard when he introduced me. But I 

 consoled myself with the thought, 

 "Alas, it is not Scouting ; it is the crude, 



rude and uncultivated boy himself. At 

 the three previous lectures, I must have 

 had a remarkable set of manly young 

 fellows, but here I met the exception 

 that proves the rule." 



As I began to speak, my voice was 

 drowned by noise. It was with diffi- 

 culty that I pleaded and begged for 

 quiet. After several vain attempts to de- 

 liver the lecture under more pleasing 

 conditions, I said : "To the Boy Scouts 

 of Pittsburgh I appeal, by all the funda- 

 mental principles of Scouting, to keep 

 order in this large audience of boys, 

 some of whom I assume to be gentle- 

 men." Then a happy thought occurred 

 to me : I will have a showing of hands, 

 and that will appeal to each individual 

 boy's responsibility as a Scout. Im- 

 agine my surprise when after making 

 the request I saw only about a dozen 

 hands raised and those from boys near 

 the platform and in one corner of the 

 room where there had been no disorder. 

 They were the hands of the only Scouts 

 in the hall. At the close of the lecture, 

 the Scoutmaster who accompanied 

 them told me that they had come from 

 a distance, and that I was speaking in a 

 part of the city where Scouting had not 

 yet been introduced. This was to me 

 an overwhelmingly convincing argu- 

 ment that Boy Scouts dififer in better 

 ways from other boys, far better than 

 if they were not Scouts. While in other 

 places, I had been encouraged to 

 lengthen my lecture on account of the 

 absolute silence in the hall and the per- 

 fect attention, here I was forced to cur- 

 tail it to about thirty minutes. Then 

 ensued and ignoble scramble for the 

 front door. The only ones left to shake 

 hands with me were the Scoutmaster 

 and his little group. 



Recent tests show that in spite of the 

 dog's marvelous scent for certain ani- 

 mal substances, his nose for such things 

 as ether, oil of rose, vanilla, which do 

 not concern his natural life, is not so 

 good as a man's. 



