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SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
5. PUBLIC HEALTH 
Has the town you live in a free swimming pool with 
instructors and well arranged hours for little children, 
older girls and boys and grown-ups? Can you step out 
after school and have a couple of hours on a well kept 
tennis court? Is there a good golf course reasonably 
near, with convenient trolley service? Are there plenty 
of playgrounds, so that the children are off the streets? 
And, since grounds are not enough, are there friendly 
young play-leaders connected with them, to get the chil- 
dren together and teach them all sorts of games and 
sports ? 
If none of these things are to be found, or not enough 
of them, wouldn’t you like to have them? 
“Of course I should,” you reply, “but what can I do 
about it? I am only a girl, and I can’t get all these 
things by just wishing for them !” 
But that’s just what you can do. 
All these things in a town mean that the town is 
looking out for the health of its young people. Exercise 
is one of the most important means of preserving health, 
and most of the large cities nowadays are working hard 
to see that no child shall be out of the reach of a good 
park, a good swimming pool and a good playground. 
This all comes under the city government and as this 
is a democratic form of government, these things are all 
arranged by vote. That is, the citizens vote to use the 
public money for such things and vote for the officials 
who shall spend the money for them. Now, a great many 
women have the vote today : by the time the present-Girl 
Scouts are twenty-one, a great many more will have it, 
beyond any doubt. Do you see that if you make up your 
mind now about the village improvements you want, 
you can vote for them and get them? 
Women are naturally interested in all that happens 
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