Scouting, Volume 7, Number 38, September 18, 1919 Page: 3
8 p. : ill. ; 31 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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SCOUTING, SEPTEMBER 18, 1919 3
SCOUTS GAVE IDEA FOR REEMPLOYMENT CITATION CAMPAIGN
Work in Behalf of Service Men Wins Praise of War Department
By Colonel Arthur Woods, Assistant to the Secretary of War
Colonel Arthur Woods, who as Assist-
ant to the Secretary of War, is direct-
ing the re-employment of discharged
soldiers and sailors, has written the fol-
lowing article to the Boy Scouts. In
SCOUTING for August 21, Colonel
Woods explained how scouts could be of
service in reporting firms that were will-
ing to take back former employees who
had enlisted. Here he tells how well this
work is being done and adds a few
words of advice that will make for
greater efficiency.
THE Boy Scouts of America have
certainly jumped away to a running
start. Success seems already certain for
their great campaign to secure for pa-
triotic employers in their home towns
the citation issued by the War and Navy
Departments to all firms and individuals
that agree to take back every one who
left to serve in the Great War.
I knew this would be so. For years
I have watched the work of the Boy
Scouts of America and I have never
known the time when they did not bring
home 100 per cent, of success. In fact,
it was the work of isolated troops which
gave us the first idea for this nation-
wide campaign of ours. Some weeks
ago we were surprised at the number of
applications for citations which began to
come in from Chicago. On inquiry we
found that the Boy Scouts were at the
bottom of it. In California such small
communities as Long Beach and Mar-
tinez sent lists of firms desiring our ci-
tation which would size up in length with
lists from cities of ten times the popu-
lation. Santa Barbara and Fresno did
likewise. Again it was the Boy Scouts.
So we started the big citation drive from
Washington.
I want to put before every Boy Scout
just what this citation means.
It is a handsome document, engrossed
with the name of the recipient, and is
issued to every employer in the United
States who has that proper sense of
patriotism that leads him to agree to take
back every one of our fighting men who
left him to go to war. Many of those
employers had heard of the citation be-
fore the Boy Scouts began their whirl-
wind campaign. But from other signs
our office in Washington realized that
there were still thousands upon thou-
sands, just as patriotic, who had not even
heard of this document. And so from
the little suggestion of what individual
troops have been able to do in scattered
communities was evolved the great plan
to have every boy of your 400,000 try at
least one application for a citation, to
add to the 15,000 we had already issued.
You boys cannot understand how much
effort it has required merely to get it
started. For six weeks we have been
busy with printers and papermen getting
out the tremendous amount of literature
required.
Six honorably discharged soldiers and
sailors have worked day after day
counting out the blanks and filling the
envelopes. Finally the great task is
finished and a complete set of our litera-
(c) Clinedienst, from Press Illustrating
Colonel Arthur Woods
ture has gone from the- War Depart-
ment to every scoutmaster in the United
States.
Eagerly we watched for the first re-
turn. It was a lone application from
Helmetta, New Jersey. Our hopes ran
high in the next mail, but there were only
returned blanks not filled out, from troops
which said that there were no employers
of soldiers in their villages.
DON'T FORGET
The farmer who reemploys his
only farm hand. He is as much en-
titled to the citation as the city em-
ployer of hundreds of men. So is
the local storekeeper who reemploys
his clerk and the man who takes
back his chauffeur;
To go after the little employer
everywhere. The big one is more
likely to get his citation through his
own efforts;
That firms whose employees have
been killed in the war are entitled to
citations;
That firms offering to take back
their for'mer employees should have,
citations, even if the men do not
take back their old jobs. It is their
willingness to reemploy that counts;
That firms who had no employees
in the service, but who are now em-
ploying only former soldiers and
sailors do not receive citations;
To get local publicity;
That this is one of the most im-
portant war services you have ren-
dered our soldiers and sailors.
The first sign of enterprise that
reached us was from Keokuk, Iowa,
where energtic Troop 2 had a fine three-
quarter column story in the local news-
paper calling attention to the citation and
to the fact that the Scouts proposed to
put it over. I might suggest that this
kind of publicity should be followed by
every troop,, for it starts inquiries
among the employers and makes it easy
to have the blanks signed up quickly.
The troop at Rensselaer, Indiana, was
the first to fill and send in its quota'Vhd
a letter of congratulation has been sent
to the Scoutmaster by the War Depart-
ment. A few hours later Muskogee, Ok-
lahoma, sent all its applications and asked
for more.
The Sioux City, Iowa, Troop has al-
ready come forward with a request for
100 more application blanks, as proof
that they are going about their job in a
thorough and workmanlike manner.
A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE:
Remember that anybody is entitled to
a citation who agrees to take back his
service employes. If he only had one
before the war and took him back, that
employer is as much entitled to a cita-
tion as the corporation which took back
all its 20,000 soldiers and sailors.
Remember, too, that the employer must
agree to take back all. We do not issue
conditional citations.
Also, bear in mind that the employer
must sign the application. The scout-
master or the scout cannot sign for him,
and we have been obliged to send back
several sets of applications because the
scoutmaster signed the applications in-
stead of the employers.
One scoutmaster misunderstood entire-
ly that these citations are a recognition
for the patriotism that reemploys service
men. He asked whether he should re-
turn his applications for citations,, saying
he had no use for them as all the sol-
diers in his community are reemployed
and therefore taken care of.
Please do not be in a hurry to send
back one or two signed blanks. We have
enclosed but two return envelopes with
each set of applications. These are sup-
posed to hold the entire batch of appli-
cation blanks sent to each troop. Wait
until your entire community is covered
and you can get no more signatures be-
fore returning the applications as no fur-
ther return envelopes will be issued.
Tell the patriotic employers who sign
them that we have a force of engrossers
working in Washington and they can
handle one thousand names a day, but
that it generally requires at least a week
before a citation filled out and properly
engrossed can be started on its way to
the employer.
I want to take this opportunity to
thank you boys in the great organization
of the Boy Scouts of America for your
wonderful work in behalf of our fight-
ing men. You were too young to go to
war yourselves but you have done the
next best thing—you have come to the
assistance of our returned soldiers and
sailors at the very moment when they
most need assistance.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 7, Number 38, September 18, 1919, periodical, September 18, 1919; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth283106/m1/3/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.