Scouting, Volume 18, Number 10, October 1930 Page: 257
253-276 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Twenty Yea
(Make a DIFFERENCE
By Stuart P. Walsh
u
HAT did we do evenings when we were boys of Scout
age?" I asked an old friend the other day We con-
sidered the question together carefully, and the best
we could recall wasn't much. We filled the "base burners" which
heated our homes from October to April, we put kindling in
the kitchen stove, we read a book, or we tinkered with photo-
graphic "developing." Two or three times a season there was
some sort of party. Occasionally there was a family checker
match. Always there was "bed-time" pronounced with finality
by the head of the household at nine o'clock.
New impressions stopped coming to us each day when school
was out, except for the books we might read by lamp light.
On Saturdays there was a neighborhood play, of course, and on
Sundays the visits with relatives were exchanged. In the mid-
western town where we grew up some twenty years ago there
were no boys' clubs, organized boys' athletics, or week-day church
activities. There were no movies, electric lights and telephones
were for the few who could afford them, and the Boy Scouts of
America was just a faint rumor We didn't study school
books at home except on rare occasions, for in our section of
the country to carry books home was a mark of extreme back-
wardness, and the present-day plan of home study contracts
and overnight assignments had not then occurred to our edu-
cators. We weren't allowed to "go out" with the predatory
gangs which pillaged orchards and pumpkin patches in the pale
moonlight.
"But we managed to grow up under our terrific handicaps, old
man, and we never fully realized how bleak and barren were
our lives, did we?"
"Were they bleak? I'm pretty sure mine wasn't."
Today when a schoolboy comes out of his temple of learning
in the early afternoon his day is just getting well under way
There are one or more of a hundred "extra-curricular" activities
for him to engage in before darkness falls. He may be athletic,
or social, or loftily intellectual—there are affairs in daily progress
along all these lines. The church and the Y. M. C. A., not to
mention other agencies, may bid for some of his afternoon time
before he gets home where a basement hobby or a neighborhood
sport may claim his brief attention. Supper over, he faces the
problem of allotting his remaining waking hours. His horr-
study work must not be overlooked, he will have to answer for
it in the morning, and his parents are ready tc remind him of
his nightly duty There's a show in town that he can't miss,
and there's a bridge party at the house that will probably cul
minate in refreshments at a late hour His chum wants him to
go down the street for an hour at the min: ture golf course,
and tonight is Scout meeting—or is it tomorrow night? Yes,
it's tomorrow night tonight the Junior Chamber of Commerce
meets.
All tnrough the evening, wherever he is, he'll probably have
the radio. Amos 'n Andy are not to be neglected, and other
features that are advertised may make a strong appeal to him.
Should he by chance have a moment to spare, a pile of bright
magazines on the living room table may fill the gap.
"And growing up with these terrific advantages, do you sup-
pose our boys will also be able to make their way and survive.'
"Probably they will. But will they do it?"
Let's consider just one single phase of our changing world
as it particularly affects growing boys and giris—the quantity
of ideas and impressions received. In our youth there were
people and there were books to give us our impressions—nothing
more.
Today there are still only twenty-four hours in every twenty-
four, but how our souices of impressions have multiplied!
Besides the books and the people we have the radio and the
movie—now 100% vocal as well as visible—the illuminated and
animated advertisement, the telephone, and the organized group
activities.
Among these we have Scouting, with its tremendous possibil
ities for constructive good. I'm not thinking now of the value
of the Good Turn habit, or the First Aid knowledge, or the
campcraft skill, or the Scout code of conduct—at least not
directly. I'm thinking of the possibilities of Scouting for balanc-
ing this amazing daily existence of our boy growing up in this
whirl of impression and activity How did we spend our own
boyhood time—with none of these multiplied interests? We filled
the empty space, did we not, very largely by the exercise of our
initiative and our imagination. We dreamed many dreams and
occasionally we thought a few thoughts. Today there's scarcely
time for that, but it's still mighty worth-while.
Scouting seems to have one of the mental vitamins our boys
need very badly We have to administer it in heroic doses of
r.dventure, unselfishness, and resourcefulness. We have to be
satisfied often with very little of the time and attention we
think the program should have.
All of which is by way of introduction. The theme and point
of this article is only this Our fall planning and our winter
program of Troop and Patrol activities must secure for our
lads the fullest possible values that Scouting, amongst the many
things they may engage in, can bring them in satisfaction of a
real need. Thig need includes expression rather than too mucli
more impression, and a constant recognition by Scouters of the
nature and values of most of the other things our boys are
finding time to do.
Let's keep our programs spontaneous, in spite of their regu-
larity and careful preparation. Let's keep out of doors, in spirit
at least, in spite of weather or other limitatiotns. Let's keep
Scouting unique and picturesque, practical and yet imaginative
among all the learning and the sport that our boys find to
overflow their waking hours.
THE following editorial by Edward Orleans appeared in the
Brooklyn Daily Mirror for September 2nd. We are repro-
ducing in part for the encouragement of Scout Leaders. Surely
every one of us may feel that he has a definite share in the work
of building this nation and continuing the traditions of our
history
"Last month, on the occasion of his 56th birthday the Boy
Scouts of the District of Columbia presented President Hoover
with a carved buffalo horn. Mr Hoover is Honorary Presidenv
of the Scouts. Therefore, as a memorial of by-gone pioneer
days, the boys themselves carved the buffalo horn in. appropriate
symbolic figures for their illustrious Chief.
The President of ,the United States, because of his exalted
position, is naturally the recipient of many presents. Many of
these are of intrinsic value—from friends, admirers, rulers of
foreign nations, and others.
However Mr Hoover will probably cherish no present more
deeply than he will this simple buffalo horn, carved by patient
and loving hands of boys who revere their country and its
institutions. It is a buffalo horn symbolic of a dying race of
magnificent animals, it is a carving symbolic of a noble gen-
eration of coming Americans. A boy in good standing with
his Scout organization is a good boy It is a safe bet that he
will be a good man and a good citizen—and remain one. It
is bromidic to say that the future of the nation rests with the
coming generation nevertheless the statement bears repeating.
Therefore, it is true—even if somewhat bromidic—to say that
the future of this country rests largely with the Boy Scouts of
America. For these unspoiled children of the Nation founded
by Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and Hancock—rein-
forced by Lincoln and Wilson—are indeed guided by strong and
capable hands. They have the constant precept and example of
men inspired by high ideals and noble purpose.
If every man could only be a Boy Scout in his heart our jails
would soon be empty Our police would not need to carry arms.
Divorce lawyers could turn to more noble, even though less
profiable labor And many of the country's major crime prob-
lems would vanish in thin air
And what goes for Boy Scouts applies likewise to the Girl
Scouts and the Camp Fire girl as well."
Page 257
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 18, Number 10, October 1930, periodical, October 1930; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth310836/m1/5/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.