Scouting, Volume 45, Number 10, December 1957 Page: 2
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By HOBART CREIGHTON
Warsaw, Indiana , V\
W".
E,
iditor's note: Hobart Creighton is the head of
one of the largest hatcheries in the world, where
365,000 chickens are in process of hatching at
a time. A thousand acres on his farm are planted
in corn. He lives in the heart of the rich midwest
food producing area. Yet, ask him to name the
chief product of his beloved middle west, and
he will give you the one-word reply "people."
Then with a touch of pride in his voice he will
add "outstanding people." Mr. Creighton served
as a member of the Indiana House of Represen-
tatives for sixteen years and as Speaker of the
House for three terms.
As a Sunday School superintendent and teacher of a
class of boys for the past twenty-five years, I find real
satisfaction in contact with these youngsters. There are
twenty-three boys of Scout age in my class and they help
me to keep in tune with the developments and the changes
that are coming in today's world. I try to help them build
their worlds larger and find basic life values. Of course
that's what we do as Scout leaders.
I'm always interested to see how a Scout troop helps
to get the Scout Law into a boy's heart, how the troop,
through activity and atmosphere and personal influence
of leaders and fellow members, can get the points of the
Scout Law to come alive in a boy's life.
Growth of Confidence
I'm always interested in seeing a timid boy grow into
a confident one. Confidence is a very important quality
for a boy to develop. I remember watching a boy who
failed the first time he tried to make fire by friction. His
leader was patient with him, pointing out that he must
put more into his effort to get results with his bow and
spindle. The boy seemed to be pretty well convinced that
he couldn't get fire, but the leader was convinced that he
could. The leader won out. of course, but the greatest
victory was not getting the fire but the confidence that
came to the boy through sticking to the task. From
this victory he gained the self-confidence to tackle other
fields. Such experience as going to Philmont, going on
canoe trips, hiking a difficult trail, all of those experiences
cannot help but be valuable to a boy, in preparing him
for a full useful life which is bound to have some difficult
spots along the way.
We live in a world in which things are becoming more
complicated and are worked out on an increasingly large
scale. We plant our corn now with an eight-row corn
planter. We're putting nitrogen into the soil so that we
can get a larger yield of corn. We were getting not more
than 35 bushels to the acre when I was a boy. Now we
have a 30-acre test area on our farm where we're aiming
at getting 200. The world is growing faster. We're digging
deeper. We're expecting more from people, too.
The importance of home life cannot be over-estimated
and Scout leaders can be very helpful in strengthening
it. I live near the little village of Atwood, Indiana, a com-
munity of 250 people. We have many communities
throughout Indiana and the Middle West that are fa-
mous for raising people, but I have a notion that it would
be pretty hard to beat the record of Atwood in turning
out outstanding people. We do not recognize juvenile de-
linquency in Atwood and the surrounding territory. We
refuse to recognize it and if things look like a youngster
is headed for trouble, we work things out so that he
doesn't get in over his head.
There was Jack Rovenstine, who was in our high school
in 1913, now a well known physician in New York City.
He and the rest of the gang wanted a baseball team and
Jack's mother got the red sateen and made uniforms for
the entire team. We were known as the Atwood Reds and
were very proud of the honor of representing our com-
munity. Parents and home life counted a great deal in
developing that generation.
Out of that crossroad community have come outstand-
ing educators, doctors, military leaders, exceptional peo-
ple far beyond the percentage that you would expect.
Outstanding boys grow up in communities where parents
provide the kind of home life that takes into account the
basic values of life and put strong emphasis on them.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 45, Number 10, December 1957, periodical, December 1957; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329261/m1/4/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.