THE BOY SCOUTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 69, 23 March 1911, Page 3

THE BOY SCOUTS.

There are now over 250,000 boy scouts in the world, and for his services in creating this great body of boy scouts General Baden-Powell was knighted. "The boy scout movement is one of the marvels of our age," says ,the London Evening Standard. "It is only three years old, and already it has captured the world. No longer ago than January^ 1908, it did not exist. Then it was started, quite quietly and unobtrusively, with no parade or fuss, and it was an instant and amazing success. ' 'Why didn't we think of it before?' we said, as we do when we are in presence of any other grand simple discovery. Everybody could see that it was one of the things wo bad been waiting for. All, the best youngsters in England be-1 came scouts, the best young men be- j came scout-masters. There are said to ! be 100,000 of the former, 7000 of the j latter, in Great Britain alone. It < passed into the United States, and \ American boys took to it as ducks .' take to water. The colonies—Aus- i tralasia, Canada, South Africa — adopted it with enthusiasm. So did foreign countries; there are Russian,

Crerman, Italian boy scouts. It is a great world-movement —one that will help" to make th© second decade of the 20th century memorable, one that will Ibe .alive and vigorous when half the | things we are squabbling and worry- ! ing about at present are forgotten. It ! succeeds because it is based upon elemental qualities in human nature, because it appeals to the emotional, the ethical, and the adventurous instincts | which are present, though they may bo latent, in all boys—and in all men and all women also. It asks itsmem- ! bers both to do something and to be | something-; which is what all of us — 'especially boys—want, if we only knew. Every normally constituted boy has a taste for action, for excitement, for adventure, for the employment of his energies When there is no legitimate outlet for this natural dtsire he must try to gratify it in ways which are sometimes silly and may be harmful. The scout movement directs the stream into the right channels. It confers discipline, regulated exertion, self-control, self-respect, courage. Obedience becomes an honoratae obligation instead of an irksome duty. Amusement can be found not in rowdiness and destruction, but in helpful work. The scout is a member of an order, an association; he dons the communal feeling when he puts on his uniform; the corporate spirit, the idea of working with, others, re* places his ragged individualism. Having begun the process of turning th© boys into good citizens, we must go on with it. Th© movement now requires to be supplemented by ime Organisation for "securing that boys are, prepared for some useful trades, for keeping them out of the unskilled, indefinite occupations, through which men drift into th cranks of the unemployed and unemployable. Sir R. Baden-Powell has begun; there are; schemes for technical training, for farm schools, where boys can be prepared: for life on th© land and life overseas. No money and effort that can be devoted to such projects will be wasted. They1 will render the boy scoute movement an even more valuable factor in social and national development than it is at present."