Scouting the Country
★Buckshot to Memorial
When John M. Phillips began his crusade for conservation less than two generations ago, he was taunted, reviled, threatened, and “accidentally” shot in the legs three times. Sportsmen of that day felt game was public property, and they dealt roughly with “busybody conservationists.”
But on an August Sunday in 1948, a new crop of sportsmen met near Glenhazel, Pennsylvania, and paid public tribute to the same John M. Phillips, no longer taunted nor “accidentally” shot. Commonwealth sportsmen now revere him as “Pennsylvania’s grand old man of conservation.” On the site of the first game lands purchased by the state, they unveiled a huge boulder, bearing a keystone-shaped plaque commemorating the work of Mr. Phillips in developing a state-wide conservation system.
A member of the Advisory Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Phillips is 87 years old, and one of the few men to have a memorial erected in his honor while still living.
Dutch Uncles—2¢ Each
If you’d like to get it off your chest—you know, tell parents a thing or three—here’s your opportunity to do it in a nice way. (Not that you’d do it other than nicely.) At the request of many Scouters, we are making reprints of Louis C. Fink’s “Are We Pied Pipers?” from OctoberScouting. If you’d like a few copies, why not ask your Council for them?
Country Kids
If you, too, have always taken it for granted that delinquency is a crop native only to the teeming metropolis, Albert S. Goss, Master of the National Grange, has a shock for you.
“The farmer,” reports Mr. Goss, “is now disturbed about the rapid increase in delinquency. He has finally come to the conclusion that the greatest influence (in combatting delinquency) is that of character-building organizations, the results of which he is delighted with.”
Among character-building organizations, “Scouting for the country kid,” adds Mr. Goss, “is a natural, for he has many things right at his back door that Scouting offers (and) every one of the Granges can sponsor a Scout Unit. There are 7,100 sub-units in the United States, and a special effort is being made this year to push this. The sub-units themselves own about 4,000 buildings.”
Mr. Goss was speaking at a meeting of the National Committee on Rural Scouting late last October. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Wheeler McMillen, Committee Chairman. Mr. McMillen, known for his interest in rural youth, is moderator of this month’s round table, “Reaching Out,” which you’ll find on page4.
Old Mags
The fondest dream of any editor is that you, dear reader, cherish and possess your magazine through eternity. But, no respecters of dreams are the 2,000 Boys’ Clubs of Britain. Magazine-hungry, they’ll gladly accept any and all back numbers of any magazine, providing it’s American. Mail ’Em to E. H. G. Barwell, Peace Haven, 25 Chantry Close, Kenton, Middlesex, England.
Brothers
Troop 23 of Schenectady, New York,didgo to camp last summer, although there was some hectic scrambling at the last minute to raise funds. You see, Troop 23 was financially set pretty well in advance, but along came June, and clear across the continent Vanport, Oregon, went down under fifteen feet of water. Scouts of Troop 23 read of how two Vanport Scout Troops and two Cub Packs barely got ashore with the clothes on their backs, so the boys from Schenectady began packing. To Vanport went haversacks, uniforms, pins, badges, and a welter of miscellany. But still the packages didn’t look impressive enough to Troop 23, so into the treasury they dived and came up with $35 of their camp funds.
No moral needed.
Fifty Means Forty
No that’s not double talk on inflation, it’s just a first clue to the fact that, come 1950, we celebrate our 40th Anniversary, and since 40 years is quite a milestone, we propose to celebrate it in a big way.
In fact, we’ll be starting the process at the very beginning of 1949—a big, two year program which will reach into every Pack and Troop and Senior Unit in America. Be watching for future announcements!
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
By E. Urner GoodmanNational Program Director
By E. Urner GoodmanNational Program Director
By E. Urner GoodmanNational Program Director
By E. Urner Goodman
National Program Director
★Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit. Everybody knows about the spirit of Christmas! It is a spirit which makes itself felt in the heart of man no matter where he may be. There was the story of the landing at Casablanca which tells of this spirit so vividly. The story, contained in a letter to home by a Scout of yesterday, relates:
“It was Christmas Eve when we landed at Casablanca. We were among the first contingent to land, so we didn’t know what kind of reception we’d get. Our officers gathered us together and cautioned us about that. No one could predict if it would be a friendly welcome or a welcome of machine gun fire. So, as we marched up the main street of Casablanca, we walked as silently as possible. No one spoke to his neighbor. Everything was expectant and utterly tense.
“The march led toward the East, and as we marched, my eye quickly picked out a bright star shining down near the Eastern horizon. At once I remembered another Star that likewise shone so brightly on Christmas Eve. But now things seemed so different. Danger and death apparently were lurking behind every house as we passed.
“And then it happened—but not as we expected it. For, coming clearly and crisply from a group of buildings we were passing was the sound, not of machine guns or rifles, but the sweet and lovely strains of a blessed Christmas carol.
“The effect was electric. We all felt it. I looked at my buddy, who was a hard boiled sergeant. He caught his lip in his teeth and with tears coursing down his cheeks, he marched on unashamed.”
Well, there you have it. With the spirit of good will moving in the hearts of men, the Christmas spirit overcomes the rattle of the machine gun. It is wonderful to contemplate what effect the Christmas spirit has even on souls hardened by men at war.
More familiar, of course, are the homey evidences of the Christmas spirit ... the smell of balsam boughs and turkey roasting; the sight of the bright red berries on a wreath of holly; the soft caress of a falling snowflake on a moonlit Christmas Eve; the unforgettable taste of that red and white peppermint candy cane; and above all, the sweet notes of Christmas carols falling on the ear—all these things bring to us the spirit of Christmas at home.
But something deeper than all of that is there, because Christmas reminds us of the song of the angels, of “Peace on Earth among Men of Good Will.”
So similar is the spirit of Scouting, which grows out of such vivid experiences as these: The smell of woodfire with bacon broiling above it; the call of the loon over the lake on a quiet night; the sight of a great bird soaring over pines on a mountain top; the comforting feel of your buddy’s shoulder as you hike along a woodland trail at night; the unforgettable taste of wild strawberries gathered to augment the Patrol’s menu.
These things have a part, it is true, in the spirit of Scouting, but there is something far deeper, as we all know. For Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit.
No season is happier than the Christmas season, and the secret of that happiness lies in what our founder, Baden-Powell, called “happyfying.” It is the philosophy of the old song, “I want to be happy, but I can’t be happy, ’till I make you happy, too.”
Our Christmas turkey loses its taste and becomes dry fodder unless we have done something to make somebody else happy at Christmas time.
Now that is the spirit of Scouting at Christmas and at all other seasons. It was put into the Scout spirit by Baden-Powell. The implication is clear. Our happiness all year through, as Scouts, grows out of the many acts we do to bring happiness to those around us.
It is a fine thing for the Troop to engage in national or community programs of service. We should do that as good citizens. It is an even greater thing for a Patrol to single out some very human service they can perform for somebody close at hand. And when these Scouts see the smile on the face of the neighbor they have helped, then they know all about “happyfying” and their own lives are blest, too.
And the Scoutmaster, or other Unit Leader, knows about “happyfying,” for is he not making a Christmas gift to the nation every week in the year as he carries on his Scoutmastership? Thus he, himself, receives dividends the like of which no billionaire in history ever knew. So it was that one such Scoutmaster speaking at the last meeting of our National Council was able to say, “When the Scoutmaster looks around him and counts his blessings, he finds that his reward is the richest of all.”
Good Will
The youngest Cub Scout, of course, knows about good will, for does not the Law of the Pack remind him that “A Cub gives good will?” So, in the Boy Scout experience he finds that “The Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.” As he grows older he learns more of the World Brotherhood of Scouting and finds that good will among men knows no boundaries of race or creed, or nationality.
The beloved song of the angels at Christmastime, then, is the thing that Scouting is trying to do all year round. Insofar as Scouting builds its brotherhood and gives good will all year round, will it be speeding that day of “Peace on Earth.”
★We have it on good authority that 53% of the boys of America live “way out there,” in the little crossroads settlements and on the miles-apart farms.
We all know that we have a big opportunity and responsibility to reach out into that open country. We also know that it is a hard job.
To help bring this rural business into the spotlight, SCOUTING Magazine asked eight men to join in one of our Round Table discussions. These men represent all phases of rural life and of Scouting. The “moderator’s gavel” will be wielded by the Chairman of our National Committee on Rural Scouting, Wheeler McMillen, who as the Editor-in-chief of theFarm Journaland thePathfinder Magazine, has a host of friends throughout America.
Mr. McMillen, will you take over?
McMILLEN: I feel honored to join you fine men, who represent so many aspects of modern farm life. We all have one thing in common—we want that boy who lives on the farm to have a good break. Some of us believe that the Scouting program can play a big part in his growth.
We should face this whole question objectively and constructively. Let’s start by asking a rather blunt question:Do rural boys really need Scouting? Or is their normal life already filled with the ingredients which make for character and good citizenship?
VERNON NICHOLS, SCOUTMASTER: They need it very much. Scouting not only builds character, but it helps especially in developing leadership, a quality often lacking in farm boys.
HOWARD F. FOX, SUPERVISOR, VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE: The boys who live in small towns need Scouting, but I think those who live on farms need it in less degree.
JOE C. CARRINGTON, COUNCIL PRESIDENT: I can’t agree with Mr. Fox. Farm boys need it even more than town boys, who have more supervised playgrounds, more church and school and club-sponsored programs. The rural boy has very little to round out his life, and really needs Scouting.
L. H. ELEAZER, CUBMASTER: Perhaps the elements are there on the farm, but Scouting can help bring them out. Sometimes when a man is close to a thing, he doesn’t see it in its real light. Also, all rural boys do not stay on the farms where they were reared. These boys need much of the same kind of training their city brothers get.
CARRINGTON: That raises a good point—when the rural boy moves to town, he very often has no entering wedge into the youth programs there. But if he is a Scout in the rural area he can transfer his membership and make a transition which would have been difficult without Scouting. Its universality is an important feature.