New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-03-06
World Scouts.

Y w " 49, oSO~SOs
So much has been written and said
concerning the ''boy-scout" move
ment, both in favor of it and against
it that any one Who reads the papers
must have gathered Q number OF
ideas concerning it altho We have no
such organization here. OF late The
daily papers have been full of the
subject owing TO the fact that the
founder of the movement, Baden
Powell, is visiting this country, in
specting the work Of his hands. AS
he looks upon it We can imagine his
qualification for the man certainly ls
in earnest and thinks he has accom-
plished great and good thing. We
do not agree with him that what he
has done is good. IT he could reach
the poor boys of the city, those who
do not get out into the country ever,
the long tramps and the nature study
would be splendid for them but they
haven't the money it requires to be-
long to . scout company and the boys
who do belong are those who get
plenty of other opportunities to be
out of doors without the attending
evil of having the foolishness OF
militarism instilled into heart and
mind. The following article on
"World Scouts" clipped from the
columns of the Atchison Globe to our
mind pictures q far finer conception
than that of Baden-Powell.
1T might have occurred to you that
an imitation is sometimes an improve
ment over the original. In which
instance the bowls of the producer of
the original to accept no substitute
don't get him much nor for long.
This seems to have happened in the
case of the Boy Scouts. That move
ment originated in England, with the
gallant Baden Powell as sponsor, and
spread out to some extent across the
broad expause of the all red empire,
and to other lands including our own.
There were commendsble features to
the Boy Scout movement, and in.
a good deal of rot and
wrong. Teaching much that was good,
it finally developed that the Boy
Scout movement was sort of in
fantile militarism, with the ultimate
aim of teaching the young idea how to
shoot straight and keep the powder
dry. 1t was an English scheme, or
the scheme of any nation which tried
it, to build up machine for future
wars; a plan, in short, to teach boys
the beauty of going forth and dying
for their more or less
esteemed country.
Now the old order changeth; slowly,
of course, but surely, and the war
notion, by the same process, is losing
its popularity. Which is where an
imitation comes in by way of improve
ment. Sir Francis Vane is the imita-
tor, and like Baden-Powell, he was q
fighter in South Africa. But his fight
ing experience taught him the folly of
war, the most important lesson war
can carry. So when he sought to
teach the boys of his land, and of the
world, and organize them, his motive
was peace instead of military efficiency.
His plan is based on the theory that
war is wrong, and that foreigners are
a lot like folks, after all, despite their
different languages, costumes and
culinary achievements. So the imita-
tor teaches his boys to fare forth TO
help those who need it,; to brave the
dangers of every day, rather than to
prepare for those OF the future. TO
them is shown the sordid, silly
foolishness of war, which isn't as
glorious as many youngsters are led
to believe. Also, they are taught to
regard everyone as folks, and to
ignore the classification of foreigners.
1t should encourage Mr.. Carnegie, if
he is really losing interest in the fact
that there is money in making armor
plate, to know that this World Scout
is catching on almost a.
we'll as the Boy Scout movement has.
Both may be but passing fads, but
both teach something as they pass,
and the fact that the imitation teaches
the courage of peace instead of war,
proves its superiority at q glance.
BANK NO. GIL