The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-05-22
The Boy Scout Movement.

Editor Daily Banner:
My Dear Sir.-It is not often
my desire to appear in the public
print, but may l say just word
on behalf of the Boy Scout Move
ment and it's organization in Cam
bridge? A few weeks ago some
forty or fifty boys, in response to
a call. met together in the Parish
House. The night was very dis
NAL and rainy,but nothing daunted,
they came together to listen to Mr..
H. L. Eddy, Boy Scout Commission
er for the State of Maryland, and
he told them of some of the re-
quirements and responsibilities of
the Order, and won them COM
pletely. 1t is not often that any
considerable number of boys get to-
gether with such uninimity of pur-
pose as was theirs.
Sometimes the social or religious
forces of the community, working
through the schools or the churches,
might call a meeting with a large
attendance. But in those cases
the boys are not free agents. They
are marshalled by machinery, which
has behind it the authority of law
and ancient custom and parental
command But the meeting that
night in the Parish House was of
an altogether different character. l
do not believe there was single
boy there for any other reason
than that he wanted to be there.
Now, the same might be said of
a baseball game or other amusement
to which boys had been invited and
to which their way had been paid.
But these boys did not come to
the Parish House that night to be
amused. They did not come to
play. With them is seemed seri-
GUS business, as one might know
who saw their smilingly solemn
faces and observed their happy
gravity. 1t was their meeting. They
threw over it all the air of pro-
prietorship that was genuine and
deeply felt.
Now, the point l want to make is
this: A power that can call to-
gether such an assembly of boys
is deeply significant. And it should
command the attention of parents
and of the community And in this
particular case it is doubly impor-
tant that the thought of the grown
ups should be called to it. It means
that some influence is being exer-
cised on the boys for good or for
evil, and for the good or evil of
the community at large. And it is
for this reason more than another,
that this movement is spreading
with a rapidity that is startling in
any case, and positively alarming
IL the movement does not make for
the good of the boys.
Within a couple of years or so,
the Boy Scouts have grown to num-
Der more than 100000 in America.
And the 100000 in the United
States is but the beginning,as- any
one might believe who has watched
the rapid growth since the first
troop was organized.
Americans, however, are more
concerned to know just what the
Boy Scout movement is than with
mere figures of it's growth. For
the most people to get an adequate
idea of the Order it will be neces-
sary, first, for them to 'divest them
selves of the erroneous notion that
il is, at all, a military organization.
The boys are not taught to fight;
they are not drilled in military tao
tics; they do not carry rams. The
purpose is not to reduce them to
the condition of cogs in q machine;
but. on the contrary, to teach them
to be self-reliant, human individu-
ais, able to take care of them
selves. The drift toward the cities
is often reflected in the constantly
failing physical standards of those
and we are bound to come to
and we are bound toe ONE to a
realization of the truth that the
whole youth of the nation need
just such training, whether they are
to be soldiers or civilians, land that
they need the mental stimulus that
comes from being put on their own