Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-01-09
JACOB RIIS TELLS
Of SCOUT INFLUENCE
Famous Welfare Worker Gives
Appraisal Of Effects of Great
Boys Movement.

Interesting incidents in which lie the
explanation of the whole Boy Scout
movement-"the tremendous impetus
h a in three brief years has organized
an army of more than 10000 boys with
1000 scout masters. and broken down
every imaginary barrier OF sect and
caste and the opposition that once fell
afoul of the mistaken notion that we
had here to do with the military spirit
of the young."-are given by Jacob Riis
in an article entitled 1.-THE Boy Scouts
in the issue of the Outlook for October
%. He explains the true basis of the
appeal of what Is now called scouting.
demonstrating how 1t gets under the
skin of a boy" and modtfies his life:
with which hes scout program fits In to
the program of other organizations
which are seeking to be an influence
for good. MI. Riis writes:
The Scouts don't compete; they are
gla to Join hands with whatever or
themselves rank as a movement rather
than as an organization. To the T.. M.
C. A. they are usually a welcome ally:
now and then. where the machinery
has stiffened into forms that forget
that all service is in it's essence re-
ligfous. they help to wake 1t up. II tho
door creaks a bit as It swings open. Il
soon limbers up under the new impulse.
I am thinking of one of the seaboard
cities typical of the old South that
made room reluctantly for the Scouts.
1t was not that 1t was lacking In tho
social service spirit: 1t was there. but
1t did not know how to harness IL.
Once there. h Scouts went on with
their troop meetings and their hikes.
leaders from other cities came to talk
TO them on their obligation to be duti-
full, helpful. and clean. and then some
thing happened.
The town. as I said was a seaport.
It had its slums and it's social evil
problem, and a bad one to boot. Tho
Ministerial association had been struE.
Cling with 1t and with itself in its eff
forts to break through the old reserve
into the new day. but without much
result. When these newcomers
talked right out in meeting. took up
sex hygiene with the grown people. and
told the truth plainly, a fresh breeze
ministers felt the shackles falling off,
a civic circulation was started up. so
to speak. and the people made ready to
deal with their problem. This / saw
In n town,
IL n sometimes seemed as II the
greatest heritage this generation could
bequeath to the one coming after might
De the conviction made fact that there
can be but n moral standard for men
n women. for boys and girls; and as
oIeen nave we stood pOwerless to bring
IL o for on this path? I have
quoted from the Scout law that the
Scout Is to be ''clean in body and
thought. stand for clean speech, clean
sport clean habits. n travel with q
clean crowd" Clean sports puts up
the bars against gambling, which goes
nand In hand with all the mischief Of
the street and opens the door to every
crime on the calendar. The very spirit
or the movement breaths loyalty to
authority. to law. a lesson our boys
need to learn. east and west, north and
south. II this be the quality Of its ser.
vice to our day. what greater could anu
n render?