The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-09-29
Be SCOUTMASTER,
IS I. RS APPEAL
Former President in Talk to Boy
Scouts and Others Declares plenty
Chances to Serve coun-
try in This
HELPING TO MAKE MEN

Sam in Various Lines, He ieHs
the Boys and Talks
About Team.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, honor-
ary scout <ssx ,issioner, OF NASSAU q
county, New York., and member VI
the troop committee of the SCOUT
troop connected with Christ Eplsco-
nal church, in Oyster Bay, pltcheo
his tent at Mineola, Nassau county
with the 1900 Boy Scouts of America
encamped there. The Boy Scouts
cooked their own meals for four days
and on the last day had rally with
wall-scaling, stalking" cowboy
race" contest and other scouting ac-
tivities.
Colonel Roosevelt addressed the
Bow Scouts after their dress parade
and lauded them for having made
the team" that is fighting Uncle
Sans battles He urged everyone
to do his duty as he found 1t before
him. Colonel Roosevelt said:
Fellow Boy Scouts: OF course
have a right to say fellow Boy
Scouts for 1 see here as one OF your
scoutmasters the dominic unuer
whom l sit every Sunday. l am not
only proud Of Nassau county for what
you boys have done in organizing
TINS body here in this county, but
congratulate with all my heart the
American people on the Boy Scout
movement; and l want you boys to
feel this. Boys Of your age ordi-
narily cannot feel as yet that they
have done much for the country as
citizens, but you boys-the Boy
Scouts-are different Because of the
leadership given by your Organization
you are already doing your part.
You are on the team now-Uncle
Sans team. You are doing your bit!
And I tell you, 1t Is worth while. l
do not know man or boy worth his
salt who has not got the desire to
be a part Of the team that counts,
and to do his share in making 1t
count. That is what every red-blooded
American has got to feel, or he isn't
worth being called an Am erican! 1t
is what you boys are doing.
1--WE have got 25S,00O Boy Scouts
of America and about $4,000 people
like Scoutmaster Talmadge, Council
President Earle and myself (scout
commissioner who are in the move
ment as leaders, and l won't be con-
tent until, instead of 25S,000 we have
1850, 900.
Never Be Neutral Between Right and
Wrong.
and now, boys, nothing could have
pleased me more than what President
Earle said in introducing me, when
| he spoke of sentence / had used
and said it ought to be the motto on
which the Boy Scouts act. 1t ought
to be the motto on which all of US
here act, and also on, which every
grown-up American acts: Never be
neutral between right ard wrong.
One Of the lessons that it is most
| important to teach the average
American-the men you boys are to
| be-is that when he is neutral be
tween right and wrong he is helping
the wrong. If when you are grown
up you see cruelty, iniquity and evil
triumphing over decency and justice
and you go by on the other side like
the Levite, you will earn just the
cordial memory the Levite earned
| for himself under those circum
stances. If you are not with the
right, then you are against the right!
And you boys have got to cultivate
not only the habit of being decent
urselves, but of helping to make
other people decent Therefore you
have got to be good, decent and eff
cient.
| Has No Use for Harmless Boys.
1--WE got mighty little use for the
| type of good man or the type of good
| boy Of whom all you can say is that
| he is harmless. Boy Scouts, I want
you to count in the game of life.
want you to count now when you are
! boys and I want you to count when
! you are grown men.
s'1 have just come over from the
troops of the Sixty-ninth regiment
! They are going abroad to do their
duty. You are being trained in this
organization to do your duty in civic
! life rather than in war.
! 81 believe in this movement with
| all my heart; believe thoroughly in
| the kind of work that you are doing
| The democracy of government was
based fundamentally on the kind OF
| spirit that you show-the service that
| you so willingly give. No man is
entitled TO privilege if he does not
perform a duty. You can't any OF
you enjoy the privileges of the Boy
! Scouts If you stay out and don't dc
any of the work.
! Must Earn Benefits.
| Anyone WHO Goes not give service
in times of peace will not give ser
vice in times of war. When I hear
man say that he is too conscien
tious to fight for his country then
would like to have him take his con
science out and examine it to see il
II is healthy. II he is too conscien
tious to fight then he should not be al
/ lowed to vote and help rule coun
! try for which other men have te
! fight. There were some elderly sis
/ - -. ~