The Coconino sun., 1925-02-13

/ In this great universe of ours we
have laws governing practically all
our movements. God in his great
work of creation caused night and day
and we live on, sometimes anxiously
wandering, other times doing a spe-
| cific task. There are two elements
that go hand in hand, Time and
| Thrift. From every lip is heard the
/ common expression 1--WE haven't
/ time," or well find time," ETC. These
statements all relate to thrift. When
| the word thrifty" is used one inn
mediately thinks Of the mercenery
meaning of the word, but in scouting
! it means even more. "A scout is
| thrifty" he does not wantonly destroy
property He works faithfully, wastes
nothing and makes the best use of his
opportunities. Then follows the part
about money. | want to call your at
tention to the second part, that is, he
works faithfully, wastes nothing and
makes use of his opportunities.
Last month | had the privilege and
opportunity to interview practically
every boy in our schools over the age
Of II. Why? Just to see what per-
centage of boys were in scout work,
and second, to ascertain the conditions
under which our boys are laboring,
and lastly, to see what our boys work
committee could do to help.
Analyzing boy conditions in Flag
staff, We must consider his home,
school, church, his job, and his leisure
time. First let's look at the homes in
Flagstaff The family is the basic
institution of our life. Here the plas-
tic child receives his first impressions
of life, its ways, it's standards, its re-
lations. Home is his first school, his
first church. 1t starts the habits
which bear fruit as virtues and vices.
The average family of Flagstaff has
4.3 members. One boy in every three
gets his American ideals from a for
eign home. Our homes are above the
average in the number of rooms, still
recreation has for the most part left
our homes. Broken homes have their
effect on the boy. Seventeen per cent
of our boys have only one parent,
due either to divorce or death. Six per
cent have step-parent. Do fathers
chum with their boys? On the average
they do not. Forty per cent of the
boys interviewed stated that father did
not spend any time with them. Only
five boys in town stated that their
fathers spent over ten hours week
with them.
Now let US look at our schools. We
rank high-fine buildings, well equip
ped, and with good teachers. These
institutions are a big asset in the
boys life. AS to our churches and
their work, only so per cent of our
boys go to Sunday school or mass and
this so per cent do not attend regu-
larly. The employed group of boys IS
very small, less than per cent work
after school hours. OF course the ma
jority of our scouts have chores to do
which require from ten minutes to an
hour day.
/ have run through briefly the con-
dition of home, church, school and job,
and now we come to leisure time.
"Oh,' mothers say, my son is too
busy to do this, or that; haven't time.
Still school is only in session six
hours and the parents spend very lit
tie time with their boys. When or
how do they spend the rest of their
time?
Time is our common possession.
n SCHOOL DOy lids LWlSG do III ASAA 1CA2NAc
time as school time. Organized school
sports take about 25 per cent of this.
Boys must have activities. Loafing
and having nothing to do is a common
occurrence. Pool halls are the common
club rooms for our older boys. Movies
draw from all ages large percent
age every night. Reading, because OF
lack Of other activities is taking more
and more of our boys time. On the
whole, our popular novels and maga-
zines are being read by the majority;
still copies of doubtful monthly pub
locations of no moral value are seen
in the hands of our school boys.
Scouting is helping take up more and
more Of our boys leisure in sane,
healthful way.
This week we are celebrating the
fifteenth anniversary of scouting;
Grand Canyon council was organized
about three years ago. Many boys
have been members and have dropped
out for various reasons. Still scout
ing continues to grow. December 30,
1928, we had two troops and II scouts
Today we have five troops and ~
scouts. We have about 120 boys IN
town between the ages Of IL and 10
The 72 scouts registered, plus 30