Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-12
BY b. r. YOAKUM.

There are boys in every community
who join the criminal class because
they have been allowed to drift and
have no proper character training at
the most critical time in their life.
At the moment, there is no more
challenging duty facing right-think-
ing men and women than to save
American boys between the ages of
10 and Is from the underworld Of
crime. And it is work that can
Immediately assume q much broader
plane of activity than so-called social
or welfare work. Keen minded boys,
full of the independent spirit Of youth,
are not apt to be enthusiastic If they
think they have become the senti-
mental objects for some kind of So
cial service.
Right now I am up to my ears in
a promising plan to help caddies grow
up to become good Americans. The
plan under way is one that should
interest every one Of the hundreds
Of golf clubs of the country, and hun
dl eds of other organizations as we'll:
for, If a golf club that exists for the
recreation and pleasure of its mem
bers can become a constructive
agency for sound Americanism. there
are thousands Of other organizations
that could "go and do likewise"
At the Lenox Hills Golf Club at
Farmingdale, Long Island, we have
rs caddies ranging from IL to 16 years
Of age. We have just formed caddy
club, whose membership will be COM
posed of these boys. 1t has been my
own privilege to build a clubhouse for
these boys, and it is being supplied
with pictures, a library, a reading
room, and is being we'll heated and
lighted so that the young members
NAV be comfortable.
These boys elect their board of di-
rectors from their own membership,
but for the time being at least with
a member of the golf club as presi-
dent. The club has an assembly room
that will seat $50, and well known men
and women, such as Judge Morgan j.
O'Brien, Judge Edwin l.. Garvin.
George Carbon Battle, Mrs. Oliver
Hartman and others who live In the
community or are members or the
golf club, occasionally make short
talks to the members of the caddy
club. In this way the boys are given
the advantage of being thrown in con-
tact with influential men and women
an advantage, by the way, that they
have during the Summer on the golf
course. From an acquaintance and
association standpoint, the caddy
often has more opportunities of this
character than come in the way OF
high school or college boys.
This caddy club is really a fraterni
ty organization, and each member has
button. The boys were greatly
pleased with their 1925 buttons, and
we shall have a different and, we
hope, even a more attractive one for
them in the new year. We find that
this badge of membership brings the
boys more closely together and is
really establishing a fraternal tie for
the future.
This is what one golf club is doing
to meet in a broad and human way
what 1t believes to be its duty to its
caddies. The boys are enthusiastic
over the club and many Of the mem
berS of the golf club are now con-
WINGED that we are going to render a
great service to the caddies and, at
the same time. a great service to our
own community and to the whole
country, because we are giving these
boys a definite sense of direction, we
are having them come to see that they
can become useful and honored citi.
Zens when they become men.
If any golfer, whatever his score
on his home course may be, would like
to make few long drives in the way
of helping along young caddies of his
club we believe that at Lenox Hills
we have a plan under way that will
interest him. Naturally. any informa'