Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-01-25
SCOUT LEADERS
p REPARE FOR
WORK FOR FUNDS

! At a meeting held last evening al
| the home of Lynn S. Palmer and at
! tended by 4 large number of men oi
the community who are backing tne
/ Boy Scouts of America, plans were
! laid for drive for funds to carry or
the activities of scouting in this COM
munity for the year Each man pres
ent was given a list of names of citi-
zens whom he is to interview seeking
their financial support of scouting.
a was announced that the plan this
year would be to secure large number
of small donations rather than few
large donations. BY this system it is
calculated the interest in scouting will
be more widespread and at the same
time more funds will be secured with
which to carry on the work.
One outstanding achievement of the
boy scout movement in Douglas was
commented on at the meeting last
evening That is the organization of
the boy scout band which is an Of
ficial organization both of the boy
scouts and the city of Douglas and is
subsidized by the taxpayers through
funds appropriated for the band by
the city council.
The band was organized last July
with ten boys. At the time of the
seventh annual Cochise county fair
there were 40 boys in the organization
and all were making excellent progress
as musicians. At the present time there
are 60 boys in the band and it has
played at many public functions and
is becoming popular while more is eX-
pected of it in the future than of any
other organization in the city.
Aside from the funds appropriated
by the city council for the band the
city schools have arranged for the
payment of part Of the salary of the
bandmaster and the Elks lodge has
donated handsomely to the undertake
ing. Many private individuals have
presented the band with funds for ad~
ditional instruments and the Douglas
Kiwanis club has underwritten the en-
tire organization for more than $4,000
in order to enable them to secure adj
ditional instruments required.
E. w. Graves is treasurer for the
boy scout council this year. There are
but three troops. actively organized in
Douglas. They are the American
legion troop, the Episcopal troop and
the Mormon troop The knights OF
Columbus are now preparing to re-
organize their troops which was for
long time one of the most progressive
in the county.
The fact that these scout troops are
named after religious org ganizationS
does not mean that the particular
denomination which. sponsors them
has anything to do with the formation
of the code of the boys as scouts. Each
boy scout regardless of the kind of
which sponsors his troop
and furnished it's adult leadership, is
taught the same code of honor and the
same studies and activities from the
same books. A boy does not have to
be a Catholic or Mormon or an
Episcopalian to belong to the troop
sponsored by any one of these or
g g3nizations. A boy does not have to
be the son of legionaire to belong to
the legion troop.
One of the first principles Of scout
ing is that the movement is not
in any way. The scout
leaders in Douglas report lamentable
lack of adult leaders in the community
at the same time that they report
deplorably large number of boys want
ing and needing the influences OF
scouting who cannot secure them be-
cause Of this lack of adult leaders The
scout leaders here urge volunteer adult
leaders to come forward and state that
if enough would do SO there could be
dozen scout troops here instead of
only three or four.