Evening star., 1935-08-18

Davey divorced his gang, Joined
the Troop and soon became its most
promising member. The very traits
that had made him a gang leader,
made him good Patrol Leader stuff.
Only now he had an incentive to show
his best instead of his worst side. A
criminal in the making had been
turned into self respecting citizen.
This is one example. There are
hundreds more. Almost every Scout
master can tell of cases just as vivid.
The Boy Scout plan has no upper
age limit. Many Scout has passed
through Scouting to Scout leadership.
From nine to twelve the Cub program
fits the younger boys to become better
Scouts. At twelve the boy may join a
regular Scout Troop, and at fifteen he
can join one of the side branches, such
as the Sea Scouts, that give the boys
who like boats an outlet for their
desires. Then there is the Rover Scout
program for those who love the woods
and open spaces.
The system of teaching in Scouting
is to stimulate the boy into perform
ing useful tasks of skill He is awarded
a badge of merit when he has fulfilled
the qualifications of an elementary
art, craft or achievement. And these
tests are quite difficult even an
adult would have to study hard to pass
more than few of them.
Such tests prepare a boy to meet
life. Many boys have chosen a voca-
tion from incentives first seeded in
Scouting. My own short career might
serve to illustrate what profit early
Scout training can bring.
was selected by competition from
among the members of the Scout
movement to accompany the first
Byrd Expedition to Antarctica. My
training as Sea Scout had prepared
me for duty at once as sailor, and on
the ice one task after another called
for the application of knowledge that I
had acquired as Scout. had learned
to be camper, and was not at loss
to know what to do when camping
under the severest conditions in the
world. had never driven dogs before,
but I had learned the first aid and
kindness to animals, and knew what
kind of knots to use to tie the load on
the sled. But the subjects l had been
most interested in as a Scout were
natural history studies, and when a
naturalist was needed to record OBJ
servations of the animal life in the Bay
of Whales, and make collections of
seal skins and penguin pelts, applied
for the post and was selected to remain
on the ice for the winter night at
Little America.
When Admiral Byrd planned his
second journey to the Antarctic, he
invited me to join him. Because of my
experiences the first time, coupled with
additional college training, he offered
me the position of head of the Biology
Department. A direct example of how
Scout training paved the way to an
opportunity to carry out fascinating
research. My two colleagues in the
Biology Department and have COL
lected enough data and specimens
during this recent expedition to keep
us busy for several years.
An impromptu census was taken
among the members of the second
inhabitants of Little America to dis
cover their relations to the Boy
Scout Movement. More than fourth
had been Scouts or connected in an
adult capacity with the movement.
Five of the members were Eagle
Scouts - the highest rank attainable
Three Eagle Scouts had active parts
in exploration; one as the leader of
major field journey by dog team,
another accompanied him as driver
of one of the teams, and the third
drove a tractor. The other two re-
NAMED at Little America and were
both engaged in branches of scientific