Evening star., 1941-05-17
FIagpoIe Dedication
To DR.. West 10 Close
Boy Scout Session
MeNutt Brings Greetings
From President to
Organization Officer

The 3lSt annual meeting OF TIT
National Council of Boy Scouts will
adjourn here this afternoon aftel
dedicating a f1agpole to a Wash
ington boy who left local orphan
asylum and became a leader of tn,
boyhood of America-Dr. James E
West, chief Scout executive, of whom
a banquet speaker said last nigh
that 100000 Americans are living
tributes to his work.
The f1agpole will be dedicated a.
4 pm. under the auspices of the
National Capital Area Council anc
officials of the Hillcrest Children!
Village, the orphanage in which
DR.. West once was a ward, on thu
grounds at Hillcrest at 41l9 Nebrasks
avenue NV. Several Thousand
Scouts will participate.
Linn c. Drake, Scout executive
OF the National Capital Area Coun'
Gil, will deliver an address. Tn,
f1agpole will be presented by Capt
Chester Wells, president of the loca
council, and flag by Mrs. Everarc
Meade, regent of Our Flag Chapter
D. A. r.
Davis Among Speakers.
The exercises will climax a day
that began with regional group
meetings and continued throughout
the morning and early afternoon
with business and general sessions.
Chief speakers scheduled include
Norman H. Davis, national chair
man of the American Red Cross. who
will discuss Scouting and the Amer
lean Red Cross" and Gale F. john
ston, president of the st. Louis Boy
Scout Council and field director of
the defense savings staff, whose topic
will be Scouting and Thrift"
The delegates to the two-day ses-
sion took time off last night at a
banquet to present five Silver Buff
falo Awards for noteworthy service
to boyhood. These medals, repre-
senting the highest honor bestowed
by the Boy Scouts of America, were
placed around the necks of Edgar
Rickard, Darien, Conn; DR.. Homer
Folks, New York; Maj. ]. E. H.
Stevenot, Manila, P. l.; the Rev. DR..
Daniel A. Polling, Philadelphia, and
DR.. c. Ward Champion, New York.
Federal Security Administrator
McNutt opened his address at the
banquet by announcing that he
brought official greetings from Presi-
dent Roosevelt to the delegates and
to DR.. West.
The President" Mr.. McNutt said,
has asked me to express his special
Fluctuations on this 30th anniversary
of DR.. Vests service with the Boy
Scouts and the hope that he will be
spared TO give this movement for 80
years to come the leadership he has
given it for the last 80 years."
Sees Threat to Movement.
Mr.. McNutt spoke on "Scouting's
Place in the Nation" and explained
IN the beginning that he had been
asked to tell how the Scout move
ment could implement the organiza-
tlon's pledge to help in civilian de-
tense efforts.
He cited the Hitler youth move
ment as the enemy that threatened
the Boy Scout movement, but he
added that the German efforts would
never eclipse the Scouts because
the Nazis glorify the material and
the mechanical, while the basis OF
the Boy Scout organization is re-
gard for the individual.
Scouting and democracy are
founded on the conviction that there
are extraordinary possibilities in
ordinary people," he added. The
time has come to prove it.. Inde-
pendence, individuality and initia-
tive are on the spot in Europe
These are the assets that flourish
only here in a democracy. 1t is the
destiny of America to yindicate
democracy in a disbelieving world
That is why the Boy Scouts OF
America, as leading exponents OF
democracy in action, must be pre-
pared as never before"
Mr.. McNutt said the Boy Scouts
could be great aid in the present
campaign against disease, delin-
quency and decentralization, and
added that, as co-ordinator of that
work. he expected to rely heavily on
the Scouts.
Must Start at Home.
~ "Our problems of defense are to be
found in the homes, on the streets
in the shops and factories, the
schools and hospitals. Certainly we
know that if we would defend de-
mocracy, we've got to begin at home
where democracy lives.
A tribute to DR.. West was deliv-
cred by Frank j. Hogan, local at
torney and past president of the
American Bar Association. Speak
ing as lifetime friends of the
Scout executive, he traced DR.. Vests
career.
Boy Scouts under the direction of
the National Capital Area Council
of Washington presented four ep-
isodes TO dramatic the close iden-
fifty of the Scout movement with
the life of the Nation.
Marshall Field, chairman of the
Division of Operations, announced
near the close of the banquet that
Region 8, comprised of Colorado,
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska,
one-and-a-half counties of Illinois
and all but eight counties of Wyom-
ing, had won the Lorillard Spencer
Award, a silver trophy offered an
nually to the region that shows the
greatest percentage of increase ir
total membership.