Scouting, Volume 1, Number 14, November 1, 1913 Page: 1
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SCOUTING
Published semi-monthly by National Headquarters, Boy Scouts of America
For Scout Officials and Others Interested In Work for Boys
Vol I.
NEW YORK, N. Y., NOVEMBER i, 1913
No. 14
INSURANCE COMPANY URGES ITS
600,000 BOYS TO BECOME SCOUTS
Recognizing Opportunity for Them to Be Healthier and Happier Through
Scouting, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Offers Boy
Policyholders Inducement to Join Movement.
JACOB RIIS
The famous social worker and lecturer, who, hav-
ing studied the Scout movement " in operation,"
writes in high praise of its efficacy in mould-
ing toys' character.
JACOB RIIS TELLS
OF SCOUT INFLUENCE.
Famous Welfare Worker Gives an Ap=
praisal of the Effects of the Great
Boys' Movement.
INTERESTING incidents in which lie
the explanation of the whole Boy Scout
Movement—" the tremendous impetus
that in three brief years has organized an
army of more than three hundred thousand
boys with seven thousand Scout Masters,
and broken down every imaginary barrier
of sect and caste and the opposition that
once fell afoul of the mistaken notion that
we had here to do with the military spirit
of the young,"—are given by Jacob Riis in
an article entitled " The Boy Scouts" in
the issue of the Outlook for October 25.
He explains the true basis of the appeal of
what is now called Scouting, demonstrating
how it " gets under the skin of a boy " and
modifies his life; and he explains the ease
and efficacy with which the Scout program
fits in to the program of other organiza-
tions which are seeking to be an influence
for good. Mr. Riis writes:
The Scouts don't compete; they are glad to
join hands with whatever organization offers the
chance. They themselves rank as a . movement
rather than as an organization. To the Young
Men's Christian Association they are usually a wel-
come ally; now and then, where the machinery
has stiffened into forms that forget that all ser-
vice is in its essence religious, they help to wake
it up. If the door creaks a bit as it swings open,
it soon limbers up under the new impulse. I
am thinking of one of the seaboard cities typical
of the old South that made room reluctantly for
the Scouts. It was not that it was lacking in the
social service spirit; it was there, but it did not
know how to harness it. Once there, the Scouts
went on with their troop meetings and their
(Continued on page 7.)
Recognizing the whole program of
Boy Scout activities as conducive to
better health and a stronger physique
in a boy, the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company, in a statement just issued, offers
each one of the more than 600,000 boys
who hold Metropolitan policies special in-
ducement to enroll with the Boy Scouts of
America and secure the benefits of the
Scout movement. The announcement says
that to every member of the Metropolitan's
"Health and Happiness League " who joins
the Boy Scouts of America the company
will give (1) a copy of the Handbook for
Boys, (2) a service badge after one year's
satisfactory membership and (3) a year's
subscription to Boys' Life, the Boy Scouts'
magazine, when he becomes a First Class
Scout.
The importance of this action to those
who are striving to bring Scout influences
into the lives of all boys is really enormous.
The company's magazine, in which the
offer is printed, is distributed quarterly
among its 8,000,000 policyholders, of whom
more than 600,000 are boys of Scout age.
The action may prove a long step toward
filling in the enormous gap between the
300,000 boys who are Scouts and the 8,000,-
000 boys in the United States who are of
Scout age.
In its efforts to make available to all boys
the attractive and interesting program of
Scout activities, the officials of the Boy
Scouts of America have sought to interest
not only churches, schools and settlement
houses, but all organizations and concerns
which have close contact with either large
or small groups of boys. In some of the
In This Issue
Page
Life Insurance Company Urges Its 600,000
Boys to Become Scouts 1
Jacob Riis Appraises Scout Movement.;. 1
How a Chamber of Commerce Encourages
Scouts 2
A Medical Journal's Praise 2
What Merit Badges Mean 3
Editorial ' 4
Famous Men to Write for Boys' Life.... 5
Good Books for Boys, Cheap 6
"How To Do It" 7
Scout " Movies" a Great Success 8
Forthcoming Article from Col. Roosevelt. 8
larger factories in various parts of the
United States and in a few mining dis-
tricts, Scout troops have been formed for
the purpose of giving the boys employed
there new opportunities for recreation and
new incentive to learn worth-while things,
to be trustworthy, courteous, kind, cheer-
ful, thrifty, clean and reverent, and to do
their duty to God and their country.
Wherever such troops have been formed
they have proved to be a good influence of
unexpected power.
Testimony has been given by the leaders
of troops connected with churches and
schools that participation in the wholesome
and fascinating Scout activities has in-
creased not only the boys' mental alertness
and moral stamina, but also, and perhaps
most notable at the start, their physical
strength. The same has been true of the
boys who have become Scouts in the in-
dustries and in the poorer quarters of
cities.
In this day, when so many social service
agencies are at work improving living and
working conditions, when so many em-
ployers have realized the economic ad-
vantage of conditions which improve the
health and increase the contentment of
their workers, the Scout movement has
become more and more widely recognized
as providing both entertainment and in-
struction which work to the same end.
The desire of the National Council of
the movement is to bring these Scout in-
fluences into the lives of all boys, and Na-
tional Headquarters has improved every
opportunity to encourage employers to
form troops for their boys and to assign
to leadership men of good character, in-
telligence and understanding of the boy,
or at least to get the fascinating and bene-
ficial publications of the Scout movement
in the hands of their boys. An effort is
now being made to get the Western Union
and Postal Telegraph companies to give
their messengers copies of the Handbook
for Boys, which describes what Boy Scouts
do and explains how boys may become
Scouts; and also Boys' Life, the official
magazine of the movement. The National
Council will try to have the newspapers of
the country make similar presents to their
newsboys and carriers. It would mean a
new good influence in their lives. The
manager of the sales department of the
great Curtis Publishing Company, which
employs nearly 60,000 boys, says his men
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 1, Number 14, November 1, 1913, periodical, November 1, 1913; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth282651/m1/1/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.