Scouting, Volume 2, Number 2, May 15, 1914 Page: 2
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I
of Pittsburgh listened to their presentation
of Scouting. Mr. Horton followed up this
meeting by securing lists of the public-
spirited men and women of the city and
county, and began a system of painstaking,
intelligent cultivation among these people.
business men join movement.
Then came a well-timed visit o,f the Chief
Scout, Ernest Thompson Seton, made pos-
sible through the assistance of National
Headquarters. His illuminating message to
business men bore quick and permanent re-
sults. The conviction was slowly getting
foothold that " Scouting " was a community
task, that the real wo,rk would be done by
volunteers, not only by the strongest yOung
men as Scout 'Masters, but by the strongest
mature men on Scout Council and Court
of Honor. One by one these men were en-
listed and they worked; where before they
had spent minutes in a month they no.w
give hours in a week.
National Field Scout Commissioner Lud-
vig S. Dale made a strategic visit a few
months later. Notable bodies of men heard
him present the ideals of the Scout Move-
ment and tell of its accomplishments, with
individual Scouts, in separate troops and
in whole communities. The hour finally
struck when the Council decided that it
must go out and "possess the land," that
is, must actually meet the need represented
in the boyhood of the big city and the
boroughs of the county. In that ho.ur the
work of the Allegheny Council became a
real Scout Movement, because it became a
layman's movement.
At this critical juncture the Allegheny
Council turned to National Headquarters
once more. One of the vice-presidents, Mr.
John H. Nicho.lson, vice-president of the
National Tube Company, went to New
York as official representative of the Coun-
cil, and in several conferences with Chief
Scout Executive West outlined the plans
and purposes of the work in Pittsburgh and
the boroughs of the county. He pre-
sented an appeal from the Allegheny Coun-
cil that _ the National Council co-operate
further in making available the services of
a special worker in community organization
and leadership who could spend a month in
the Allegheny field under the directio.n of
the men of the Council. Mr. West re-
sponded and Mr. John R. Boardman was
secured.
region's sportsmen on council.
The attitude of the Allegheny Council
was revealed in the first meeting held to
plan the work. Ten men were present.
They asked for guidance, they were willing
to do the work themselves, and they had
sound ideas of their own. They knew the
out-o.f-doors. Most of them were amateur
sportsmen of the best type. They were
natural Scouts themselves. The idea of
Scouting was already theirs, and they had
studied it from the boys' standpoint.
The first matter to which the new cam-
paign addressed itself was that of organ-
ization. Hon. Stephen G. Porter, Con-
gressman from the Twenty-ninth District,
chairman of the Committee on Organization,
came from Washington to get the work
under way. He gave from five to ten hours
a day.for ten days. Under his clear-headed
direction the organization rapidly to.ok
shape. In every one of the twenty-seven
wards of Pittsburgh, and in twenty of the
boroughs of the county, strong business
men were secured as key men around
which local organization in ward and bor-
ough could be centered. Each man was
urged to secure from ten to fifteen men in
his community to act as a Community
Council.
From fifteen to thirty or more men were
present at each of a dozen meetings. Lists
of the best men in each ward and borough
SCOUTING
the national scout commissioner's
badge.
Mr. Daniel Carter Beard will hereafter wear this
insignia of office. The gold wreath, eagle, United
States shield and Scbut crest make a striking and
appropriate design.
were presented. The opinion of every man
present was secured. With carefully se-
lected lists in hand, the ward and borough
leaders went back to their communities and
began the work of 'enlisting these men in
the Scout service. Big men responded—
the best in every community.
after-dinner education.
To help in instructing these men as to
the principles and methods of Scouting,
arrangements were made for a dinner of
these Ward and Bo,rough Councilmen in
Pittsburgh. The guest of honor was Chief
Scout Seton, who gave a strong interpreta-
tion of the- contributions which Scouting
makes to the character development of
boys. .Mr. Boardman spo,ke on local organ-
ization, the contribution of the people of a
community to the work of boys along Scout
lines, and the welding of these Community
Councils into a body.
Several days prior to the dinner the men
most deeply interested made over one
thousand telephone calls to persons who
had received printed invitations, extending
a more personal appeal for them to attend.
The result was a gathering of five hundred
representative people fro,m every ward in
the city and almost every borough in the
county. The response of at least a hundred
women indicated that they were as deeply
interested in the conservation of boyhood
as the men, and that they saw in the Scout
idea a_ splendid method.
An important incident at the dinner was
the presentation to Mr. John M. Phillips,
of Pittsburgh, of a commission from the
National Council conferring upon him the
title of Scout Commissioner o.f Allegheny
County. Mr. Phillips is a true sportsman,
keen lover of the out-of-doors, mighty
hunter of big game with a camera, intimate
friend of many of the great nature lovers
of America, conservationist and State
Game Commissioner of Pennsylvania.
how the scout masters went to work.
The interest in the movement extended
early to the Scout Masters of Local
Troops. There were sixty o.f these when
the new development was inaugurated.
They were anxious to make good. They
wanted to do their work solidly rather than
superficially. _ Big men of business had
agreed to enlist for years of service in the
overhead supervision. The Scout Master
sho.uld do no less. Such a conception of
Scouting took it out of the hands of
bunglers. The stamp of permanency was
placed upon it.
Out of their ranks came the request for
definite training for the big task. Scout
Executive Horton had almost anticipated
their request. The University of Pitts-
burgh, through Dean Chambers of the De-
partment o.f Education, was also awake to
the situation and ready to co-operate in
meeting the need. A splendid course of
sixteen two-hour periods covering eight
weeks, two evening sessions a week, was
planned. Lectures on " Boy Psychology,"
" Scout Organization and Leadership,"
" Nature Study," " First Aid to the In-
jured," " Camping and Hiking and Physical
Geography" were arranged. The question
was, "What will the registration be?" It
was a new thing. There was a pretty stiff
program, there was a $5 fee to be paid;
the men worked hard all day; many
would have to travel miles to get to the
class-room at the University, and some
could not get ho,me until after midnight.
Chairman Nicholson would be satisfied
with twenty. Dean'Chambers felt that a
dozen would make all the effort amply jus-
tified. Scout Executive Horton—his hand
on the pulse of the Scout Master's Council
—predicted twenty-five or thirty. Then
came the first night. Forty-five earnest,
quiet, forceful men registered. When the
third session was held the registration
stood at sixty-five. Fifteen wards of the
city and fifteen boroughs of the county
were represented. It placed the entire
work on the plane of intelligent trained
service.
training for volunteers.
As plans for this School for Scout
Masters were being made, and as the first
sessions were held, a vital idea began to
get hold of the leaders of the movement.
The organization work, the institution of
Councils, the foundation of Troops of
Scouts, the selection of Scout Masters—
must be paralleled by a permanent system
of training volunteer workers of every sort.
The School for Scout Masters was excel-
lent, but it was not sufficient. Training
must become a permanent and prominent
factor in the movement if the real results
were to be secured. Mr. John H. Nichol-
son proposed a faculty of instruction, to
work in close relationship with the Court
of Honor.
The faculty plan included the securing of
a group of men, about a dozen in number,
y/ho were to have charge of the entire
question of instruction. They were to pre-
pare standard courses of instruction, with
such texts as might be needed to. place the
work in every community on a common
plane of practical value. It was further
the work of this general faculty to secure
in each ward and borough men who would
teach Scout Masters and others, so that in
every phase of the Scout program—espe-
cially the winning of Merit Badges—the
work could be brought to a high standard.
Through such a plan Scouting would be
able to focus the ability of the people of a
community in developing the boyhood of
the community. Doctors, dentists, teachers,
engineers, electricians, lovers of nature
study, carpenters, mechanics, firemen, po-
licemen, inventors, manufacturers, miners
—anyone who knew how to do something
o,f interest toboys, was to be enlisted.
To give this plan the necessary co-ordi-
nation and effectiveness. Chairman Nichol-
son invited a group of men to join with
him_ in the working of the Co.mmittee on
Training. Dr. W. M. Davidson, Superin-
tendent of Schools; Dean W. G. Chambers,
of the University of Pittsburgh; Dean C.
B. Connelly, of the Carnegie Institute of
Technology; Prof. J. W. Anthony, of the
Franklin School; Dr. A. L. Lewin, of the
Pittsburgh Board of Education; Father
Kirby, representing the Catholic educa-
tional interests; Mr. F. C. Albrecht, of the
Westinghouse Electric Company; Dr. J. F.
Edwards, director of the Bureau of Public
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 2, Number 2, May 15, 1914, periodical, May 15, 1914; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth282679/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.