Scouting, Volume 6, Number 32, December 19, 1918 Page: 2
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Embarrassed by Volunteers
Advisability of General Appeal for Scoutleaders Doubted by a
Scout Executive
On page 5 of the December 5th issue of
Scouting we reprinted Emergency Circular
No. 54 and a letter from a high Government
official in which the suggestion was made
that the returning ranks of soldiers and
sailors offered an excellent opportunity for
recruiting scoutleadership.
Now on alert, scoutleaders.
A scoutleader has raised a question con-
cerning the advisability of a general appeal
to Army men for leadership in the Boy
Scout Movement. All will agree with him
that there should be no let down whatso-
ever in the standards as to the qualifications
of men to serve as leaders of groups of
boys. He writes as follows:
"We feel very strongly that a general
appeal by Secretary Baker to the returning
soldiers to serve as scoutleaders in their
various communities would be extremely
unwise, for the following reasons:
"(1) In the army there are a vast num-
ber of men who would be totally unfit for
scoutleadership, but who would promptly
offer themselves upon invitation.
"In the past we have found this to be
true of the militia, from the ranks of which
many men have come to us, offering them-
selves as scoutmasters, and being totally
unfit to comprehend the scout idea, or to
carry out the scout program. Many privates
and corporals who might feel that the army
had not advanced them as far as they
would like, would see in scouting an oppor-
tunity for more or less prominence in the
community and a chance to show off their
training and military knowledge. Because
of their local connections with churches,
etc., it would often be embarrassing to dis-
courage their ambition for scoutleadership,
as they would have the backing of commit-
tees which would be inadequately informed
as to a scoutmaster's requirements.
General, or Individual Appeal ?
"(2) A general appeal would be more
likely to attract the undesirable men than
the desirable ones.
"A man of ability and character, planning
his life on his return home, would think
rather carefully whether scouting would
be worthy of a place in his activities. See-
ing a general appeal for leadership, he
would conclude that practically anybody
would do for our work, and that he need
not feel the call a personal one.
"(3) It would seem that the safest field
in which to make an appeal for leadership
would be amongst the commissioned officers
of all services, and the ranks of the men
in the aviation, and other technical branches,
where the mental and moral qualifications
are rather higher than in the regular in-
fantry units.
"Communities well organized for scouting
will be able to make the proper selection
and the proper appeals for leadership when
the men return home; the communities in-
adequately organized will be very much
embarrassed at best by a surplus of the
wrong kind of leadership. That this will
be true has already begun to demonstrate
itself in Chicago, and we feel that the mat-
ter is of sufficient importance to deserve
the best attention of every scout official
throughout the country."
If the superfluity of volunteers was a
general condition or if any better method
than the one suggested in emergency cir-
cular No. 54 for securing scoutleadership
had been worked out in any considerable
number of scout centers, this criticism
would have more general application. As
the matter stands, there is a great need
for scoutleadership, which must be secured
at once or a wonderful opportunity will be
lost.
No criticism can be made in any com-
munity which, instead of accepting the sug-
gestion in emergency circular No. 54 de-
velops a method which immediately brings
into the movement a sufficient number of
men of the right kind to secure the privi-
leges of scouting to every boy of scout age
in the community.
Some Method Needed
We have published the above letter
because it contains a word of caution
which all scoutleaders will be glad to
bear in mind, but we do not at all feel
that the point which is therein raised should
discourage the carrying out of the sugges-
tion contained in emergency circular No.
54. It does not necessarily follow that be-
cause a man applies for opportunity to serve
as a leader that he will be accepted, where-
as if nobody applies we will have no lead-
ers, and this plan will develop applicants,
many of them of the finest qualifications for
the job. Experience proves that general
invitations can be issued, that volunteers
can be sifted and from them can be se-
cured a percentage of men of the right
type.
There is no question as to its being
better to systematically search out good
men who do not respond to general appeals,
but unless this can be done promptly and
rapidly enough to meet a pressing need, it
is better to use the plan suggested in emer-
gency circular No. 54 than none at all.
WearYour Button
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
FROM THE HOLY LAND
By JOHN H. FINLEY
(American Red Cross Commissioner to
Palestine and Commissioner of Edu-
cation of the State of New York)
In the story of the event which we cel-
ebrate at this season of the year is the rec-
ord that: "ALL WENT TO ENROLL
THEMSELVES, EVERY ONE IN HIS
OWN CITY. ..AND JOSEPH...
WENT UP. . . TO BETHLEHEM TO
ENROLL HIMSELF WITH MARY" for
a decree had gone forth from Caesar Au-
gustus that "ALL THE WORLD
SHOULD BE ENROLLED."
The world empire of Might for which
this enrollment was made has long since
disappeared, and now we come to another
enrollment of the world—at any rate that
part of it which bears the name of the
child born in the days of that far-away
enrollment—but it is an enrollment not of
Might nor by decree, but of Mercy and of
the free will of those who come to be self-
taxed in the cause of humanity. This new
enrollment is the best answer that we can
give to the imperialistic savagery which
has survived in the earth. It is the best
promise that our gifts at this Christmastide
can give of a better world—-this enroll-
ment under the symbol of a human sym-
pathy that lies deeper than racial antipa-
thies or national ambitions or even the
hatreds of years.
In obedience to the decree of Augus-
tus, between four and five millions were
enrolled as citizens of the empire, we are
told, but it is hoped that in this free land,
which has with such comparatively small
sacrifice, helped to bring freedom to the
whole earth, the hundred millions, all will
enroll themselves in the Red Cross De-
mocracy of Mercy. There should be no
home in the state in which the sign of
enrollment does not hang at Christmas
time, for it is the sign before our child-
ren's e}res that with all the ravage of hate
and selfishness in the world, there is still
in our hearts a sympathy for those who suf-
fer, in whatever part of the planet it was
their lot to be born. It will be as blood
upon the lintel and the doorposts, wher-
ever this mark is found in the window, it
will be the sign of the true Christmas spirit
which is ready to give that others may have
life—despite the havoc of hatred and have
life less painfully and more abundantly.
American Junior Naval and Marine
Scouts Disband
Mr. D. F. Garland, Director of Public
Welfare, Dayton, Ohio, writes as follows :
"I have this morning a reply to,my let-
ter to F. D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, in which he states that he
has withdrawn entirely the right to use his
name by the American Junior Naval and
Marine Scouts, on the ground that he has
not had, and will not have, the time to
make a personal investigation of the matter.
He also states that he has 'not sufficient in-
formation about the organization to give
any information on its usefulness or man-
agement.'
"We have decided here to close out the
Junior Marine Scout organization, and Mr.
Haen will incorporate the boys of that or-
ganization in the Boy Scout movement.
SOLDIERS HOLD JOBS
Mr. Thomas W. Churchill, Counselor,
U. S. Employment Service, for the State
of New York, addressed to the Boy Scouts
of America a letter requesting the pass-
ing of resolutions declaring our attitude
of eagerness to put returning soldiers back
in their old positions or in other gainful
occupations.
The Chief Scout Executive replied:
"I am very happy to tell you in response
to your letter of December 7th that this
organization has definitely announced that
it will take back all of its employees who
have left for war service, and I am sure
you may depend upon each of our repre-
sentatives in the various cities throughout
the country to do likewise.
"The best we have is none too good for
those who were in active military service.
"The Boy Scouts of America has con-
tinued to carry on its records all scouts
and scout officials with exactly the same
rank as they had when war was declared,
and no scout or scout official will suffer in
his record because of his service to his
country insofar as it is within our power
to prevent it."
SCOUTING
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Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 6, Number 32, December 19, 1918, periodical, December 19, 1918; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth283002/m1/2/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.