24. April 1910

The New York Times, 24 duben 1910 (neděle), link na stránku^➚, p. 11

Baden Powell's Boy Scout Plan invades America

W. B. Wakefield, Who Has Charge of it in England, and Ernest Thompson Seton Will Help Establish It Throughout America.

Img: Boy Scouts Being Shown the Battlefield of Waterloo.

Img: Ernest Thompson-Seton, Who Contributed Much to the Plan.

Planning for North America a new Nation-wide system of robust outdoor athletics, of infinite variety, for boys from 15 to 19 years old, a movement will be set under way in the United States this Summer that has already swept over England and enlisted some 300.000 youths in a huge organization known as Boy Scouts.

While in England the plan was fostered by Lieut. Gen. Sir R. S. S. Baden-Powell, some of its most attractive features were contributed by Ernest Thompson-Seton, the American expert in Indian lore and woodcraft, who has always taken a prominent part in this country in devising new outdoor pas-times for boys.

The first move in carrying out these pinns will be in a visit that will be made to the United States by w. B. Wakefield, Honorable Secretary, Boys' Department. Young Men's Christian Association, England. Mr. Wakefield will arrive in New York City some time in May. He will devote nearly two months to a tour of the country, making addresses, explaining fully the boy scout movement.

If it can be arranged, Mr. Thompson-Seton will accompany Mr. Wakefield during this trip, describing the various Indian features of the organization that make it peculiarly attractive to the boy mind and imagination. All the larger cities will be visited as well as several of the more important Canadian towns.

In the United States at the present time there are only two small organizations that resemble the original Boy Scouts. One is in Paterson. N. J., where the Rattlesnake Patrol is conducted by Frank O. Van Ness, who is Secretary or the Young Men‘s Christian Association in that city. There the idea has proved very popular, and the boys take great delight in the numerous hikes and scouting trips through the woods and fields in that section of New Jersey.

Mr. Van Ness, who was formerly connected with the Young Men's Christian Association in New York City, had heard of the Boy Scouts idea through_the International Committee, and it instantly appealed to him as being worth a trial. Its success in Paterson has made him most enthusiastic about the plan.

The second patrol known is located in Springfield, Mass., where it was organized by Edwin D. Horsfield of Edinburgh, who was a student at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School in that city. Mr. Horsfield had experience in the movement in his native land, and accordingly was well adapted to put into operation the idea here. Garbed in khaki suits, golf hose, and slouch hats, the scouts present quite a novel sight as they start out for the fields.

While Mr. Horsfield admits he is conducting an experiment in an untried field, he declares he is confident, once understood, the idea will spread in the United States as it did in England, Scotland, Germany, and Australia.

In England, Mr. Horsfield said, the Boy Scout is now quite an important personage. He is not only building up his body, but he is proving himself a useful member of society. Many a mother who a few years ago was opposed to having her son join the Boy Scouts now admits the plan has brought about a decided improvement in her son.

A first-class Scout must prove himself to have a practical knowledge of first aid to the injured, signaling, swimming, life saving, and other branches. His scouting games teach him to be observant, and he learns of nature and of animals. His endurance powers are also greatly strengthened. The object is not to make soldiers of the boys. They are peace scouts.

The rules of the Boy Scouts organization are simple, yet they contain much that appeals to the schoolboy code of honor. The nine points of the law are as follows:

1. A Scout's honor is to be trusted. 2. A Scout is loyal to his officers, to his country, and to his employers. 3. A Scout's duty is to be useful and to help others. 4. A Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs. 5. A Scout is courteous. 6. A Scout is a friend to animals. 7. A Scout obeys orders of his Patrol Leader or Scout Master without question. 8. A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances. 9._A Scout is thrifty.

The pledge that the Boy Scout takes is.

“I will do my duty to God and my country. I will do my best to help others, whatever it costs me. I know the scout law and will obey it.”

Edgar M. Robinson, Boys' Secretary of the international Committee of the Young Men‘s Christian Association in New York City, who is keenly interested in Mr. Wakefield's visit next month, spoke of the work as follows:

“Mr. Ernest Thompson-Seton has agreed to take personal charge of a thorough demonstration of the Boy Scout plan at Silver Bay during the third and fourth weeks of the coming August. This personally conducted scouting experiment by the man who has contributed such a large part to the formation of the idea cannot fail to have important results.”

“His demonstration is intended to revolutionize the boys’ camp methods of the country. The system is based on scientific principles of character building. Mr. Thompson Seton's plan is to have twenty leading associations throughout the country send six reliable boys over 15 years old, and one competent adult volunteer.”

“Each group, coming from twenty cities, must provide its own equipment and prepare its own meals according to instructions furnished, and also provide themselves with boats or canoes. All forms of woodcraft, Indian games, building tepees, nature study, photography, and an almost endless variety of sports will be entered into.”

“In this way the idea will be given the severest possible test, for it will be under the careful scrutiny of the keenest minds connected with our association. The work takes in the entire range of moral and physical development perhaps as no other system yet devised has done. It gives something for every kind of a boy.”

“Mr. Seton's scheme is to eliminate competition among human beings in the matter of sports, but to make them compete with time and space. Under the old plan one only could win, even if a hundred were in the contest. This is more or less discouraging and sometimes humiliating to boys. By the new plan each boy gets his merit mark for good work. The old Indian idea allowed for a ‘coup’ and a ‘grand coup’, the former getting a bead for the wampum belt and the larger achievement a feather for the war bonnet.”

“If our experiment this Summer proves a success, probably the next season we shall introduce it into our 400-odd camps, where upward of 12.000 boys spend their vacations. There are two things in this plan that ought to be distinguished — the Boy Scout idea and the Boy Scout organization.”

“Any organization, society, school, or club is free to_ make_ use of the idea. It is not by any means confined to the Young Men's Christian Association. While it is entirely possible that as a result of the present agitation a National organization will be promoted, that is a development of the future. I understand now that there is something of that nature under way.”

“If here in America we could have another Gen. Baden-Powell, like Theodore Roosevelt, for instance, take an interest in promoting the idea, and if Japan, let us say, threatened an invasion, making an analogous military situation to that prevailing in England, the Boy Scouts idea would sweep the country like wildfire. as it has abroad.”

A. A. Jameson, Boys' Secretary of the local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association in West Twenty-third Street, is also keenly interested in the forthcoming visit to this country of Mr. Wakefield.

“We shall make some attempt here in the city to do something in the Boy Scout line,” he said in an interview. “To get the most out of that plan, however, fields and woods are practically indispensable.

“During the Summer months whenour boys are in the country we expect to try the various shunts. Without doubt the English idea has proved most valuable in the development of boys. Here, of course, it will have to be more or less Americanized, as the military spirit is not so much alive here as accros the water. If some great army man in the United States, like Gen. Baden-Powell in England, would take up the work, it would undoubtedly meet quick success.”

War and Founder of the Boy Scout Movement.

Gen. Baden Po'lwell. Hero of the Boer

Making Their Own Beds.

A Leap Into the Safety Net.

The First Band of_Boy Scouts in America, the Rattlesnake Patrol of Paterson, N. J.

Above and beyond the more idea of giving boys something to occupy their spare time and interest them, the scout plan looks far into the future in many avenues of endeavor. By a carefully thought out plan of encountering hardships outdoors, courage and stamina are cultivated, so the battles of life may be successfully fought later on. By blazing trails through the woods, as did the pioneer Americans, who laid the foundations for this great country. boys of the present day may be given a simliar outlook upon life.

By carrying a “mock” message several miles through a forest to another camp of scouts, a boy's imagination may be stirred to an extent that will later enable him to carry a “message to Garcia.” The same simile is borne out in all that a Boy Scout is called upon to do.

The most sensible and simple forms of exercise are indulged in, but never to excess. It is possible for any boy, even though he may be small and weak, to make himself into a strong and healthy man if he takes the trouble to do the few body exercises specified for the Scouts. The paramount idea is to teach the young citizen to assume responsibility for his own development and health. Physical drill may be all very well as a disciplinary means at development, the Scout leaders assert, but it does not give the lad any responsibility in the matter.

There is a great deal of nonsense in the way of bodily exercise, the Scouts contend. Many seem to think the only object is to make huge muscle. But to make a boy strong and healthy it is necessary to begin with his inside, getting his blood in good order and his heart working well. That is the secret of the whole thing. Every boy also has a latent streak of patriotism in him. This the Scout idea. builds up to its highest standard.