SCOUTS AND MILITARISM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1386, 12 March 1912, Page 5

SCOUTS AND MILITARISM.

» GENERAL BADEN-POWELL HECKLED. Bj Tele-rraph-Preee Association -Couyricht . Now York, March 10. General Sir H. Baden-Powell addressed a Boy Scouts' gathering: at Portland, Oregon. He was continually interrupted by .Socialists on the ground that militarism was engendered by the movement. The General patiently discussed the objection, and finally tho leader of the Socialists admitted that ho had misunderstood tho scope and meaning of the movement. ESSENTIALLY'CIVILIANS. "Writing of General Baden-Fowl! and Ins Boy Scout movement, a correspondcn.Lv lh .? ''Mem'i'l? Post" said recently: Ihe little Scouts with their squash Hats and looss blouses and bare knees* and badges and belts nnd .stall?, scour tho country. They not only get fresh air, but a fresh morale. As well as new pleasure, they get new senses. Thev learn to keep (heir eyes open, to seo rapidly and well, to note little things, iliey learn to act promptly and with order. They learn loyalty, and chivalrv, and courage, and truthfulness nnd discipline, and self-reliance, and unselfishness, and moral and physical cleanliness -all the highest of human (nullities winch go (o tho making of character. All this is done too without a suggestion of that cant which is worse than humbug to the healthy boy, and which more often than not estranges him from influences that might otherwise be for his good. One can conceive no happier motto than that of the Boy Scout movement— I lo a good turn to , someone even* day. The good turn may lake any one of a thousand forms, from helping a comrade out of a scrape or sharing «ome little pleasure or luxury with him, to guiding , a blind man across a busy road or giving a meal to a starving lost do» Hut the motto is ever before tho Bov Scout, and if ho doesn't always live up to it, at any rate ho gets a good deal nearer to it than most of us do to the excellent precepts which wo set before ourselves as signposts through life. Ihe Boy Scouts do not form n military organisation, and were never intended to be the nucleus of a Regular Armv They are essentially civilians, youthful citizens whs <\re understanding some of the obligations which n brotherhood lays upon the constituent members. Though disciplined, they are not bellicose; they do not want to kill anything; but. so far as may be, to save life. They will exort themselves for a cause, they foel {he inspiration of sonio common'ambition oiid impulse, they learn to respect the rights of others, because they respect themselves. It may, however, act as a sedative to distressed and anxious souls if they turn up the pages of the corps' vade liiecuni 'Scouting for Boys." Its author is 'Thy Chief Stout' himself, and throughout its cheery and instructive pages it will be extremely difficult to trace any sugge?tion of battle, murder, or sudden death."