--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 26 number: 6 published: 1923-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Scout Leaders", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 6 (April 1923): 495.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2606unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2606unse start_page: 495 end_page: 495 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2606unse publication_year: 1923 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Scout Leaders President A. W . Ivins, Richard R. Lyman, James E. West and a number of other prominent scout leaders During the recent visit to Salt Lake City, and Utah, of Chief Scout Executive James E. West, of the Boy Scouts of America, he was asked as to the status of troops of Boy Scouts formed by different religious denominations. In answer he said: "A scout is reverent. He is reverent toward God. He is faith- ful in his religious duties, and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion. Because of the deep con- cern in the religious instruction of the youth of America, we have very definitely advocated the troop being organized in connection with the church, so that there might be given to the boys of that troop all of the influence, all of the traditions, which stand back of that church." With this instruction coming from the chief executive of- ficer of the Boy Scouts of America, our Latter-day Saint leaders in Scouting should not hesitate in giving our manual lessons to their scout troops. If there are boys in our troops who are not members of our Church they should be encouraged to join a troop of scouts which finds its home in the church of the faith of the boys' fathers. If, however, because of companionship, or because there are no other scout troops in the neighborhood, boys of other faiths join our troops, their fathers' permission should be obtained in order that there may be no misunder- standings in relation to our manual lessons associated with our scout troop meetings. — Oscar A. Kirkham.