The Knighthood of Youth

The Knighthood of Youth By Ray O. Wyland, Director of Education, National Organization, Boy Scouts of America PRESIDENT GRANT, my fellow countrymen, and brothers in Christ: As I came upon this platform I breathed a prayer that God would give me words of wisdom that I might speak to you a message which will help to further the splendid work that you have been doing and that you are now doing for the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am exceedingly happy to stand upon this platform and to bring you greetings from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and, if possible, to give you in part a vision of the vitality, of the rapid spread, and of the effectiveness of the work of an organization which is great because other people throughout the world are manifesting the same definite interest, though probably not in so wide a degree, as you are here in Utah and throughout your magnificent Church in the work of this movement as a means of service to their boyhood. Behold a modern movement of the knighthood of youth which enrolls in its membership each year more than a quarter of a million boys who never were Scouts before; a movement which, in eighteen years, has enrolled approximately three million boys, and three-quarters of a million men who have given volunteer leadership to make possible a larger service to the youth of the na- tion; a movement which, in the year 1927, had an enrollment of about four million boys and 186,000 men; a movement which reaches out into the open spaces to serve the boy on the farm with a Lone-Scout program, which he receives through the mail, through the Lone-Scout Patrols, which are carried on in the homes of the farmers (his neighbor boys gather with him around the fireside during the long winter months ) ; a work which reaches unto our colored boys in the South, in a division which has recently been established with the colored youth of the nation! It is a program which reaches into the life and thought and feelings of every class and type of people, of every political and religious party in the United States, and is universal in its scope. I do not know whether you can appreciate what four-million membership looks like. I cannot see that many people. The truth of the matter is, I never before in my life looked into the faces of an ♦Address delivered at the Ninety-eighth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. Salt Lake Tabernacle. April 6. 1928.

856 IMPROVEMENT ERA audience so large as this. This is the largest inspiration that has ever come into my life in facing a group of representative men and women. But imagine, if you will, a group of four million boys and men. If you would gather that great group of boys and men on Long Island and march them, in single file, across Brooklyn Bridge and up Broad- way and along the Storm King Highway to Albany and to Buffalo, on to Toledo, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, when you had gathered two hundred thousand Scouts at the Golden Gate, at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, with a march- ing column three thousand miles across this continent, you would still have more than two hundred thousand on Long Island that had not yet crossed Brooklyn Bridge. That is the membership of a movement, a crusade, a modern knighthood of youth that has spread throughout this land in the brief space of eighteen years, which adds to its membership a little more than one hundred thousand each year. Scouting is not confined to America. In the eighteen years it has been saturating this country, scouting has reached out to the civilized world, and today we have a membership in the other nations which totals about four millions. Forty-three of our leading civil- ized nations have national Scout associations. Every four years they send representatives to the international jamboree, where a great concourse of boys (some fifteen to sixteen thousand) meet on the same common field, not a battle field, thank God, but on the field of friendly endeavor, to demonstrate the achievements of Scouting, in the forty-three civilized nations, which forms an international broth- erhood, reaching out beyond the points of our mother-land, and gripping the hand of our brother Scouts in our brother-lands around the world. These Scouts of all nations are learning to be brothers, to understand one another, to respect one another, to sympathize with one another, and to look through the eyes of a brother Scout into the problems and lives and sympathies and rights of other Scouts and other nations the world around. We believe that we are laying the foundation and furthering a movement of world brotherhood in this splendid, magnificent boy movement which has swept the nations of the world. But Scouting is not confined to the forty-three nations. There are Scout troops in some twenty or more other nations, where there has not been sufficient organization, as yet, to establish a national organization, but Scout troops are there organized and are carrying out their method of Scouting in their own way, looking forward to the time when they will be sufficiently strong to organize a national association and become part of the international fellowship of Scout- ing. So the sun, in all its course, never ceases to shine upon the uniform of the Boy Scout of the nations of the world, and that is a

THE KNIGHTHOOD OF YOUTH 857 picture of this movement of Scouting throughout the world. We have just produced a new handbook for boys, which went to the press in the first week of November, 1927. We ordered a half million copies as the first part of a million order. The printers were so much surprised at the size of the order that they looked into the record to find if any other order of its size had ever been given, and they found that it was the largest single order of any book or form that had ever been given to any publisher. We have already sold five hundred thousand copies, and the other day, before he left New York for San Francisco, Mr. West placed an order for two hundred thousand more copies of the new handbook, to satisfy a need that is evident within four months from the time that the book was given to the public. The old handbook went through thirty- seven editions in seventeen years, and three million one hundred thou- sand copies were circulated. There is only one other book in print that has had as wide a circulation among the people of any civilized land as our handbook, and that is the Christian Bible, the circulation of which is many times more than that of our handbook, but we hold second place. I have indicated these high spots in the power and influence and rapid spread of Scouting only to impress your mind with the vitality of this movement. You have been aware of the vitality of the Church. I have also been aware of the vitality of the Church. I have read several of the books on "Mormonism." I have been impressed with your method of organization. I have been impressed with your rapid spread. I have been more impressed by what I have seen and felt here today than by anything I have ever read or seen of the vitality and power and onward sweep of the great Church of which you are a part. I should like you to have a vision of the vitality of the Church and the vitality of Scouting tied up together in one union for the service of the youth of this nation. I should also like you to feel the power that can be carried forward through the combination of religion in the life of adults tied up with the program of vitality in the life of youth, so that the leadership and the power and example of adults can be brought to bear and made effective in the life of youth. Scouting vitality may be accounted for on three counts: First, its appeal to the boy because of the great out-of-doors that it brings into his life, the skill, the information, the fun and the fellow- ship and all that goes into it, and its romance and friendship that makes it appeal to the boy. Scouting vitality is accounted for secondly on the basis of its appeal to men because of the physical benefits and vocational guidance, the clean reception, the clean read-

858 IMPROVEMENT ERA ing program, the citizenship training, the character building, the initiative, the courage, the manhood and the recognition that bring into the lives of boys those principles which make reliable citizens. There you have two appeals. But there is a third one, which many people do not see, and that is the appeal which Scouting makes to the institutions which carry on this program as a part of their programs; for you must realize that Scouting does not go out to the world to propagate itself. It is propagated by those who believe in it, and those who believe in it and carry it forward, in a great majority of cases, are those who make up the churches of America. It has been my responsibility and supreme opportunity to be the liaison between the Boy Scout movement and the churches of all states in this land, and I have had a delightful fellowship with men of all religions and all faiths and creeds and have been able to help tie into the program of the various church bodies the activities which Scouting offers in better service to their boyhood. We believe that Scouting has succeeded in America. We not only believe but we know it has succeeded in America far beyond its success in any other country: so much so that we can match the entire Scouting population of all the races of the world with our Scouting population, because of the fact that the churches of America have taken Scouting and made it a part of their program in the service to youth. More than sixteen thousand of our twenty-seven thousand Scout troops are in churches. The church furnishes the leadership; it furnishes the places in which to meet; it furnishes supervision; it names the troops; it names 'the Scoutmaster, and the local church controls the Scout program through its own leader- ship. They administer the leadership; they sponsor and carry on that program. The Boy Scout movement has started out to carry on a program gathered around a certain ideal, a beautiful conception of an ideal, — a soul; and that soul is expressed in the Scout oath involved, and will make the movement live. The churches of America have supported our movement be- cause they feel that the soul of Scouting, as expressed in the Scout oath and law, is thoroughly in line with the objectives of the church. For example, at the north pole of the Scouting compass, we have placed, duty to God; at the point of the rising sun, we have placed, duty to country; at the point of the genial south, we have placed, duty to our fellow-men; and at the point of the setting sun, duty to self. And these are the words of the Scout Oath: "Upon my honor I will do my best — "1. To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law. "2. To help other people at all times. "3. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."

THE KNIGHTHOOD OF YOUTH 859 Between duty to God and duty to country, a Scout is trust- worthy, loyal and helpful. Between duty to country and duty to others, a Scout is friendly, courteous and kind. Between duty to others and duty to self, a Scout is obedient, cheerful, and thrifty. Between duty to self and duty to God, a Scout is brave, clean and reverent. And there you have, swinging around the Scout compass, the sixteen points, beginning with duty to God, and coming back again to duty to God, in the twelve Scout laws. So the ideal of Scouting and the objective and aim of the church are one. And so the church has taken Scouting to its bosom to carry forward its program. There are four or five reasons why the church offers the best home to the Boy Scout troops. I should like to name these and further impress upon you the responsibility you have, as leaders of the church, to carry out in the lives of these boys in the church the spiritual program you have for your boys, and supplement the activities program which Scouting offers to them. The church is the best home for a Scout troop, first, because it has the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which boys should grow up. As no other institution, it has the soul and spirit life which surrounds the place and which surrounds the boy whose life centers in the church. Then again the church has the man power with the right character, the right spirit, the right vision, who are worthy to be leaders of boys; and that character and that spirit and that vision are more important to the boys than are all the skill and informa- tion you can ever get over through the Scout handbook or any other handbook you may find. In the third place, because of the spiritual atmosphere and the right example of men, the church in the com- munity has the confidence of fathers and mothers in the community as no other institution has that confidence; and, because of that, it will have the support of fathers and mothers in a community as no other movement will have. In the fourth place, the church can com- plete in the lives of these boys a program of religious education which Scouting cannot give. We deal with the great body of the Catholic church and are officially represented in their circles, and our program is carried forward under the supervision of their cardi- nals, archbishops and bishops. We are represented also in about thirty or forty of the protestant denominations in America, and our program is carried forward by them to their groups. We are also represented in the Jewish groups of America by their committee, and so on. We cannot let the Boy Scout movement pass out anything of a definitely religious program to these groups, but expect these

860 IMPROVEMENT ERA groups to take up our program of activities and carry it along- side, and tie in with it, and bring to bear upon the lives of their own boys, the spiritual message, the spiritual ideals, the spiritual life, the religious life of the church of which the troop is a part. But there is another reason why we want our Scouting tied into the church, and that is because of the thought, that no matter how effective a Scouting program may be in the lives of boys, we know it is a temporary program, which may serve the boy in the period of his youth and early adolescence, as he grows to manhood, but it is only a brief record. You know, if you take a man along that period, ever so well, for two or three years, and leave him there without support and without foundation, without anything to help him to carry on, you have not done him any more service than if you started to carry a man across the country, to a town beyond, and lost him in the prairie or in the woods, or marooned him on a desert island. That is not helping a man to attain his destiny. But what has the church? The church has a program that ministers for the boyhood under its mother arm, that carries on through his growing period of life to manhood and maturity and old age and down to the grave. The church has a program that ministers all the way along. Scouting is brief in its period with the boy. If we can tie up Scouting with a boy, we will tie up the boy with his church and with his God, and then this program will carry on in his life, and the church will be there to sustain and bless and support him to the end and out into the life to come. One last word and I am through. I am happy to bring you word that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is using the Boy Scout program in a larger way than any other church in existence. I am happy to tell you that there are 846 troops among the Latter-day Saints; that you have a larger per capita of Scouts in your membership than any other religious body on record. I am happy also to tell you that, in the State of Utah, you have a larger percentage of Scouts in the boy population than any other state. And I am happy also to tell you that the reason for this is because you have a closer tie-in and community correlation with Scouting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than in any other church as a church body. You have absolutely correlated and included Scouting with your program for young boys. I am happy to say also that a large part of that success is due to the fact that you have had a leadership in your Church, in the personality of Mr. Oscar A. Kirkham and Mr. Datus E. Hammond and other executives, sponsored by your able President and members of the Council of Twelve, sponsored also by your local bishops, and car- ried on by your local wards and stakes throughout this country, that

THE KNIGHTHOOD OF YOUTH 861 has given a volunteer and a loyal leadership and support that is unequalled by any other religious body in America. And I say that because I know, because I study the records of all of them. I close by saying that I pray God that, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the work of Scouting and youth in this Church may be carried on and live forever. Friends in High Places Supplementing the words of praise found in the foregoing ad- dress by Ray O. Wyland, the Era is able to present to its readers the following letter, which is self-explanatory: Mr. Hubert S. Martin, Boy Scout Association, 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London, S. W. 1, England. My dear Mr. Martin: We are in receipt of your letter of February 27th enclosing copies of two letters addressed to you from Mr. F. M. Hoffman of Austria, inquiring whether Mr. Arthur Gaeth is a properly accredited representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints in Austria. We wrote to Hon. George Albert Smith, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is directly in charge of the missionary work of the Church among young people, and have received a letter, dated April 25, 1928, in which Mr. Smith makes the following statement: "We have no one working in Scouting under our direction in Austria appointed by this office, but we do have missionaries in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in all the European countries who have been Scouts in this country. They know how valuable the Scouting program is to a growing boy. "We would be glad to have our young men in Europe look after the boys who belong to our Church and assist the boys of other churches, if desired: but where there is no regular Scout organization, it is difficult for them to contact with some indivduals who are in charge over there. Not only is it difficult in Austria for our people to function as they would like, but we are also having difficulty in Norway. I am enclosing for you a copy of a letter from Norway that will explain itself. "Wherever our missionaries are working in Europe there will be those among them who will be glad to assist in developing the Scout program for the benefit it would be to the boys. These missionaries remain only a short time — two or three years — when they are replaced by others. If it were possible for the Scout organizations across the sea to understand the good that would be derived by their boys if our earnest and capable young men were permitted to work with them in Scouting, something worthwhile would be accomplished." I am enclosing a copy of a letter from President Lorenzo W. Anderson of the Norwegian mission. You will gather from this letter and from the statement by Mr. George Albert Smith that our friends in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints are having some difficulty in getting the cooperation of the Scout organ- izations in the various European nations. We can fully understand how this would occur in any country where strong religious prejudices exist. We are sometimes handicapped with a similar situation here in America.

862 IMPROVEMENT ERA I am very happy to report, however, a most successful cooperation with the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in America. Here it is our policy to have each religious body accept the Scout program as it is and promote it among their constituency as a supplementary program to the established program of the Church. On this basis all religious groups are using the Scouting program with a large degree of satisfaction to themselves and with great benefit to their boys. For a number of years a majority of the troops registered with the Boy Scouts of America have been church troops and there has been a slight increase in this "majority during the past five years. It is interesting to note that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leads all other churches in the high percentage of its boys who are registered with the Boy Scouts of America. Likewise, the state of Utah, where a majority of the population are affiliated with this Church, leads all other states in the percentage of boys who are Scouts. We are convinced that there is no other church which has given more intelligent and effective supervision to its Scout troops than has been true of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Moreover, we have not met anywhere in our church re- lations a finer group of men than are found among the leaders of this Church. We hope that you will convey this information to the Scout officials of European countries who raise a question as to the opportunity for cooperation with this Church and its leaders. Any good word that you may speak for these splendid people we will greatly appreciate. If you desire further information, we hope you will not hesitate to ask for any that we have or can secure for you. With hearty good wishes, I am Cordially and sincerely yours, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA J. E. West, Chief Scout Executive. Scouting and the Farm Boy Under date of July 6, Oscar A. Kirkham, Associate Regional Executive, Region 12, received a signed copy of agreement on the cooperative working plan between the Boy Scouts of America, De- partment of Rural Scouting for Region 12 and local Boy Scout Councils of Utah, and the Extension Service Department of the Agri- cultural College of Utah. Commenting on this achievement, Mr. O. H. Benson, director of the Department of Rural Scouting in America, makes the follow- ing statement: "This makes Utah the first state to have completed the state-wide cooperative agreement with the Boy Scouts of Amer- ica and the State College of Agriculture. I am glad that this has been completed and hope that we can work up similar plans in other states." Mr. Benson continues: "Most of the books, articles and programs, written for boy needs and about boys are based upon surveys, studies and investigations about boys and urban and town environment; likewise, most of the service and leadership of our boyhood has been given to urban groups. Efforts have been made by special leaders and educators to study rural boys, but here, much of the effort has been wasted because we have ap- proached the new field in an old way by trying to prove that rural boys are like the

SCOUTING AND THE FARM BOY 863 city boys, or 'all boys are alike,' and often leaders have approached the problem with bias and would try to prove that what they said, wrote or advocated is true. Our aim is to stimulate thought, study and consideration on the part of those who are honestly seeking understanding of the rural boy as a basis for safe procedure in program making and leadership of farm boys. "Free or leisure time of farm boys is made up of hours when the boy may 'do as he pleases.' This free time represents many hours during a year. They come at irregular intervals, such as rainy and stormy days, between chores, odd moments at noon or meal time and free time given as an award by parents for 'well doing;' 'having a job finished ahead of time,' or time off between haying or husking, or time between rush periods. These periods come at different times, due to a diversity of farm enter- prises engaging the time of the farmer and different climatic conditions in the states. This 'off time' affords a splendid opportunity for camp time and Scout advancement. Evening hours at home, undisturbed by city influences, make for some of the best avail- able 'free time' for Scout training. Every farm boy in Scouting should make much of his home or family circle for Scouting. Get the whole family interested in Scouting." The foreword in this program of cooperation gives the general purposes and scope of the work. "In view of the fact that the ultimate aim of both cooperative agencies is to render helpful services to all farm families and to develop a better and more efficient rural citizenship, all work with and for farm boys should develop better character, greater citizenship, more farm contentment and happiness through trained men and an adequate income. "The officials in charge of the work representing Rural Scouting and 4-H Club work believe that a greater number of farm boys may be reached and the boys given a broader and better training by adherence to this program of cooperation." A detailed program is being sent forward to all Scout leaders and 4-H Club leaders in the State of Utah. My Genius When I can tell you what I feel, In words and smiles and deeds, When I can glimpse your heart's ideal And comprehend its needs; Be it in verse or text or song, Or daily things I do, When I can break convention's thong And bare my soul to you, I shall have found my genius then Amid the world's unrest; For genius is the soul of men. Unfettered and expressed. Mesa, Arizona BERTHA A. K.LEINMAN