50 BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA buy their own houses, and become prosperous and contented citizens in happy homes. This might be very widely extended. Mr. Will Crooks has himself pointed out that there is little hope of genuine relief to the workingman until he helps himself by realizing his duties as a citizen and as the head of his home, by seeing the folly of paying over his earnings to the bookmaker and the publican instead of to his wife and the bank. While we deposit an average of four pounds per head in the Savings Bank, other nations put in much more, Denmark topping the list with nineteen pounds per head. Our wastefulness is almost inconceivable and might well be made criminal. If the rising generation could be started on a career of saving and thrift a great difference would result in the character and prosperity of the nation in the near future. In Manchester the school children have been encouraged to save by means of money-boxes, and there are now 44,000 depositors in the Sav- ings Banks. For this reason we have instituted money-boxes for Boy Scouts.
OBJECTIONS TO SCOUTING
In your work of spreading our scheme you will, of course, meet with critics who will object to various points in it, such as : militarism, want of religious training, abuse of Sunday, want of drill, the absurdity of plays and war dances. Most of these objections I have already dealt with, but I should like to say a few words on
MILITARISM
There is no military meaning attached to the name scouting. Peace scouting comprises the attributes of colonial frontiersmen in the way of resourcefulness and self-reliance and the many other qualities which make them men among men. There is no intention of making the lads into soldiers or of teaching them bloodthirstiness. ^ But under patriotism they will be taught that
