Stránka:roll 1911.djvu/375

354 Boy Scouts helping frightened natives into places of safety, remov'mg valuables and other articles f?om houses that apparently were in the path of the flames, and performing cheerfully and effi- cientiy all the tasks given to them by the fulmen and scout master. They were complhnented in the public press, and in a kind editorial about their work. "During the recent Carnival the services of the boys were requested by the Carnival officers, and for a period of ten days they were on duty performing all manner of ?rvice in the Carnival grounds, directing strangers to hotels, and ac?ng as guides and helpers in a hundred ways." What these boy scouts of the PhiLippines have just done, I think our boy scouts in every town and country district should train themselves to be able to do. The movement is one for efficiency and patriotism. It does not try to make soldiers of boy scouts, but to make boys who will turn out as men to be fine citizens, and who will, if their country needs them, make better soldiers for having been scouts. No one can be a good American unless he is a good citizen, and every boy ought to train himself so that as a man he will be able to do his full duty to the community. I want to see the boy scouts not merely utter fine sentiments, but act on them; not merely sing, "My. Country 'Tis of Thee," but act in a way that will give them a country to be proud of. No man is a good citizen less he so acts as to show that he actually uses the Ten Com- mandments, and translates the Golden Rule into his life con- duct- and I don't mean by this in exceptional cases under' spectacular circumstances, but I mean applying the Ten Com- mandments and the Gohlen Rule in the ordinary affairs of every-day life. I hope the boy scouts will practise truth and square dealing, and courage and-honesty, so that when as young men they begin to take a part not only in earning their own livelihood, but in governing the community, they may be able to show in practieal fashion their insistence upon the great truth that the eighth and ninth commandments are directly related to every-day llfe, not only between men as such in their pri.vate relations, but between men and the government of which they are part. Indeed the boys even while only boys can have a very real effect upon the conduct of the grown up members of the community, for'decency and square dealing are just as contagious as vice and corruption. Every healthy boy ougkt to feel and will feel that in order to amount to anything, it is necessary t??a?cfi?,