"There is no need, no excuse for Socialism. But there is sore need of Social Reform."-Kane. a simple and direct appeal to manliness, honor and patriotism. It teaches clean living and true humanity. It has had sweeping success because it gives an outlet for a boy's best instincts. It has come opportunely to counteract the stagnation of city life and return to the boy his natural birth-right to a life in the open. It is inculcating the highest principles of manhood in hundreds of thousands of American boys. It stands for courage, truthfulness, chivalry. Its demand upon the boy's character measure up to the standard of the American. In THE CHICAGO DAILY SOCIALIST VOL. V-NO. 281 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1911. PRICE ONE CENT EDUCATING THE BOY SCOUTS AS SOCIALISTS SEE THE SCOUTS a rapidly shifting population, partly without ideals of any kind, it is maintaining the high code of honor of the American man. Why, then, have the Socialists attacked it? Are they sincere in declaring it "the Capitalist's School of Murder"? Do they actually believe that this movement has been fostered simply to provide marksmen to shoot down workmen? They do not-cannot-believe any such thing. They provide a long line of argument to this effect, which we shall consider shortly, but their real reason for antagonism lies much deeper. Their objection to the Boy Scout movement is that it teaches patriotism. They have no patriotism themselves. They make a point of not having any. They don't believe in it. They object to having it taught. And, if that were not bad enough from the Socialist's point of view, the Boy Scout is taught that he must defend his country. A small part of his training is even devoted to proficiency in the handling of arms. He learns that his country has a right to call upon him to use that knowledge in defending it against its enemies. All gall and wormwood to the Socialists. If there is one thing the Socialists don't want it is military training. They even have no hesitation to saying so themselves, but they do not give the true reason for their dislike. Instead, they give a false reason, one which they know will have an immediate and wide appeal. They take advantage of the fact that the militia is sometimes called upon to quell riots following strikes, causing a not unnatural ill-feeling on the part of the strikers, and they declare that the Boy Scouts are merely militiamen in training. By harping upon that theme, they have aroused an undeserved antagonism to the Boy Scouts, and behind it conceal their real reason for fearing the movement. They look with apprehension upon those trained to patriotism, the maintainance of order and the handling of arms. They don't want any patriots about when they are ready to overthrow the Government. That is their ultimate aim, and every man who stands ready to defend the country against them they regard as their enemy. It is admittedly the purpose of the Socialists at some time to make this country over to their heart's desire. Some are for gradual and peaceful conquest-evolution; but the great majority thirst for revolution. Do they want to be confronted by a strong patriotic feeling, a citizenship capable of taking arms in defense of their country? Why can't the Socialists be honest? A glance at their propaganda will show where they stand as to the Boy Scouts: "Behind the Boy Scouts movement,' says The Weekly People, "are the capitalist fleecers of Labor, who have grown fat by the work of absorbing what others produce. They hear that those whom they have fleeced are growing restive. They read of strikes and other upheavals of Labor, and they fear that if it keeps on they will be confronted with the dire calamity of starving if they don't do some real work...The Boy Scouts plan is, in short, a scheme to train the young, from the kindergarten up, to patriotic devotion to the capitalist class." The New York Call can see no reason or excuse for the Boy Scouts except to keep workmen in a state of subjection. "War," it says, "belongs to the past (a rather sweeping statement!) even capitalism is abandoning war between nations, and the only object it can have in furthering the military spirit is to retain. the blind allegiance of a sufficient number of the workers to constitute them into the military power which can be used for the perpetuation of class rule." The Western Federation of Miners, which has not hesitated to use violence to gain its own ends, has taken for granted that the Boy Scout Movement is military and opposed to organized labor and breaks out in the following resolution: "Resolved, That we condemn in the strongest terms the so-called Boy Scout movement as a mere pious fraud by which the youth of the ntaion are being drilled into principles of slavish obedience to superiors, befitting flunkies but wholly unbefitting American citizens, and into a spirit of militarism which tends to incite and foster the willingness to shoot, maim, and murder their fellow men at the behest of the master class under cover of a corrupted and corrupting spirit of so-called patriotism." In the second paragraph of the resolution the real animus forces itself to the front: "We denounce the principles of the Boy Scout Movement as wholly falla cious, unsocial and degenerating in character, and we brand the movement itself as a capitalistic infamy, which has as its objective the rearing of boys who in the coming years will be the supple slaves and willing hirelings of the capitalist class to murder the men, widow the women and orphan the children of the working class who shall be struggling for economic freedom." The Call favors the enf dorsement of the resolution by every labor body in the country. And yet The Call knows the truth about the Boy Scouts. It even published in its own columns, but surrounded it with so many scoffing comments as to cast a doubt upon it. Here is an extract from a letter by James M. West, Executive Secretary of the Boy Scouts of America, published in The Call: "1. The Boy Scouts of America is not a military organization. “2. (Evidently in response to a question) The organization of Boy Scouts of America is only of value to the future United States Army in so far as the training which they receive would prepare them to be strong, healthy men, who know how to take care of themselves under all circum stances. nials. They do not care to believe there is any good in the Boy Scouts movement. One of their leading writers, John Spargo, however, was unable to bring himself to enter an unqualified denouncement of it. "Now," said he, in The Chicago Daily Socialist, "as most of the boy scouts I saw in England belong to the working class, I could not do other than rejoice in the benefits they were enjoying. As a Socialist, I am fully persuaded that the workers in all lands will be the better able to work effectively for a better state of society, as a result of every physical, mental or moral advantage they enjoy." But Spargo soon struck something that, as a class-conscious Socialist, he could not down. He saw this in the "Scout Law": "A scout is loyal to his country, his officers, his parents, and his employers. He must stick to them through thick and thin against anyone who is their enemy or who even talks badly of them." In the naming of employers as being worthy of loyalty along with country, officers and pa NET RESULTS OF THE BOY SCOUT FAD From "The Coming Nation" rents, the Socialist would have you believe that there was a deep, similar design to crush labor unions, throttle Socialism and prepare for armed oppression. If the "Scout Law" had been written in this country it is likely that loyalty to employers would not have been mentioned, but in England cusations in spite of assurances and de- where the relation is regarded on both "3. The scouts never have been and never will be trained to the breaking of strikes." But the Socialists continue their ac |