ARMY & NAVY: Boy Scouts

“I would rather be a boy than King of any country! I would rather be a Boy Scout than be President!”

So, last week, spoke Chief Scout Daniel Carter Beard, 77, founder of U. S. Boy Scouts, at the Boy Scout camp near Bear Mountain, N. Y. Among his listeners were Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, Governor John E. Martineau of Arkansas, Governor John H. Trumbull of Connecticut, Barron Collier, August Heckscher, Will H. Hays, Edward F. Albee, William H. (“Big Bill”) Edwards, General Robert Lee Bullard, and some 800 Boy Scouts.

The Scouts, who are often pointed to as a potent reserve behind the national arms for peace or war, administered the Scout oath to their visitors. They presented twelve of the notables with belts, though General Bullard was the only dignitary slim-waisted enough to wear his gift. Governor Smith was persuaded to go fishing and promptly caught a fish four feet long. It was a wooden fish which the Scouts had previously attached to his line.