CONVENTIONS.

The Boy Scouts of America were represented on the program at the Northern Baptist Convention, the International Kiwanis Convention, the National Education Association, and the department of superintendence of the National Education Association. The director of the department spent at least half of his time in the past year in speaking before conventions and public meetings in the interest of scouting. It can possibly be considered as the greatest service rendered by the director to local fields.

LITERATURE.

The committee on education has cooperated with the editorial department in supervision, educationally, of all the new literature which has come out. Among the notable contributions of the past year has been the book Community Boy Leadership, a manual for scout executives, designed to help the layman as well as the professional worker with the organization of scouting from the standpoint of recruiting leadership, training leadership, and supervision.

COMMISSIONS.

During the past year the regional commissions which were established after the last biennial conference have reported at their regional meetings. The chairman of the regional commissions make up the membership of the national commissions on the following problems: Standards and results, turnover, camping, training, rural scouting, publicity, scouting in relation to the underprivileged boy, older boy, court of honor, scouting in industry, scouting in the college community, sea scouting, finance, council organization, and administration.

These commissions will report at the national biennial conference to be held in October or November of this year at Signal Mountain, Tenn. Much can be expected from the reports of these commissions because they will represent the best opinion of the field in the solution of these many problems. Members of the committee on education under whose auspices these studies have been made expect to have good representation at the biennial conference.

FRENCH BOY SCOUT CAMPS.

The American committee for devastated France again invited the Boy Scouts of America to cooperate with them in the conduct of the scout camp for the boys of the devastated regions of France for 1921. The director was loaned to the American committee and his duties were taken on by Dr. Elbert K. Fretwell, of Columbia University, from June to November. The committee is very grateful to Doctor Fretwell for his excellent services.

The French Boy Scout camps of 1920 were far-reaching in their influence upon boys' work in France. This camp was the basis for a spirit of unity and cooperation among the three scout associations of France. The year 1921 found that spirit of unity and cooperation continuing in growth and with a desire to push the work of the French Boy Scouts forward. The purpose of the camp for the past year has been to give to the children of France, especially the devastated areas, an opportunity to receive, under exceptional conditions, advantages in training along scout lines. But more important was the opportunity to give the young men and adults in France an opportunity whereby they might learn to be scoutmasters so that they might serve the boys of their home communities as leaders. There were in all seven camps, five for boys under 17 years of age and two for men over 17 years. The attendance at these camps was 254 scoutmasters and 771 boys. They came not only from the devastated regions but from all the departments of the entire country. By this means boy leadership as well as adult leadership was sent back to almost every community in the country to lead in the development of Boy Scout troops.

This cooperation with the American committee for devastated France has been a tremendous service in bringing hope and enthusiasm to the French youth. A plan was carried through whereby groups of boys in scout troops in this country contributed to the support of boys at the French camps. In this way troops of scouts in America have been put in contact with groups of boys in France, thereby developing an opportunity for international friendship.

A LOOK FORWARD.

The committee on education has carried forward its responsibility of training courses in leadership and maintained relationships with the various groups, such as those of the schools and churches.

The opportunity for service for the department of education for the next two years can be seen in the following statement of needs.

1. The furtherance of organized cooperation and assistance to churches and other religious organizations. The calls from this quarter are frequent and insistent, especially for promotion literature and cooperation in their training courses for leadership.

2. The 14 national commissions of scout executives which are now studying scout problems require much follow-up work in the preparation of their reports for the next biennial conference. This involves much secretarial help.

3. The development of the details for the next biennial conference of scout executives to be held at Signal Mountain, Chattanooga, Tenn., is a responsibility of the department of education.

4. The growing service needed for the development of training courses for scout leaders by local councils, colleges, universities, and normal schools.

5. Completion and promotion of correspondence course for scout leaders.

6. Cooperation with national agencies working with boys through conventions and periodicals, such as those relating to schools and religious groups.

7. The colleges and universities offer a tremendous field for the development of volunteer leadership. In some colleges already groups of scouts are organized, but in all universities scouts and ex-scouts should be organized into units and regular visits and cultivation work should be done by a headquarters representative, so as to make effective their participation in scouting after they have graduated.

8. The necessity of leadership and development of definite plans of cooperation with the public schools is at hand.

To carry on this work the committee on education has made a strong recommendation to the national executive board that they be supplied with (1) an additional secretary for administrative work in the office to follow up many enterprises now in operation; (2) a field representative of the committee to promote intensive relationships with the churches and other religious organizations; (3) an additional secretary to promote the interest of scouting in the colleges and universities, to encourage college men who were scouts to cooperate with scouting in their college communities now and to look forward upon their graduation to taking up scout work in the communities in which they are located, and also to introduce scouting courses into the college curriculum.

Knowing the demands of local councils for inspiration and educational direction in their training courses and relationships with their educational institutions, brings home to us the immediate need for an educational director, similar to the national educational director for each regional committee. The services of such a man will bring home to each local council the work of the department of education in a much more helpful manner.

The committee on education, feeling the needs of the field and recognizing the obligation for development, seeks the cooperation of all in the development of its program of intensive service. Nineteen hundred and twenty-two will see a big contribution to the educational program of the movement through the department of education.

JOHN H. FINLEY, Chairman.

JAMES E. RUSSELL.

NORMAN E. RICHARDSON.
J. W. WITHERS.

D. J. KELLY.

FRANK CODY.

HENRY W. HOLMES.

CHARLES P. NEILL.

DEPARTMENT OF CAMPING.

[L. L. McDonald, National Camp Director.]

A wide range of outdoor activities for both men and boys which were not at first recognized under the name of camping have been brought under this department in the course of the growth and development of the scouting program. Among these are such activities as overnight hikes, truck tours, canoe trips, barbecues, farm and forest service work, demonstration teams in State and county fairs, etc., not in any sense idealized camping, but requiring camp knowledge and experience to guarantee safety to boys and success in carrying out their program.

The interpretation now given to the subject of camping and campcraft instruction Covers fully half of the active time spent by scouts under adult supervision, and more than half of the activities listed for scout advancement. Generally speaking, all scouting which takes boys away from home, placing on the organization the task of

providing food, lodging, and transportation are classified as under the camping department. During the summer months, when camping is practiced most intensively, the time of 10,000 carefully selected and trained adult leaders is required.

The largest permanent investment of both troops and councils is for camp sites, camp buildings, tentage, tools, and utensils, at present amounting to more than $500,000, and including thousands of acres of choice camp site property, owned outright by local scout organizations or held in trust for perpetual use as troop and council camps.

The boys' own estimate of the value of this investment may be measured in part by the vast army of scouts who go to scout camps year after year with increased enthusiasm and by the hard-earned fees paid from the boys' own pocket money, amounting this year to over $1,375,000 and upward of 200,000 scout campers.

CAMPING GROWTH IN 1921.

Splendid progress is observed in 1921 scout camp reports from every section of the country. In spite of adverse financial conditions, councils have found ways and means to build new camps and to enlarge old ones, and scouts in increasing numbers have availed themselves of the opportunities offered. The following figures refer to summer camps conducted by first class councils only, although creditable records have been made by second class councils and troops not under councils.

Amount of increase over 1920: 31 new camps; 4,929 more boys daily; 31 cents per week less paid by boys; 77 more troops in their own camps; 62 cents decrease in fare; 22,179 more boys for 1 week each.

This shows a saving of $42,832.08 in fees, and a like amount in transportation, an economy for individual boys who went to camp in 1921 of $85,664.16 as compared with the previous year.

The cost to councils in 1920 over and above fees paid by boys was $3.84 per boy per week. This year due largely to insistence that there should be more volunteer adult help and a greater percentage of scouts enrolled in all camps, the total cost to councils has been reduced to $2.77 per boy, a saving in operating cost, over and above fees paid by boys, of $1.07. The economies thus brought about in the past year due to better facilities, market conditions, and methods of management in first-class council camps alone are $147,839.76 to council, which, with boys' savings, total $233,503.92.

These facts give great encouragement in the face of the present necessity of making provision for far greater numbers of boys in camps for the coming season. At present there is unmistakable evidence that the trend is toward decreasing rather than increasing the per capita cost of outdoor training for all scouts, and that the investments already made are each year producing larger proportionate returns.

STANDARD REQUIREMENTS UPHELD.

The minimum standards prescribed by the national council through the department of camping for all scout camps have been more fully realized each year as larger numbers of trained leaders have been enlisted. The season of 1921 is marked by the number and character of volunteer adult leaders, and a greater proportion of volunteers as compared with salaried members of the camp staffs.

Many camp directors, special instructors, and leaders have been furnished from former boy members of scout troops now returned as young men from college, office, or shop. In two camps, in which the enrollment was over 150 boys each, the head chef was an Eagle Scout. In a number of camps the men employed as camp directors are men who as boys attained the rank of Eagle Scouts in their troops. In many camps, Eagle, Life, and Star Scouts are enrolled as either paid or volunteer officers. By this system, leadership in the 503 lone troop camps conducted by troops under councils was guaranteed by the local council as being sufficiently trained.

SERVICE RENDERED BY THE DEPARTMENT.

Personal inspection of 64 camps was made during the season by the national camp director.

Direct correspondence on camp plans and reports with all scout executives. Advice to councils and camp committees on camp-site locations, ground plans, and types and cost of buildings and equipment.

Technical instruction on camp craft in scoutmasters', camp directors', and patrol leaders' training courses.

Leadership and exhibit material for camping section of conferences of scout executives and camp leaders in all regions.

Material furnished for Boys' Life, Scouting, the Scout Executive, and the Scout Executives' Handbook.

Advice and literature on menus, ration tables, food cost, etc.

Revision of book lists for camp directors.

Maintenance of a list of directors and special instructors who are applicants for positions in scout camps.

Cooperation with the supply department in matters pertaining to selection of best articles of camp equipment for scout camps.

GLEANED FROM LOCAL CAMP REPORTS.

All of the 322 summer camps under first-class councils completed the season with no drownings or fatal accidents.

Detroit, Mich., received a magnificent camp of 80 acres by bequest, with $10,000 for headquarters buildings and equipment.

At Clinton, Iowa, the Rotary Club took 200 boys by automobile on a three weeks' tour to the Yellowstone National Park and return (over 3,000 miles).

Eagle Scouts from Toledo take an annual tour by canoes through northern Michigan. Macon, Atlanta, and Waycross, Ga., conducted a nature-study camping trip to the Okefenokee Swamp.

San Diego, Calif., has a year-round camp in a reconstructed Indian village with adobe and cliff dwellers' architecture.

New York and New Jersey scouts have the biggest boys' camp in the world in the Interstate Park, where the daily capacity is 2,400 scouts.

New camp buildings at Fall River, Mass., and Logansport, Ind., were built this year entirely by union labor, volunteered by members of local unions.

The Christmas vacation camp at Cleveland, Ohio, enrolled over 200 boys at the council camp reservation.

Rome, N. Y., Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Knoxville, Tenn., have each purchased new camp sites and built headquarters buildings.

There are twice as many volunteer as employed leaders in council camps, and practically all lone troop camps are operated exclusively by volunteer leaders.

The Chicago camp at Whitehall, Mich., shows the largest enrollment in its eight years of constant growth and successful operation.

Scouts at the Buffalo, N. Y., camp planted 2,000 trees; Toledo, Ohio, scouts 10,000, and Minneapolis, Minn., scouts 500 on the council camp sites, trees being furnished by the State in each case.

Philadelphia has opened a new week-end camping system with six council-built headquarters for troops.

Two first-class councils adopted the plan of enrollment by troops for summer camps, requiring scouts to attend with their own scoutmasters in charge. Each reports a successful season.

Lansing, Mich., has a new camp site and buildings, furnished through the cooperation of Rotary, Kiwanis, and other clubs.

The Masonic order in southern Oklahoma has purchased and equipped a camp site for the exclusive use of scout campers.

Minneapolis has a year-round camp site, purchased and completely equipped by the local order of Elks at a cost of over $30,000.

THE NATIONAL CAMP COMMITTEE.

The national camp committee is being enlarged to include representatives from each of the 12 regions as rapidly as key men can be discovered to serve in this capacity. The committee now is as follows: Geo. D. Pratt, chairman, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Daniel Carter Beard, Flushing, L. I.; Belmore Browne, South Orange, N. J.; John B. Burnham, New York; Marshall McLean, New York; F. F. Bradley, Chicago; W. D. Cline, Wichita Falls, Tex.; Robert S. Hale, Boston; G. Barrett Rich, jr., Buffalo, N. Y.; Eugene L. Swan, M. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.; Frederick K. Vreeland, Montclair, N. J.; Dillon Wallace, Beacon, N. Y.; Maj. W. A. Welch, New York; J. H. Mitchell, Minneapolis; James É. West (ex officio), New York; L. L. McDonald, secretary.

CONTACTS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS.

The Eastern States League made possible again the Mohawk Indian village at the Eastern States Exposition at Springfield, Mass., in September, 1921. Five boys were selected as delegates from each of the 10 Eastern States. These boys exhibited scout handicraft, and demonstrated scout methods and other various activities and games, and aided in many ways in public-service work. The work was carried on from the headquarters of a scout-built Mohawk Indian village, which attracted much interest and favorable attention.

At the Iowa State Fair at Des Moines 200 scouts, brought in from neighboring cities, camped on the fair grounds, taking full charge of all ushering and errand work, the entire expenses being paid by the fair management.

Other State and county fairs reported creditable services done by scouts in uniform, with a growing demand for their services and for demonstrations of scout methods and scout camping.

Trails conferences for the Palisades and New England districts have offered definite opportunity for cooperation in clearing and marking trails.

The Red Cross, through its life-saving department, has been universally helpful in furnishing personnel and programs for swimming and life-saving work. State and local boards of health have analyzed drinking water, and have made many health inspections and medical examinations for local camp committees.

A LOOK AHEAD.

The increasing popularity of camping together with improved methods in camps and the growing confidence of parents will require greatly increased camp facilities for the coming season. The responsibility of using large tracts of land owned by the State and National Governments must be met by leadership and programs which will be worthy of these concessions when made.