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calls the rhyme "The butcher, the baker, the candlestickmaker." Every needful profession is found in a boat-four are found in each full "ship of the line." Each boy is leader in his department, the coxswain is a director over all departments, the skipper is the chief executive, working out the program under general directions of the shipping board and portmaster. And so on up to the Executive Board and the National Council.

This arrangement has proved most acceptable to men and boys alike both in 1919 and 1920. Once the billet system is adopted and worked (it never appeals full strength until tried in the balance of actual prac tice) it is never, has never been abandoned.

The young leader begins to lead-and each man in the boat begins to lead his department at the first meeting of the "ship." The motto is "This is up to me," and does away with bossing. The full "ships" have four of a kind and these artisans learn to work for the "ship," first, as regular sailormen, secondly, as billet men-not from without, by driving, but from within, for the fun and love of it. This is no longer experimental. It works!

Expenses at first are no more than for a scout troop. At the "schooner" $50 per year, at the "Bark" $100at the "Ship" $200 would cover outside expenditures. The finest point of all with the boy is in exercising strict justice tempered by mercy. The seascout must make good or drop it. Seascouting is man's work, like real life, and as such must be played earnestly and according to the rules of the game, if its fine values of manly habits are acquired.

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CHAPTER XIX

THE PIONEER DIVISION

For Boys in Sparsely Settled Districts

by W. A. Perry, Formerly Chief Pioneer Scout

Within the boundaries of many local councilsespecially county councils-live boys who cannot join troops. Usually the reason is the scarcity of boys of scout age in the neighborhood. Such boys may become Scouts by joining the Pioneer Division.

The Pioneer Scout is not related to any troop. As a candidate he prepares for his tenderfoot tests by using the Pioneer Information Bulletin. When ready to take the tests he secures a Local Examiner. Preferably this examiner is a man a school principal, teacher or superintendent; a pastor; or the leader of an Agricultural Boys' Club. But many women are serving acceptably. Among these are school teachers, Sabbath school teachers, and rural welfare workers.

Sometimes a candidate presents evidence that he lives on an isolated farm or ranch and cannot secure an adult examiner outside his own family. In such a case a parent or some other relative may be accepted as an examiner temporarily, in order that the boy may become a Scout, but reports of tests are scrutinized closely and the scout is urged to secure at the earliest possible moment an examiner who is not a relative.

As isolated boys frequently lack opportunities for earning money, the Pioneer Scouts are supplied with "Scout Helps" free of charge to encourage progress. The leaflet on the second class tests goes forward as soon as the scout registers. When the local examiner

certifies that the scout has passed his second class tests, a copy of the leaflet on the first class tests is sent with the letter of acknowledgment.

The work of the Pioneer Scouts is supervised by the National Council through correspondence. But a Pioneer Scout under a local council should have assistance from its officials. Each local council which has sparsely settled districts under its jurisdiction should appoint an assistant executive or a deputy commissioner to deal with the problem.

This official should be a man who is already in touch with the isolated districts. The local council will be fortunate if it can secure for this work a county leader of the Boys' Club organized through the cooperation of national and state departments of agriculture and the agricultural colleges. County Agricultural Agents are good leadership material also, though their work with adult farmers sometimes prevents their interesting themselves in the boy problem.

The securing of a real rural leader to supervise the Pioneer Scouts accomplishes two purposes:

1. It gives the boys a leader who understands their needs and inspires their confidence and

2. It establishes a relationship between the scout organizations and the rural organizations which enables them to cooperate effectively.

The Red Cross, Anti-Tuberculosis Society, County Y. M. C. A. and other rural welfare agencies have workers who gladly cooperate with the scout organization.

Work with isolated boys has a significance much broader than generally is recognized. The numbers reached are always small in proportion to the expense and effort involved, therefore this field receives little attention. At the 1920 conference of the American Country Life Association the fact was brought out that no comprehensive study of our isolated inhabitants ever has been made and that rural organization seldom if ever extends beyond the rural centers of population and the territory near them.

The neglect to make the farm boy's life more interesting has resulted in an apparently irresistible flow to the city. The present Agricultural situation is far more serious than the city dweller realizes, in spite of his protests against the high prices of farm products. The percentage of farmers in our country has dropped from over 60 to less than 30 in the last few decades and the rate of flow to the city is higher now than ever before. Experts predict famine conditions within ten years unless some force now unknown operates to keep the farmers on the farms.

In spite of these conditions, governmental and welfare budgets for work among rural people are the last to be expanded and the first to be out. Apparently leaders are more interested in financing work for boys in congested districts, suffering from under-nourishment and lack of fresh air, than in promoting work for farm boys which will prevent over-crowding and its results.

Pioneer Scouts can be given one piece of service to perform which is interesting and well adapted to their conditions. This is the securing and distribution of weather reports and other information sent out by U. S. Navy wireless stations. Boy Scout and other amateur stations receive this information daily. Local councils are expected to maintain receiving stations of their own, or connection with other stations, in order to serve their territory. The Pioneer Scout should be urged to secure the news by telephone or mail and post it at creameries and other places which farmers. visit daily. The value of this service hardly can be appreciated by the city man who receives his daily paper before breakfast. To the rural dweller the fact of wireless communication with the outside world means an immediate raising of standards and a loss of the feeling of isolation.

Pioneer Scouts should be invited to attend camps, rallies and other gatherings. They might reciprocate by inviting troops to hike to the farm to fish or gather apples or nuts. The fact that city scouts were interested in visiting his farm would give it a new value in

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