SCOUT HANDBOOKS, ORGANS, AND OTHER LITERATURE.

Handbook for Boys.—The Handbook for Boys continues to be increasingly in demand. Two or three printings of the book are required annually, each printing including a 1,000,000 edition, to supply the demand for what is said to be the most popular boy's book in the world. It is now in its twenty-fourth edition and is the official interpretation of the scout movement.

Leaders' handbooks.—The new Scoutmaster's Handbook contains a wealth of valuable material for scout leaders and other adults interested in the movement. It is prepared by experts and based upon sound pedagogical principles as well as good scouting. The new handbook for executives, called Community Boy Leadership, is now in circulation and is proving valuable.

Magazines.—Boy's Life, the official scout magazine for boys, is a live, wholesome, interesting publication issued monthly, containing stories and articles by well-known authors and specialists.

Scouting, issued monthly, is prepared especially for scout leaders not under council, while The Scout Executive, another monthly bulletin, is directed chiefly to the field under council.

Merit Badge pamphlets.—The editorial department of the Boy Scouts of America has prepared and edited a series of valuable pamphlets in connection with the Merit Badge subjects, which is filling a long-felt want among scouts and others interested. There are 68 different pamphlets, each written by a recognized authority in the respective subject, and each submitted before printing to a large number of experts, over 500 of whom were consulted for critical suggestion and guidance. No effort has been spared to make these booklets accurate and interesting. They contain over 3,000 pages of printed matter and over 800 illustrations, as well as valuable bibliographies and biographical matter. The pamphlets have already attracted considerable favorable notice among school men, and several colleges are placing the whole series in their reference libraries.

A classified list of the subjects for which pamphlets have been issued follows:

I. Subjects that have to do with outdoor activities.

1.	Angling.
2.	Archery.
3.	Camping.
4.	Cooking.
5.	Cycling.
6.	Hiking.
7.	Horsemanship.
8.	Marksmanship.
9.	Pathfinding.
10.	Photography.
11.	Pioneering.
12.	Seamanship.
13.	Stalking.
14.	Swimming.

II. Subjects that have to do with outdoor activities of a vocational nature.

1.	Agriculture.
2.	Beekeeping.
3.	Bird study.
4.	Botany.
5.	Conservation.
6.	Dairying.
7.	Forestry.
8.	Gardening.
9.	Poultry keeping.
10.	Taxidermy.

III. Subjects which have to do with modern application of mechanics.

1.	Automobiling.
2.	Aviation.
3.	Electricity.
4.	Machinery.
5.	Signaling.
6.	Wireless.

IV. Subjects which have to do with the preservation of health and the saving of life.

1.	Athletics.
2.	First Aid.
3.	First Aid to Animals.
4.	Firemanship.
5.	Life Saving.
6.	Personal Health.
7.	Physical Development.
8.	Public Health.
9.	Safety First.

V. Subjects which have to do with so-called "Trades."

1.	Blacksmithing.
2.	Carpentry.
3.	Craftsmanship, including Craftswork in Metal, Leather, Basketry, Pottery, Cement, Book-binding, Wood Carving. (7 separate pamphlets.)
4.	Handicraft.
5.	Leather working.
6.	Masonry.
7.	Mining.
8.	Plumbing.
9.	Printing.
10.	Surveying.

VI. Subjects which have to do with knowledge
gained mainly from books and laboratories, under instructors.

1.	Astronomy.
2.	Chemistry.
3.	Business.
4.	Civics.
5.	Interpreting.
6.	Scholarship.

VII. Subjects which have to do with some form of art.

1.	Architecture.
2.	Art.
3.	Music (including Bugling).
4.	Painting.
5.	Sculpture.

Other literature.—The National Council also issues a large number of other informational and interpretative publications, such as the Manual of Customs and Drills, The Seascout Manual, What Every Scoutmaster Wants to Know, Scouting and the Public Schools, Your Boy and Scouting, What Scouts Do, Membership in the Boy Scouts of America, The Boy Scout Movement (as approved by the Religious Education Association), etc.

Cooperation with publishers.—The department during the year has maintained through its director constant contact with publishers and authors. More than 100 new books published for boys in 1919 have been carefully examined (a good many in manuscript form) for review in Boys' Life or inclusion in some one of our book lists and, of these, of the few really good books for boys published in 1919, it is a joy to report that more than half of these were first published serially in Boys' Life, a record that stands alone.

New books edited.—The director has edited as usual the Boy Scouts' Year Book, compiled from last year's issues of Boys' Life, the sales of which have been more than a third larger than in previous years. More notable still has been the success of the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories, a compilation of stories of interest to boys selected, one each, from the writings of our best American and English short-story writers. The purpose of the director in editing such a book was to interest boys in stories that have the quality of fine writing, and so help to develop in them a taste for literature that will make them lovers of the great and good books of all ages. The very nature of the book warranted the conclusion that it would take considerable time to make it a good seller. Once again the unexpected has happened in that the first year's sales of the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories has equaled the first year's sale of the Boy Scouts' Year Book, and the present promise is that for years to come this book will more than hold its own. In the coming year material is being gathered for a companion volume to be published under the title the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories in Verse.

Motion pictures for scouts.—The director of the library department of the National Council, Mr. Franklin K. Matthews, has served as a literary adviser to a motion-picture company. As a result of this collaboration a large number of educational and scout films have been put into circulation, including the popular "Knights of the Square Table," by Chief Seascout James A. Wilder. It is believed that these films offer splendid opportunities not only to show the educational possibilities of the scout movement but also to interest and instruct the public in the joys and benefits of outdoor life, the necessity for safety first and fire-prevention measures, and other features which are accentuated by the scout program. The films can also be admirably used in connection with the Americanization movement.