Cannot we find these guiding hands amongst us?
PEACE-SCOUTING.
Here is one suggestion, at any rate, for a remedy by which every young man can help his country. I believe that under the attractive term and practice of "Scouting," a large number of boys might be taken in hand in a practical way, by every young man, without expense in time or money.
By "scouting" I do not mean the military work as carried on on active service. The scouting we are considering has nothing to do with this. There is another form, which one might term "peace-scouting," such as is usual with frontiersmen of our Empire in every corner of the world. The pioneers of civilisation in Central Africa; the ranchmen, cowboys, and trappers of the West; the drovers and bushmen of Australia; the explorers of the Arctic and Asiatic regions; the hunters and prospectors of South Africa; missionaries in all parts of the uncivilised world; and the constabularies of North-West Canada, South Africa, etc., are all "peace-scouts," men accustomed to live on their own resources, taking their lives in their hands, brave and loyal to their employers, chivalrous and helpful to each other, unselfish and reliable; MEN, in fact, of the best type. These are the peace-scouts of the Empire, and there is no reason why we should not train a large number of boys to follow in their footsteps as regards character and manliness.
A small book which I published a short time ago on the subject of scouting for soldiers has been so freely taken up by schools and boys' clubs in England that I am encouraged to think a system organised for the special purpose of teaching boys would be acceptable, and I am still further encouraged in the idea by the fact that a somewhat similar organisation founded by Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton in America has had a full and widespread success.
MILITARISM.
Two or three prominent authorities have written deprecating my attempt to "foster among the boys of Britain a bloodthirsty and warlike spirit."
I can only fear that either these gentlemen have not read the handbooks very carefully, or that I have expressed myself very badly. The whole intention of the Boy Scouts' training is for peaceful citizenship.
Even if I had advocated training the lads in a military way (which I have not done), I am impenitent enough to see no harm in it. I have not noticed that ex-soldiers are more inclined than other people to commit murders; all that I see in them, as a rule, is that they have been taught self-discipline, to sacrifice themselves, if need be, for others, to obey orders, to be sober, clean, and active, to make the best of things as they find them, to be loyal to themselves and their officers. All of which appear to me to be valuable assets in character for a citizen, whatever may be his grade or trade.
The fact that industrial employers now prefer ex-soldiers in very many of their departments speaks to the peace value of a military training. But when an eminent public man wrote to me that I ought not to teach boys soldiering because, as he puts it, "he hates war like the devil," I felt bound to reply that had he actually seen anything of war himself, he would, like most soldiers, hate it worse than the devil. It is for that very reason that officers almost without exception urge upon their fellow countrymen to be prepared to defend their country. It is not that they wish to make the men bloodthirsty, but it is that they may avert from our own land that worst of all modern anachronisms—the horrors of war, brought on to our own homes, our women and children.