We hear much, in these latter days, of business and industrial efficiency. Experts in this line are able to systematize a business, a railroad, or a factory so that a given amount of labor will produce a maximum of results. Even such unskilled labor as shoveling is susceptible of scientific improvement. An efficiency expert employed by a great corporation decreased the number of movements of ore shovelers one-half, with a corresponding increase in tonnage of ore handled, and without an increase in the expenditure of physical energy.
It is equally important that efficiency methods should be employed in the training of boys. Scientific methods applied to boy-culture will increase the quality of the output as well as make the work easier for the boy and the parent. The Boy Scout movement is an efficiency method of scientific boy-training in mass. It supplements perfectly the work of the home, the school, the church. It furnishes a kind of training which none of these supplies and in making this statement I do not undervalue the inestimable influence of these institutions on the life of the boy today.
The home is the primary and most important agency for the boy’s general training, the school for mental development, and the church for moral and religious culture; but in the wide field of boy-nature not reached by these agencies the Boy Scout organization directs his development from the child into the man.
The organization has passed the experimental stage and is now on the highway of proved success. Thousands of boys are clamoring for admission which must be denied until Scout Masters can be enlisted and trained to take charge of troops. Here is a wonderful field for social service, ripe for harvest, awaiting the man who loves boys and who recognizes his duty in having some part in raising the standard of our future citizenship.
CHAPTER XIV
JUVENILE READING
NEXT to environment and companions, books exercise the most powerful influence for good or evil on the life of the boy. His companionship with books is as intimate as his companionship with playmates and usually occupies as large a portion of his life, especially after puberty. The value of literature is two-fold: it molds the character and develops the taste, both of which processes are closely related. It is natural for the boy to want “something to read” and this desire is not satisfied by schoolbooks, biographies, or histories. History which is a mere recital of facts, names, and dates in which the human element is little emphasized becomes wearisome and unprofitable. The boy voluntarily reads for entertainment; he studies because he is compelled to.
It is, of course, apparent that the child’s reading should be suited to his mental and psychological requirements. He begins with nursery rhymes and jingles and then follow fairy tales, folklore and wonder-tales told by the parent. These serve as an introduction to tales and stories of mythology, which are in turn stepping stones to history and biography. At the age of nine or ten he begins to develop a taste for fiction, tales of adventure, chivalry, and daring experience which exploit the virtues of some hero, on which he feeds for a number of years.
Still another class of reading not denominated literature is contained in the so-called “useful” books which are purely informative and educational in character. Shortly before the “teen age,” when he is interested in experimentation and construction, he seeks books giving information about gardening, handicrafts, mechanics, physics, magic, and manual training, the latter usually accompanied by plans and diagrams for making such things as sleds, boats, model aëroplanes, and electrical apparatus.
The boy whose reading has been properly directed graduates from tales of adventure into the better forms of literature, including standard fiction, imaginative narration, history, historical novels, essays, and poetry. Few children, unaided, develop a taste for good literature; it must be cultivated by judicious direction. The best literature is as potent in its influence for good as trashy reading is for evil. The boy’s love for the thrilling, exciting story of adventure beyond the realms of his own experience leads him to devour the so-called “nickel library” and “dime novel,” which may be easily procured from certain news-stands and provides his private reading of which the parent knows nothing.
These paper-back pamphlets are usually brilliantly illuminated in colors to attract the eye and exhibit a thrilling picture illustrating some incident in the story. A few of the titles of these “yellow” books afford ample evidence of their contents and influence. I recall through the aid of boyhood recollection such titles as “Hobo Harry, the Boy Tramp”; “Reckless Rob, the Red Ranger of the Rockies”; “Dare Devil Dick, the Boy Bandit”; “The Jesse James Weekly,” devoted to the exploits of that outlaw gang; “Slippery Sam, the Boy Detective,” and others of that ilk. The widespread demand for such stories is shown by their circulation which now exceeds a million copies annually.