CARRINGTON: In our Council we furnish Scouting service all over our area, but we think it’s right to apportion more Field Executive time to the Districts which are providing adequate funds to make that field service possible.
At the same time, we carry on an organized extension program in all areas with the hope that all will make use of Scouting and give it their support.
WITCRAFT: It is true that the cost of rural Scouting has often delayed Councils in coming to grips with the rural problem. Usually we have assumed that Scouting starts in the city, moves out to the small towns and eventually filters down to the village and open country.
The Council faces a practical problem. It has a certain amount of time and money. How can these be spent most wisely? The same amount of work that will organize a rural Troop of six boys at Olson’s Corners will organize a Troop of twenty boys in the headquarters city. It has seemed to be sound business to spend Council money where it would bring Scouting to the most boys.
But consider what this means to Olaf Torkelson, twelve years old, out at Olson’s Corners. Can we say to him, “Sorry, Olaf, but it will probably be several years before we can organize marginal places like Olson’s Corners.”
Our Council, at its coming Annual Meeting, will take action on a proposal by our Organization and Extension Committee that we shall henceforth recognize an equal responsibility to all boys within our area, regardless of where they live.
We believe such an approach would be financially sound, and that the rural area will support it.
FOX: I broached this question of cost, but actually I don’t think it’s serious. The open country has the boys, and wants them to have their chance. The money can be secured if we approach the right people. For example, some farm cooperatives now have educational programs. They might see big dividends in efforts spent to help Scouting develop leaders among rural youth.
Farming has become so complex that the country can no longer afford to let its best youth go to the city. Today farming demands the best brains as well as the strongest bodies the nation can produce. The modern farmer must organize, manage, finance, produce, and market.
Scouting can, and does help round out a rural boy’s life. It builds the kind of men the nation needs on its farms.