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Rh "A boy isn't allowed to work now, until he's fourteen, and not a ful day until he's sixteen," said the spokesman.

"Well, well, I guess that’s so, and the work now is done in factories instead of out-of-doors, and it isn’t good for a boy to be shut up. lt was worth while being a boy fifty years ago. I could ride a horse to water, carry in wood, and drop corn behind a plow when I was four years old. At ten I could curry a horse, clean a stable, milk a cow, saw wood, hoe the garden and turn a grindstone. I could ride and shoot and swim and fish and go on snow-shoes like an Indian; and find my way in the woods by blazes on the trees, and by the stars, catch and cook my own supper and make a good shelter and bed. I knew all the wild plants and birds and animals. A boy had to rely on himself in those days and be of use to others, and it made a man of him. The good old chores and sports are all gone. No wonder the boys are good for nothing. I’l1 have to look into this."

He did look into it. He found, as every other man and woman who has investigated the matter has found, that the conditions of living have all changed, and that boys and parents are equally the victims of circumstances. Aside from the hours in school the growing boy has no duties. No real use can be made of him in the home. Living quarters are so cramped that the street is his only playground. There he has nothing to do that is interesting or important, nothing to play with. There is nothing that he can get by his own exertions, not even innocent fun. So he loiters around saloons and cheap theatres, is educated in evil, spends money that he does not earn, reads yellow newspapers and vicious books, smokes cigarettes, joins a "gang" to satisfy his love of adventure, and gets into trouble with the police. In a word, he degenerates physically, mentally and morally. And yet, at heart, the boy is the same as the sturdy, honest, useful boy of an early day. All he needs is a square deal—the space, the freedom, and the healthy outlet for his energies.

The idea which underlies the Boy Scouts is not one which originated with any one man or set of men. For years men have been