Your TR Source
Scoutmaster William H. Lindsay informs Theodore Roosevelt the Boy Scouts of Portland, Oregon, were disappointed they could not participate in welcoming him to the city. Therefore, Lindsay asks Roosevelt for a personal message of greeting and encouragement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-29
Boy Scouts of America’s April 17, 1911 newsletter contains seven articles. Ernest Thompson Seton compares the American Boys Scouts with the British Boy Scouts. The British scouts are more disciplined, whereas the American scouts are skillful at camping and have “greater lung power.” There is a discussion on doing a troop exchange. National Scout Commissioner Daniel Carter Beard discusses how scouts should regard men like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone as heroes rather than Jesse James or Robin Hood-type characters. The Executive Board plans to establish a Scout Masters’ School at Silver Bay, New York, in conjunction with the Boys’ Workers Camp. The two new manuals are almost ready to be published. Lorillard Spencer is planning summer activities for New York scoutmasters. New Jersey scouts are cleaning up areas to prevent mosquitoes. Italian scouts are working on propagating universal peace.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-17
Margaret Sanger writes about the Boy Scouts, stating that the movement was imported to the United States from Great Britain and “seized upon most enthusiastically by America’s grown up boy scout, Theodore Roosevelt.” Sanger criticized the Boy Scouts, claiming the organization was intended to train boys to obey and prepare them for the military, support the capitalists, and continue the oppression of the working class. She argues that President Roosevelt was “delighted” to “hasten” these ideas upon American society.
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1912-04-06