Boy Scouts at War

All over the U.S. last week Boy Scouts were on the march--not across hills and through woods, but over pavements and alleys. No longer do they search for sticks to rub together to start camp fires. Now they hunt trash conveyances--trash to collect. They are Public Scavenger Service No. 1.

In Lancaster, Pa., during the week after Pearl Harbor, small, 84-lb., 13-year-old Star Scout Daniel Flory marched up & down the streets politely ringing doorbells, politely asking housewives for old newspapers. In seven afternoons he collected in his little wagon the last ton of the 9,500 lb. of paper he added to the eleven tons the rest of his troop had collected.

In Wrightstown, Wis., 12-year-old Second Class Scout Gerald Zirbel collected 31,000 lb. of scrap iron in one week, which built up Uncle Sam's muscles as well as his own. So successful was the Boy Scout paper-salvage effort alone (300,000,000 lb.) that WPB had to beg them last week to call a halt to their "magnificent job." The Government asked them to pick up something else for a while--rubber, for instance.

Squabble for Scouts. The hard-working Scouts are wooed by every Government agency. Reason: everything the 1,500,000 Boy Scouts and Cubs undertake reaches astronomical statistics of success:

> Asked by President Roosevelt and Secretary Morgenthau to distribute defense bonds and stamp posters, the Scouts tacked, gummed and pasted up 1,607,500 signs throughout the country.

> For OCD and OPA last year the Scouts collected 10,500,000 of the 12,000,000 lb. of aluminum collected in all the nation.

> To help defense housing, Scouts recently surveyed 400,000 homes in 14 defense areas, will continue the survey in 300 additional communities.

> On Baseball Defense Bond Day, 3,722 Scouts delivered 260,939 pieces of Treasury Department literature in 121 baseball stadiums.

> One Sunday afternoon, between lunch and 5 p.m., Scouts in Springfield, Ill. collected 32,000 books for the Victory book campaign.

> In Colorado Springs, 100 Colorado Scouts are transplanting 1,000,000 fir, spruce and pine seedlings for the Pike National Forest.

For older Scouts and ex-Scouts who have outgrown dispatch and collection services, there is great demand from recruiting officers. Frank Knox wants the Sea Scouts to sign up for the Navy. Paul McNutt has asked them not to forget the Merchant Marine. Lieut. General H. H. ("Hap") Arnold says that the newest Scout project of Air Scouts (15 years and older) who will receive ground and flight background training is "great news to the Army Air Corps."

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