Recognizing that the standard of womanhood which every girl in her heart desires to reach is that of wholesome, happy, healthy wifehood and motherhood, the Girl Scout programme is threefold: striving for physical, moral and spiritual fitness through action. In other words, "growing by doing". As it is the province of the home, the school and the church to promote respectively the formation of character, the training of the intellect and the inculcation and cultivation of spiritual beliefs, so it is the province of this comparatively new movement to aid all three of these institutions by providing activities which develop a sense of personal responsibility in the individual. In a broad sense, its sphere is to develop and strengthen character, which shall enable the individual to direct the trained mind, and translate religious beliefs into daily action in contact with family and companions. This may seem a large order with girls in their early teens. It is. But with youth, the higher the aim, the greater the attraction and the brighter the hope of accomplishment.

The principal attraction which the Scout programme has for girls lies at first in the absolute freedom of choice. No one becomes a Girl Scout save by her own wish. In all other spheres of action open to girls of this age there stands another personality, the figure of authority in parent, teacher or superior, whose responsibility it is to see that duties are done, lessons learned or discipline enforced. In Scoutland girls choose their citizenship, pledge loyalty, obedience and service, and the responsibility for achievement or discipline rests on their own shoulders. The outgrowth of such citizenship is the awakening of the girl to an acceptance of her own active share of responsibility in preserving the integrity of home life, in serving the community and in striving to live up to the conception of her religious beliefs.

Although there is no relation of superior to inferior, of teacher to pupil, of adult to child, in the ranks of the Girl Scouts, there is the relation of Leader. Coupled with the value of good companions is the vital essential of inspired and joyous leadership. The ideal Leader is the one who plays the game with her girls, who points the way and takes it. She does not command, she invites. Because of the innate desire of childhood to do as "the rest of the girls" are doing, the invitation is accepted where a

command would be unheeded. This plan stimulates understanding, coöperation and growth. Thus in the joy of companionship, the example of a loved personality again rises triumphant over precepts and the result has been demonstrated over and over again in development of individual character. The only way by which the United States of America can fulfil her destiny, triumph over the dangers of prosperity and avoid the ultimate fate of all previous experiments in democracy is by the cultivation of character by her people. Neither popular education of the masses, scientific inventions or unprecedented wealth will save her. As long ago as 1921, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rendered this vital decision:

Mere intellectual power and scientific achievement, without uprightness of character, may be more harmful than ignorance. Highly trained intelligence combined with disregard of the fundamental virtues is a menace.

The Girl Scout in her new citizenship learns self government, self reliance and self control by associating with others in a community of action, but the chief motive is that she may fit herself to serve others, and thereby unselfishness becomes a habit.

While the foregoing paragraphs set forth the intent and the result of the programme, it is with absolute indifference to either or both that the girl chooses to be a Girl Scout. The first and most potent appeal to her is the attraction of the out-of-door activities, hiking and camping, and this is the aspect with which the public is most familiar. All-day and over-night hikes, weekson-end in tents or lean-tos, swimming, learning the birds, the trees, the flowers by name, confirm the girl in the knowledge that a healthy body and active mind are more to be desired than much fine gold. This is the why of camps, hikes, nature quests and studies of the heavens. Those girls fortunate enough to have witnessed at camp, night after night, the glorious pageant of the skies, while trying to qualify as a "Star Gazer" need no explanation of the imagery of the Psalmist when he exclaimed

The heavens declare the glory of God,

And the firmament sheweth His handiwork.

In pioneer days women and girls were equally active with their

brothers and husbands while building the Nation, but when the need was over it was decreed by either men or custom that females should "sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam". Boys and men traveled the forest paths and dreamed by deep pools and rushing rivers under the camouflage of “hunting and fishing", feeling the necessity of covering up their love and need of communion with nature. Women have much for which to be thankful that in the great readjustment now taking place, the freedom of the open spaces has been conferred upon the feminine sex. The final judgment, "Woman's place is in the home," which formerly closed to women all spheres of activity but domestic duties, really meant to mankind that she belonged in the house, sewing, cooking, scrubbing and mending, in other words, a "housekeeper". The Girl Scout conception is that girls and women are "homemakers", and in order to serve those they love, they must have robust health.

As home is where the heart is, a woman is just as truly serving her home when tramping the woods with husband and children, playing tennis or golf with them or off on a camping trip, as when mending stockings, washing dishes or making beds while they are at work or in school. So out-of-door training serves the home. A good home is as fundamentally essential to the lives of boys and men as it is to the lives of women and girls. We must not ignore the fact that any movement serving to build nobler, finer women is of vital importance to fathers, husbands and brothers. When we "invest in boyhood" we reap our dividends in "better manhood". However, in the twinkling of an eye, an idle, weak, vain woman can wreck a strong man's home and life. Bad, evil women become mothers of men as well as strong, good women. On the adults of this generation rests four square the responsibility of providing inspiration for youth through example, ideals and opportunities which shall result in nobler womanhood and finer manhood "fitted to serve" in guarding and enhancing the traditions our great citizens of the past have entrusted to the present generation.

However, by far the greatest number of Joyous Things To Be Done are in connection with the home and community. It is easy when one is glowing with a consciousness of real companion

ship, or "group activity", if you like, to wash dishes or clothes, to sew, cook or can vegetables and fruits, knowing the rest of the girls are doing the same things. The sense of companionship and achievement, with assurance of recognition and appreciation, furnishes the inspiration. The proficiency badges are but a symbol of good habits formed, the diplomas given for knowledge which has actuated deeds. Growth is measured by acts accomplished, not facts accumulated. Records of the Girl Scout National Research Bureau prove this statement. Over sixty per cent. of all badges worn for proficiency in doing things last year belonged in the Homemaking and Health groups. The most popular occupation was that of cook, closely followed by health winner, laundress, hostess, first aid, home maker, home nurse and needlewoman. This seems to dispose of the popular belief that such occupations are distasteful to the modern girl. It also proves that, given something to do which really needs doing, almost any girl will work out her own salvation.

Working in the troops or patrols, which form the group units, the girls accomplish many constructive pieces of service in a community. In one city the girls annually fold, seal and stamp from fifteen to twenty thousand letters to do their share in the war against tuberculosis. Another group furnished eighteen girls each week during a long, hot summer to assist the nurses in the Babies' Health Stations. A suburban group, less than three months after it was organized, furnished over two hundred articles, such as knitted hoods, jackets and socks, dresses and petticoats, for needy children in institutions. But the most noticeable thing about these achievements was the pure, unadulterated joy the girls had in doing it. Henry Van Dyke says:

The worlds in which we live at heart are one,
The world "I am", the fruit of "I have done";
And underneath these worlds of flower and fruit,
The world "I love," the only living root.

Loving, living and serving, Leaders and Girl Scouts alike look deep into the heart of things and discover that this wonderful "Land of Something To Do" is, after all, but a Way of Living.

DOERS OF THE WORD

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

NESTLING among the clear-cut Attic hills by the side of the Ægean Sea, lies Athens. From that little city came much of our modern civilization, our art, our philosophy, our science. Marvelous as these achievements are, they are not as remarkable as the governmental record of that city. For nearly seventy years Athens was a democracy. She had no King, no President, no Prime Minister. She was governed by the general assembly of all her citizens. During those years she built and maintained a sea empire. The wonder is, not that she fell, but that she was able to achieve what she did.

It was the quality of the average Athenian which made her triumphs possible. Nicias, one of her Generals, said: "It is men that make the city, not walls or ships." If he had said, "and therefore our constant care must be our children, for on them depends the future of the State," he would have spoken a truism that is too often neglected.

In this country we are beginning to appreciate this and to take intelligent thought for the children. Quite properly this first took the form of providing education for all. From it grew that greatest of American governmental institutions, the public school. For years we felt we had done all that was necessary for the children by giving them educational opportunities. We felt that our responsibilities were ended when we gave to the boys and girls an opportunity to learn the "Three R's" with trimmings. Then it began gradually to dawn on us that we had only half done our work. There was an equally important problem to solve, the children's leisure.

In the old times in this country this leisure was fairly well cared for by the conditions in which boys and girls lived. The cities and towns were small, the country was wild, and the boys could hunt and fish. In those days also children worked when