Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks at a Dinner Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

June 01, 1960

Mr. Chairman and distinguished guests:

I am here this evening to join all those, who by coming to this dinner, wanted to pay their tribute to the Boy Scouts of America and to their leaders, both their local leaders and national leaders, their instructors, and all those supporters that have made it possible to carry this movement forward through these 50 years so successfully.

Twenty-five years ago, I learned through a personal experience something about Boy Scout training that I have never forgotten. My family and I had gone into Mexico to visit on a large ranch. My son was then shortly past 12 years, and at that time there was a solo march required of the boys to make the next grade--probably First-Class Scout, Dr. Schuck--14 miles he had to march.

Now it happened that the gate of the ranch was exactly seven miles away from the house, so John decided that this would be his march, he would get this credit point while he was down in Mexico. So he announced his intention.

Well, there was nothing said, except that his mother and his doting grandmother both decided that there would have to be a car go along, and there would have to be orange juice, Coca Colas, and water, and everything that you would take along to make sure that he got through, to follow him through this wild country of cacti and greasewood and all the rest of it.

Well now, we had a "storm." This boy had decided that he was going to do something and he was going to have nobody going along in a boat escorting him as we did his swimming trick. He was going alone. And this got to be rather a hot argument.

And so, exercising what every man always thinks is his prerogative, I made the decision and said, "Go right ahead, John, that will be all right-go ahead."

Well, he started out because he had his dad's authority. But I was still in the house. And the very tough looks, to say nothing of the talk about a hard-hearted parent and an old soldier that didn't know better than to do this to his son. I heard all the exaggerations about the occasional coyote that was found out on the ranch, and some of these old horn cows that were as gentle as a Hereford always is, but looks very large and big to the ladies--and about the rattlesnakes and all the other dangers. And finally I had to surrender.

But I wasn't going to get in John's way. So I took the station wagon and I wound around through the desert, staying away from that trail, but always making sure that I could come back and report that nothing was wrong.

Well, he made the trip back--there and back. Came in in fine shape. And I found this: the tremendous pride that boy had in making sure-getting the self-confidence that he could do a thing by himself, that some of his doting parents did not think he could do.

And moreover, it occurred to me that possibly we are doing a little bit too much of the paternalistic care about our young, and we don't give them an opportunity to develop stir-dependence. And when I saw the pride that boy exhibited--not saying a word, but you could see his chest come up a little bit--and he combed his hair that evening. He was a different boy, and he has been a different boy ever since, in my opinion.

And I think even the ladies of the household learned that they do have to allow the young birdling to spread its wings once in a while and try them out. Boy Scouts have done this for the boy. Scout leaders and the Boy Scout executives and even the Explorers helping the younger ones-they have done this for years. In doing so they have made America a different country than it probably could have been.

Because of this lesson that I learned in this little homely incident, I have followed what is happening to these Boy Scouts. Whenever it is possible for me to stop along the road and to see a group of Cubs or Brownies and Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, I try to get a word--two or three words--two minutes--to see what they are thinking about, what their morale is. And it is always at the top.

They get this morale, why? Because they are trained or they are taught that they can render a service. I might say that after I finally lose the loving care of the Secret Service, that should I be standing one day on the corner of a busy street and a Boy Scout sees this rather elderly-looking fellow looking a little doubtful, if he offers to take me across the street, he can do it. Because the way these boys and their counterparts among the girls are growing up is to believe there is an honor and a satisfaction in doing a service for others. To my mind, that is the great thing about Scouting. It doesn't make any difference whether they wrap up their bed-rolls just right, or pitch their tent exactly right, or whether they do their cookout and burn the eggs and the bacon not fit to eat. As long as they have that feeling and that development-if they get the same feeling that we did when we read in our Bibles the Parable of the Good Samaritan and then as time comes along, if they individually and collectively begin to think of their nation in part as a "good Samaritan," doing the decent thing in this world, then I will tell you: Scouting is indeed doing something for all of us that is not only necessary but I would say vital to our vigor as a nation based upon a religious concept, but is ready to take on its own shoulders its duty with respect to itself, with respect to those that are less fortunate. Only in this way, in my opinion, is America going to be able to lead the way to that goal that mankind has sought so long, and so far so futilely, a peace with honor and with justice.

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at the Sheraton-Park Hotel in Washington. His opening words "Mr. Chairman" referred to Charles W. Froessel, Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany. Later in his remarks he addressed Dr. Arthur A. Schuck, Chief Scout Executive, Boy Scouts of America.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at a Dinner Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234547

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