Bourne High School - Canal Currents Yearbook (Bourne, MA)

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CANAL CURRENTS 7 The number of deaths that have resulted from sea disas- ters in recent months is shocking. The reason for them has not been found. Each of the last three was on a fast, luxuri- ous liner — crowded with vacation-seekers. Approximately one hundred and seventy-two people lost their lives on two of these. Surely these catastrophies have struck fear into the hearts of travelers. The death rate due to automobile accidents is truly a disgraceful thing. In nineteen hundred thirty-three, nearly thirty thousand people were killed in accidents . . . and more than eight hundred and fifty thousand were injured, and this past year the death rate was over thirty six thousand. A good many people devote the greater part of their lives to the designing of faster automobiles. Is it not ironical then that these man-invented machines are so responsible for loss of life and cause so much suffering? Mary McNamara. BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA SILVER JUBILEE It is particularly fitting this year for the Junior magazine to include a brief outline of the Boy Scouts of America who are celebrating their 25th anniversary during 1935. Early in 1910, the idea of introducing the Boy Scout move- ment along lines similar to those of the English Boy Scouts, which had been organized in 1907 and developed under the personal supervision of Sir Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, was first proposed by Mr. W. W. Boyce of Chicago. It is significant that Mr. Boyce’s interest was occasioned because of an actual service rendered him in true Scout spirit by a London Boy Scout, in fulfilment of his obligation to do a Good Turn daily without compensation. Mr. Boyce secured the cooperation of friends in Washing- ton, D. C., and with the active assistance of Mr. Colin H. Liv- ingstone and Mr. R. W. Gates, proceeded to incorporate an organization of the Boy Scouts of America under the laws of the District of Columbia. This was effectively accomplished on February 8, 1910. Due to the development of the move- ment it later became expedient to secure Federal incorporation which was done by special act of Congress in June 1916. The year 1911 saw troops springing up in every state. The first national Good Turn occurred in the next year in a cam- paign for a safe and sane Fourth of July. Also during the

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6 CANAL CURRENTS games. Hardly a day goes by in which an advertisement, of some sort, is not received in the mail and if it wasn’t for ad- vertising hardly a program would be heard on the radio. There are a thousand and one methods of advertising in use today. Billboards line the country roads for miles. The papers and magazines are supported by the ads in them. In every theater there is a reel of film advertising the products of merchants in that town. Airplanes fly through the air dumping tons of advertising matter over the side. In every parade there is a line of trucks advertising some product on banners. On the whole, advertising has no real meaning. “The Pure Food and Drug Act” purified the product itself, and to- day no product can be misrepresented by the label on the container. This act, however, doesn’t say anything about advertising. The ads can say what they please and there is nothing to stop it. Take toothpaste for example. All tooth- paste manufacturers say their paste is the best; but the main ingredient is the same in every one. Sodium Oxychloride, which is merely salt and water, chemically combined. Advertising on the whole is nothing but keeping the name of something before the public eye. These advertisers be- lieve in Barnum’s saying “There’s one born every minute”. I am going to pass on to you this definition of an advertise- ment. “An advertisement is nothing but a picture of a pret- ty girl eating, drinking, wearing, holding, smoking or driving something to be sold.” Stanley Cook, ’36. TRANSPORTATION Today most of the world goes places at a greater rate of speed and in far greater luxury and ease than was thought ever possible half a century ago. To the average person of that period, traveling eighty miles an hour, crossing the ocean in five days, or flying through the air from coast to coast in one day would be crazy dreams that could never come true. We of the present generation who have these things can not imagine life without them. How dull and inconvenient would be a new existence without a car, train or airplane. But what of the great number of lives lost each year in the accidents that seem bound to occur?

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8 CANAL CURRENTS year 1912 Sea Scouting began, and “Boys’ Life” was purchased. Some of the outstanding Good Turns at this time were help in the suffrage parade held in Washington, D. C., first aid work during the disastrous Ohio River floods in 1913, and service in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. When the United States entered the World War, Scouts placed all their resources at the services of the government. They sold 2,350,977 Liberty Bonds totalling $147,876,962; War Stamps to a value of $53,043,698; located 20,758,660 board feet of walnut and the equivalent of a hundred carloads of fruit pits. Over thirty million pieces of Government literature were distributed and ceaseless service rendered in other ways, in- cluding food and fuel conservation. After the war the Scouts continued to help by aiding in Americanization work. The first Roosevelt Pilgrimage was held in 1919, and the first World Jamboree in London, Eng- land, in 1920. During the times of disaster such as fire, flood and tor- nado, the scouting record was exceptional and yet they did not neglect the outdoor program, winter camping, wilderness camping, and trail building. The Scouts carried on and carry on these activities. In 1926 Lord Baden-Powell visited the United States and took part in the annual meeting of the National Council, and received the first award of the Silver Buffalo for distinguished service to boyhood. The events of the later years are too numerous to men- tion, including the eight Sea Scouts who went on the Borden- Field Museum Expedition to Bering Sea, the three Scouts who went with the Martin Johnson Expedition to Africa, Paul Siple who went with Admiral Byrd to the South Pole, the Lin- coln Highway covered-wagon tour, and numerous other thrill- ing affairs. In celebrating the Silver Jubilee of the Boy Scouts of Am- erica plans are being completed for a National Jamboree in Washington, D. C. It is hoped that a representative from each troop in the nation will be present to make up a body of 30,000 campers. Sixty-five percent of the men students of America’s col- leges were Boy Scouts, according to William G. Heisel, presi- dent of the Butler-Armstrong Council of Scouts.