Robert Baden-Powell

“ It was to some extent time wasted. The worst agony of death at the moment when the sands are running out and minutes are precious is the feeling that so many hours of life have been wasted on things that did not matter. ”

“ The machines which make the pins and needles are to-day marvels of skill developed through centuries of patient labor of head and hand. Farm labor is toilsome, but the life of the race depends on the products of field and pasture, and the Citizen Scout who works on the land is helping to feed the world. ”

“ I am anxious to bear testimony to the tremendous part played by the women in England in this vital epoch of human history. They have not only borne their burden of sorrow and separation with unflinching fortitude and patience but they have an enormous share of the burdens necessary to the practical conduct of the war. ”

“ In training yourself to be an officer you will recognise that in order to command obedience you have yourself to understand how to obey. It is only by practising your own self-discipline that you will see how to develop it in others. ”

“ Any girl who will follow up any department of government and actually take part in it for a week—whether in street cleaning or reading to blind old ladies—will always thereafter have a different attitude toward civic affairs in that field. ”

“ No one should live to herself alone these days. Your country needs you now—not next week or when you have leisure, but now. The girl who doesn't respond never will be worth what she might be. What are you going to do about it? ”

“ Groups of Citizen Scouts would find much pleasure and profit, if they would undertake some quite different line from their daily occupation such as basket making, modeling, pottery, book-binding, upholstery, or any other branch of industrial or fine arts.
If a troop of Citizen Scouts wishes to study industrial problems in their own trade or trades where other girls are employed, meetings may be arranged between the groups of girls in the different occupations. A sympathetic understanding of others needs will tend to create a better social stability. ”

“ Girls and women with clear heads and adaptability are entering in amazing numbers into business and professional life, proving that their brains are not inferior to those of men. They have been keen to take up new tasks and quick to learn unfamiliar processes and their employers have been generous in acknowledging that skill comes only with practice.
But the authorities found on examining women for their new employments, that the lack was not entirely or fundamentally that of technical training but that a preliminary course was needed particularly in health knowledge and in discipline. ”

“ Citizen Scouts who attain to the Girl Scout standard of health shall be known as Super Scouts or Senior Scouts, and they shall be allowed to arrange the Girl Scout inter-troop athletic meets and competitions, calling upon the various captains of Girl Scout troops in the community and also Citizen Scouts to furnish girls to make up the teams. The Citizen Scouts may coach teams and shall act as umpires and referees in the games. ”

“ When there are enough Citizen Scouts in any troop they may form a Citizen Scout patrol under their own patrol leader, in the same troop where they were formerly Scouts, or separate troops of Citizen Scouts may be formed if desired, either by ex-Scouts or by young women who have not been Scouts before. The number of members for Citizen Scout patrol or troop is not limited. One member will be elected Troop leader, and other officers may be elected as found desirable. ”

“ There is no need to be downhearted because there is a serious side underlying all the jollity of Scout games. Quite the opposite. Scout games and practices are just as lively and exciting as any others, but they bring greater enjoyment in the end. ”

“ A vast number of them had seen that they were capable of doing a great many of the things that their brothers could do: they could play in a lot of games and take part in activities and also could do a good deal in the direction of work and handcraft, also they found that they could do well in professions and industries; they found that careers were open to them. Girls found at last that they had the power to make some use of their lives instead of drifting through them aimlessly and getting only a very hollow enjoyment out of them. ”

“ I will undertake to guarantee the stability of our American democratic institutions if you will see to it that American wives are taught how best to spend the money their husbands earn. Somewhere in that last ten per cent of a man's income are hidden away his present happiness and future prospects, and those of his children. ”

“ Each Citizen Scout should find her own field and cultivate it: devote so many hours actual participation and report on it; develop qualities of leadership for her patrol; assist a captain of younger Girl Scout troop; take over the village park, the care of a public library, provide summer outings for poor children, conduct a camp, helping a teach, etc. District nursing offers many chances for voluntary effort. Sunday school teaching, Y.W.C.A. work, Girl's Friendly Societies, Big Sisters, all provide good opportunities. Red Cross and other patriotic organizations need helpers. ”

“ These things would have been useful in any line of work, whether for war or for peace, and we are now awake to the necessity of such training. If a girl is to be equally efficient with her brother for work in the world, she must be given equal chances with him, equal chances for gaining character and skill discipline and bodily health, and equal chances for using these when she has got them. ”

“ A Citizen Scout should also understand the health conditions in her own neighborhood and have full information as to food, water, and milk supply, the ashes and garbage disposal, street cleaning and other matters relating to the public health in her community. ”

“ The Government requires that its employees shall pass a physical examination to determine their fitness for service. It is strongly recommended that every Citizen Scout shall determine her own physical fitness by a similar examination given by some competent physician. ”

“ There a woman has her real opportunity and her kingdom, and at the same time her responsibility. She is the making or the marring of the house, and her influence will rule her children all through their after life. ”

“ In dealing with those under you you must have sympathy with each individual. Each one of them has a different mind and a different capacity; this you have to take into account, and you must remember that success will only come where you get their whole-hearted enthusiasm for the work. ”

“ This is becoming true in American also. Never before have our national ideals been so clearly defined; never before have we realized the relative values of life.
One hundred years ago democracy was a masculine noun. Women worked loyally in the home for husband, son and brother. The war came and suddenly they found themselves working for all men who were holding high the ideals of the American home and the American nation. By assuming these responsibilities, women have entered unconsciously into active citizenship from which there is no retreat. ”

“ Wouldn't it make the daily labor more interesting to combine head with hand? For instance to put heads on pins all day long in a factory sounds monotonous, but the people to whom pin making is interesting find out what pins are made of, where the metal is found, how many things pins are used for; what people used as substitutes before pins were made. Once in England, a man took so small a thing as a needle for the subject of a play which has been well known ever since ”

“ A Troop may, if it likes, choose a member of the Local Committe or any woman in the community in whose sympathy and judgment they have confidence to act as "counsellor and friend." Or they may refer to the local director or to the chairman of Girl Scout Captain Association when any difficulty arises, or they may be quite independent of any control outside of their own troop, except the Council and Local Committee. ”

“ She must have gone through the struggle against failure and have enjoyed the triumph of success to be able fully to sympathize with her partner in his troubles and to be of use in helping him through them. A house mother is a money spender not a money getter, and her work is really much harder than his. ”

“ As an officer you will be a responsible person in authority. You will not have others to turn to for instruction, you will have to devise your own plans and to put them into action for yourself. You will be trusted and expected to do these things. ”

“ Therefore the Citizen Scout was started, in order that girls with a sound body and disciplined mind should be able to help their country in many different ways after this tremendous world struggle.
Every Citizen Scout should have a vocation which she has chosen and by which she can support herself. ”

“ In this way she may discover any weakness or defect and remedy it by exercise, rest or medical care. An annual examination of one's body is a strong asset for a long life. The best body to have is one which is in such good health that its owner does not need to think about it. ”

“ A successful business woman might come to give her experience and help in the discussion. A troop scrap book of clippings from newspapers and magazines showing what is going on in the industrial world will be of interest. ”

“ Among the subjects Citizen Scouts may take up are nursing, child nursing, wood working, metal working, design, interior decoration, stenographer, typewriting, journalism, telegraphy, dress-design, dressmaking, salesmanship, cooking, marketing, farming, gardening, and all varieties of trades. ”