Reconstruction

What Scouting Can Do Towards It

The many questions which have been put to me as to what is our attitude in the Scout Movement towards reconstruction after the war, shows what an amount of interest is already being aroused in that direction among our officers; and this encourages the conviction that is in our power to do a valuable work in that line.

I have often said this before, but have evidently been rather vague in defining exactly what that line is.

Well, considering the difficulty of prophesying what is likely to come after the peace it is not an easy thing even to suggest, much less lay down, a definite scheme.

But a few points are fixed and certain, and they will help us on our way.

In the first place, as someone has said lately, “If the war does not teach lessons that will so dominate those who survive it, and those who succeed them, as to make new things possible, then the war will be the greatest catastrophe… of which mainkind has any record.”

That statement no one will gainsay.

Let us think what is a main evil in our midst that ought to be remedied, and, through the light and experience of war, possibly could be remedied for “those who succeed us,” if proper steps were taken.

To my mind the condition of the lower working (I won’t use the word “class.” I would like to see that word abolished for ever, with all the harm that it has done) men and women must and ought to be bettered.

One obstacle to bringing this about has been the barrier between the “classes,” between Capital and Labour, etc.

And yet we are by nature all fellow-creatures, even of the same blood and family; the class boundary is an entirely artificial erection, and can, therefore, be pulled down if we only set our minds to it. This is one lesson which we may well take to heart from the war.

Indeed, the war has almost done the trick for us with its conscriptions of all, rich and poor without distinction, with its common sharing of hardship and danger, and its common sacrifice for a common ideal at the Front, coupled with the common sorrow and the common service of those behind the scenes at home.

Are we after the war to allow the fellow-feeling thereby engendered to be dissipated by the revival of those miserable party politics and social barriers and industrial quarrels that had brought about such bitter conditions in pre-war days? God forbid!

The war will here have helped us if only we determine to make the best use of it. Our aim should be to mingle class with class, and to bring about a happier and more human life for all, so that the poorer shall reap his share of enjoyment just as much as his more well-to-do brother; the employer should be humanised to the extent of sympathising and dealing squarely and liberally with his employees; the worker should be shown how to use his means to the best advantage in making for himself a better home and a fuller life. Both parties should realise that by combination of effort they can bring about better conditions for each.

Education comes into the question as a key—and mainly education in character.

Unselfishness, self-discipline, wider fellow-feeding, sense of honour and duty should be implanted, and such attributes as enable a man, no matter what his standing, to look beyond his own immediate ledger or bench to see the good of his work for the community, putting into his routine some service for others as well as for himself, developing also some perception of what is beautiful in nature, in art and in literature, so that his higher interests may be aroused, and he may get enjoyment from his surroundings whatever they may be.

These are points of which we in the Scout Movement can do much to impart the elements and to lay the foundations.