ARK TWAIN AND CHARLES DICKENS, perhaps more than anyone else in their writings, showed a deep understanding of the ways of boys. They were able, by their genius, to express graphically, those fundamental truths of character, ideals and ambitions of boys that we all know of, readily recognize, but find it so difficult to express. The success of the Boys’ Athletic League is a peculiar testimony to this; for, from the smallest beginnings, this organization has grown to such an extent that we now care for some 3,000 boys, and the number is appreciably increasing year by year. All this, because of the need, and the financial help we have been able to secure from philanthropically-minded people . . . people who have an abiding faith and belief in boys. . . . People who undoubtedly believe that in boys is con- tained all the essentials for the preservation of our good way of life, providing always that those essentials are rightly nurtured. We say “rightly” advisedly, for we cannot be insensible to the exploitation of boys, as prac- tised by those unparalleled criminals, Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito, who, knowing all the nobleness of character in boys, used it to further their own diabolical ambitions. As a sculptor models in clay, so just as pliable is the character of boys, and the unscrupulous, if they so deign, can mold it into any shape, however foul. We in America prefer otherwise. We—rightly— according to divine teachings—give our boys implements of peaceful implica- tion . . . they give them weapons of war. We want to send our boys to camp, there to enjoy all those things dear to a normal boy’s heart... . to swim... to boat . . . to play baseball . . . to enjoy all the bounteous gifts of nature—the birds, the trees, the flowers . . . rather than to send them to military camps, there to learn to kill and plunder, to be tough, soulless and merciless. They called us “‘decadent,’’ but, out of that so-called ““decadence’’ there has gone to war to preserve that “decadence,” the finest group of boys the world has ever known .. . eleven million of them. . . the life’s blood of this matchless nation. This League takes pride in its own boys who are out there fighting side by side with boys who had a far better Frontispiece Courtesy of Read Magazine start in life and who fight shoulder to shoulder, knowing no distinction and not wishing it otherwise . . . each wearing the same uniform . . . each offering the same sacrifices . . . each fighting and believing in the same ideals and each dying for them. It is for boys, such as these were once, that we ask your help now, to enable us to show them that America is worth fighting for. We want to take them off the streets, away from their vicious environment, and send them to one of our camps . . . camps that bear favorable comparison with any in this land. For there they will eat wholesome, well-cooked food, served to them at regular hours, in an environment of refinement and cleanliness; there they will bathe in a clean, cool lake, and enjoy every indoor and outdoor activity, under the guidance of coun- sellors who know of their shortcomings and influence them to an understanding of the possibilities of a better future; there they will practise their spiritual beliefs with a better understanding, and so learn to have clean minds and clean bodies. They will lead orderly lives, with every comfort, unknown to them. As a consequence, they return to their homes determined to overcome those handicaps that are the accident of their birth. In asking you to contribi te to a boy’s better future we ask you also to bear in mind how much boys mean to the future of our country, and how much our country must mean to our boys, and so to believe, that, given the opportunity, boys of lowly birth who suffer every hardship will rise above it. To send a boy to camp costs $20.00 for two weeks, or $10.00 for one week. Will you invest in the future of America, and, above all, will you give a poor boy a chance for a little happiness now and a chance to become a worthwhile citizen of America ? ) 7) a TOL) O77 hale Coe te: LUE 22a hd Ce Vt” J Mfr 4 YY Oe. OFFICERS GUSTAVUS TOWN KIRBY Honorary President HON. RAPHAEL P. KOENIG President JACOB EICHEL MALCOLM vAN ZANDT Vice-Presidents DR. ALFRED A. DRAPER Secretary ROBERT E. McCORMICK Treasurer WILLARD L. KAUTH Director BOARD OF GOVERNORS Frank P. Beal *Edward L. Crabbe Theodore Diamond Dr. Alfred A. Draper *Angier B. Duke Edward P. F. Eagan Jacob Eichel Jesse M. Fink *Walter H. Gahagan, Jr. *John A. Gifford *Livingston Goddard Gullie B. Goldin *Edson K. Green *Charles L. Hewitt Willard L. Kauth *Arne E. Larson Ivy Lee, Jr. George C. Levin Robert E. McCormick *Dr. E. Forrest Merrill *Stanley G. Mortimer, Jr. Stanley de J. Osborne *Sherman Pratt Arthur Price Stuart S. Scheftel Hon. Peter Schmuck Walter R. Shaw Dr. Carleton Simon William A. Stein William E. Stevenson Edgar M. Keator *Henry R. Sutphen, Jr. Gustavus T. Kirby Malcolm. Van Zandt Hon. Raphael P. Koenig *Dr. Donald Weisman *In Arme: Government Services CAMP SEBAGO LAKE SEBAGO BEAR MOUNTAIN, N. Y. CAMP WAKONDA REx DeeNoe 1 STONY POINT, N. Y. CAMP ORENDA LAKE MASSAWIPPA CENTRAL VALLEY, N. Y.