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    "title": "Scout Leaders, October 1966",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4525981",
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        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
        "Speeches"
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        "Boy Scouts"
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    "seq": 1,
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    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/ford/grf-0054/642080/4525981.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D21, folder \"Scout Leaders, October 1966\" of\nthe Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford\nPresidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nDigitized from Box D21 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nGRF Remarks to Scout Leaders--\nGood evening, friends. I certainly wish I could have been with\nyou tonight but too many things are popping here in Washington as we\nbegin winding up this session of Congress.\nI'm proud to have been asked to talk to you Scouters of the\nGrand Valley Council. I have always felt there is really no young\npeople's movement in the world that quite approaches the Boy Scouts.\nTo have a vital role in a movement of that kind does give one a deep\nfeeling of satisfaction, a sense of genuine accomplishment.\nYou are in on the ground floor of that character-building group --\nproviding the leadership that takes immature youths and makes real men\nof them. I can conceive of no finer service that you could render to\nGod or to country.\nYou know, I myself was a Boy Scout. I reached Eagle rank, and\nI'm mighty proud of that. I also --- just last June - was named an\nhonorary member of the National Council. I did not accept this honor\nlightly, I have been thinking a lot about the Boy Scout movement, the\nincreasing rate of crime in America and the upsurge of violence in\nthis country.\nGERALD LIBRAR\n-2-\nIt seems to me the steady rise in the crime rate, including\nJuvenile delinquency, is a clear challenge to Scounting.\nIt's not enough to build men from nice boys. Let's send those\nnice boys out to round up boys from less fortunate homes, boys who don't\nreally want to become Scouts or think it's sissy, but who might be\nprevailed upon to come to a Scout meeting. Every time you manage to save\na potentially tough kid you reduce the juvenile delinquency statistics,\nmake less work for the sergeant who handles the police blotter, and\nimprove our community.\nYou already deserve the thanks of your friends and neighbors.\nYou are doing and can do a great job. I perhaps should not suggest\nthat you do more. But we need to teach boys a way of life that is truly\nAmerican. You know what it means to dedicate your lives to a life of\nservice --- service to your country and to your fellowman. That's the\nstuff of which great Americans are made.\nMany of the finest men this nation has ever produced grew up in\nthe Scout movement. True to the principles of Scouting, they never\nFORD is LIBRARY GENATO\n- 3 -\nshirked responsibility. They were never found wanting when their\ncountry needed them. That's the kind of folks we find in the Grand\nValley Council. Keep up the good work.\n..."
}