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4.

the ability to defend itself. I do not mean that I want to see our
movement infected with the poison of militarism. The less Scouting
imitates soldiering the better. But if it should ever be necessary,
in the words of our national song, "to stand on guard for Canada" ,
what better foundation could you have than this sense of brotherhood,
this feeling of partnership, this love and devotion for our native
land'? The real power of defence does not lie in accumulations of
war material, or even in the most perfect military system. In the
last resort it depends upon the quality, the courage and fortitude
of the people.

Again, Scouting is a counteractive to one of the greatest
dangers of modern life. The discoveries of science and the advance
in the material apparatus of life have tended to mechanise society,
to make everyone a cog in a great impersonal machine. But human
society can never be mechanised, and if you try, it will cease to be
human and cease to be a society. Scouting cultivates the individual
and the personality. Moreover, it brings boys from town and country into
close touch with that wild nature which can never be mechanised.
I believe that on us, the free democracies, there lies the special
duty of insisting upon the immense importance of personality, for,
in many countries in the world this seems to be forgotten. And there
is no better agent in this task than the movement with which we are
connected.

I would offer you one last reflection. It is a platitude
that the most vital thing in a country is its youth - a platitude
but also a fact, for even a truism is sometimes true. That applies