art.

Other literature.—The National Council also issues a large number of other informational and interpretative publications, such as the Manual of Customs and Drills, The Seascout Manual, What Every Scoutmaster Wants to Know, Scouting and the Public Schools, Your Boy and Scouting, What Scouts Do, Membership in the Boy Scouts of America, The Boy Scout Movement (as approved by the Religious Education Association), etc.

Cooperation with publishers.—The department during the year has maintained through its director constant contact with publishers and authors. More than 100 new books published for boys in 1919 have been carefully examined (a good many in manuscript form) for review in Boys' Life or inclusion in some one of our book lists and, of these, of the few really good books for boys published in 1919, it is a joy to report that more than half of these were first published serially in Boys' Life, a record that stands alone.

New books edited.—The director has edited as usual the Boy Scouts' Year Book, compiled from last year's issues of Boys' Life, the sales of which have been more than a third larger than in previous years. More notable still has been the success of the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories, a compilation of stories of interest to boys selected, one each, from the writings of our best American and English short-story writers. The purpose of the director in editing such a book was to interest boys in stories that have the quality of fine writing, and so help to develop in them a taste for literature that will make them lovers of the great and good books of all ages. The very nature of the book warranted the conclusion that it would take considerable time to make it a good seller. Once again the unexpected has happened in that the first year's sales of the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories has equaled the first year's sale of the Boy Scouts' Year Book, and the present promise is that for years to come this book will more than hold its own. In the coming year material is being gathered for a companion volume to be published under the title the Boy Scouts' Book of Stories in Verse.

Motion pictures for scouts.—The director of the library department of the National Council, Mr. Franklin K. Matthews, has served as a literary adviser to a motion-picture company. As a result of this collaboration a large number of educational and scout films have been put into circulation, including the popular "Knights of the Square Table," by Chief Seascout James A. Wilder. It is believed that these films offer splendid opportunities not only to show the educational possibilities of the scout movement but also to interest and instruct the public in the joys and benefits of outdoor life, the necessity for safety first and fire-prevention measures, and other features which are accentuated by the scout program. The films can also be admirably used in connection with the Americanization movement.