February 7, 1921. Refugees in Turkey, National Boy Scout Week, Army shrinks, Navy grows.

 Russian refugees on beach at Proti Island near Constantinople

It was the beginning of National Boy Scout Week.  In Sheridan Wyoming the Boy Scouts decorated the downtown windows on this Monday in honor of the week.

An issue of Boys' Life, the Scouting journal, from 1921, depicting a  Boy Scout and a Sea Scout.

Congress, earlier in 1920, had voted to reduce the size of the U.S. Army to 175,000 men.  President Wilson vetoed the measure.  Congress overrode the veto, and it became effective on this day in 1921 so the Army would accordingly shrink.

The Navy, however, gained a new ship, the USS Selfridge, a Clemson class destroyer that would serve a mere nine years.

USS Selfridge.