Scouting
The new BSA office on 5th Avenue opened in January 1911 with West at the helm and the movement began to grow at a rapid pace. Sixty local councils were organized in January and hundreds of Scoutmasters were commissioned. The office grew from six to thirty-five employees by May. One of his first tasks was the first edition of The Official Handbook for Boys. West was instrumental in expanding the third part of the Scout Oath:
To help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
He also pushed to add three parts to the Scout Law: brave, clean, and reverent. West changed his title, and in November 1911 he became the first Chief Scout Executive. His starting salary was $4,000 per year and was raised to $6,000 per year in July (equivalent to about $140,000 in 2009).
West dealt with many early issues. Labor unions protested over wording in the original Official Handbook that had been copied from the British Scouting for Boys that was perceived as anti-union — this had already been removed from the first edition. West also dealt with those who protested against the inclusion of African Americans. West held that they should be included, but that local communities should follow the same policies that they followed in the school systems. Thus, much of the American south as well as many major northern communities had segregated programs with "colored troops" until the late 1940s, with some councils not fully desegregated until 1974. Since the BSA had early and enduring ties with the YMCA, a firmly Protestant organization, the Roman Catholic Church forbade their boys to join. West successfully argued that Scouting was non-sectarian and the Catholics accepted the BSA program in 1913.
As early as 1910, Daniel Carter Beard and Ernest Thompson Seton had various arguments over who was the founder of Scouting. Programs for boys had been advanced by Seton in 1902, Beard in 1905 and Baden-Powell in 1907. Since Baden-Powell had based parts of the program on Seton's work, Seton claimed to be the founder. By 1915, the conflicts between them had escalated and West attempted to defuse the situation. This lead directly to the creation of Horsehoe Bend Scout Ranch.
Beard and Seton did not get along with West. Seton had different goals for the program and views of how Scouting should develop. Both Seton and Beard saw West as a city lawyer and administrator. Seton often challenged West's authority, often to his own detriment. The National Executive Board did not re-elect Seton as Chief Scout in 1915, and he soon stopped publishing in Boys' Life. By early 1916, Seton was officially out of the BSA program, and most of his contributions were removed from the 1916 edition of the handbook. West also clashed with the BSA's founder, William D. Boyce, who eventually left the BSA in January 1915 to found the Lone Scouts of America (LSA). LSA initially flourished but had to merge back into the BSA in June 1924. West even had Boyce's name erased from BSA records for years. Competition from the ABS caused West to seek a federal charter for the BSA, granted on June 15, 1916.
In the years before World War I, pacifism and patriotism often came into conflict, and the BSA was sometimes in the middle. Some thought that the BSA was too militaristic, especially as characterized by their military style uniforms and discipline, while others felt that the BSA was unpatriotic in their stance against military training. In 1912, a member of another organization, the American Boy Scouts, shot another boy by accident. West quickly distanced the BSA from the American Boy Scout program and any military training or discipline. He refused to allow the BSA supply group to sell the Remington rifle endorsed by the ABS and de-emphasized the Marksmanship merit badge. The National Rifle Association lobbied the Executive Board to issue the badge. In 1914, Colonel Leonard Wood resigned from the board after a pacifistic article was published in Boys' Life that he considered to be "almost treasonable". After Theodore Roosevelt admonished West, he toned down the rhetoric and later began to issue the Marksmanship merit badge.
West fiercely defended the use of the term Scout and the right to market Scouting merchandise. By 1930, West claimed to have stopped 435 groups from unauthorized use of Scouting; both as part of an organizational name and in the use of commercial products. When the Girl Scouts of the USA started, West discouraged the program. In 1911, West worked with Luther Gulick when the Camp Fire Girls were established and always considered them to be the sister program of the BSA. When the Girl Scouts refused to give up their name in 1918, West appealed to Baden-Powell with no results. Lou Henry Hoover became the president of the Girl Scouts in 1922 and First Lady in 1929; West then stopped his campaign to rename the Girl Scouts.
West negotiated the purchase of Boys' Life in 1912, making it the official magazine of the BSA. He began a campaign against pulp fiction and introduced a library of recommended books.
The BSA celebrated West's 25th year as Chief Scout Executive by commissioning a portrait by Albert A. Rose. The portrait was featured on the July 12, 1937 cover of Time in recognition of the first national Scout jamboree.
Read more about this topic: James E. West (Scouting)