On January 1, 1911, James E. West begins his tenure as the first executive secretary of the Boy Scouts of America and opens a new office in New York City on January 1, 1911. The position would be renamed Chief Scout Executive, a position occupied by West until 1943.
James Edward West, born May 16, 1876, never knew his father. His mother died when Jimmy was six. He spent most of his youth in a Washington, D.C. orphanage, except for two years starting at age eight when he was in a hospital being treated for tuberculosis, which left one leg crippled, often strapped on his back.
A place of strict rules and no cultural opportunities, the orphanage offered few opportunities. Jimmy used his strong personality to convince the orphanage to allow him and the other children to get an education at a nearby public school and to establish a library. To encourage the children in their studies, he paid them a penny from his own earnings for each book they read. As a teenager, hoping to earn enough money to continue his education, he won a job at a bicycle repair shop by showing the owner he could ride a bike even with only one good leg, after a day of self instruction that left him black and blue. He worked his way through college and law school.
While working for the federal government as an attorney, he became a leading advocate for children. When a teenager stole his car, he defended the boy in court. He convinced the U.S. Congress to establish a children’s court, as well as President Theodore Roosevelt to call a White House conference on child care, which led to the creation of the Department of Labor’s Children’s Bureau. In 1910, with the endorsement of Roosevelt, the BSA invited him to become executive secretary, for a term of six months. He began on January 1, 1911.
For the next 32 years, through February 1, 1943, Jim West ran the BSA, becoming its first Chief Scout Executive. West made big plans, carefully outlined to his staff what was to be done, and used his forceful personality to press forward. Competing youth service organizations formed and called themselves “Boy Scouts” with varying goals and programs – including protecting American highways – and one by one West enticed them to be absorbed into the BSA movement or forced them out of business. To establish the BSA as the sole “Scout” organization in the country, he pushed congress for a national charter. The congressional charter came in 1916. Dr. West helped the new organization survive the Great Depression, and saved Boys’ Life with a grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. When President Roosevelt cited the 1935 polio epidemic as the reason for the cancellation of the first National Jamboree, he held it two years later. He made the position of Chief Scout Executive into one of the leading non-profit leadership posts in America. He demanded hard work and loyalty of his staff, and built a strong national organization.
West is credited with helping to save the Order of the Arrow at the 1922 Scout Executive Meeting, became a member of the OA in 1938 and was one of the eleven inaugural Distinguished Service Award (DSA) recipients in 1940.
West married Marion Speaks in 1907. They had five children, James (died in childhood), Arthur, Marion, Helen and Bob. Both Arthur and Bob became Eagle Scouts. Dr. West died on May 15, 1948.
Dr. Goodman began his Scouting career in 1911 at the age of twenty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two young Scouts, Gil Talmadge and Boyd Johnson, from Troop 1 knocked on his parent's door, and told him they were looking for a Scoutmaster.
In his four years as Scoutmaster, the troop grew to more than 100 Scouts. Goodman’s troop was considered the most exciting to be a part of and he took them camping as their Scoutmaster at Treasure Island.
A contemporary of Goodman described him in 1912 as,
well beloved by the boys, enjoys their confidence and is heart and soul in this phase of the work.
In later years, he would recall with nostalgia his troop, noting that renowned composer Albert Hay Malotte was "one of his boys" in Troop 1.
In the early days of Scouting, boys were so eager to become Scouts that they sometimes set out to recruit their own adult leaders. That was how E. Urner Goodman became involved with Scouting.
One day in 1911, two young Scouts, Gilson M. Talmadge and Boyd Johnson went to Urner Goodman’s parent's house and asked him to join their troop as Scoutmaster. Urner accepted the Scout’s offer and became the Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 1, the first chartered troop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gil Talmadge many years later would help to found Oo Yum Buli Lodge in the Berkeley-Contra Costa Area Council in California. He also initiated the Lodge Award which now bears his name to stimulate the use of pioneering skills in "getting the boys off the ground and out of the dust" when camping.
Gil attended the 1975 NOAC and during a speech by Goodman, the story of how Gil came to his house was told. Goodman referred to Gil Talmadge as “my first Scout, who got me into Scouting” and later he referred to him as the “Founder’s Finder”. Gil received the Distinguished Service Award in 1979.
On March 4, 1913, Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated the 28th President of the United States. Boy Scouts provided crowd control for the inauguration and have served in that capacity at every inauguration since. While leading the nation during World War I, President Wilson relied heavily on the Boy Scouts of America to support the war effort at home. This included community service, selling war bonds and other activities.
On March 4, 1909, William Howard Taft was inaugurated as the 27th President of the United States. President Taft became the first Honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America in 1911. Every President since Taft has served Scouting in this role. Taft would later become the only president to also serve as a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
In 1910, the first year of the Boy Scouts of America the BSA did not “Register” Scouts. Instead each Scout was “Certified.” The early BSA was still using the original British Boy Scout terms and symbols. Instead of receiving a registration card they received a document that certified them as a Scout. The BSA symbol printed on the certificate was the British Scout symbol, not the familiar BSA trefoil. Perhaps most unusual was usage of the British Scout Law. As a result the 1910 Certificate was printed with “The Nine Points of the Scout Law” and not our familiar twelve. Among the original BSA Nine Points of the Scout Law was the Eighth Point, “A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.”
