Scouting, Volume 62, Number 8, November-December 1974 Page: 8
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o to high school?" said the ma-
^3 tron. "What good would it do
you, Jim? Besides, how could you at-
tend without neglecting your duties
here?"
Jim West was 16, the oldest inmate
of the City Orphan Asylum of Wash-
ington, D.C. Most boys left at 12 to go
to work, but a tubercular hip caused
him frequent pain, so no employer
would take him — and no hospital
would accept an indigent orphan as a
patient. ("I was made to understand
that I was a nuisance," he said years
later.) Now, ironically, he had made
himself so valuable that the asylum
authorities tried to imprison him; they
paid him small sums and classified
him as an employee.
He had proven his value by a long
stubborn struggle. Crippled at seven,
he had been put with the girls to sew.
He developed dexterity and taught
himself to do odd jobs of carpentry,
painting and plumbing. Then he dis-
covered the orphanage library, kept
locked for fear books might get soiled.
By promising to get the children to put
heavy paper covers on all books, he
induced the matron to open it. He was
developing a promotional flair that
would unlock doors all his life.
Jim wanted everyone to be as hun-
gry a reader as he was. Chagrined be-
cause the open library remained de-
serted, he offered one cent for each
book read. (He was earning 75 cents a
week for tending the matron's chick-
ens.) Still no one read. But when he
got the matron to agree that readers
could sit up an hour later at night,
there was a rush of children to the li-
brary.
Mrs. Wright, the matron, capitalized
on his knack for influencing boys. She
made him a sort of foreman of a work
crew of 20 inmates. He became their
recreational leader too, although fun
was frowned on in the orphanage. He
bargained for permission to take "his"
boys hiking to nearby parks. The fact
that he was on crutches didn't impair
his control of the boys.
Mrs. Wright made him furnace-
stoker and all-around handyman; she
put him in sole charge of the asylum's
steam laundry. Thus her days would
be harder if he went to high school.
"Forget it," she told him.
But his harsh life made Jim asser-
tive. "I'll get up at 2 a.m. to do my
chores if I can go to school," he said.
He was so persistent that Mrs. Wright
let him try. He proved he could haul in
200 people's dirty clothes, steer them
through the mangles, finish in time to
ring a rising bell for the children and
still have energy to study. He kept this
up for three years.
By the time he graduated he was a
sort of guardian, spokesman and men-
tor to all the orphans. A photo taken
about 1894 shows him with 18 of them
— "my first Scout troop," he was to
call them later.
The orphanage brushed aside his
dream of attending college, which he
obviously couldn't afford. But he made
the place too hot to hold him. He went
to the asylum's board of directors and
showed them the food bills. "You pay
more to feed the 14 employees than
you do for our 180 children," he
pointed out. A few days later he was
on the street.
The YMCA offered night courses. He
got a room there. When a fire burned
out the classroom wing, the schooling
was dropped. West went to the YMCA
president to remonstrate.
The dignitary shrugged. "There's no
money for rebuilding."
"Will you let me see what I can do?"
West growled. "It won't cost the Y
one cent." The president could
scarcely say no. West sought out con-
tractors and persuaded them to do-
nate materials; night students did the
rebuilding. This caused such stir that
the "Y" school's enrollment doubled
when it reopened. More fees meant a
raise for instructors.
West expounded to a friend, "When
I want to put something across, I don't
ask for money. I ask permission to go
ahead. Money comes later."
Eventually he worked his way
through law school, then became
known as a crusading attorney. With
Theodore Dreiser he organized the
National Child Rescue League, which
placed 2,000 homeless children in
families. He lobbied for a federal Chil-
dren's Bureau. He persuaded Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt to allow
fund-raising shows on the White
House lawn with the money to be used
for local playgrounds.
Once he got into the White House
while Roosevelt was being shaved,
and lectured him on the need for ju-
venile courts. Teddy boomed through
the lather, "By George, we'll have
one!" Washington did get one of the
first juvenile courts.
T. R. listened again when West said,
"You've called a conference to con-
serve natural resources. Why not a
BY KEITH MONROE
JIM WEST-
SCOUTING'S
GRUFF
GENIUS
Crippled and
orphaned
as a youngster,
James E. West,
our first
Chief Scout
Executive, grew
up as a
fighter for
children's
rights. He was
the architect
of Scouting in
America — the
pioneer without
equal.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 62, Number 8, November-December 1974, periodical, November 1974; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353626/m1/8/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.