American Boy Scouts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the youth organization that existed from 1910-1918. The term may also refer to American youth members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).
The American Boy Scouts or ABS, later the "United States Boy Scouts," organization was an early Scouting Movement that rivaled the Boy Scouts of America.
William Randolph Hearst called an organizational meeting in May 9, 1910. Despite being informed of other Boy Scout organizations, he went forward with incorporation on June 24, 1910. Although given the opportunity, Hearst did not want to cooperate with fellow newspaperman William D. Boyce, founder of the BSA, due in part to Hearst thinking he needed to have 'his own Scouting organization' and partly because he felt the group was becoming too paramilitary in nature.
By December, 1910, Hearst publicly withdrew his support of the ABS through opinion pieces in his own newspapers. In April of 1912, an incident in which an American Boy Scout accidentally shot a child led to the group dying out by 1913. In 1915, the Board of Directors renamed the organization United States Boy Scouts and in 1916 sought a federal charter. John Gluck, a professional fund raiser who kept 40% of what he raised, was the major force behind the group. They claimed a membership of 5000, mostly within New York state.
From about 1911-1912, the group was part of the Order of World Scouts, but due to leadership changes in both groups, this connection was lost.
The BSA accused the ABS/USBS of creating an intentional confusion of names and sued them. In 1918, the New York Supreme Court barred the group from using the terms "Boy Scout," "Scout," "Scouting" or any variation therof. Following the ruling, they scrapped the existing organization, but a version returned in 1919 using the name "U.S. Junior Military Forces."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Rowan, Edward, M.D. To Do My Best: James E West and the History of the BSA, 2006.
 |
This Scouting-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
