[at-l] Boy Scout Hike 4 of 10

Tue Feb 17 13:36:36 CST 2009

(This is a trial posting to see if the footnotes show up reasonably well. Let me
know if they're screwed up in the postings or in digest mode, ok?)

The Backstory

My initial effort to fact-check the Boys Scout Hike grew, over a period of time,
into an exercise in social history. For about 15 months I've been immersed in
seeing the world events of 1936 through the eyes of a group of teen-aged boys
living in the Bronx. Many topics that I read in history books long ago have come
alive as I discovered their impact on the likelihood of the Boy Scout Hike of
1936.

The backdrop of the Great Depression & the sad state of world affairs, the
effort of WWI vets in support of Boys Scouts, (and their generosity in
supporting this trip), the desperate families glad to be relieved of a mouth to
feed for the summer, the hope of the BSA organization to save boys from
inner-city gangs, the effort to grow the BSA organization with outreach to the
Jewish community, and more have all been uncovered in my research. It's been
pretty exciting to see how poignant it was for this trip to occur. It was an act
of generosity, an act of hope for the future and an act of faith in difficult
times to give these boys so much time & support to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Not much in Max Gordon's story describes the background of the times for the
hike. The rise of Hitler, the Great Depression, life in Jewish Bronx, and the
growth & outreach of the Boy Scout of America organization all form interesting
details in a complex story. Against this backdrop the outrageous idea of Harry
O'Grady is to ask the Jewish war veterans from Jacob Levy Post to help 6 boys
with an adventure of a lifetime.

News of the Summer of 1936

In June, Max Schmeling fights Joe Louis in NYC for the first time, the contest
pitting a "freed slave against the master Aryan Race". Louis lost to Schmeling
in 12 rounds at Madison Square Garden making Schmeling a reluctant symbol of
Aryan superiority. Two years later "The Brown Bomber" will defeat Schmeling in
Yankee Stadium. 

In New York, Jesse Owens returns from the 1936 Olympics, after winning 4 gold
medals, to display his skills in NYC at exhibition events in Madison Square
Garden. WPA workers are striking in NYC for better wages & benefits. Bruno
Richard Hauptmann is executed in April for the March 1932 kidnapping of the
Lindbergh baby. The Hindenburg begins regular flights to the NYC area, docking
at Lakehurst, NJ <outbind://5/#_edn1> [i]. 

In England, Edward VIII succeeds his father King George V. He later abdicates in
December 1936, and is succeeded by his brother George VI.

Hitler is pushing for "colonial rights" for Germany, a prelude to German
expansionism, leading eventually to the invasion of Poland.

Aviatrix/author Beryl Markham crashes her airplane and survives (though injured)
in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia on her solo transatlantic flight
<outbind://5/#_edn2> [ii]. 

Cole Porter's hit musical for 1936 is "Red, Hot and Blue", with Ethel Merman
singing "It's De-Lovely". The most popular movies in the US are The Great
Ziegfeld, and The Story of Louis Pasteur.

Desperate Bronxites

The population of the Bronx at this time was 1,265,000, about half the size of
Brooklyn and a little smaller than Manhattan. <outbind://5/#_edn3> [iii]
Newspapers that serve the Bronx neighborhoods had fallen off since 1929 so that
by 1936 only one paper is serving the borough, shared with Manhattan - The Home
News: Bronx & Manhattan. During my research I read this daily for the entire
year and was touched by the desperate condition of the population. Suicides are
detailed in the Bronx nearly every day, many gassing <outbind://5/#_edn4> [iv]
themselves in tenements that are discovered to contain no food. Some parents
kill their children and then themselves. Others throw themselves in front of
trains. On at least 3 occasions mothers tossed their newborn babies from
rooftops in despair. <outbind://5/#_edn5> [v] I wasn't able to find any suicide
statistics to tell if this period was the worst of the Depression in the Bronx,
but it certainly was pretty bad. 

In general, city populations suffered more than agricultural and suburban areas
during this period. If a family had access to a bit of land they could
supplement their food needs with backyard gardens. Another way of easing the
burden of feeding children was to send them away to lodge with friends or
extended family; boarding them out in exchange for whatever work they could do.
My mother, and others in my family, were "boarded out" in the 1930's in Atlantic
Canada for precisely this reason. 

In this situation it's easy to see why the parents of these Scouts would approve
of sending their 15-16 year old children away for 4 months; getting them out of
the Bronx while knowing they're well cared for and having the adventure of a
lifetime - at the expense and with the support of the WWI Army Vets.

The Great Depression

In many accounts 1931 & 1932 contained the greatest suffering and dislocations
American society has ever seen. With Roosevelt's election in 1932, and the New
Deal programs he introduced, a promise of relief was made. And by 1936 the
effects of deficit spending were felt and had eased the poverty (and anxieties)
of many. The timing of the BSH coincides with this mini-recovery period felt by
Bronxites, along with the long-awaited issuance of the Veteran's Bonus and the
heady days that followed the flow of money issued on June 15, 1936.

Unfortunately Roosevelt's policies, including the payment of the Veteran's
Bonus, triggered a second depression starting in 1937. The worst year of the
Great Depression seems to be 1932, and at it's worst about 30% of the US
population was below the poverty line. My guess is that the Bronx population had
a greater than average poverty rate, something closer to 50%.

(end of part 4)

  _____  

 <outbind://5/#_ednref1> [i] In 1936 the Hindenburg made 10 regular flights, but
in 1937 it will burn on its first flight of the season as it attempts to dock at
Lakehurst, NJ.

 <outbind://5/#_ednref2> [ii] She's the first to do this trip, traveling West
from London to America. Markham's memoirs of her life and the Atlantic flight,
West with the Night, is later published in 1942 to strong praise from Ernest
Hemingway.

 <outbind://5/#_ednref3> [iii] The Manhattan Bronx City Directory for 1933

 <outbind://5/#_ednref4> [iv] Gassing is by far the preferred means of suicide.

 <outbind://5/#_ednref5> [v] This might at first seem an irrational way of
disposing of a body but in these Bronx neighborhoods large buildings, in close
proximity, contained hundreds of families. Mothers were almost certain of
getting away with this crime unless a neighbor informed on them.

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