PART SIX: The National Park Service: Early Years
by Frederick W. Hawthorne
The first few years of National Park Service administration of Gettysburg marked a period of limbo status for the LBG's. In the changeover from War Department control the guides went about their business with little interference from the new administration. The hectic job of transposing existing National Park Service policies to a new, yet already established reservation, was difficult enough. Compounding the problem would be the question of exactly where the LBG's should fit into the NPS interpretive structure.
Many of the problems that plagued the War Department were still readily evident in 1933. When the NPS assumed control of the park they reported that some guides were patently incompetent with several delivering completely memorized orations. Some, they felt, were not inclined to give the visiting public full and courteous service, often eager to return from trips that would be deliberately shortened to achieve that end. It was also discovered that some guides avoided stopping at places where stops were customary and expected.
Solicitation techniques were as much a problem to the NPS as they had been to the War Department. It was reported that guides were "...running out to the roadside upon the approach of a car, waving their arms and shouting to attract attention." Of course the visitor stopped, thinking that they were being hailed by a police officer despite the removal of the star-badge. As early as January of 1936, the Director of the NPS, Arno B. Canmerer, was recommending that an interview be held with all active guides. Its purpose was to ascertain their status, fitness, and qualifications for the work they were performing.
At this early date, it was apparent that the NPS was struggling to grasp the idea of just what a guide was (something many in the service have yet to do today). In relation to a belief that all guides should be prepared to stand inspection, Director Canmerer stated "They are not engaged in a private business, but in a sense, have the same relationship as any operator in a National Park area - selling a commodity (in this case historical information)." Obviously, Canmerer felt, the guides at all times would require close supervision. "The conduct of any one guide is likely to throw all into a bad light in the eyes of the public."
In those early years of NPS administration, the guides also came under scrutiny as a potential source of park revenue. As the nation pulled slowly out of the Depression, even the federal government began to look at ways to produce revenue as all field officers in the service were instructed by the Director to investigate all possibilities. Recommendations for types of service charges to investigate included: vehicle licensing fees, historical house admission charges, elevator charges, pay toilets, and guide service charges. Superintendent McConaghie's reply to the latter was an opinion that such a fee was indeed practical, recommending a .75 cent fee per auto tour and a $1.00 bus surcharge. This, he stated, could potentially bring $26,500 into the park, based on pre-depression visitation practices. Apparently the proposal was not pushed any farther and another fifty years would pass before a different park administration would implement such a fee.
Solicitation methods had been the last thing the War Department had attempted to change with the centralization plan and the NPS would continue the efforts to improve guide behavior in this area. James McConaghie, in a confidential memorandum to the Director in regard to the fee proposal stated that:
"The need caused the present system to come into being. It was truly an experiment when started. Obvious faults have been discovered and eliminated during the twenty years since the service began. A little laxness in control, a little freedom in accepting eligibles hardly properly qualified, a weakness in the matter of discipline and a tendency to be governed by local desires have permitted evils to develop that are difficult to overcome. These, together with the criticized methods of solicitation, constitute the arguments against the present system."
It was the practice of personal solicitation, McConaghie stated, that without a doubt was the most troublesome factor in the present system. As no solicitation within the field was permitted, the guide was forced to induce tourists to stop, and then attempt to sell the trip. The Superintendent's explanation of the process of solicitation gives one a clear idea of the system of 'striking' brought about by the centralization plan.
"The guide who's turn it is to solicit stands at the road edge and hails passing cars. They must not signal so as to cause the car to come to a stop but rather may merely say 'battle- field guides so the motorist may hear them. Guides rotate so that an order of 'striking,' as they term it, is maintained." That the guides were using effective, albeit controversial, solicitation methods could not be doubted, as they conducted a total of 9,669 long trips and 6,368 'twisters' in 1935, bringing in an estimated $41,743 in revenue.
One example of the difficulties brought about in the solicitation practices were illustrated in a complaint received from a Mr. John A. Stone in September of 1936. Mr. Stone related his experience at the hands of one guide: "...we were waved off of the road by a man, dressed in uniform resembling those worn by traffic officers in some states, and who I believed to be a traffic officer. Thinking perhaps it might be some quarantine inspection I pulled off to the side of the road and stopped. The man who waved me off the road ran up to my car, stuck his head in the window and informed me that he had been commissioned by the War Department as a guide and insisted that I pay him a fee of $3.00 for showing us over the field. When I hesitated, he lowered his fee to $2.00, and later to $1.50 for an abbreviated trip through." Stone went on to report that he resented being held up on the highway and "...(forced) to listen to a long winded sales talk on the services of someone I have no need for..." After mentioning that he was 'accosted' in the same manner in the streets of town and at two different entrances to the park, he came away with the impression of the Gettysburg LBG's as "...fee grabbers, or starved to death." It was a situation which he felt "...bordered on becoming a common nuisance."
McConaghie, when reporting this, expressed the belief that in "...an area purchased, developed, maintained, and administered through public funds, wherein private individuals are permitted to conduct a profession that yields a profit of more than $40,000 annually, is hardly a fair thing and one that is rather difficult to defend." The solution, he felt, lay in a change in the basic system whereby the guide would become a paid employee of the National Park Service.
Even as Mr. Stone was writing to the park, steps had already been taken to implement a plan to partially alleviate the situation. In the summer of 1936, Civilian Conservation Corps workers began construction of the two stone structures that still stand today as the West and South End Guide Stations. McConaghie reported that when finished, these would be staffed by "...trained ranger-historians and a regular employee of the National Park Service." Their job would be to dispense free information, a map, and an unpressured explanation of the guide's services. The Chambersburg Pike Guide Station was opened on May 21, 1937 with the South End Station on Emmitsburg Road opening a week later. It was an experiment that was short-lived. Constant bickering and complaints from the guides was directed at the park personnel staffing the stations. Most felt that the rangers did not push hard enough for business. Pressure was exerted and the experiment was quickly ended. By January of 1938 McConaghie reported to this superiors that the guides would be permitted to resume direct contact at these stations.
The fall of 1936 witnessed other changes to the field beside the two stone buildings being erected. The first real confrontation between the NPS administration and the Guide's Association would erupt over the proposal to lay out a self-guided tour route on the field and erect interpretive signs. Prior to this all visitors had to rely on their own knowledge, or that of a hired guide, in order to satisfactorily see the field. The National Park Service believed in making the field understandable to all visitors to Gettysburg regardless of whether they chose to hire a guide or not. Marking a tour route and erecting interpretive wayside exhibits would make this possible.
LBG's viewed this as a form of competition and a direct threat to their business and vehemently opposed it. Not only did they pass a resolution condemning the park plan, but pursuaded the Sons of Union Veterans to issue their own protest. The War Department had become accustomed to the use of locally generated pressure but it evidently was a new experience for the officials of the Park Service. One such official, S. G. Sollenberger, wrote to Superintendent McConaghie stating, correctly, that the resolutions were motivated by self-interest. "Their actions...," he felt, "...in carrying the matter to Congressmen and inviting local organizations to join in a protest, is a direct attempt to embarrass the N.P.S."
Sollenberger recommended a course of action meant to punish the guides and insure that such pressure never happened again. He encouraged the park to administer a "very thorough written and oral examination," a considerable portion of the grade of which will come from the oral. Not only did he desire knowledge to be tested, but diction. Prior to the exam, he wished all guides to fill out a Department of the Interior application, giving a complete history of themselves, including any discharges, forced resignations, and suspensions. Although not stated, it was clear that he intended its use as a tool to weed out those guides considered troublemakers.
Those who survived the process would be required to pay a licensing fee of $20.00 per year. Finally, Sollenberger desired an additional sentence be added to the existing license: "Any a matter pertaining to guide service, administration, protection, or development of general policy of the park which I do not agree, I will submit my objections, in writing, to the Superintendent will not inspire any pressure or influence in others."
Either the guide opposition to the tour route plan forced it to be tabled, or political pressure succeeded in doing so. At any rate it was not carried out at this time. Although interpretive waysides were developed and installed at an undetermined date, it would be nearly ten years before the park would successfully implement a self-guided tour route through the battlefield.
Problems with guides did not end here but continued in the waning years prior to the outbreak of World War II. A long-time guide was caught handing out a business card with the following inscription printed on the back:
IF YOU ARE SATISFIED WITH YOUR TRIP OVER THE BATTLEFIELD.
IF YOUR GUIDE HAS PROVEN SATISFACTORY TO YOU AND HIS SERVICES WERE O.K., GIVE HIM A BOOST.
THE POOR DEVIL HAS TO MAKE A LIVING.
WRITE TO THE DEPARTMENT. TELL THEM HOW YOU WERE PLEASED WITH YOUR TRIP OVER THE FIELD.
ADDRESS: US DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WASHINGTON D.C.
TELL THEM YOU HAD A WONDERFUL TRIP AND A WONDERFUL GUIDE!
Unfortunately for this "poor devil", his party decided not to write, but simply sent the card to the address where it eventually arrived at the office of the director. He wrote back to the Superintendent asking him to 'tactfully' inform the guides that solicitation of commendations was in poor taste, as well as being contrary to NPS policy.
The spring of 1938 brought more examples of certain guides bending the rules set up to govern their conduct. One, when asked whether there would be a charge for his services, replied that they were "absolutely free." He then proceeded to give a hurried trip of about five miles in half an hour for which he demanded three dollars. Another individual, later that summer, quoted a price of $1.50 per person, gave the party a fifty-five minute tour, then ended the tour at a lunch stand in town where he promptly spent the proceeds just collected.
A complaint was received in July of 1939 that a guide had conducted four ladies on a tour of the field leaving the South End Station at 6:00 P.M. He took thirty-seven minutes to get to the Virginia Memorial where he was asked to let the ladies get out so they could see the top. "You can see it when you return," was his reply. Apparently feeling he had spent sufficient time, he obviously picked up the pace of his tour, reaching the Cemetery by 6:55. Leaving there he must have raced down Hancock Avenue as he reached Little Round Top by 7:05 and made it back to the South End Station in little more than an hour after leaving it. His receipt was altered to show a 5:00 P.M. departure. Twice more that summer this same man was cited for "short tripping" and overcharging visitors. One time he gave a forty-five minute tour at a cost of $1.50 per person. Later still he was charged with not returning to his starting point as required.
These tactics of "...drumming up business along the highways in an undignified manner and using high pressure tactics" were considered by some as entirely out of keeping with such a sacred area. "The guide," one report stated, "is more concerned about the fee than the facts he is representing and...sometimes short circuits visitors on busy days and tells them fanciful tales to encourage tipping." The result was that many visitors went away disgusted; others taking the time to register their complaints. Unfortunately, the actions of a small percentage of guides was reflecting badly on the reputation of all. Over twenty years of regulated, licensed guiding - under two federal agencies - had apparently had little success in completely stamping out the practices that had led to regulation in the first place. Suspension of licenses seemed to have little effect on correcting the abuses and conscientious LBG's could exert little control over the situation.
As the 1930's came to a close, business for guides began to again approach the levels of the late 1920's. In 1938, a total of seventy-six guides conducted 13,500 long, 7,951 short, and 579 bus trips for a total of 22,030 guided tours of the field. As war began to engulf the nations of the world that summer and fall, the National Park Service was beginning to gear up for its own assault on the Gettysburg Licensed Guides.
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