PART SEVEN: The Park Service Strikes Back
by Frederick W. Hawthorne
"This is to report observations that we have made and certain conclusions we have reached relative to the licensed private guides in the Gettysburg National Military Park." With that, the park's new superintendent, J. Walter Coleman, began a rather lengthy report on the LBG situation at Gettysburg. It presented a frank and probably accurate appraisal of the many problems facing the Superintendent.
"Several weeks ago, a questionaire was sent to each guide requesting information on his age, length of service, education, books he had read, and parks he had visited. As the great majority of guides have only a grade school education, relatively few of them made a statement on this point. Of sixty-three guides who returned this questionaire we found that only three are under forty years of age, fifteen are in their forties, twenty are in their fifties, fifteen are in their sixties, and ten are over seventy. One is eighty and another is eighty-four.
Each questionaire was discussed with Junior Historian Allison who had been a Guide himself for about thirty-five years and who knew most of them intimately and with Assistant Historical Technician Tilberg and Cemetery Superintendent Nett. Several of the Guides have physical disabilities which interfere with their work. One of them has both feet off at the ankle and walks with the aid of two canes. Another is also crippled in his lower limbs and has difficulty in walking. A third has trouble with his upper plate when he talks.
It was agreed by the people with whom I consulted, that twelve of the guides because of physical disabilities, mentality, personal habits, and attitude towards their work, should not be permitted to guide. The man who is eighty-four years old was not included in this list because he does very little guiding and because a man of his advanced age attracts certain types of visitors who are glad of an opportunity of talking with the old timers. This guide, J.W. Culp, has a clear mind and does a reasonably good job.
Several men are included in the list of undesirables because of reports over a period of years, that they do not follow the regulations, that they are too much interested in their fee rather than giving the public good service.
Under our highly complicated system there are various means whereby the Guide may shorten their trip without the knowledge of their guests and take advantage of them. On the other side of the ledger, nine men were recommended as being good conscientious Guides, satisfactory in every respect. They are the men whom one would be inclined to hire if one were operating as a concessionaire. The men in between may be described as fair and perhaps half of them would be considered acceptable if this were a private enterprise.
Several weeks ago a meeting of the Guides was called by the Superintendent and they were given at this time, a statement of my general aims and policies. I stressed courtesy, neatness, cleanliness, adherence to regulations and desirability of constant reading and keeping up-to-date on Gettysburg literature. These generalizations were accepted in good spirit and the Guides gave assurances of their desires to cooperate. Since that time and particularly during the last few days, I have paid careful attention to their appearance and have taken some of them on a partial tour of the Park to ascertain how well they handled visitors. There appeared to be minor discrepancies in their facts and figures and very few of them have done any considerable amount of reading. I have questioned several of them about their appearance and have informed them that Guides who are not clean and neat could expect to be suspended. This also appears to be taken in good spirit and a general improvement is evident.
In view of the fact that any radical move to improve or control the Guide Service more effectively is likely to result in complaints to Members of Congress I have been very careful in this respect. I believe however that the guides should be required to attend classes of instruction and that they should also be required to urge visitors to avail themselves of the Park model in the Post Office Building, before making their tour. They do not do this at present ostensibly because, they state, most visitors only wish to see the field and prefer not to spend time in our museum. Actually the Guides are anxious to complete their trip in a minimum of time in order that they may make their three trips per day. It would obviously be difficult to enforce regulation of this kind and they would certainly resent such an enforcement.
Perhaps the most objectionable feature of the Guide Service is the manner of solicitation. The Guides operate not only from our two entrance stations on the Emmitsburg Road south of town and on the Lincoln Highway west of town but also from a station on the Harrisburg Road which the guides own, on the Baltimore Road opposite the National Cemetery entrance and on the public square in Gettysburg. The porch of a residence on York Road is utilized and they are to be found at various other place throughout the town occasionally. At certain times there is a veritable swarm of Guides approaching cars at the town square. Visitors gain the impression on going through Gettysburg that they are constantly being solicited wherever they go. Men stationed at the entrance buildings take turns standing near the highway motioning for traveler to stop and shouting 'Guide' as cars go by. A few accidents have resulted from this practice chiefly at the north end station which we do not control. The Guides realize that somewhat more than 80% of park visitors do not employ their services and therefore if they do not solicit actively they will lose business. There is no doubt that this is true although even many of the people who employ them get a bad impression of general conditions. It is difficult to lay down regulations for controlling this phase of their activities but it is a very serious problem.
It is my feeling that restrictions were more tightly drawn under the administration of the War Department and that the guides have a feeling that the Interior Department is more susceptible to political pressure. On the other hand, if we are to have this type of Guide Service, it would actually be in the interest of the guides to adhere closely to our regulations as they make for better public relationship. This is a subject which is very touchy and which deserves special consideration."
Coleman recognized the political clout that guides were fond of using and knew that any action had to be taken with the realization that one wrong move could bring an avalanche of political pressure to bear. Despite this he decided to proceed with plans to tackle the problems that had plagued the guide service for years.
His first step was to conduct a series of small group interviews to become more familiar with the type of individuals he was dealing with. He discovered that there was considerable discrepancy in information given to visitors. An outgrowth of these sessions was the elimination of the prohibition on guides driving visitor's cars. As of July , 1941, visitors could request the guide drive their vehicle on tour. Coleman also revised and updated the "Schedule of Rates and Regulations" in use since the late Twenties.
Another outgrowth of the group sessions was an announcement that a series of "field trips" would be conducted beginning in August of 1941 from 9 AM until noon. On each subsequent Tuesday and Thursday (chosen as they were the quietest days of the week) , eight guides would accompany the Superintendent or Historian over portions of the tour route, each giving a segment of the tour they would give the visitor. In this way the park would be able to evaluate each guide's ability to present a coherent story.
This step brought down the full force of the guides' wrath. What Coleman facetiously called "an indignation meeting" was held by the guides, various officials in town were contacted, and protests were made to the area Congressman, the Chamber of Commerce, and the local newspaper. A subsequent meeting with Coleman designed to smooth over the difficulties brought out a lot of the guides complaints. They objected to being required to bring visitors to the park's museum, Cyclorama, and electric map as it was felt these "spoiled their story". Another complaint was brought out about park rangers approaching visitors and handing out free literature. For the first time guides were faced with a group they considered to be rivals and perceived these actions as a threat. Their reaction was a strong one and perceived by Coleman as an attempt to "run the park". Part of the guide protest involved refusing to bring visitors to the museum prompting Coleman to comment that the guides will "proceed to take over the area if they are permitted to do so".
Coleman was obviously leery of bringing too much political pressure down on himself and the park but was also wary of appearing to give too much in the way of concessions to the guides. He did agree to postpone the oral "training trips" due to the busy time of the year. Some guide's also demanded assurances that after they made this trip they would not be bothered again in any other way. This certainly irritated the Superintendent and surely heightened his resolve that strong action needed to be taken. He warned the Director that "...the guides are obviously going to carry matters until a show down will be necessary". "So long as we permit these people to operate and so long as pressure of politics is permitted to influence our actions, it will appear to the guides that they are in power."
On August 28, 1941, a meeting was held in the offices of the Director of the National Park Service, Newton B. Drury. In attendance were Superintendent Coleman, Ronald F. Lee, Supervisor of Historic Sites, Hillory A. Tolson, the National Park Service Director and two other officials, Mr. Kahler and Mr. Barton. The topic of discussion was the situation of the Gettysburg LBG's. All agreed that there was a serious need to institute changes which would result in the guides exercising their political clout. It was suggested that one way to soften the impact on the guides was to find ways the National Park Service could clearly be of assistance to them while enforcing and updating the regulations.
In attempting to rationalize the reaction of the LBG's two items mentioned were a perception of an antagonistic attitude of National Park Service officials and employees and persistent rumors that the licensed guide service was to be abolished and replaced by salaried employees. This had been confidentially recommended by Superintendent McConaghie in April of 1936. Apparently some guides had heard of it. It was felt that these two things had contributed to a feeling of uneasiness among guides that made them view all park actions with suspicion.
One proposal agreed to at the meeting was that the National Park Service would actively encourage visitors to employ a licensed guide through use of signs at entrances. However before doing so they would have to be furnished evidence of each individual's competence. It was noted that a guide exam had not been administered since 1929 and many active guides had not been tested in nearly twenty-five years. New techniques, new information, and new interpretations constantly were cropping up. The consensus of opinion was that periodic retesting should be made a part of the guide regulation. In advance of the required re-examination, Coleman was asked to provide optional instruction sessions designed to enhance the guide's knowledge.
As surveys indicated that one in eight visitors used guides on their visit to the field it was also decided to implement directional signs and field waysides. When first proposed in 1936, guide opposition and political pressure had completely stalled the idea. Coleman and his fellow attendees now stated that "...we are in the position of denying 80-85% of our visitors a service which is furnished in most other National Military Parks and which is absent from Gettysburg because of the pressure of a commercial group."
This August meeting would mark the first of a series of meetings and correspondence between key officials in the park and the main NPS office in Washington. Later that fall, in November, Coleman held meetings with citizens of Gettysburg and with the guides to lay the groundwork for the changes to be forthcoming. As a result of these and a field inspection made at the same time, the Director approved a series of volunteer meetings aimed at assuring a minimum competency of battle knowledge. This would be followed by an examination, the passage of which was necessary to maintain the license. The Director also approved the use of tour markings and waysides despite continuing guide opposition to the proposal. He stated that he felt the guides would eventually drop their opposition when they saw it to be hopeless.
At the meeting held with members of the Guide's Association Superintendent Coleman discussed the concerns of the NPS. At this session the question of meetings was again brought up and apparently accepted. Coleman reiterated the position that the meetings would be entirely voluntary but all guides should make an effort to attend. Following the sessions, a general written exam was to be administered. Guides passing this exam would receive license renewals. Those failing, would receive conditional renewals and a second opportunity at study, instruction, and the testing. In a personal letter to Walter Reynolds, then president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Guides Association, Coleman mentioned that Dr. Frederick Tilberg and the historical staff were developing a training program. He wished, however, to enlist the aid of the guides themselves to help in the planning. "You and the other guides.." he wrote, "know better than anyone else what sort of procedures would be most effective."
Dr. Tilberg and his staff were preparing a series of twelve discussion sessions on all aspects of the campaign and battle designed to give all guides a considerably in-depth study of the information considered by the Park Service to be essential. Each was to be held on consecutive Friday evenings, beginning in January, with a specific topic covered each session. Topics to be covered were:
Jan. 1, 1942
Discussion #1
Background and Course of the Civil War
Jan.16, 1942
Discussion #2
Background and Course of the Gettysburg Campaign
Jan.23, 1942
Discussion #3
Battle of Gettysburg, July 1.
Jan.30, 1942
Discussion #4
Battle of July 2.
Feb. 6, 1942
Discussion #5
Battle of July 3.
Feb.13, 1942
Discussion #6
Cavalry in the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg
Feb.20, 1942
Discussion #7
Battle Leaders at Gettysburg
Feb.27, 1942
Discussion #8
Military Communications and Intelligence
Mar. 6, 1942
Discussion #9
Field Hospitals in the Battle of Gettysburg
Mar.13, 1942
Discussion #10
Civil War Artillery, Small Arms
Mar.20, 1942
Discussion #11
POWs, Conscription, and Desertion
Mar.27, 1942
Discussion #12
General Bibliography, Civil War, Gettysburg
At the final session, each participant was given a specially prepared "Guide Manual" which summarized all of the information presented at each session.
The actual guide examination was given on April 10, 1942. It consisted of seventy-five multiple-choice questions covering all twelve of the session topics. A total of fifty-eight guides were present for the field trips and classes and sixty-five took the test. Of these, fifty-one passed the exam with a score of 70% or better, the highest score being 94%, the lowest, 36%. Fourteen active guides failed this exam, despite the preparation and the fact they had held guide licenses for years, underscoring the continued concern over the quality of the individual guide's presentation.
Dr. Coleman also reintroduced a form of quality control used earlier during the War Department days. He began to supply a business card to each guide, containing the guide's name, information on rates and other NPS attractions, and an address for visitors to direct their comments to. In this way it was hoped that additional feedback from visitors would be received. The National Park Service, like the War Department in the late 1920's, had taken action to begin to curb some of the abuses encountered in the guide service at Gettysburg. In addition, they had taken important steps toward continuing to improve the quality of the visitor's experience. Like the earlier attempt at reform, the flow of national and international events would bring this reform movement to a halt and seriously threaten the very existence of the Licensed Guide Service.
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