Jamboree Off

"On to Washington!" has been for months the happy cry of some 27,000 Boy Scouts throughout the U. S. There, in a vast cantonment on the banks of the Potomac River, they were going to conduct a jamboree the last ten days of August. Fellow Scouts from abroad invited to the jamboree were already in the U. S. and heading toward Washington--eleven from China, 31 from the Philippines, one from India, two from France. On the high seas were 55 English Scouts, five Dutch, seven Hungarian, four Japanese, four Hawaiian, two Chilean, five Peruvian, one Danish West Indian. The jamboree was going to be the biggest & best ever held in the U. S. Each & every U. S. Boy Scout who expected to attend had contributed $25 toward building the Washington cantonment which comprised 1,440 tents, great central kitchens, troop kitchens, ice boxes, storehouses, shower rooms, toilets--every conceivable arrangement for the comfort, pleasure and safety of the jamboreeing Boy Scouts.

Last week, just as thousands of Scouts were about to entrain for Washington, they were halted in their tracks by an order which few of them understood.

Two months ago infantile paralysis broke out along tidewater North Carolina. At first the number of cases seemed no more than natural for the season. But the disease crept north and west until an epidemic was undeniable. Last month it moved into Virginia. Fortnight ago it splattered into the District of Columbia (TIME, Aug. 12).

Parents of Boy Scouts began to feel anxious. Dr. Hugh Smith Gumming, Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service, tried to reassure them: "No special cause for apprehension."

But public alarms would not be so easily stilled, even by the No. 1 guardian of the nation's health. Last week, Mississippi's Representative John Elliott Rankin, father of a 12-year-old girl, got up in the House to voice the fears & thoughts of parents: "I am calling upon the Public Health Service to call off the jamboree. I, for one, can't sit here silently and see thousands of boys come here and maybe scatter this dread disease all over the world."

Still Dr. Gumming refused to get excited. Said he: "There is some infantile paralysis all over the country every year. . . . The situation is much better throughout the country, although an increasing prevalence of the disease has been reported from New York, Massachusetts and parts of California. . . . It hasn't been prevalent in northern Virginia close to the District of Columbia, and there seems to be no tendency for the disease to spread up here. We are knocking on wood, of course."

The most important infantile paralysis regenerate in the world heard the knocking, called Dr. Cumming into the White House. Also summoned was James Edward West, chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America.

Precisely what was the situation? asked President Roosevelt.

Dr. Cumming told him. Twenty-three cases had been reported in Washington since Jan. 1, five since Aug. 1. In Virginia, there were, at the last count, 414 cases, in North Carolina 519 cases. The disease was not very virulent and the death rate from it had been remarkably low.

What was the likelihood of infantile paralysis being kept away from the jamboree? No man could say. Richmond and Charlottesville, worst spots in Virginia, were only a few hours away by motor.

Could the jamboree be called off at this late date? Scout Executive West, in effect, gave the President this answer: "Yes. The jamboree is insured. We can give every Scout his $25 back and lose no money. The Scouts from abroad can be entertained locally. Scouts who want to can assemble at the Mortimer L. Schiff Boy Scout Reservation in Mendham, N. J., and conduct a substitute jamboree."

Then out from the White House went the order which turned 27,000 Boy Scouts away from Washington: "The President announces with very deep regret the necessity of cancelling plans for the Boy Scout jamboree in Washington. . . . His radio address will be made Aug. 21 at 8 :45 p. m. (EST). . . . The decision reached by the conference was based upon the prevalence of poliomyelitis in two epidemic centres in Virginia, within about 100 miles of the District of Columbia and the increased prevalence in other sections of the country. While this prevalence was not considered to be unduly alarming, the conference decided it would be to the best interests of the Scouts and all concerned to cancel the jamboree."

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