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The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program for young men established in March 1933 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days in office. It was part of the New Deal designed to combat the poverty and unemployment of the Great Depression. The CCC became one of the most popular New Deal programs among the general public. The young men did heavy construction work and did not receive any training. The Indian Division was a major relief agency for Indian reservations.

Establishment

Roosevelt proposed the establishment of a civilian conservation corps during the 1932 presidential campaign. Senate Bill 5.598, the Emergency Conservation Work Act; it was signed into law on March 31, 1933. Roosevelt on 1933-05-07 extolled the CCC in a fireside address on the radio:
"First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed, especially the young men who have dependents, to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. This is a big task because it means feeding, clothing and caring for nearly twice as many men as we have in the regular Army itself. In creating this civilian conservation corps we are killing two birds with one stone. We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and second, we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress."

Administrative roles

The Labor Department's role was to recruit participants into the program; the actual camps were operated by the Army, using 3,000 reserve officers who became camp directors. Each camp had a federal sponsor, usually a division of the Interior or Agriculture department. The sponsor provided the project supervisor and hired the trained foremen necessary; many were "LEMs" (Local Experienced Men). Each camp had an educational advisor provided by the Office of Education. The Army provided chaplains, and contracted locally for groceries, fuel and equipment and for medical services. By 1935 the CCC was promoting about 14% of enrolees to act as leaders (at $36-45 a month). The program cost about $1100 per year per full-time enrolee. Annual expenditures reached a maximum of $594 million in 1936. Peak numbers came in August 1935 with 505,000 enrollees in 2,600 camps.

Within a week the Labor Department organized a National Re-Employment Service for CCC recruitment; later the CCC handles its own recruiting. The usual requirement was that the boy's father had to be registered as unemployed. The first CCC enrollee entered on 1933-04-07, just thirty-seven days after Roosevelt's inauguration. Young men aged 17-23 enrolled for six months, with the option of enrolling for another six months, up to two years. There was no penalty for leaving early, and the "desertion" rate was 1-2% per month. In a short time there were 250,000 enrollees working in CCC camps. Enrollment peaked in September 1935 at about 502,000. By the time the CCC disbanded in 1942, over three million young men had participated.

No job training

There was serious concern about the CCC from the American Federation of Labor which feared it would be a job training program. With so many union construction workers unemployed a new job training program would introduce unwelcome new competition for scarce jobs. Roosevelt promised there would be no skills taught that would compete with established unions, and named a labor leader, Robert Fechner to run the CCC. After long exhausting days at manual labor, the youth could, if they wanted, attend evening classes in motor repair and basic literacy. The most popular training was in cooking and baking.

CCC life

The CCC was a work and relief program that sent young, unemployed men to work on conservation projects in rural areas for $1 per day. Although intended to help youth escape the cities, city boys were reluctant to join and most enrollees came from small towns and rural areas. The corps operated numerous conservation projects, including prevention of soil erosion and the impounding of lakes. The CCC constructed many buildings and trails in state and national parks that are still used today. Other projects of the CCC included installation of telephone and power lines, construction of logging and fire roads, fence construction, tree-planting, and even beekeeping, archaeological excavation, and furniture manufacture. The CCC also provided the first truly organized wildland fire suppression crews and planted an estimated 3 billion trees for government agencies such as the United States Forest Service.

CCC enrollees worked 40 hours a week and were paid $30 a month, with the requirement that $25 of that be sent home to family. Members lived in camps, wore uniforms, and lived under quasi-military discipline. At the time of entry, 70 percent of enrollees were malnourished and poorly clothed. Very few had more than a year of high school education; few had work experience beyond occasional odd jobs. They lived in wooden barracks, rising when the bugle sounded at 6:00 A.M., reported to work by 7:45, and after a lunch break worked until 4:00 P.M. Late afternoon and evening activities centered on sports and classes. On weekends there was bus service to town or home, or they could attend dances or religious services in the camp. The CCC provided two sets of clothes and plenty of food; discipline was maintained by the threat of "dishonorable discharge." There were no reported revolts or strikes. "This is a training station we're going to leave morally and physically fit to lick 'Old Man Depression,'" boasted the newsletter of a North Carolina camp. The U.S. Army operated the camps, using 3000 reserve personnel called to active duty. The Army thereby gained valuable experience in handling large numbers of young men, but there was no military drill or training in the camps, and the work projects were civilian in nature. Eventually over 4,000 camps were established in all 48 states and in the Hawaii and Alaska territories, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The first camp was at George Washington National Forest in Virginia. The 200,000 black enrollees were segregated, but received equal pay and housing. (There were some integrated camps in New England.) Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes pressured Director Fechner to appoint blacks to supervisory positions such as education director in the 143 segregated camps.

Initially, the CCC was limited to young men age 18 to 25 whose fathers were on relief. Two exceptions to the age limits were veterans, who had a special CCC program and their own camps, In 1937, Congress changed the age limits to 17 to 23 years old, and dropped the requirement that enrollees be on relief.

Indian Division

The CCC operated an entirely separate division for Native Americans, the Indian Emergency Conservation Work or CCC-ID. It brought Indian men from reservations to work on bridges, schools, clinics, shelters, and other public works near their reservations. The CCC often provided the only paid work in remote reservations. There were no age limits for CCC-ID enrolees. In 1933 about half the male heads of households on the Sioux reservations in South Dakota, for example, were employed by the CCC-ID. Thanks to a grant from the PWA the Indian Division operated an extensive road-building program in and around many reservations. IECW differed from other CCC activities in that it explicitly trained men to be carpenters, truck drivers, radio operators, mechanics, surveyors, and technicians. A total of 85,000 Indians were enrolled. This proved valuable human capital for the 24,000 Indians who served in the military and the 40,000 who left the reservations for war jobs in the cities.

Disbandment

Although the CCC was probably the most popular New Deal program, it never became a permanent agency. The Gallup poll of April 18, 1936, asked, "Are you in favor of the CCC camps?" 82% said "yes", including 92% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans. Opinion, 1935-1946 ed. by Hadley Cantril and Mildred Strunk 1951. Page 111

The last extension passed by Congress was in 1939. After the draft began in 1940 there were fewer and fewer eligible young men. When war was declared in December 1941, all CCC work, except for wildland firefighting, was shifted onto U.S. military bases to help with construction there. The agency disbanded one year earlier than planned, after Congress voted to cut off funding for the CCC entirely after June 30, 1942.

Former CCC sites in good condition were reactivated from 1941 to 1947 as Civilian Public Service camps where conscientious objectors performed work of national importance as an alternative to military service. Other camps were used to hold Japanese internees. After the CCC disbanded, the federal agencies responsible for public lands administration went on to organize their own seasonal fire crews, roughly modeled after the CCC, which filled the firefighting role formerly filled by the CCC and provided the same sort of outdoor work experience to young people.

California Conservation Corps

In 1976, the Governor Jerry Brown of California established the California Conservation Corps. This new program differed drastically from the original CCC as its aim was primarily youth development rather than economic revival. Today it is the largest, oldest and longest-running youth conservation in the world.

Corps Today

The original CCC was closed in 1942 but it became a model for state agencies that opened in the 1970s. Today, corps are state and local programs that engage primarily youth and young adults (ages 16-25) in full-time community service, training and educational activities. The nation’s 109 corps operate in multiple communities across 37 states and the District of Columbia. In 2004, they enrolled over 23,000 young people. The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps - NASCC works to expand and enhance the corps movement throughout America.

References

  • American Youth Commission. Youth and the Future: The General Report of the American Youth Commission American Council on Education, 1942
  • Colen, Olen Jr. The African-American Experience in the Civilian Conservation Corps (1999)
  • Gower, Calvin W. "The CCC Indian Division: Aid for Depressed Americans, 1933-1942," Minnesota History 43 (Spring 1972) 7-12
  • Douglas Helms, "The Civilian Conservation Corps: Demonstrating the Value of Soil Conservation" in Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 40 (March-April 1985): 184-188.
  • Hendrickson Jr.; Kenneth E. "Replenishing the Soil and the Soul of Texas: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Lone Star State as an Example of State-Federal Work Relief during the Great Depression" The Historian, Vol. 65, 2003
  • Kenneth Holland and Frank Ernest Hill. Youth in the CCC (1938) detailed description of all major activities
  • Parman, Donald L. The Navajos and the New Deal (1969)
  • Parman, Donald L. "The Indian and the CCC," Pacific Historical Review 40 (February 1971): pp 54+
  • Salmond John A. The Civilian Conservation Corps 1933-1942: a New Deal case study. (1967), the only scholarly history of the entire CCC
  • James Wilson; "Community, Civility, and Citizenship: Theatre and Indoctrination in the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s" Theatre History Studies, Vol. 23, 2003 pp 77-92

External links

New Deal agencies | 1933 establishments

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Civilian Conservation Corps".

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