Who and What was the CCC?

They were an all volunteer army, millions strong.
Waging battle for 9 1/2 years in all 48 states and US territories.   Yet, not a single shot was fired.

Their weapons were shovels, seedlings and manpower. There motto was …..”We Can Take It”

On March 4, 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) became the 32^nd US President. He saw a nation that was “ill housed, ill fed and ill clad” and promised a New Deal for the American people.   A staggering  thirteen million were unemployed. This, at that time, was a quarter of the eligible working population.  And for those that were employed it was part time.

Among the hardest hit were young men between the ages of 18 – 25 and WW I Veterans. Unemployment, homelessness and hunger were widespread. The banking system had ceased to function. Life savings, homes and livelihoods were lost.   Compounding this economic collapse was the ravaged conditions of the soil, water and trees caused by decades of poor farming, clear cutting of forests and deep plowing of the Great Plains.  A prolonged drought, which began a year earlier, enabled the phenomenon known as “The Dust Bowl” and gave rise to the decade’s name – “The Dirty Thirties”.

During an interview with Cosmo Zizzi, a CCC Boy from NY State, he recalled… ”Times were bad, real bad.”

By the fifth day into his first term FDR proposed and set in motion the Emergency Conservation Works – later called the Civilian Conservation Corps – The CCC.

The CCC was an idea that would save not only our natural resources but our human resources as well.  The CCC became the first and most successful of his New Deal Programs. Within twelve months the work of the CCC boys had advanced the conservation movement by 10 years.   The three “C’s” are now recognized as the greatest single conservation program in American history.

Requirements were: single males, relief status (this would later be relaxed to unemployment) and passage of a fitness physical, a requirement for this rugged outdoor work.  They signed on for 6 month tours and in a 40 hour work week  planted billions of trees, fought fires, carved out roads, erected fire towers and telephone lines, built hiking and skiing trails, constructed recreational structures, erected bridges and dams, built miles of stone walls and roads in state and national parks all for $30 a month.   Because they were required to allot $25 to a dependent ultimately they would receive $5.

“We did it to help our families“  emphasizes John Brennan during our interview at a CCC Alumni gathering.  A point he wanted to make clear as to why he signed up. It was to help his mother, a widow with four boys.

Administered by the Army with WWI Reservists as Commanders, the camps were designed to accomodate 200 enrollees.   By 1935 there were over 2,650 camps in the lower 48 states, in addition to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.  It is estimated that over three million enrollees passed through the CCC.

Originally they slept in WWI tents until they built military style barracks.  They were housed, clothed and given substanace, all they could eat.  For some it was the first time they had three square meals a day. Medical care and educational opportunities were provided.  The camps stimulated the local economy by the purchase of dairy, produce and supplies from nearby farmers and business.

The boys, with $5 in their dress uniform pockets, were a sight on the weekend visits to town. In several locations news reports of their pending arrival were met with some trepidation – hundreds of young men were moving into the community.   Yet these “boys” would fight forest fires, floods and help in emergencies endearing themselves to districts the were assigned.

The CCC was not perfect.  Segregation of African Americans, attitudes toward Native Americans and poor leadership at a number of  camps were some of the problems and mistakes.  Yet the final and lasting results weigh heavily in favor of this popular New Deal program.

FDR had hoped to make the CCC permanent but Congress ceased the funding in 1942.  Camps were dismantled and liquidated. The nation was preparing for war.  75% of the CCC boys would serve in the armed forces during WW2.

The CCC was an experiment that worked.

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