Civilian Conservation Corps

On creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt said that the program was “not a Panacea for all the unemployment, but an essential step in this emergency.” The CCC formed an early and integral part of Roosevelt's package of New Deal programs, designed to ameliorate the suffering of the Great Depression. Based on a program Roosevelt had developed during his term as the governor of New York that put unemployed men to work planting trees, the CCC began with 500,000 unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 who entered work camps based in forests, national parks, and range lands. The first group of CCC men cleared land, built trails in national parks, and preserved Civil War battlefields.

The program, which lasted until 1942, required the efforts of many government agencies. The Department of Labor recruited the young men from among families already on government relief. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture determined the projects that CCC men worked on and provided technical expertise. The camps themselves were run by the Department of the Army. Each CCC member worked a 40-hour week and agreed to abide by camp rules. These rules included sending $25 of the $30 monthly salary to their [Page 132]families, following orders from a supervisor, and appearing at all meetings punctually.

A group of Civilian Conservation Corps members at Camp Fechner in Big Meadows, Virginia, giving President Roosevelt a rousing welcome during his visit there in 1933. (From the collections of the Library of Congress)

New Deal advocates envisioned the CCC as a program that would do more than provide temporary relief to unemployed young men. The CCC, they hoped, would also teach men a marketable professional skill and help them develop character and self-discipline. The Army's role was to provide the direction young “boys” needed to become “men.” The Roosevelt administration also saw the CCC as a way to involve the Army, largely without a pressing mission in 1933, in New Deal–related work. The disciplined nature of the camps seemed to many a perfect fit for the Army, even if the mission consisted of clearing trees, not enemy blockhouses. Many Army officers balked at the notion, arguing that their job was to defend the United States, not monitor the activity of forest workers. As a result, the Army assigned large numbers of Reserve officers to CCC projects. Nevertheless, several prominent officers, including future Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, accepted CCC assignments.

Army officers assumed the responsibility of meeting CCC enrollees at induction centers and putting them through an entry process similar to that of military recruits. Army officers administered medical exams, determined which enrollees were not healthy enough to join (these men received bus fare home), and dispensed clothes and equipment. The Army then organized the CCC members into companies of 200 men, which followed the military model with a chain of command and a division of responsibilities. Unemployed veterans with good military records also joined the CCC, often in company leadership roles. In 1934 the Department of War replaced its senior representative to the CCC, a major, with a brigadier general, an indication of the growing acceptance of the CCC among Army officials.

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