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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.04.13 18:13l 57 Lines 2547 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 10
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<KC5CNT<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 130410/1547Z 38453@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.54
...
Apr 10, 1933:
Civilian Conservation Corps created
The Civilian Conservation Corps, a tool for employing young men
and improving the government's vast holdings of western land, is
created in Washington, D.C.
One of the dozens of New Deal programs created by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to fight the Great Depression, the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) was primarily designed to put thousands
of unemployed young men to work on useful public projects.
Roosevelt put the program under the direction of his Secretary of
Interior, Harold Ickes, who became an enthusiastic supporter.
Since the vast majority of federal public land was in the West,
Ickes created most of his CCC projects in that region. The young
men who joined, however, came from all over the nation. It was
the first time many had left their homes in the densely populated
eastern states. Many of them later remembered their time spent in
the wide-open spaces of the West with affection, and many later
returned to tour the region or become residents.
Participation in the CCC was voluntary, although the various
camps often adopted military-like rules of discipline and
protocol. Ickes put his CCC "armies" to work on a wide array of
conservation projects. Some young men spent their days planting
trees in national forests, while others built roads and dams,
fought forest fires, or made improvements in national parks like
Glacier and Yellowstone. In exchange for their labor, the CCC men
received a minimal wage, part of which was automatically sent to
their families back home. The program thus provided employment
for unskilled young men while simultaneously pumping federal
money into the depressed national economy.
The training provided by the CCC proved particularly valuable to
the 77,000 Indian and Hispanic youths who worked in the
Southwest. Many of these young men left the CCC able to drive and
repair large trucks and tractors, skills that proved highly
employable during WWII. Likewise, many former CCC enlistees found
the transition to life as a WWII soldier eased by their previous
experience with military-like discipline.
Despite the rigid regimentation and low pay, the CCC remained
popular with both enlistees and the public throughout its
history. By the time Congress abolished the agency in 1942, more
than two million men had served, making the CCC one of the most
successful government training and employment projects in
history.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@hotmail.com
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