Chapter One:
A Brief History of the Civilian Conservation Corps

Conrad L. Wirth (left), Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps program within the National Park Service, (1936-1942) and Civilian Conservation Corps Director Robert Fechner (right) (1933-1939).
Courtesy of the National Archives.

ORIGINS

Celebrations throughout the country in 1983 commemorated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. In cities and national parks, speakers gave talks on the local and national history of the CCC. Former members of the CCC and interested individuals founded organizations dedicated to honoring its work and ideals. The CCC, which existed for nine years and three months, has remained one of the most popular of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs. [1]

The intellectual origins of the program predate 1933 by more than 80 years and come from another continent. In 1850 the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote that unemployed men should be organized into regiments to drain bogs and work in wilderness areas for the betterment of society. [2] Then in 1910 Harvard philosopher William James published an essay entitled "The Moral Equivalent of War," in which he wrote:

Now--and this is my idea--there were, instead of military conscription a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature, the injustice would tend to be evened out, and numerous other goods to the commonwealth would follow. The military ideals of hardihood and discipline would be wrought into the growing fibre of the people; no one would remain blind as the luxurious classes now are blind, to man's relations to the globe he lives on, and to the permanently sour and hard foundations of his higher life. To coal and iron mines, freight trains, to fishing fleets in December, to dishwashing, clothes-washing, and window-washing, to road-building and tunnel-making, to foundries and stoke-holes, and to the frames of skyscrapers, would our gilded youths be drafted off, according to their choice, to get the childishness knocked out of them, and to come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas. They would have paid their blood-tax, done their own part in the immemorial human warfare against nature; they would tread the earth more proudly, the women would value them more highly, they would be better fathers and teachers of the following generation. [3]

In 1915 conservationist George H. Maxwell proposed that young men be enrolled into a national construction corps to help in forests and plains conservation work, to fight forest fires and floods, and to reclaim swamp and desert lands. [4]

Probably the greatest single impetus for implementing these ideas was the Great Depression, when unemployment rose from a little over 3 percent of the civilian work force (in 1929) to over 25 percent (in 1933). Unemployment among the nation's youth rose even faster than general unemployment. Not only were many young people unemployed, but approximately 30 percent of those working had only part-time jobs. [5] The administration of Herbert C. Hoover responded to the worsening economic crisis by providing additional appropriations for construction of roads and trails in national parks and monuments and other public works, but these relief efforts failed to halt the economic slide of the nation. [6]

In 1932 Republican President Herbert Hoover was opposed in his reelection bid by Democratic nominee Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a young man, Roosevelt had served as chairman of the Committee on Forests, Fish and Game in the New York state legislature. In that position he was able to spearhead the passage of the first New York legislation on supervised forestry. Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1928, and in 1929 he got the state legislature to pass laws to aid in county and state reforestation. In 1930 the legislature approved a plan to purchase abandoned or submarginal farm lands for reforestation. In 1931 the state government set up a temporary emergency relief administration, which hired the unemployed to work in reforestation projects clearing underbrush, fighting fires, controlling insects, constructing roads and trails, improving forest ponds and lakes, and developing recreation facilities. [7]

At the same time that Roosevelt had been establishing conservation/reforestation programs in New York, other states, including California, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Indiana, were hiring or planning for the unemployed to do conservation work. The state of California, by 1932, had established 25 camps of 200 men each to work in forests and watershed areas to fell snags, clear roadsides, construct firebreaks, and control insects. Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania set up labor camps for young men to work on road construction and conservation work. A number of the governor's critics in the state legislature argued that this type of relief program was more costly than giving the money directly to needy recipients. Governor Pinchot reluctantly concurred that it was beyond the financial capability of the state and requested that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (a Hoover administration loan agency established to promote fiscal stability for the country) lend funds to Pennsylvania for this relief effort. The Hoover administration loaned money to the state on the condition that the conservation funds would be self-liquidating loans to be paid back in full to the federal government. [8]

These various programs to have the unemployed do needed conservation work set the stage for Franklin D. Roosevelt's acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for president on July 2, 1932. In the speech Roosevelt said, "Let us use common sense and business sense, and, just as one example, we know that a very hopeful and immediate means of relief, both for the unemployed and for agriculture, will come from a wide plan of the converting of many millions of acres of marginal and unused land into timber land through reforestation." [9]

At this time Roosevelt probably had no definite plans on how to implement such a program. During the presidential campaign, he corresponded with Gifford Pinchot and other interested conservationists and gave speeches in Atlanta and Boston calling for forest work for the unemployed.

In August 1932 the Society of American Foresters advocated a program for the employment of men in national and state forests and national parks to do work on erosion, watershed protection, road and trail construction, and fire protection projects. [10] Roosevelt commented on this program:

The excellent program adopted this year by the Society of American Foresters needs to be transplanted into more effective coordinated action by individual forest owners, the several States and the Nation. We need also, as I have said on other occasions, a soil survey of the entire Nation and a national land-use program. This has an important bearing on reforestation, which must be jointly a State and Federal concern, but with more effective encouragement from the Federal government than it has received in the past. [11]

After the presidential election in November, in which Roosevelt carried all but six states, he asked Secretary of Agriculture-designate Henry A. Wallace and Special Assistant to the President-elect Rexford G. Tugwell to approach Chief Forester Robert Y. Stuart with a request to develop a plan for the employment of 25,000 men in federally owned forests. While Stuart's plan was never implemented, Roosevelt used portions of it in formulating the CCC. In January 1933 the number of men that Roosevelt requested to be employed in forestry work increased from 25,000 to 250,000 men. [12]

In December 1932 the Mississippi Forestry Association submitted a work plan to the Federal Finance Corporation that called for the federal government to acquire 1 million acres of deforested lands in each of 13 southern states. The U.S. Army would recruit, equip, and administer 40,000 men to construct roads, thin and plant trees, and promote good forestry practices, and the tax money on these lands for five years would be paid to the local districts who would pay for the work. The men chosen would be between 18 and 30 years of age, and they would receive $1 a day plus subsistence. The first phase of this work was expected to last for two years and consist of constructing roads, trails, and firebreaks on these lands. After this was accomplished, good forestry practices and management would be introduced in these areas. This program would help preserve game and fish habitat, replenish depleted forest lands, and prevent flooding. Another proposal, described in American Forests (a magazine published by the American Forestry Association and widely read by conservationists), was to employ 35,000 men on a 10-year program to increase the recreational value of state forest lands and apply fire prevention techniques. [13]

In January 1933 Hoover's Secretary of Agriculture Arthur M. Hyde submitted a report to New York Senator Robert W. Wagner that proposed a month's work for 2 million men in forest areas of the country and temporary employment of another million men in national parks and on Indian reservations. Also in January Republican Senator James Couzens from Michigan introduced a bill that would authorize the Army to house, feed, and clothe unemployed youths between the ages of 17 and 24 at military posts. The measure was bitterly opposed by the military authorities and quickly dropped. It did, however, serve to warn the military that it might play a role in future programs for relief for the unemployed. [14]

ESTABLISHMENT

Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office as the 32nd president of the United States on March 4, 1933. He brought to that office a desire to conserve both the natural and human resources of the nation. In his inaugural address he only indirectly referred to the planned conservation program, but on March 9 he called a conference with the secretaries of agriculture, interior, and war, the director of the budget, the Army's judge advocate general, and the solicitor for the Department of the Interior to discuss the program's outline. The president wanted the Army to recruit 500,000 men and run the conditioning camps for them; the men were then to be transferred to work camps, where the Departments of Agriculture and Interior would oversee the actual work projects and camps. He asked that a draft bill be submitted to him for consideration by that evening. Edward Finney, the solicitor for the Department of the Interior, and Colonel Kyle Rucken, the Army's judge advocate general, worked all day and brought him an outline by 9:00 p.m. This unemployment relief bill called for the employment of men on public works projects and conservation tasks. On March 13, 1933, this bill was introduced in Congress, but it was immediately withdrawn because of opposition and the need for modifications. [15]

Still determined to establish a conservation work program for unemployed youth, Roosevelt directed the secretaries of interior, war, and agriculture to meet on March 15 to work out the precise details of the program. The secretaries recommended that unemployment be eased by three methods: first, through direct relief grants to the states; second, by a large public works program; and third, by a carefully designed soil erosion/forestry work program. These ideas were accepted, for the most part, and incorporated into "an act for the relief of unemployment through the performance of useful public work, and for other purposes." This legislation was resubmitted to Congress on March 21. It stipulated that the unemployed could work for the prevention of forest fires and for soil erosion, flood control, removal of undesirable plants, insect control, and construction or maintenance of paths, tracks, and fire lanes on public lands. In return, those enrolled in this program would be provided with appropriate clothing, daily subsistence, medical attention, hospitalization, and a cash allowance. [16]

This legislation was accompanied by Roosevelt's proposal for emergency conservation work. He believed that such work would not interfere with normal employment and that if the legislation was passed within two weeks, 250,000 men could be given temporary employment by early summer. He summed up the bill in the following manner:

This enterprise is an established part of our national policy. It will conserve our precious natural resources. It will pay dividends to the present and future generations. It will make improvements in National and State domains which have been largely forgotten in the past few years of industrial development.

More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets and receiving private or public relief, would infinitely prefer to work. We can take a vast army of these unemployed out into healthful surroundings. We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability. It is not a panacea for all the unemployment but it is an essential step in this emergency. I ask its adoption. [17]

William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, voiced his opposition to the proposal in the joint Senate and House labor committee hearings on the bill on March 23. Green believed that the Army's supervision of the enrollees would lead to the militarization of American youth. Major General Douglas MacArthur, responding for the Army, stressed that enrollees would not be given military training or be subjected to military discipline. General MacArthur further pointed out that after 2 to 4 weeks the recruits would be transported from the conditioning camps to the work sites, where they would be under the supervision of personnel from the Departments of Agriculture and Interior. [18]

Two additional issues discussed in the hearings were enrollment stipulations and wages. The bill, commonly called the Federal Unemployment Relief Act, set the enlistment period at one year, with the stipulation that no discharges would be given except under rules that the president was to approve. The pay was set at $30 a month, and the enrollee was compelled to provide an allotment to any dependents. No age limits on enrollment or provisions against married men were established. Green objected that the $30 wage would drive down the wages of forest workers. [19]

Following the hearings the president called the joint committee members to the White House to explain his position on the issues. The result was that when the bill was brought up for debate in the Senate, the provisions concerning enrollment and wages had been replaced by a sentence that allowed the president to establish whatever stipulations were necessary for program operations. The Senate approved the bill on March 28, with a provision that the authority granted by this bill would end after two years, and sent it to the House. Some concern was expressed by the representatives that the cost of the program was estimated to be $1,000 per man per year. Also, since the funds for this program were to come from already budgeted public work funds, some congressmen believed they might lose funding for projects in their districts. These congressmen were convinced by the Roosevelt administration to vote for the measure. The Republicans attempted to amend the bill by setting the basic wage at $50 a month. After some debate this amendment went down to defeat. Congressman Oscar DePriest, a black Republican from Illinois, introduced an amendment prohibiting discrimination on enrollee selection based on race, color, or creed, which was passed by the House of Representatives. The amended bill was passed and sent back to the Senate. The Senate passed the amended bill by a voice vote, and the president signed the legislation into law on March 31. [20]

As President Roosevelt signed the bill, he commented that he would like to see the program begin in two weeks. On April 3, representatives of the Departments of War, Labor, Interior, and Agriculture gathered at the White House to discuss policy and implement the legislation, and President Roosevelt enumerated the duties of each agency. The Department of Labor was to initiate a nationwide recruiting program; the Army was to condition and transport enrollees to the work camps; and the Park Service and Forest Service were to operate the camps and supervise the work assignments.

(The Army's role was expanded when Park Service Director Horace Albright and Forest Service Chief Forester Robert Stuart realized that their agencies did not have enough men, equipment, or experience to operate the work camps 24 hours a day, so the Army was designated to operate and supervise the camps while the Park Service and Forest Service were to be responsible for the work projects.) [21] The president announced that Robert Fechner would be the director of the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW), as the Civilian Conservation Corps was officially called. The press, however, continued to use the title Civilian Conservation Corps and the name was officially changed to this in 1937. [22]

During the April 3 meeting it was also decided that the initial enrollment for the conservation work would be limited to single men between the ages of 18 and 25 who were willing to send up to $25 of their $30 wage check to their families. The president insisted that each camp be composed of 200 men doing work programs designed to last for six months and that he personally approve the camp locations and work assignments. Both the Forest Service and the Park Service opposed the 200-man quota because many of their jobs required fewer men. But they modified their programs to conform with presidential wishes. Another stipulation was that the bulk of the funds spent be on labor costs relating to work projects and not for the procurement of expensive equipment--that is, a bulldozer was not to be purchased, because there were enough men to do the same work. The program was to be started in the East and extended to the rest of the country as quickly as possible. The Park Service would be allowed to hire a limited number of skilled local men known as locally employed men (LEM). For these men the marriage and age stipulations would be waived. The bulk of the work force, however, was to be taken from the unemployed in large urban population centers. [23]

The discussions at the April 3 meeting formed the basis for Executive Order 6101, which was issued on April 5 to officially commence the ECW. The executive order appointed Fechner as the director of the Emergency Conservation Work and set up an advisory council consisting of representatives from the Departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture, and War. The advisory council was to provide a forum for discussing policy matters. Each department would send one representative and an assistant to each meeting. The decisions of the advisory council were not binding upon the director; his decisions could only be vetoed by the president. The first advisory council representatives were W. Frank Persons, director of the United States Employment Service from the Department of Labor; Robert Y. Stuart, chief forester of the United States Forest Service from the Department of Agriculture; Colonel Duncan K. Major, General Staff Operations and Training Division from the Department of War; and Horace M. Albright, director of the National Park Service from the Department of the Interior, who was shortly succeeded by Arno B. Cammerer. (Albright resigned as NPS director on August 10, 1933, and was replaced by Cammerer.) Later the Veterans Administration, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the Office of Education sent representatives to the meetings. The following ECW organizational chart shows the relationship of the ECW, the advisory council, and the departments and agencies involved. [24]

On April 5 the ECW advisory council convened for its first official meeting, and plans were developed for the enrollment of the first 25,000 youths. W. Frank Persons, the representative from the Department of Labor, had also contacted representatives from 17 of the country's largest cities to meet in Washington on April 5 to develop regulations for selecting enrollees. On April 7 Henry Rich of Alexandria, Virginia, was inducted as the first enrollee and sent to Camp Roosevelt near Luray, Virginia, which was under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. By April 12 Colorado and Colonial national monuments, Sequoia, Yosemite, Hot Springs, Mesa Verde, and Great Smokies national parks, and the proposed Acadia and Shenandoah national parks notified the Park Service Washington staff that they were prepared to make work assignments for ECW enrollees. On April 25 Director Fechner announced that ECW camps would be placed in Skyland and Big Meadows in the proposed Shenandoah National Park. [25]

President Roosevelt's goal to have 250,000 youths at work in the nation's parks and forests by July 1 worked a tremendous strain on the staffs of the administering agencies. The technical agencies, as the Forest Service and Park Service were referred to, were hampered by the overwhelming number of enrollees recruited, approval of work assignments, and restrictive policies regarding campsite selection. The NPS staff often worked 16 hours a day and seven days a week. By May 10 a crisis point had been reached, and it appeared that the president's objectives would not be met. The ECW advisory council worked up a program calling for more latitude of action and exemption from some government regulations. This program was brought before President Roosevelt on May 12 and received his concurrence. [26]

During this early mobilization period, three new enrollment categories were opened. On April 14 enrollment privileges were extended to American Indians, who were generally allowed to go to their work projects on a daily basis and return home at night. On April 22 enrollment was opened to locally employed men. On May 11 veterans of World War I were permitted to join the ECW. These enrollees, men in their 30s and 40s, were granted special camps, operated on a more lenient basis than the regular camps, and were selected by the Veterans Administration rather than the Labor Department. [27]

By mid-May the Park Service was prepared for 12,600 men to be employed within national parks and monuments in 63 approved camps. On May 11 the first three camps officially began operation when young men were sent from Fort Monroe, Virginia, to the proposed Shenandoah National Park and to Yorktown in Colonial National Monument. Another 10 parks planned on opening their camps in May and June. By the end of May ECW enrollees were boarded on trains in Fort Monroe and Fort Meade, Maryland, for their camp destinations in the Rocky Mountain states. By June a total of 50 camps were authorized for NPS areas, and later another 20 camps were authorized and manned. Eight of these 70 camps were in military parks and monuments, which at that time were administered by the War Department. Before the end of the first enrollment period (June 1 to September 30, 1933), these areas became part of the national park system. By July 1 approximately 34,000 youths were enrolled in 172 emergency conservation camps in 35 states. The nationwide quota of 250,000 recruits, which included the NPS quota, was achieved by this date, but the average number of enrollees in NPS camps during the first period was 36 below the presidential ideal of 200 workers per camp. [28]

At this time, state park development was in its infancy. In 1921 only 19 states had had any kind of state park system. By 1925 all 48 states had begun to formulate park development plans, but the depression had halted most of their developmental work. The Park Service had maintained a friendly relationship with the states, but had established no formal organization to help set up a state parks program. The state parks division of the ECW developed such an organization and gave the Park Service a chance to oversee the state parks systems. During the first enrollment period, 105 ECW camps were assigned to state parks projects in 26 states. The Park Service supplied or employed technicians, using ECW funds, to assist in the development and planning of the state parks systems. Recreational parks, wildlife conservation projects, and historical restoration programs within the states were begun under this program. [29]

By July President Roosevelt had not indicated whether he would exercise his option to extend the ECW. The Park Service proceeded on the assumption that the work would be continued for at least another six months and determined which camps could be operated in the winter months and which camps could be operated in the summer of 1934. Since it was expected that the ECW camps would become tourist attractions during the summer months, the Park Service directed that camp officials be available on weekends to answer questions from the public. Park Service officials in Washington directed field officers to issue press releases to local newspapers as to the work being done by the ECW in an effort to rally support for the continuation of the ECW. It was further requested that the Washington office be furnished material for general news releases. To inform the public of the benefits of the ECW, NPS Chief of the Division of Public Relations Isabelle T. Story wrote a pamphlet entitled "National Parks and Emergency Conservation," which described the conservation work being conducted in the national park areas. In it she estimated that a ECW camp would spend $5,000 per month in local markets, giving a substantial boost to the local economy and adding millions of dollars nationally when clothing, equipment, and other supplies were purchased for the conservation work. The ECW received favorable public comment and on August 19, 1933, President Roosevelt announced that the ECW camps were authorized to continue for another six months, with the second enrollment period from October 1, 1933, to March 31, 1934. The enlistment goal was 300,000 men, 25,000 of whom were to be veterans and an equal number to be LEMs. The president wanted all enrollees who had served a year in the ECW to be "mustered out" and replacements selected; however, some enrollees were allowed to reenlist for this second period. (Eventually an enrollee was allowed to remain in the ECW for a maximum of two years.) To fill vacancies, the government set the months of January, April, July, and October as the time to make enrollment selections. Applications could be made any time during the year. [30]

Before the winter of 1933 some ECW camps in severe climates were moved to southern areas and other camps were relocated closer to park headquarters. If the Army or the Park Service objected to a particular camp remaining open during the winter months, the camp was closed until the following summer. The summer tent camps gradually were replaced by more substantial wooden structures, although tents continued to be used for the side camps for which the Park Service was responsible. (Side camps--small temporary camps to support work projects in remote areas--were first authorized by Roosevelt in July 1933.) [31]

The work undertaken by the ECW during its first year included forest improvement projects, construction and maintenance of fire breaks, clearing of campgrounds and trails, construction of fire and recreation-related structures, road and trail building, forest fire suppression, survey work, plant eradication, erosion control, bridge building, flood control, tree disease control, insect control, campground construction, and landscaping. These projects were done in national parks and in state parks, with more rigid planning, inspections, and supervision being given to those projects proposed for national parks and monuments. Within the National Park Service, ECW enrollees provided guide services and other park tasks in the military areas transferred from the War Department. During 1933 the bulk of the work was accomplished in the months of July, August, and September. [32]

THE EARLY YEARS

The challenge of beginning an effective ECW program/organization was met in 1933. The next year saw the growth and expansion of the ECW, along with relaxed restrictions on employing LEMs and the types of jobs that could be accomplished using ECW labor. [33] Park superintendents and project supervisors were allowed more freedom in hiring local men. The projects that ECW workers were permitted to undertake were expanded, and job specifications such as the acceptable width of roads and trails were liberalized. Also in 1934, the Park Service began a program of hiring college students in specialized fields to serve as technical advisors (see chapter 2 for more details). Sixty-one camps in NPS areas and 239 state camps existed in 32 states by the end of March 1934. By October the expansion of the ECW program gave the Park Service a total of 102 camps in national parks and monument areas and 263 camps administered under the state parks program. [34]

In mid-December 1933, the ECW program was extended to the territory of Hawaii, and in January 1934, the Park Service enrolled men for Hawaii National Park. The superintendent of Hawaii National Park and the governor of Hawaii administered this ECW program. The NPS superintendent had a civilian camp director under his authority who operated the camps. Under the camp director was the project superintendent, who took care of the men out in the field. The enrollees worked both from camps (in Hawaii National Park) and from their homes. In December of that year the program was expanded to the Virgin Islands and was administered by the Park Service in a manner similar to the Hawaiian program. At that time the Park Service also was responsible for supervision of some ECW projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority and six drought relief camps for the Bureau of Reclamation. [35]

In the first two years of the ECW, it was forbidden to work outside park boundaries. To successfully conduct campaigns to provide insect control, reduce fire hazards, construct trails, provide disease control, and other forest protection measures, however, it proved necessary to expand the work beyond park or monument boundaries onto U.S. Forest Service land, private land, or the public domain. When this occurred, the individual case was evaluated and permission granted by the Office of the Director of the Emergency Conservation Work. In early 1935 the custodian of Devils Tower National Monument requested permission to conduct forest protection work beyond the monument's boundaries, and routine approval was granted by Fechner's office. The incident, however, prompted Director Cammerer to seek a broad agreement by which the Park Service itself could determine if the conservation work justified going beyond park boundaries. Director Fechner approved this request on May 20, 1935. [36]

Prior to the end of the congressional authorization for the ECW in 1935, President Roosevelt notified Director Fechner that he would ask Congress to extend the program, as he believed it had proved beneficial to both the nation and American youth. Congressional passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935, extended the ECW until March 31, 1937. President Roosevelt then issued a directive on April 10 for the ECW enrollment to become 600,000 workers, doubling its size. To accomplish this expansion, the maximum age limit was raised to 28 and the minimum lowered to 17. More than 300,000 youths needed to be recruited. The Park Service was given permission to employ 120,000 and later 150,000 men on projects. This expanded ECW camps inside and outside national park and monument areas and resulted in hiring additional personnel to assist in the administrative work. The pre-ECW NPS staff consisted of 6,192 people. To help administer the ECW program another 7,422 people exclusive of enrollees were hired by the end of June 1935. [37]

Even as the enrollment in the ECW was being doubled, President Roosevelt began to think in terms of reducing the size of the corps and making it a permanent organization. On September 25, 1935, he instructed Fechner to begin reducing the ECW to 300,000 men by June 1, 1938. To implement this instruction, the Park Service had to drop 68 camps from the winter operation schedule and 61 camps for the summer period of 1936. Conrad L. Wirth, head of the NPS state parks program, believed that the camp cuts would result in a similar reduction in the inspection staff, and he directed the ECW administrative officers to evaluate their camp inspectors to determine who should be retained. The enrollment cuts were to be accomplished by attrition. As the camp reduction became known to the public, the president, faced with mounting public opposition, slightly modified his position and allowed the ECW to continue enrollment at 350,000; however, he continued working toward further camp reductions. [38]

At the same time the first efforts were made to make the ECW a permanent government agency. To bolster arguments in support of such an agency, Wirth instructed regional, state, and park officials to be ready to show congressmen the work already accomplished by the ECW and to explain the work remaining to be done. Herbert Evison, Wirth's assistant, asked that photographs of work accomplished be sent to the Washington Office in case they were needed during the congressional hearing on the ECW. [39]

The continuing reduction in ECW enrollee quotas led to further camp closures. In April of 1936 the Park Service was notified by Director Fechner that its quota had been reduced from 446 to 340 camps. To implement this reduction, park areas in which several camps existed were forced to lose a camp. Then in May the Park Service was directed to reduce the total number of state and NPS camps by 20. (Chief Historian Verne E. Chatelain complained that the cuts fell most heavily on the NPS camps and less severely on the state parks program.) Not only was the number of camps reduced, but the number of enrollees for each camp averaged 160 men compared to the earlier 200-man camps. Also the student technical advisors were limited to one per camp, but their pay was increased to between $75 and $85 a month and they were granted civil service protection. [40]

The 1936 personnel reduction was an economy measure by the president, but it was also another attempt to create a smaller agency which could be made permanent. In his annual budget message to Congress on January 5, 1937, President Roosevelt lauded the accomplishments of the ECW and asked Congress to pass legislation to establish the corps as a permanent federal agency. The president envisioned the smaller agency to consist of 300,000 young men and war veterans along with 10,000 Indians and 7,000 enrollees from U.S. territories. Congressional action on the matter was required, as authority for the ECW program ended on June 30, 1937. The prospect of a smaller agency required the Park Service to rethink how best to utilize the enrollees. Previously, it had used technical ECW personnel in positions that would otherwise have been part of the regular departmental payroll. To correct this situation, NPS officials began working toward converting the temporary ECW positions to permanent positions meeting civil service requirements. [41]

On March 21, 1937, President Roosevelt sent a message to Congress that further defined the role of a permanent ECW-type agency, indicating that its enrollees would be used for forestry work, soil conservation tasks, flood control, and other simple work tasks. In another message to Congress on April 5 the president defined the structure of the permanent agency. The Civilian Conservation Corps, as it was to be called, was to be an independent agency, with all ECW records and property transferred to it. New employees would come under civil service provisions, and the present employees would be given the Civil Service Commission noncompetitive examination within 12 months of the bill's passage. The president recommended that the age of the enrollees be changed to include those between 17 and 23 years old who could prove they were impoverished. [42]

On June 28, 1937, Congress passed new legislation that formally established the Civilian Conservation Corps (thus officially no longer the ECW). The bill, however, differed from the administration's proposal in a number of ways: the CCC was not made a permanent agency--it was only extended for three more years; the employees were not placed under civil service authority; no action was taken on the presidential age requirement proposal; and a provision was inserted in the bill that set aside 10 hours a week for general education or vocational training for the enrollees. Despite these differences, the president signed the bill into law. [43]

President Roosevelt designated ECW Director Robert Fechner as the director of the newly established CCC. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes designated the National Park Service and Conrad Wirth to represent the Department of the Interior in meetings of the CCC advisory council. Also Secretary Ickes announced that the National Park Service would undertake a nationwide recreation study in cooperation with the state and municipal authorities to determine regional recreational needs and inventory existing and potential park and recreation areas. This study was an outgrowth of the CCC state parks program. [44]

Throughout 1937 the Park Service faced the challenge of reducing CCC camps. As camps were terminated, the Washington Office received complaints from park superintendents that necessary work was being indefinitely deferred. (For example, officials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park expressed concern that the CCC camp reductions had cost the park vital forest fire protection. Chattanooga, Tennessee, town officials expressed concern that the closing of a camp at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park would hinder park development.) Washington officials tried to calm these fears by pointing out that once the CCC became a permanent government agency, the need for further cuts would be alleviated and the parks' delayed projects would be addressed. [45]

The reduction of CCC camps continued into 1938 as the funding for the program was further cut by Congress. A few Democratic congressmen, led by Oklahoma Representative Jed Johnson, attempted to restore the full appropriation but were outvoted in the House of Representatives. The camp reduction program was halted at 1,500 camps on a nationwide basis when Representative Clifton A. Woodrum of Virginia successfully introduced a measure to restore $50 million dollars to the work relief programs to prevent closing another 300 camps. This measure passed both the House and Senate and helped to stabilize the CCC program. The NPS allotment was 77 camps for national park and monument areas and 245 camps for the state parks program. [46]

In 1939 another attempt was made in Congress to establish the CCC as a permanent agency of the federal government. Again it failed. In addition, the CCC lost its status as an independent agency when President Roosevelt moved to consolidate all the federal relief programs into the Federal Security Agency, the Federal Works Agency, or the Federal Loans Agency. The Reorganization Act of 1939, which brought the CCC under the Federal Security Agency on July 1, emphasized the role of the CCC in promoting the welfare and education of its enrollees. [47]

Large-scale camp reductions did not take place in 1939; however, the CCC program continued to have some camps phased out and relocated to other areas. Over the years park superintendents, park staff, and camp personnel had given support to local groups wishing to prevent these camp relocations. Director Cammerer came out with a strong memorandum against this practice, which commented:

Embarrassment has been caused the Service and the Department because of conflicting reports from field officers about changes in location of CCC camps at end of enrollment periods. Such changes are made because of winter weather conditions, because work programs have been finished, and in consideration of CCC construction projects throughout the country.

There is frequently much local opposition to the removal of CCC camps, and for this reason superintendents of national parks or officers in charge of other areas in which the camps are located must be extremely careful to avoid statements which may be interpreted as opposition to the program of transfers of CCC Camps which has been determined upon by the Department in agreement with the Director of the CCC.

It is the responsibility of the Regional Director to recommend locations for camps, to determine when a camp has completed its program, and to recommend the locations where new camps are desirable. But a decision having been reached, superintendents and others must loyally abide by it. [48]

At the close of fiscal year 1939 the president ordered Park Service to reduce the number of supervisory personnel involved in CCC work. Fears had been expressed by park superintendents in their 1938 conference that any further reduction in the number of CCC supervisors and funding for materials would lead to a situation where the CCC would be more of a relief agency than a working agency. Still, the Park Service had to find some means of reducing supervisory personnel without drastically affecting the work projects. After visiting the regional offices and discussing the matter with CCC Director Fechner, Conrad Wirth decided to create central service units within NPS regional offices to handle design and technical matters and to abolish these positions within individual camps. Such a solution had proven economically successful for the state parks program, and in early 1940 this plan was implemented. Fechner also wanted the Park Service to eliminate the use of CCC enrollees as park guides and fee collectors and in performing other operational tasks by July 1940. An NPS task force on this program agreed with Fechner and recommended to the NPS director that these jobs be made regular NPS positions. The task force concluded that this conversion probably could not be accomplished until 1943. [49]

Despite the cutbacks in personnel, the NPS design staff prepared plans for projects that the CCC camps would not be able to complete due to a lack of available funding. These projects were then held in abeyance until sufficient funds became available for implementation. Some of the plans remained unfunded until after World War II. [50]

On December 31, 1939, CCC Director Robert Fechner died in Walter Reed Hospital from complications following a heart attack. His successor was James L. McEntee, the executive assistant director of the CCC. McEntee faced myriad challenges--desertions, low morale in the camps, budgetary and personnel reductions, the poor quality of the recruits who were joining the CCC, and the CCC's own indefinite future as an organization. Desertions among CCC enrollees were increasing as the ablest young men obtained employment outside the CCC and families became less dependent on the $25 monthly allotment checks. The problem of recruiting capable personnel plagued the CCC for the rest of its existence. [51]

President Roosevelt in his budget message for fiscal year 1941 asked Congress to reduce the CCC to 230,000 enrollees in 1,227 camps. The Congress in response to protests added $50 million to the administration's CCC budget to prevent any reduction in camps or personnel. The number of CCC camps within national park areas increased slightly and the number of state park camps decreased slightly. [52]

THE PRE-WAR YEARS

World events in 1940 had a dramatic impact on the CCC. World War II had begun in Europe and President Roosevelt and the Congress began planning for the defense of the United States. The reserve military officers in charge of the CCC camps were gradually withdrawn and placed on active military duty. In the House of Representatives, two resolutions were introduced to require that eight hours a week of military tactics and drill be given to CCC enrollees. Opposition to these measures prevented their passage. Director McEntee, along with army authorities, revamped the CCC training and education program to meet some of the needs of national defense, however. The new program emphasized courses in shop mathematics, blueprint reading, basic engineering, and other skills considered vital to national defense. After the fall of France, in June 1940, President Roosevelt proclaimed a limited national emergency, thus opening the way for the establishment of CCC camps on military bases. The enrollees were to work on constructing airfields, obstacle courses, and artillery ranges, clearing land for military training exercises, and erecting military structures. The traditional CCC program, which emphasized physical fitness, hard work, obedience to orders, and communal living, helped to prepare American youth for the rigors of military life. [53]

By 1941 the national defense program had dramatically affected the CCC program. It became increasingly difficult to recruit young men for the CCC as they were lured away by higher paying national defense jobs. The labor shortage and national defense preparation forced a further reduction in CCC camps beginning on April 1, 1941--from 1,500 to 1,100. The Park Service's portion of the reduction amounted to 23 percent of existing camps. As the NPS camps were closed down, many were transferred to military reservations specifically to do national defense work. Once these CCC camps were transferred, the only control the Park Service retained was technical supervision of the work projects. A number of the few remaining NPS-controlled camps were assigned the task of constructing inexpensive rest camps for use by military men on leave. These camps were usually constructed near population centers and contained barracks and recreation facilities. [54]

Military training in the CCC continued to take more and more of the work time of the enrollees. The "5-hour-10-hour" program, adopted in January 1941, allowed youths in selected camps to be excused from work for five hours a week to take national defense training provided they would devote 10 hours a week of their own free time to this training. On August 16, 1941, rules were adopted to drill all CCC enrollees in simple military formations, but no guns were issued. Twenty hours a week were to be devoted to general defense training, and of this time eight hours could be done during regular work hours. After the completion of this basic training, the most promising enrollees would be directed into full-time defense work such as cooking, first aid, demolition, road and bridge construction, radio operations, and signal communication. [55]

As the number of youths enlisting in the CCC continued to decline in 1941, the Park Service began to terminate all CCC camps that could not maintain 165 men per camp to avoid excessive overhead expenses. In September 1941 the corps was further reduced to a total of 900 camps which decreased the number of camps allocated to the National Park Service by an additional 20 percent. At the same time, new camps were to be established first in areas with national defense projects and next in national park and monument areas. The majority of the national defense projects were on military installations away from NPS areas. The National Park Service lost 133 CCC camps between September and November 1941, and the ability to carry out any park development programs was seriously impaired. Superintendents at Lassen Volcanic National Park and Death Valley National Monument, among other parks, complained that the loss of CCC camps severely curtailed park development and maintenance. They were, however, were prepared to make this sacrifice if necessary for the national defense program and if the cuts could not be made in other parks. [56]

THE WAR YEARS AND THE CONCLUSION OF THE CCC

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the entry of the United States into World War II brought further dramatic changes to the CCC program in the National Park Service. With the declaration of war, the Park Service terminated all CCC projects that did not directly relate to the war effort, leaving only 89 NPS camps operating by the end of December. Fifty of these camps were assigned to military and naval areas, 20 were in national parks and monuments, 10 were in recreational demonstration areas, and 9 were in state park areas. [57]

On December 24, 1941, the Joint Appropriations Committee of Congress, considering the appropriations bill of 1941-1942, recommended that the CCC be terminated no later than July 1, 1942. President Roosevelt conceded that the CCC could be abolished but argued that it should be maintained as it performed needed conservation work and served as a training program for pre-draft-age youth. Roosevelt urged members of Congress to continue the CCC in light of the essential war work that the enrollees were performing--building military training facilities, barracks, roads, and recreational facilities for military uses and fencing military reservations. [58]

While Congress and the president debated the fate of the CCC, Director McEntee ordered that all existing CCC camps be closed as quickly as feasible unless they met one of two criteria--the camp was engaged in war work construction or in protection of war-related natural resources. Some camps in NPS areas specializing in forest fire protection work were permitted to continue under the second criterion. The effective date for application of this guideline was set for the end of May 1942. Within the National Park Service, Wirth gave further instructions to the regional directors on the termination of CCC camps. He recommended that any incomplete CCC jobs be finished as quickly as possible, using labor paid from other sources, and that any leftover material be transferred to other CCC projects in the area or be declared surplus and disposed of following regional instructions. The closing of those CCC camps that did not meet the criteria was facilitated by the fact that many of the young men and their supervisors were taking jobs with defense industries or going into the military. Even in some of the remaining camps, it was not possible to keep a full complement of 200 men. [59]

On May 4, 1942, President Roosevelt asked the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to appropriate $49,101,000 to maintain 150 CCC camps from July 1, 1942, until June 30, 1943. The committee defied the president and voted 15 to 12 against funding the CCC beyond July 1. An attempt was made on June 5 on the floor of the House of Representatives to restore funding, but the House voted 158 to 151 not to appropriate further monies for the CCC. They did vote $500,000 to cover the cost of terminating the program. At the end of June, a Senate and House conference committee agreed to provide an additional $7.5 million to all agencies to cover the cost of terminating the CCC. This action was approved by both the House and Senate, thus forecasting the end of the CCC on July 2, 1942. [60]

During the congressional debate over the CCC, the National Park Service began to prepare for closure of the camps. In May the NPS regional directors were instructed to prepare press releases to be placed in local papers describing the closing of local CCC camps and giving an explanation for the closures. In June Conrad Wirth still hoped that at least a small number of camps could be continued through the summer months to provide forest fire protection for parks, but this was not allowed. Prior to the end of June, the Hawaiian Islands CCC camps were transferred to military bases, while the Virgin Islands CCC camps were discontinued as defense work provided employment for the islands' young men. [61]

As the CCC program was being terminated, maintenance work in the parks suffered dramatically. Trails and parking lots on the Blue Ridge Parkway and in Shenandoah National Park were gradually reclaimed by nature because the parks could not spare enough laborers to maintain them. The superintendent of Shenandoah was deeply concerned that the park could not be maintained after the termination of the CCC, as were officials at other parks such as Acadia National Park and Death Valley National Monument. These areas, prior to and since their establishment, had been dependent upon CCC labor to do work that in older parks had been allocated to regular park staff. The loss of the CCC meant that both old and new parks suffered from a loss of fire protection and maintenance staff. [62]

The advisory council for the Civilian Conservation Corps met on July 1 to consider how to accomplish the CCC termination. It was decided that once the enrollees were transported back to their corps areas, the educational advisors, camp commander and his subordinates, doctors, and chaplains would be dismissed. The Park Service set up a single procurement number for the regions and camps to use during termination proceedings. All work projects were to be halted immediately, if possible, or no later than Saturday, July 14. The Army was to assist in moving the youths and equipment, and all equipment was to be placed in central warehouses and protected until the Park Service could make a determination as to the final disposition of the property. Only those employees required for termination could be retained; all others were to be dismissed. Those workers having less than a month's annual leave would be given two weeks' notice and the rest would be given terminal leave. The final termination was scheduled to be completed no later than June 30, 1943. [63]

The termination process varied from one park to another. For example, all CCC projects in Glacier National Park were halted on July 9, while the superintendent of Isle Royale National Park had received no official notice of the termination by July 10. By the end of July, however, all CCC camp operations in NPS areas had ceased. A number of park superintendents expressed their appreciation for the CCC work and regret concerning the program's termination. Both park superintendents and regional officials requested that the Washington Office ask for an increase in maintenance funds to make up for the loss of the CCC. Officials in Washington responded that the Park Service would be fortunate to keep the present maintenance funds and that there would be no additional funding. Instead, it was recommended to the parks that other activities be curtailed and the money saved used for maintenance. An attempt was made to obtain additional funding for park protection projects; this achieved only limited success. [64]

The most difficult task proved to be the inventorying and disposition of camp equipment--office equipment, automobiles, trucks, construction equipment, barracks furnishings, library material, tools of all kinds, furniture, and the camp buildings. Once a full inventory was made, the items were to be transferred to the military for the war effort or, in descending priority, to the Park Service, other federal agencies, state, county, or municipal agencies, or nonprofit organizations devoted to the promotion of conservation, education, recreation, or health. The NPS policy on CCC camp buildings was that they were either to be used or torn down. Some of the camps, such as the one at Hopewell Village National Historic Site, were converted to rest and relaxation camps for British sailors, others to rest areas for American soldiers, sailors, and marines. CCC camps on the Blue Ridge Parkway and in Shenandoah National Park and Glacier National Park became Civilian Public Service camps in which conscientious objectors performed tasks that were similar to the CCC work. Other camp buildings were dismantled and moved to military reservations for use by the armed services. By June 30, 1943, the termination of the CCC was completed at a cost to the Park Service of $8,347,256. [65]

Toward the end of World War II there was public interest in reviving the CCC program, but Congress failed to act on any of the proposals submitted. Park Service officials requested the U.S. attorney general to rule on the reinstatement rights of former CCC employees returning from the war. NPS representatives had been contacted by these people who wanted to secure jobs within the parks or administrative centers. The attorney general ruled that the CCC was an emergency relief agency and the former employees had no reinstatement rights with the Park Service. After the war, on December 11, 1946, the Selective Service System transferred all former CCC property (which it had received from the Park Service in the first months of World War II) back to the Park Service for final disposition. [66]