Civilian Conservation Corps (Ccc)

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

Tagged "Roosevelt's Tree Army," or "the Soil Soldiers," the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was not a military program, but it was modeled on military organization and incorporated the military spirit of public service. Established in 1933, the CCC was one of many programs in the New Deal's war against the economic depression. In his 1933 inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for "broad Executive power to wage a war" against the Depression and for power "that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe." In many ways the New Deal's recovery programs were conceived as if the United States were at war, such as the National Recovery Administration that was modeled after the War Industries Board that President Woodrow Wilson had created to mobilize the nation's economy to win World War I.

Created during the first Hundred Days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the CCC employed primarily unmarried men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-eight to plant trees, fight forest fires, battle forest tree pests, stock fish, and conduct other conservation work in the national forests, national parks, and other public lands. The "Three Cs," as enrollees nicknamed it, was also a relief program that (at the start of the program) paid them thirty dollars a month, twenty-five of which was sent back to the employee's family.

The CCC was part of Roosevelt's "war" to defeat the Great Depression, which had left 25 percent of the workforce idle. Officers from the U.S. Army, Naval, and Marine Reserves supervised the construction and maintenance of CCC camps where the enrollees lived. And CCC advocates suffused publicity with military language: Enlisting the unemployed to restore the nation's over-harvested forests and badly eroded streams was pronounced "the Moral Equivalent of War." It also employed World War I veterans; a total of 213,000 middle-aged former servicemen were part of the CCC.

Within two months of the 1933 legislation, 64,000 unemployed youth had been enrolled; by the end of the program in 1942, 3.19 million young men had served in the CCC. Only the War Department had experience with the mobilization of so many so quickly—a larger undertaking than the Spanish-American War, for example. Each agency involved relied upon military officers to oversee the construction of barracks, mess halls, recreation buildings, infirmaries, educational and library buildings, garages, tool sheds, and machine shops in the more than 4,500 camps. Some of these buildings were designed with such care that they are still used by government agencies; the commanding officer of each company also took charge of day-to-day administration of the camp. Park superintendents and district rangers, who supervised the men in the field, at times became impatient with the amount of time military men required the enrollees to spend in the camps, but they relied upon the discipline instilled there.

Less than half the enrollees were from urban areas; in fact, the majority of the young men were from communities not unlike the ones in which they were camped. The young men rose at 6 A.M., worked from 8 A.M. until 5 P.M., then had a choice of athletics, attending classes, or various entertainments in the evenings. Over 90 percent of the men attended at least one class during their six-month tour. They could earn both eighth grade and high school certificates as well as learn marketable skills such as typing. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of North Carolina and Tennessee, which boasted seventeen CCC camps, the men formed baseball teams and companies challenged each other to tournaments. Many of the camps published newsletters announcing the residents' achievements and sharing songs and stories.

Although official policy prohibited discrimination, the 330,000 African Americans who served were segregated into colored units. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) objected to this practice, and by the end of the program some northern camps were integrated. Most public agencies, such as the National Park Service, bowed to local customs in the matter of segregation. The War Department also selected whites as commanding officers, stating that using black officers "was still in the experimental stages." Because local and state communities complained about having black camps in their area, some African-American enrollees ended up serving on military reservations; others at the more remotely located national parks.

The CCC was the nation's first major and long-term effort to apply lessons learned from war-time mobilization to put the unemployed to work. In the early years, the CCC faced considerable opposition from local communities, who expressed fears that "bums" and "delinquents" would pollute the water, disturb the wildlife, drink, and ravage women. To counter these fears, the CCC established an aggressive publicity campaign, which not only sent camp officials to speak at the Rotary or other local civic organizations but also urged enrollees to write essays for local newspapers to explain the benefits of the program.

Nevertheless, like all New Deal programs, the CCC faced severe criticism from conservative congressmen, who labeled it socialism. It also faced a steady 8 percent desertion rate, as the primitive living experience and military order were not for everyone; this jumped to 20 percent toward the end of the program, when other jobs became plentiful. Despite criticism, the CCC work record was impressive. According to official records, they planted 2.36 billion trees, constructed 126,000 trails, built 6.6 million erosion-control dams, and spent 6.5 million man-days fighting forest fires. They restored streams, built fish hatcheries, and "planted" a billion fish in streams. Memoirs and oral histories also show that participants found considerable pride in their achievements. Unemployed and without job experience in the middle of the Great Depression, they were grateful for regular meals, new clothes, something to do, and of course, the great good fun of being in the woods with other young men their own age.

The CCC combined military discipline, employment, and public service. It put young men to work, rather than on welfare. It left a legacy of national service that not only contributed to the public good, but also helped individuals rebuild lives shattered by the Great Depression.

New Deal; Roosevelt, Eleanor; Roosevelt, Franklin Delano.

Merrill, Perry H. Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933–1942. Montpelier, VT: Perry H. Merrill, 1981.

Otis, Alison T., et al. The Forest Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps: 1933–1942. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1986.

Paige, John C. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933–1942: An Administrative History. Denver, CO: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1985.

Salmond, John A. The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933–1942: A New Deal Case Study. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967.

This is the complete article, containing 1,110 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).