Once upon a Christmas, a new American president best noted for his oratory took office during a financial crisis. Americans were losing their savings, their homes and their jobs.
Some economic advisers and Wall Street big shots advised the president to give gifts to big banks and corporations, claiming it would trickle down to help everyone else. But the president decided to do something radically different.
Rather than rescue the rich, he decided to spend government dollars at the bottom, at the base of the system. He used limited government dollars to put the working class back to work. He figured that jobs would be the best holiday presents of all.
What would the new government hires do? After years of neglect, the president realized that America’s infrastructure needed rebuilding. Roads and bridges were collapsing, schools were crumbling. Public buildings, parks and facilities had been long neglected.
The president tried many different programs, an alphabet jungle of agencies: AAA, CCC, NRA, PWA, TVA, WPA. Some did not work and were dropped. Others might be used as models for subsequent presidents facing similar economic collapse.
One of the most successful programs was created by the Civilian Conservation Corps Reforestation Relief Act on March 31, 1933. The CCC aimed to save both unemployed young men and endangered lands during the Great Depression by putting men to work conserving public lands. The CCC was a pet program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had initiated a prototype program as governor of New York.
The CCC hired unemployed male American citizens between the ages of 17 and 25. Applicants enrolled for six-month terms, with a maximum re-enlistment period of two years. Each earned a salary of $30 a month, $25 of which was sent to his family.
The federal departments of Labor, War, Agriculture and Interior jointly administered the CCC program. The Department of Labor selected and enrolled the men, while the War (now Defense) Department set up and ran the CCC work camps. The Department of Agriculture (which included the National Park Service) and the Department of Interior (which included the National Park Service) chose the camp locations and projects, developed the plans, and supervised the work.
War Department oversight gave life in the CCC camps a military cast. CCC workers ate and slept in barracks, worked in groups, obeyed orders, followed time schedules, and trained to keep physically fit. They wore surplus World War I military uniforms. Each camp was commanded by a U.S. Army captain or lieutenant and the men were issued uniforms and ranks similar to those in the army.
The CCC proved to be one of the most successful and popular New Deal programs. The CCC slogan, “Save the Soil, Save the Forest, Save the Young Man,” rang true for hundreds of thousands of “Soil Soldiers,” as enlistees were known. The CCC provided positive, constructive, organized work, introduced boys to the beauty of the outdoors and taught them work skills. Many young men were among the 30 percent of Americans unemployed in 1933. At the same time, an estimated 50 million acres of land had been damaged by erosion, wildfires or non-sustainable farming practices. The “soil soldiers” of the CCC not only preserved and restored natural environments, they also enhanced the built environment.
Nationwide, the CCC restored 3,980 historic structures, built 46,980 bridges, laid 122,000 miles of roadway, constructed 5 million erosion-control dams, built 11,000 toilets and 4,334 sewage systems, and planted 2 billion trees. In Colorado, more than 170 different CCC camps employed 32,000 young men and contributed $56 million to the state’s economy. Of several thousand CCC projects to conserve or improve Colorado public lands, the outdoor amphitheatre at Red Rocks would become the most celebrated. Great as such achievements are, the greatest achievement of the CCC was to save otherwise unemployed young men from despair and hopelessness.
Tom Noel (coloradowebsites.com/ dr-colorado) teaches history at the University of Colorado Denver and appears as Dr. Colorado on Channel 9’s “Colorado & Company” every other Tuesday.
