CCC 3

0:01So

0:03FDR in the New Deal began putting young

0:06men to work to convince them that they

0:11had a future in the American economy

0:13with the Emergency Conservation Work Act

0:17and Executive Order 6101.

0:20Right? So, the Emergency Conservation

0:23Work Act, ECW, work hand in hand with

0:26the executive order put out by the uh

0:29Oval Office to help establish what

0:32becomes known as the CCC.

0:35That's done during the spring of 1933.

0:39And the two actions together

0:43established a voluntary work service for

0:46young men between the ages of 18 and 25.

0:50So, first thing I want to point out is

0:53that this isn't mandatory work, right?

0:56It's very clear the the FDR wants to be

0:58very clear that what they are doing is

1:01creating an opportunity for people to

1:03join in if they want to demonstrate that

1:07they want to make money and take care of

1:09their families. Essentially, they want

1:11to become men. They want to demonstrate

1:14that they are an asset to society. And

1:17they're targeting, of course, these

1:18young people between 18 and 25, although

1:22eventually they did expand it uh to 17

1:25to 28. The person in charge of the

1:29Civilian Conservation Corps was a man

1:32named Robert Fetchner. And Fetchner was

1:36from Tennessee.

1:38Uh he had only an elementary school

1:40education

1:42and he had been in the trades his entire

1:44life. He was actually at the time he was

1:46appointed in 1933 the vice president of

1:50international association of machinists.

1:52So he was a union leader. He had a a

1:55career advocating for young working men

1:59which made him the perfect kind of guy

2:01to oversee this project. He had come up

2:03working with his hands. He had been a

2:05skilled tradesman. The CCC was going to

2:08create manual labor jobs as a form of

2:12skill development. And so it was better

2:14to have somebody who knew that in charge

2:17than other people. A final thing here is

2:19that this was to be temporary work. The

2:22CCC was not intended to provide jobs

2:26forever. The idea was that these young

2:29men would get a paycheck. They would uh

2:33get medical care. They would get fed.

2:35They would learn how to work. and then

2:38they would go out and take jobs in the

2:40private economy as it recovered in the

2:42coming years. So, it wasn't supposed to

2:45be a permanent program and it wasn't

2:47supposed to provide permanent work. FDR

2:51also meant it to be something that

2:55demonstrated he was an effective leader

2:57and that the federal government could

2:59spend money in effective ways. This was

3:02a new idea. Again, the federal

3:05government didn't directly involve

3:07itself in job creation before FDR took

3:11office. And he only did it, he didn't

3:13love the idea. He only did it because he

3:16felt like it was an absolute necessity.

3:19So when he says, I propose to create

3:22this to be used in complex work, right?

3:26not interfering with normal employment

3:29and confining itself to forestry and

3:31then these other sort of like ecological

3:33measures. You know what he's saying is

3:34is I'm not competing with private

3:38business. I'm just filling in a gap that

3:41isn't being filled in. And he says,

3:44look, this is work that is definite and

3:47practical.

3:48Right? This doesn't just put money into

3:51people's hands, but it helps create

3:55national wealth. In the later days of

3:58his presidency, Herbert Hoover, FDR's

4:00predecessor, had tried works programs

4:02and they had failed. And so, people

4:04tended to see job creation

4:08as a waste of money. But a lot of people

4:12didn't want to go look for these jobs

4:14because there were so many negative

4:16associations with government sponsored

4:18jobs. So what FDR is trying to do is to

4:21say like I can use the power of the

4:25federal government to spend money

4:27directly to directly influence people's

4:30employment in a positive way. This isn't

4:32a waste of money. This isn't a waste of

4:35power. I'm an effective leader. You

4:38should see my presidency and the

4:40Democratic party as an effective entity

4:42that's going to fix a problem the

4:44Republican party couldn't fix in the

4:47late [clears throat] 1920s.

4:49So FDR wasn't just throwing money at a

4:54problem. Fetchner's civilian

4:58conservation core camps were sort of

5:00semi-ilitary work camps. They're they

5:03take urban kids, right? to take kids out

5:06of the city and put them in rural

5:09America and a lot of what they're doing

5:11is forestry. So, they're cutting down

5:13trees, they're doing logging, they're

5:15pruning, they're maintaining

5:18uh you know, timber resources, but

5:20they're also making improvements to

5:23federal parks and federal uh campgrounds

5:27to national parks. They're also doing

5:30some basic dam work uh and flood

5:33control. So they're doing work that gets

5:36these city kids out of the city and wink

5:39wink nudge nudge away from criminals,

5:43away from organized crime, away from the

5:45sin of the city, out into fresh air

5:48where they're going to do this honest

5:49labor that has social value and pays

5:52them a little bit of money. So if you

5:55wanted to get a job, you had to fit that

5:57age range that I mentioned earlier. And

6:00you could work for up to 18 months,

6:02right? because you had 18 months of work

6:04and then you had to go find something

6:06else to do. But in that 18 months, your

6:09um you had to come from a family that

6:11was receiving some form of government

6:13financial assistance. So the people who

6:16are can qualify are people from the

6:20worst backgrounds, right? They're people

6:21from immigrant backgrounds. Uh they're

6:24people who are Irish, who are German,

6:26who are Italian. A lot of them are black

6:28as well. There are a lot of young men

6:31from the the populations that are

6:33suffering the worst because of the

6:35depression that get these jobs. So when

6:38you got one of these jobs, each enrolle

6:41got a monthly salary of $30, which

6:45again, I know that don't sound like a

6:46lot, but that's pretty good cash in the

6:481930s. Of the $30, 25 of it went home to

6:53your family. So you did not see $30

6:56cash. $25 cash went to your mom and dad

7:00so they could buy food, clothing, and

7:02fuel. They could take care of your

7:03family back home. The rest of the $5

7:06went to the worker to spend as he chose.

7:10Right? So what the CCC did initially in

7:1433 and 34 was promise the 250,000 people

7:19who voluntarily signed up food,

7:22clothing, shelter, medical care, and

7:25educational and recreational

7:28opportunities.

7:29Right? So you signed up for this and you

7:32got a chance to learn a skill or trade.

7:34You got better English education. You

7:37got a civics education. The CCC is

7:40trying to bridge a gap in providing the

7:43tools people needed to be successful

7:45Americans. Enrolles typically lived in

7:49barracks. They're like these wooden

7:50cabins that they have to build

7:52themselves. Uh and they got two standard

7:55CCC uniforms. They're just like khaki

7:58pants, khaki shirt, uh a hat, and boots.

8:02Um and if you're thinking that sounds a

8:04lot like a military uniform, uh you're

8:07you're correct. They they were basically

8:10just military uniforms and army

8:14personnel did oversee the camps, right?

8:19Army officers were the ones managing the

8:2240hour work weeks that happened over

8:24five days. They were the ones overseeing

8:27the barracks themselves. But there was

8:31no military training involved, right? um

8:35involuntary

8:37military training was considered

8:39unamerican. Uh it was considered

8:41dangerous. So the CCC was very clear

8:43that yes, the military, the army in

8:46particular was managing these sites

8:48because they were specialists in running

8:50camps that were productive and useful,

8:52but that the young men were not getting

8:54military training. They were getting a

8:56chance to earn a buck and prove their

8:59worth to other folks.

9:02the law that established the CCC that

9:04the ECW was supported by a black

9:08congressman from Chicago named Oscar

9:10Depri, right? Depri in helping get the

9:14legislation passed through demanded that

9:16no discrimination shall be made on

9:19account of race, color, or creed. So CCC

9:25administrators in many states often

9:29refuse to select a proportionate share

9:31of blacks. They they would often break

9:33the law because who got in on a was

9:36decided on a local basis. So if some guy

9:39in Alabama didn't want to hire black

9:41people because he was racist, he didn't

9:43get enough black kids into the camps.

9:46Right? Black participation by 1935 was

9:50about 10%. So about 10% about 2,500

9:54of the initial people were black people.

9:58But that didn't really

10:00match

10:02the disproportionate way that black

10:05Americans felt the depression. Right?

10:07The government over a couple of years

10:09worked to even that proportion out so

10:12that the number of people of color who

10:15were getting this sort of opportunity

10:17matched the overall population of black

10:19people in the United States. But having

10:21said that, you know, people from

10:24minority backgrounds tended to be hurt

10:26the worst. And so it was very difficult

10:28for the CCC to help bridge that gap in a

10:31lot of ways. And as you'll hear, the

10:34CCC, for all the good work it did, also

10:37had its critics.