Civilian Conservation Corps - Creation

Creation

As governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt had run a similar program on a small scale. Long interested in conservation, Roosevelt was aware of the numerous forestry programs set up in 1931–32 in the U.S. and Europe designed to relieve unemployment by sending young men to work in the woods. An important theme was the healthy nature of outdoor work versus the debilitating environment of city slums. Now, as president, he proposed to Congress a much larger national program on 21 March 1933:

I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth.

He promised this law would provide 250,000 young men with meals, housing, uniforms, and small wages for working in the national forests and other government properties. The Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act was introduced to Congress the same day and enacted by voice vote on the 31st. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6101 on 5 April 1933 which established the CCC organization and appointed a director, Robert Fechner, a former labor union official who served until 1939. The organization and administration of the CCC was a new experiment in operations for a federal government agency. The order indicated that the program was to be supervised jointly by four government departments: Labor, which recruited the young men, War, which operated the camps, Agriculture and Interior, which organized and supervised the work projects. A CCC Advisory Council was composed of a representative from each of the supervising departments. In addition, the Office of Education and Veterans Administration participated in the program. To end the opposition from labor unions (which wanted no training programs started when so many of their men were unemployed) Roosevelt chose Robert Fechner, vice president of the American Machinists Union, as director of the corps. William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, was taken to the first camp to demonstrate that there would be no job training involved beyond simple manual labor.