Non-military National Service
The Great Depression and World War II created the modern, American ethos for national service. First, the challenges of the Great Depression brought about large-scale, government-sponsored work programs to help rehabilitate the economy. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, and other agencies provided employment opportunities for millions of Americans while they performed a type of National Service. The results of these programs created most of America’s modern infrastructure.
Those Americans not involved in the fighting during World War II made direct contributions in other ways: rationing, price controls, purchasing war bonds, civil defense, and working in war industries. The War Production Board, War Manpower Commission, Office of Price Administration, Office of War Mobilization and other agencies were created to support the war effort.
Read more about this topic: National Service In The United States Of America
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or service:
“You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“We could not help being struck by the seeming, though innocent, indifference of Nature to these men’s necessities, while elsewhere she was equally serving others. Like a true benefactress, the secret of her service is unchangeableness. Thus is the busiest merchant, though within sight of his Lowell, put to pilgrim’s shifts, and soon comes to staff and scrip and scallop-shell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)