"Civilian Conservation Work Force!" Do you know what it is? Could we Use it Today?

[KoKo]

If we end the war in Iraq we will have so many thousands of folks coming back to America... How could we employ both THEM and those left out of GLOBILIZATION...and how could America absorb bringing our troops back from the other places we deployed them.

Could we do this? This "national program" did GOOD STUFF!...GOOD STUFF!



and more Pics about what Roosevelt did here at........

http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blygd30.htm




------
Civilian Conservation Corps

"If they asked me to go, I'd go tomorrow," said Albert Spudy, reminiscing about his days in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Spudy and other men spent part of their youth working at Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon as Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruits. They left their mark on these monuments - in the steps that wind their way to the Island Trail in Walnut Canyon, in the first visitor center that blended impeccably with its surroundings, in the ranger residence at Wupatki that looks as if it belongs to the landscape. Spudy and two hundred other men were members of the Mount Elden CCC Camp located in Flagstaff. They were part of a national effort to, among other things, assist the National Park Service in the development and improvement of roads, trails, and facilities.

The CCC provided a work force to implement the National Park Service's Master Plan. In order to preserve the natural character of a landscape, roads, trails and buildings were designed to blend with the natural setting. Construction materials were quarried on-site. Native materials were used to blend the new with the old. The built environment envisioned by National Park Service landscape architects and implemented by the CCC shaped the visitor experience throughout the park system and still does today. Large parks and small monuments from Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone to Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki all benefited from this great legacy.

Two million men worked as CCC recruits in more than 1,200 camps across the country between 1933 and 1942. Initially known as the Emergency Conservation Work program, the CCC was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide impoverished youth of the Depression the opportunity to improve their education and ability to earn a living. It also realized Roosevelt's desire to conserve the human and natural resources of the nation. Roosevelt's hopes to assist the unemployed are echoed in the words of Albert Spudy, "Why did I go? I loved the work, and I thought I could make something better out of myself by going to the three Cs."

Nationwide, the CCC accomplished wonders: enrollees built 63,256 buildings, 3,116 lookout towers and 28,087 miles of trails; erected 405,037 signs, markers, and monuments; planted 45 million trees; and fought countless fires. They developed more than 800 state parks. Thousands learned trades that lasted a lifetime. In addition, the CCC provided long-lasting friendships and a sense of loyalty and pride. It seems Roosevelt's program was a success.

The United States entry into World War II foreshadowed the end of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Congress terminated the program on July 2, 1942. The CCC legacy, however, lives on in the nation's landscape and in the hearts of its members and their descendants. There are CCC alumni chapters throughout the country, and efforts continue to preserve the physical evidence of the program. The Flagstaff Area National Monuments and 11 other parks in the southwest have been awarded a Save America's Treasures Grant to conserve CCC items, including furniture, light fixtures, signs, photographs, and personal items.

2003 marks the 70th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The "CCC boys" were 18 to 23 years old - most are now in their 80s. Please join the National Park Service in honoring their hard work and their enduring accomplishments.

More information on the CCC is available from the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni.

More at.........
http://www.nps.gov/archive/wupa/ccc.htm

[dubeskin]

1. Rather than re-read what a history text book has already told me...

I don't really think it's necessary now. I think what would be better would be an actually economic stimulus plan. Most people feeling the money crisis right now have jobs, but just need more money to pay bills etc. The CCC, as was my understanding, a commission created to employ the unemployed, not necessarily the former soldiers. I think for the returning vets from Iraq, we could do something along the lines of a modern day GI Bill, but at most would provide loans for homes and other expenses.

And likewise, the several thousand returning from Iraq could fill those jobs that need filling now, rather than create new ones. Many important government positions lay open, as well as law enforcement, office jobs, and the like. A modern CCC would kind of be pointless, in the fact that so many necessary jobs need to be filled already. That and the fact that I don't think we have a modern politician like Roosevelt willing to try such a daring plan.

[KoKo]

3. but the "blueprint for CCA" could be revised to fit "GREEN ENERGY" and "JOBS" for Today...

there's already a background and documentation as to how this worked. The good and the problems (like CCA planting the dreaded KUDZO..scourge of the South..to control "soil erosion") but if we could build on the concept couldn't we do GREAT THINGS for Solar Energy...Environmental Friendly Farm Plantings and all the rest to make AMERICA GROW..AGAIN? More "self-suffiency? Isn't that a good, postive concept to put in place over America being a place for CONSUMERS who are forced to go out an BUY...BUY..BUY to keep our Economy Growing and "Privatize Everything" so that those who have a few bucks give the rest up to WALL STREET to INVEST FOR US?

What about a "little self-suffiency for a change?"

[cyberswede]

4. "Beyond the New Deal" by Howard Zinn

Zinn wrote a great little piece in the April 8th Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/zinn

excerpt:

Still, in today's climate of endless war and uncontrolled greed, drawing upon the heritage of the 1930s would be a huge step forward. Perhaps the momentum of such a project could carry the nation past the limits of FDR's reforms, especially if there were a popular upsurge that demanded it. A candidate who points to the New Deal as a model for innovative legislation would be drawing on the huge reputation Franklin Roosevelt and his policies enjoy in this country, an admiration matched by no President since Lincoln. Imagine the response a Democratic candidate would get from the electorate if he or she spoke as follows:

"Our nation is in crisis, just as it was when Roosevelt took office. At that time, people desperately needed help, they needed jobs, decent housing, protection in old age. They needed to know that the government was for them and not just for the wealthy classes. This is what the American people need today.

[KoKo]

2. Here's what CCC did for the "Rural South in Depression," for Wiriters & Artists...

http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/archives/exhibits/wpa/writer.htm


Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

The objectives of the Civilian Conservation Corps were two-fold; utilization of the country's human resources and conservation of the country's physical resources. These objectives were realized by employing thousands of young men between the ages of 18 and 25 in jobs that were a benefit to conservation, restoration and protection of forests, control of soil erosion and flood control, development of public parks, recreational and historic areas, wild life conservation and other useful public works. The Department of War was responsible for physical examination, enrollment, equipping and conditioning of the men. The Departments of Agriculture and the Interior were responsible for the selection and planning of work projects on national forests, parks, monuments, soil erosion control and the supervision of all projects on state and private lands and state parks. The North Carolina Emergency Relief oversaw local selecting agencies throughout the state to execute the details necessary to placing the men in camps. Of the total 66 camps, 28 were assigned to forest protection and preservation, 22 to soil erosion control, 9 to park projects, 3 to military reservations, 1 to wild life conservation and 3 to Tennessee Valley Authority projects.
List of Images:

* CCC Workers planting trees in western NC, c.1936.
* North tunnel portal from station, 1939.
* Grading and dumping station, 1941.
* Truck and road paving machines on parkway.
* Road crew cutting away the side of a mountain, possibly in preparation of a tunnel.
* Memo about the requirements for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
* Pamphlet announcing completing of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Next: Writer's Project/Federal Writer's Project

The Federal Writer's Project of North Carolina was started in October 1935 by the WPA to provide work for unemployed writers, journalists, editors, draftsmen and researchers. A major accomplishment of the Federal Writer's Project of North Carolina was the publication of North Carolina: A Guide to the Old North State, part of the American Guide series. To prepare the Guide, an average staff of 100 worked for three years. Libraries were scoured, old newspapers and other periodicals perused, family records examined, and personal visits were paid to almost every section of the state. About one-sixth of the text is devoted to introductory essays concerning the state at large. Thirteen cities and towns were selected for individual treatment because of their historical, educational, commercial, or other importance. The bulk of the guide is given over to motor tours, following the federal highways and the principal state highways. The work includes a North Carolina chronology, a bibliography and an index so that it also serves as a reference work.

* The Highway Traveler, pamphlet collected for the Guide.
* Come to North Carolina, pamphlet collected for the Guide.

Historical Records Survey

One objective of the WPA was to establish a series of nation-wide white-collar projects to provide employment for workers with professional and clerical skills. In November 1935, plans were approved to undertake a national Historical Records Survey as part of the Federal Writer's Project. In North Carolina, the primary objective of the survey was to list all records of the state's one hundred counties and to catalog the principle manuscript collections as well as listing the archives of state government. After a county's workers completed that county's records survey, the remaining resources were used to begin a survey of church records and tombstone inscriptions. Workers surveyed more than 500 North Carolina churches and collected data from nearly 100,000 tombstones.

Next: Conservation of Fish and Game

MORE AT.......


http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/archives/exhibits/wpa/writer.htm

[cyberswede]

5. Great series on the New Deal in my last issue of The Nation

This whole issue is great - it discusses the New Deal, as well as potential applications of the principles for today.
Lots of good articles by lots of good people (including Michael Copps, Jesse Jackson, Howard Zinn...)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/intro


Seventy-five years ago, facing the catastrophic, worldwide failure of the free market, Franklin Roosevelt launched what is perhaps the greatest democratic experiment of the twentieth century. Touching nearly every aspect of American life, the New Deal transformed banking, business, labor, agriculture, arts and literature, urban and rural landscapes and, of course, the relationship of citizens to government itself.