6/21/2009

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)


Our family spent the last week on vacation in Kentucky and Tennessee. We had the pleasure of going to Mammoth Cave National Park and Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Much of what we enjoyed there was built with the blood and sweat of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to aid relief of high unemployment stemming from the Great Depression while carrying out a broad natural resource conservation program on national, state and municipal lands. Legislation to create the program was introduced by FDR to the 73rd United States Congress on March 21, 1933, and the Emergency Conservation Work Act, as it was known, was signed into law on March 31, 1933. The CCC became one of the most popular New Deal programs among the general public and operated in every U.S. state and the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. While FDR is given credit for the idea of this program, in truth the suggestion came from Republican Senator James Couzens of Michigan, who was given the idea in a letter from a constituent, Archibald Sun of Detroit, Michigan.

The CCC put many young men to work doing worthwhile projects across the USA. The men were paid one dollar each day and were given three hot meals. This is the origin of the phrase "Another day, another dollar." This is part of what they accomplished:

* restored 3980 historical structures
* developed 800 state parks
* built 28,087 miles of trails
* built 38,550 vehicle bridges
* built 3116 lookout towers
* built lodges and museums
* worked on National Parks

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't hurt to have something like that these days, I think.

Papa Frank said...

The problem would be finding hundreds of thousands of people willing to WORK instead of simply sitting on welfare and doing nothing for the money received.

Brooke said...

OT: Happy Father's Day, PF!!!

Chuck said...

My grandfather did CCC in Michigan, some of the buildings they built still satnd.

You are right though about getting people to do it now. Many people now getting assistance think it's an afront to want them to work for the money.

Anonymous said...

What was all the stimulus spending for, if not to hire private contractors to produce these kinds of projects/works?

Why do we need a "government agency" in charge?

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, the Democrats who put together the stimulus bill decided NOT to spend it on jobs for men (construction jobs) as that would discriminate against women, even though most of those currently unemployed are men who work in the construction fields and the recession is being labelled in the media a mancession.

Ducky's here said...

I'm surprised to read you supporting a government program.

Tough to look at something like Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and the beauty of the "arts and crafts" style architecture that was built by the CCC and wonder why people think government can't get things right.

Z said...

FJ's right...I thought the hurry for the 'stimulus' package was that we were SHOVEL READY for these kinds of projects.
But, yes...maybe most welfare recipients would rather not work...we'll probably just be hiring a bunch of illegals to do our work.

We sure haven't been shoveling much dirt yet, but the WH HAS been 'shoveling the.......'

Anonymous said...

80% of the lost jobs so far have been "male" jobs. But the stimulus wasn't designed to save "men's jobs".

Papa Frank said...

Farmer -- "men" are a rarity anymore. You and I should start some sort of club and find the rest of them. ;0)

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