The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-02
Show 2S9 Killed in
Forestation Camps


this governments Hitleresque fulfill
ments of promise to relieve unem-
ployment-work for one dollar a day.
The privations, the ailments, the suf-
fering they encountered, are indi-
Gated by the ways in which some
died in accidents:
Seven electfocuted by lightning
Three killed by suffocation and ex-
posure in fire-f fighting. Thirty
crushed and mangled to death in
railroad, truck and automobile &C
cidents.
The total number and types Of
contagious diseases that ravaged the
C.C.C. were withheld, but officials
gave these figures: Two thousand
cases of measles, 500 of mumps, 80
of tuberculosis, 791 of influenza, and
rs Of diptheria. The wonder is that
only one case of suicide-that Of a
lad who hanged himself in despair
is officially accounted for.
For the next six months, the fed
eral government is now again en-
listing young boys and men to work
for 81 day in the C.C.C. And in
q recent issue of an official news
paper published here for distribution
among the "peavies," as the C.C.C
youth are called, it is disclosed that
unemployment relief gencieS
throughout the country have chosen
some 125, 900 =. officials stand ready
to turn the fledgings over to the
Army for enrolment when the corps
commander says the word"
The publication, entitled Happy
Days" as though in cruel jest, carried
a story by John Borgini, a C.C.C
member in Keene, California, telling
how his company was trapped by
flames three times during a week of
fire-fighting.
Describing a 200-mile ride to a
forest fire near Santa Barbara, the
boy writes: after a lot of head
aches and heartaches, we finally got
there and ate a good meal that
was prepared for us, and as we had
had no rest and were all tired out
about q o'clock (a.m) they told us
to try and get some sleep, as we
we're going out two hours later, at
daybreak, to work. Monday we got
trapped and only the fact that every
one remained calm, saved us from
being injured or burned. The next
day we went out, up and down the
mountains, still trying to check the
fire, but the case seemed hopeless
as we we're trapped again, and once
again we were saved without any
casualties.
But soon it came at us from an
unexpected point. We didn't ever
have a chance to scrape the ground
of the leaves before it hit us. Before
we knew it, it had us completely
surrounded. Talk about a living hell!
That was it. Every man fought like
a soldier, some every now and then
dropping from the intense heat ano
smoke. They were carried to the
center and revived and Kept right
on fighting. We worked through
for the rest of the week on an
average of 18 hours day and then
at 7:30 Saturday morning we began
the long uphill hike of. IL miles tc
the highway and our trucks back tc
camp"
This story, printed apparently for
the purpose Of putting before the
C.C.C. an example of military "hero-
ISM" indicates the fascist trend OF
traditions of brutality and 'hard-
ness" which are being inculcated in
the C.C.C. Hundreds of line off
GERS are on duty now among the
boys, and Happy Days" reports that
still more Army officers are to be
utilized
The C.C.C. official handed over
the figures after only momentary
caution that they didn't want IAN
alarnist story" written, and with the
contented thought that, after all
even an "alarmist" story wouldn't
interrupt enrolment for the next six
months, since the boys who are
chosen" by relief agencies have no
choice: They go, or they and their
families starve.
IL was pointed OUT, IurIileIllOrei
that the rate of deaths from acct
dents in the C.CC. is lower than
that in the standing Army. This
seemed sufficient justification for
the, toll: 200 dead from accidents;
SO others dead from diseases, and
20,379 injured.
(See letter from C.C.C. camp OH
Page 81