Evening star., 1934-10-08
The Civilian Conservation Corps.

President Roosevelt has declared
that the Civilian Conservation Corps
and its work must continue. The
c. c. c. camps have been a godsend
to hundreds of thousands Of young
men. They have provided livelihood.
They have developed the men~physi-
cally and built up their morale. But
that is not all. The wages paid the
workers of the Civilian Conservation
Corps have gone in great part to
care for the members of the families
of these men. And beyond all the
benefit to the men themselves and
their families, the work which has
been done has been of real value TO
the country. Forest fires have been
fought and tremendous losses have
been averted, losses which might have
been all the greater because of the
severe drought in some sections of the
country during the past few months,
Robert Fechner, director of civilian
conservation work and of the CORPS
reported to the President last week
that $4,000 young men, war veterans
and Indians had been enrolled in the
camps during the first eighteen
months of the C. C. c. operation.
The authorized strength Of the C. c. C.
is approximately 100000 today. The
personnel changes as terms of en-
listment are concluded and the men
drop out to take private jobs. Mr..
Fechner estimated that 10000 of the
men we're leaving the camps each
month to take their places in industry
and business and on the farm, The
cost of the Civilian Conservation
Corps during the year and half of
its life has been $443,000, 900. This is
no sum to be lightly passed over.
But the expenditure has been well
rewarded. There has been paid out
in wages to the members of the corps
s136 900 900, and of this total $113.-
100000 was sent to their families.
The corps has been a great benefit
to the men themselves. 1t has taken
thousands of them off the streets and
put them to work; given them a
chance to be self-respecting citizens.
1t has given thousands of young men
of the cities a chance to learn some
thing about the country. When to
all this is added the support which
these men have been able to give
their dependents, and the benefit of
the conservation work to the whole
country, the advantages of the C.
C. C. far outweigh the cost. Mr..
Fechner is authority for the state
ment that the Nations forestry pro-
gram has been advanced from five
to fifteen years by the corps. Five
million acres of land have been added
to national forests and $1,000 acres
to national parks.
The army of 10000 C. C. C. work.
ers has been kept in the field prac-
tically without friction with the citi-
zens of the communities where these
camps have been located. This in
itself is triumph and speaks we'll
for the personnel of the C. C. C.
as well as for the efficiency of its
directors.
President Roosevelt has written Mr..
Fechner that this kind of work must
go on" referring to the continuation
of the c. c. c. And he has pre-
dicted that the annual cost will be
met without much opposition or COM
plant. This sounds as though the
President had in mind making the
Civilian Conservation Corps a perma-
nent organization. But whether he
has or not. it seems quite clear that
the President is justified in asking
that it be continued at this time.