Evening star., 1935-12-29

Fechner estimated fully $4,000 en-
rolled men were given work by the
c. c. c. this year-well over 100000
since it was set up three years ago.
This mild-mannered man with his
spectacles and thinning hair and gen.
tie voice might well be an absent
minded school teacher or prosaic
bookkeeper. Instead. he went adven-
turing for Is years among hard-boiled
machinists in the mud and grease Of
South and Central American and
Mexican railroad shops and coal and
copper mines.
Camps Marked on Map.
There was a map on the wall Of his
Office which was all broken out with
colored thumb tacks and each thumb
tack marked a place in a valley, or
on high, timbered upland, or a Far
Western plain, where young men in
denim uniforms were going about the
work of digging or shoveling or chop
ping-a work which in Washington
is known as conservation.
The other wall bore a picture of
Western landscape. Not one with
jagged, rocky peaks but a valley that
snuggled with its houses down between
gentle. rolling slopes of high hills
where the sunburnt grass had warm,
afternoon glow.
Fechner was working over chart
in the center of his desk. On either
sioe rose hillocks of books and papers,
reports and other charts.
Fechner recalled the days when the
c. C. C. was being transformed from
thought to deed, from pasteboard chart
to men and camps
Spurred by President.
II recall that on one of these early
visits to the White House the Presi-
dent asked me how long it would take
to get the first camp set up and I
said it would take about month" he
said. THE President replied that he
wanted one opened within q week.
"Just seven days after that, Camp
Roosevelt. near Luray. Va, was
opened"
Fechner said the ideas and plans for
the c. c c. had not been changed
materially from the conception the
President had worked out.
"He had given great deal of
thought to such program while he
was Governor of New York" the di-
rector said, then sketched as the five
principal benefits that were being de-
rived from the program:
Unemployment relief by putting
young men to work, giving jobs to
those who build the camps and fur
ish the supplies.
Relief to destitute families through
the funds that the young men send
back home from their pay.
The actual work done in the forest
and parks and fields.
The benefits to national recovery
through the spending for supplies and
the spread of money from the G. c. G.
pay roll
The benefits to the young men in
the camps by taking them OH the city
streets and giving them air, food and
work outdoors.
Conservative Gains Cited.
In addition to these major, broad
scale benefits, Fechner said the corps
hal brought a four-fold gain to con-
servation:
Greatly increased public understand
ing and appreciation of the meaning
and purpose of conservation.
The practical training of G. c. c.
men in conservation methods.
A Nationwide stimulation of inter-
Aufi Iva eo;I
control and conservation on the part
of States and private landowners.
A many-fold increase In the rate Of
acquisition of lands for national parks
and Federal wild life refugees.
Large scale conservation work
which believe to be vital to the con-
tinued wealth and well being of the
Nation-also possesses the added ad-
vantage of being almost entirely non
competitive with existing private oc-
cupations,'' he said.
And this work is capable of speedy
expansion and contraction in keeping
with economic conditions.
IT favor continuing the organization
and administration of the work in its
present form with co-ordinating Office
making the fullest use of the special
lied services of already established
governmental agencies.
THE several years of experience
which now lie behind us will be of
great benefit in promoting added work
efficiency and In further reducing
costs of operation in the future"
The c. c. c. costs a little less than
million and a half dollars a day.
Last year it spent $532,0O0 900. OF
this, pay roll was the biggest item,
consuming 46 per cent of the total.
The remainder went for supplies and
equipment.
Met President During War.
Long charts In the ONCE of the di-
rector depict the C. C. G. as having
In the last year built enough truck
trails to cross the country five times
and strung enough telephone lines to
put a wire around the entire Nation,
In addition to bridges, tree planting,
dam building. forest fire fighting, in
sect and rodent control work, fence
building and tree and plant disease
control work.
Fechner met the President during
the World War when the director was
O labor leader for the International
Association of Machinists. He was
vice president of this organization
when he took over his present job.
Born in Chattanooga and reared in
Savannah, Fechner sold magazines
and candies on trains to work his way
through grammar school. He had one
year at Georgia Tech before becoming
n machinist. But in later years he
iectl1rad "a. economics students at Har-