Evening star., 1939-04-04
[Fechner SaysC.C
Attacks Pressing
Dual Problem
Radio Forum Speaker
Cites Need for Making
Agency Permanent


Cites Need for Making
Agency Permanent
The accomplishments of the Civil
ian Conservation Corps In the six
years 1t has been in existence and
its plans for the future were dis
cussed by Robert Fechner, c. c. C..
director, last night in the National
Radio Forum, arranged by The Star
and broadcast over Nationwide
network of the National Broadcast
ing Co. The text of his address
follows:
So much of a general nature has
been said and written about the
Civilian Conservation Corps that
shall limit myself largely to telling
In rather definite terms what it is,
what it is trying to do and how it
operates. In just two more days, the
Civilian Conservation Corps will
celebrate It's sixth anniversary.
The present organization exists
through authority of an act of Con-
gress approved June %. 1887. This
act was a modification of previous
} act approved in 1888.
Right now there are 1900 G. c. C.
camps in operation throughout all
the States of the Nation and the
District of Columbia. Each of these
camps, at peak strength, has 200
enrolled men plus the necessary
administrative and technical per-
sonnel. This makes total of 900
enrolled men. About 80 per cent of
these are young men between the
ages of II and %. unmarried, citi-
zens of the United States. The other
10 per cent are war veterans. All
enrollees must be unemployed and
in need Of employment before they
can be selected for service in the
corps.
An enrollee makes contract with
the Government to serve for period
OF six months. Junior enrollees may
serve a total of not to exceed two
years-through re-enrollment. AS
its part of the contract the Govern
ment agrees to do certain things for
the enrollees. Among the things the
Government does is to pay basic
cash allowance of $50 to every en-
rollee About per cent of these
boys are paid cash allowance of
$36 per month as assistant leaders
and about 5la per cent are paid S45
per month as leaders. Every man
with dependents must allot s22 per
month to those dependents. Men
who are without dependents must
deposit $22 per month, which will be
paid to them upon completion Of
their terms of enrolment.
4 In addition to the cash allowance,
the Government furnishes the en-
rollees with food, shelter, clothing,
transportation, medical care and
recreational facilities.
Expected to Work Hard.
To fulfill his part of the contract
the enrollee is expected to furnish
hard work. These enroilees may be
sent to a considerable variety Of
camps. Among the camps are those
engaged on work in the national
forests, State forests, private forests.
soil conservation projects, national
parks. State parks, reclamation
areas, grazing areas, wild game and
wild fowl refugees and one or two
others. In these camps the boys
carry on more than $50 major types
Of jobs, ranging all the way from the
construction of works designed to
protect our forests from fire to the
Building Of great dams calculated to
avert flood damage. There is a
popular misconception that the work
Of the corps is rather largely con-
fined to the planting of trees. It is
true that the enrollees have planted
perhaps the greatest number of trees
ever planted in this country during
a similar length of time; namely,
more than 1,500, 600, 900, but this is,
after all, simply one OF the many
Jobs carried on.
The whole work program of the
Civilian Conservation Corps is an
attempt to restore and preserve the
natural resources of the United
States. OF course, this is not the
first attempt that has been made to
deal with this great problem, but I
think the work of the corps has
constituted the most successful de-
velopment in protecting and reclaim
ing our natural wealth from care
lessness and wasteful use. The great
majority of the enrollees are, as I
thave stated, between II and 23
Most OF this group is aged 81 and
younger and c. C. C.. enrollees are
from families which are economically
the least fortunate.
BY and large, these boys who come
into the C. C. c. are young men who
have tried to get jobs and failed
because employers demand work
experience before hiring them. A
very high percentage of all enrollees
entering the c. C. c. have never
had any regular jobs prior to their
enrolment in the corps. Through
hard work on a great variety of
projects all over the Nation, the
c. c. c. gives these boys work expert
ence. They learn by doing and, in
my opinion. there is no more prac-
tical way of learning anything than
by constantly doing it,
Special Skills Taught.
Some of the special Stills which
will be developed on the part of these
young men will include motor me-
chanics, bridge construction, ma
Aonry work, road building, forestry,
soil conservation practices, clerical
work. drafting, surveying-in fact,
hundreds Of skills that are needed
in the workaday world.
Our whole thought in operating
the G. c. c. Is to take men who
need jobs badly, give them the jobs,
teach them how to work, receive all
adequate return from that work on
the part Of the Federal Government
and return these boys to private life
better qualified to make living than
they were when they entered the
corps.
I think the C. c. C. is unique in
one of its methods of operating in