CCCs New and Old

 A contemporary version of the New Deal’s first big program, the Civil Conservation Corps, is said to be a popular idea—according to one poll, it is extremely popular, and actually favored by more Republican (84%) than Democratic (78%) voters.

  At least half a dozen bills by members of both parties have been introduced in the past year or so in Congress.  The Biden administration is developing a Civilian Climate Corps, and proposes it as part of its infrastructure package, now being negotiated.

 But there seems to be a big range in what each of these proposals envisions that Corps members might do.  Some seem to concentrate on getting young people started in careers addressing the causes of the climate emergency.  Others see an employment program for all ages, engaging in traditional conservation efforts, though with the intent of preventing damaging effects of a deformed climate. Some add proactive programs in sustainable and non-toxic agriculture and clean technologies. Some also see a role in directly responding to disastrous effects, such as floods and wildfires. 

 Stories about these proposals compare and contrast versions of the new CCC with the old one, but incomplete or inaccurate understanding of the original Civil Conservation Corps isn’t helpful in figuring out how to organize a new CCC, or what tasks it could perform.

 The new CCC, most proposals agree, will not discriminate on the basis of sex, race or age, unlike the old one. It will pay a living wage, unlike the old one. It will work in urban areas as well as the woods, unlike the old one.  And unlike the old one, it could respond to climate-related emergencies.

 None of those assertions about the old CCC is entirely true.  Starting out with equity is an appropriate standard for a new CCC, but the old one wasn’t completely exclusionary. While the original CCC membership was overwhelmingly young, male and White, some older men were included, and there were separate camps for Black men and separate programs for women, which followed the pattern of everything else at the time, including the armed forces.  (The later and larger Works Progress Administration, providing employment in public works, was even more inclusive.) 

CCC camp at Glacier National Park

Speaking of the armed forces...The original CCC was FDR’s first New Deal initiative. Though there were small state and civic prototypes, the federal government had never tried something like this.  It appears to have been FDR’s own idea.  It sped through Congress shortly after his Inauguration in 1933.  Though it gradually built up its numbers, it still involved a lot of men all at once.  So although the program itself was run by the U.S. Labor Department, the camps were organized and run by the U.S. Army.

 The Army had the equipment and the experience—and the motivation.  Even in 1933 the possibility of war was known, and unemployed young men in the Depression were often both undereducated and underfed.  The CCC provided both food and instruction, and taught these men how to live and work together. 

 The level of wages provided to CCC members resulted partly from concerns expressed by employers (not too high) and labor unions (not too low), an issue that’s bound to recur.  In any case, the program provided food, clothing, lodging and medical care for free, so most of members’ wages were (by design) sent back to their families, where they were sorely needed.

 The CCC did a lot of work in the woods, it is true.  But they also worked in rural farming areas (soil conservations and irrigation, for example), and in and around small towns and cities (building roads and bridges in public areas.)  The nature of that work will in many cases be different, and should be more coordinated with local communities.  But the old CCC did prove that such a corps is flexible in what it can do and where.  It also showed that good relations between the CCC and local communities is possible, because it turned out to be normal.

 Similarly, the old CCC showed that it had the skills and flexibility to respond quickly to local emergencies, including large ones.  In 1938, a monster hurricane unexpectedly hit Long Island and New England with historic force.  The first storm wave was so violent that it registered on a seismograph in Alaska.  The wind and waters changed the coastline of Long Island Sound.  The storm and subsequent flooding over days killed upwards of 700, and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and other buildings, causing damage in the hundreds of millions.

 The damage was so extensive, over such a large area, that resources were inadequate, including the Coast Guard and the Red Cross.  FDR sent in members of the CCC as well as personnel employed by the Works Progress Administration—more than 100,000 in total-- to do everything from sandbagging rivers, clearing downed trees and searching wreckage for survivors to rebuilding roads and river banks, and feeding and clothing survivors (including clothes made in WPA sewing rooms in several states.)

 This was not the first time that the WPA and the CCC had responded to disasters, such as wildfires and major floods in 1936 and 1937.  They were “the shock troops of disaster,” as described by a newsreel of the time.  Since it was made by the WPA itself, it is propaganda of a kind, but it is factual. 

 Today this major disaster from 1938 is almost completely forgotten, as is this response.  But that response suggests that this kind of climate disaster effort is entirely possible for a new CCC, because it had already been accomplished by the old one.