EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK The Emergency Conservation Work organization (frequently referred to as the Civilian Conservation Corps) was authorized by Public Act No. 5, Seventy-third Congress, known as the "reforestation and relief bill ", approved by President Roosevelt on March 31, 1933. This act clothed the President with authority to arrange for the establishment of a Nation-wide chain of forest camps where unemployed young men could be put to work protecting and improving the Nation's 600 millions of acres of forested lands. As a first move to make the law effective, the President on April 5, 1933, created the Emergency Conservation Work organization and named Robert Fechner, of Boston, as director. In this same order, the Chief Executive arranged for four United States departments-namely, War, Interior, Agriculture, and Labor-to cooperate with the Director in the establishment and operation of the system of forest camps. The Cabinet officer representing each of these departments named a representative to cooperate in the work. These four representatives form the nucleus of an advisory council to the Director. The President on June 30, 1934, by Executive Order No. 6787, amended Executive Order No. 6208, of July 21, 1933, allocating additional funds for Emergency Conservation Work. The total strength of the various forest units authorized by Emergency Conservation Work is 370,375. Of this number, 353,625 are members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 14,400 are in Indian conservation work camps, and 2,350 are employed in emergency conservation work in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. The Civilian Conservation Corps now includes some 295,000 young men whose families were on relief rolls, 33,125 war veterans, and 25,000 experienced woodsmen employed locally. The most recent addition to the corps was a group of 50,000 men chosen from cities in the droughtstricken areas as a drought-relief measure. They are accepted on the basis of the relief needs of the counties directly in the drought area, rather than upon the basis of population. The men are enrolled for a 6 months' work period, membership in the corps being limited to 1 full year. Sixty percent of the men were reenrolled in October 1933 for a second term of 6 months, and new men were selected at that time to complete the rolls. Additional replacements were made on April 1, 1934, and again on July 1, 1934, when more than 50,000 men were discharged in accordance with a ruling limiting enrollment in the corps to 1 year. The workers are established in 1,641 200man camps in the national forests, in national parks, and other Federal lands, in State forests and parks, and on privately owned lands. The work of administering the Emergency Conservation Work program is divided among the four cooperating Government departments as follows: The young men for the camps are selected on a State quota basis by the Department of Labor in cooperation with State relief agencies. War veterans are selected by the Veterans' Administration. The War Department conveys the men from the places of selection to conditioning camps, provides clothing, con structs the camps, moves the men to and from the work camps, and has charge of the subsistence, shelter, health, and welfare of the men. The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture has laid out and is supervising the work of the men in the national forests, and is supervising and cooperating with State authorities in the conduct of work done on State forests and on private lands. Similarly the office of the National Park Service of the Interior Department is supervising work in the national parks and cooperates with the States in the work in State parks, while the Indian Service and other governmental agencies supervise work on Federal lands under their respective jurisdiction. The Emergency Conservation Work done by Indians is carried out on tribal lands and other lands within Indian reservations, supervised by employees of the United States Office of Indian Af fairs, instead of by Army officers. Wages paid Indians are equal to those paid the Civilian Conservation Corps. As stated in the act of March 31, the purpose of the Emergency Conservation Work program was to relieve the acute condition of widespread distress and unemployment that existed in the United States and to provide for "the restoration of the country's depleted natural resources and the advancement of an orderly program of useful public works." Work in the forests and related conservation work was decided upon, not only because it offered unusual opportunities for men from all walks of life to take a fresh start in a healthful occupation in the open but because the work was much needed and would permanently promote the protection and development of essential public resources which would have taken years to accomplish under ordinary circumstances. More than 50 kinds of work are being carried on. Most of it is in line with previously developed long-term plans of Federal and Stateforestry agencies for improvement and protection of forest resources. It includes bringing about better fire suppression by reduction of hazards and construction of fire breaks, telephone systems, lookout stations, low-standard roads and trails. It includes improvement of timber stands and work to eradicate insect pests and diseases of forest trees. It also includes the installation of minor dams and the planting of trees and other vegetative cover to check erosion and diminish floods. Congress authorized the extension of the work to private lands under cooperative agreements. Work on privately owned lands, however, involves only such types of projects as are primarily of public benefit, such as the prevention and control of forest fires, thecontrol of forest-tree insects and diseases, and the checking of soil erosion which aggravates floods. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. Q. Who are eligible for emergency conservation work? A. Young men between the ages of 18 and 25 years, who are citizens of the United States, unmarried and unemployed, and willing to allot at least $23 of their monthly cash allowance to their dependents. In addition, a certain number of unemployed war veterans are eligible, and a certain number of older men are selected who live |