The Civilian Conservation Corps: Some Aspects of Its Social Program for Unemployed Youth

Abstract

ONE definitely new approach to the problem of relieving unemployment has been developed in the post-war period — the modern camp. It has in common with the unemployment relief methods of the past only its conative purpose. As in the roundsmen system of the early nineteenth century, as in relief in all its forms — from the small town woodpile to the WPA — , as in government-sponsored spread work or government-subsidized private employment, as in depression-inspired public works, the camp's primary function has been the supplying of subsistence to unemployed people in exchange for labor performed. The purpose of the United States Civilian Conservation Corps is more than to provide, in return for useful labor, subsistence and those values reputedly inherent in toil. It seeks definitely also, through its complete program, to repair and prevent some of the human damage done by unemployment. CCC projects related to forestry and natural resource conservation, located where ordinary relief would in general not be feasible, provide of perhaps a more spiritual value to participants than is provided on more conventional work-relief projects. The modern camp seems to have had its origin in Germany in 1925, when a group of fifty students organized a summer camp for and recreation. The movement grew, though for its first six years it was financed solely through membership fees and private contributions. Originally only students, but, beginning in 1928, students and workers both from urban and from rural areas met in the