Past And Present

On March 21, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed to Congress a full-scale works program that would provide work of “definite, practical value, not only through prevention of great present financial loss but also as a means of creating future national wealth.” Ten days later, on March 31, Congress approved the Emergency Conservation Works Act. Through this act, Roosevelt and Congress created agencies that followed through with this legislative promise of relief. The first agency was the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC initially provided 250,000 forestry jobs across the country, with a peak of just over 500,000 workers in 1935. While a director led the CCC, an advisory council from four government departments — Labor, War, Agriculture, and Interior — jointly supervised it, a first for a governmental agency. The CCC created a camp work system that mirrored the U.S. Army’s basic training, and several future officers, including George Marshall, embraced the system. Each