Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota

9: The CCC’s Imprint on Minnesota

123 T he ccc’s impact was great, and even in its day the program was popular . Despite political difficulties that surrounded many other New Deal “alphabet” programs, the ccc received support both from the general population and from conservation administrators.A poll of the general public taken by the American Institute of Public Opinion in April 1936 reported that 82 percent of respondents favored the ccc.The poll also asked the opinion of enrollees, 97.87 percent of whom said they favored the program . While falling just short of unanimous, poll results indicated overwhelming national support for the ccc among those benefiting most from it.1 Yet in spite of its popularity, the ccc remained a temporary program.The first of two efforts to make it permanent began in 1936.The program was then at the height of its popularity,and it was an election year.FDR mentioned the ccc often during the campaign.The push to permanency seemed strong, but some of President Roosevelt’s own advisors favored continuing the ccc on a temporary basis.The army, for its part, was not anxious to become part of an ongoing program. In his annual budget message for 1937, Roosevelt suggested extending funding for the ccc (scheduled to end that year) and making the program permanent . He made the request again onApril 5,asking for a permanent enroll9 : THE CCC’S IMPRINT ON MINNESOTA ment of 300,000 young men and veterans in the ccc, as well as 10,000 Indians in the ccc-id.FDR also requested 5,000 enrollees in U.S.territories. But while nearly everyone liked the ccc, a majority of members of Congress, not ready to follow the president’s lead,supported extending the program only on a temporary basis.Congress approved a bill which Roosevelt signed into law in June 1937, extending the program for three years as an independent agency.2 As the United States began to emerge from the Great Depression and the economy strengthened, fewer men and boys enrolled in the ccc. From a high point in 1935 of approximately 18,500 enrollees, by July 1937 enrollment in Minnesota declined to about 8,700, of which 6,775 hailed from the state. Calvin Drews described a sense of heightened experience as enrollees prepared to leave his camp: “During the last month I have made more contacts and received more experiences which will help me in later life than I thought possible in such a short time.”Allen Mapes summed up post-ccc opportunities for enrollees: “There was any number learned a trade of their choice, from cooks and bakers and mechanics, carpenters, bookkeepers, any—just about anything you wanted you could go to school for. And it was good schools....There was a lot of boys come out of there with educations that they could go to a job and earn a living the rest of their lives.”3 In 1939, the issue of making the ccc permanent came up one last time. But in spite of President Roosevelt’s continued support, Congress again voted for a temporary extension . On August 8, 1939, the president signed a bill authorizing funding for the ccc until July 1, 1943, and changing the program ’s status.With this bill, the ccc was no longer independent but instead was part of the newly formed Federal Security Agency (fsa), along with several other agencies overseeing health, education, and social programs.4 Enrollment numbers in the Minnesota ccc changed little during much of the late 1930s. But as the economy continued to strengthen into the early 1940s, those numbers dropped.Those who did enroll found it easier to leave the program as the nation geared up for war and more jobs became available. Many found work in defense industries.In northern Minnesota,enrollees left camps to work in iron mines,which were expanding again because of the National 124 the work of the ccc A ccc enrollee strings telephone wire in August 1940.This work was done in forests to aid communications and was especially intended to help fight forest fires. Defense Program. In Congress, support for the program was weakening. A request to extend the ccc on July 2, 1942, was not successful, and Congress ordered the program’s complete liquidation by June 30, 1943. In Minnesota, the end of the camps and active work programs came earlier,in 1942,when the...