Chapter 4:
The New Deal: The First Hundred Days
Director Albright was prepared. By Thursday, the
sixteenth, he had written a memorandum to all field officers informing
them of the possibility of getting some of the $500 million fund for
parks. He said that there was no way of telling from the Washington
office just how much money we could use and that he was depending on the
field for help. But, he said, he'd already compiled some estimates:
about $7 million for major roads, $1 million for minor roads and trails,
another $2 million for physical construction, or a total of around $10
million. He was going to direct Chief Forester John Coffman to set up a
program on forest protection and cleanup. Without knowing anything about
the CCC program at that time, he told the field officers to be sure to
find out how many relief cases there were around the parks, both common
laborers and skilled tradesmen, and to break the lists down to show
those with families and those who were single. He also asked them to
supply any other information on the conditions around the parks, because
he felt that most likely we would be given money to do such jobs as we
could do in the parks with the labor available in the vicinity.
Coffman wired back from the San Francisco office on
the eighteenth saying that he was working on a forest cleanup program
along park roads, with a lot of help from Chief Engineer Frank Kittredge
and Chief Landscape Architect Tom Vint, but that the costs would run
over one million dollars. He also stated that Kittredge was working on
an estimate of the man-days required for other kinds of cleanup in all
the parks. On March 28, Coffman advised the Washington office that his
program was on the way in, that it was going to run over two million
dollars, and that Kittredge's program was also being submitted. At the
same time the director was getting a lot of mail from the parks wanting
information and offering help. Finally, on April 1, Director Albright
wired Kittredge in San Francisco that he wanted him and Coffman to be in
the Washington office by Thursday, April 6, for a meeting.
Late on April 3, Director Albright reported to
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes as follows:
For the meetings today you asked me to represent you
in the coordination of the forestry projects of the various bureaus of
the department. This I have done and have attended two meetings at
Colonel Howe's office at the White House, one at 12 o'clock noon and
another at 3 o'clock this afternoon. There is to be another meeting
tonight at 8 o'clock here in the Interior Department building.
The head of the Civilian Conservation Corps is to be
Mr. Robert Feckner (I am not sure of the spelling), who is to have an
advisory group representing the Departments of Interior, Agriculture,
Labor and War, one from each department. Col. Howe took the names of the
representatives with him today and I explained that I was not sure that
you intended me to represent you after today. The announcement of the
organization will be made tomorrow at a press conference at noon. I
will attend the meeting tonight.
May I ask that you send word to Col. Howe before noon
tomorrow of your wishes as to who will be your representative to assist
Mr. Feckner in the formulation of the reforestation program? The
meetings today were most interesting and I appreciate the opportunity
very much.
Louis McHenry Howe, more often referred to as Colonel
Howe, was a very close friend of the president. He had been a political
adviser to FDR for years, dating back to the time Roosevelt went to
Albany as a member of the New York state legislature and later as
governor.
Albright also sent wires on April 3 to all the state
park authorities telling them that the state parks would definitely come
within the purview of the act that authorized the Civilian Conservation
Corps and asking them to send representatives to a meeting in Washington
on April 6. If they couldn't attend, because of distance or other
reasons, he suggested that they authorize S. Herbert Evison to represent
them. Evison was the secretary of the National Conference on State
Parks.
The same day that the director sent his invitation to
the state park authorities, he called a meeting in his office of
several Park Service people, including myself. Up to this time I had
been called upon now and then to help John Coffman and to do odd jobs,
like everybody else in the office. These were the days when official job
descriptions meant nothing. Everybody helped each other. But I remember
distinctly the meeting called on April 3, because it marked the
beginning of my association with the CCC program. At the meeting
Albright told us that he would be the Interior Department's
representative on the CCC Advisory Council. Coffman was told to get in
touch with the bureaus of the departments that would have an interest in
the CCC program and to ask them to designate the individuals who would
handle the program for each bureau and who would comprise a small CCC
council for the department.
The National Park Service's relationship with the
state park systems had been one of informal, friendly interest, and we
had no organization to carry out a work program. As we talked we began
to realize that state park participation in the CCC would have to be
administered apart from the going national park program. Each state had
its own independent park organization, if it had a park organization at
all.
Coffman was put in charge of National Park Service
CCC work and was also designated coordinator of the other bureaus of the
department, reporting directly to Albright and representing him at CCC
Advisory Council meetings when he could not attend. The director then
gave me the responsibility of organizing the state park program. I was
to report my work to Coffman so that when he prepared the department s
total program there would be uniformity in the presentations. Coffman
immediately spoke up and said that he would like to have me go with him
to the CCC Advisory Council meetings to supply details of the state park
program if any questions came up.
Director Albright then suggested that I get in touch
with Herb Evison and see whether he could give us part-time service
because he was familiar with the conditions in the states. From our
discussions there had emerged the idea of establishing districts for the
state park CCC administration, which would bring many decision
responsibilities closer to the field operations. It was decided to
establish four districts: one on the West Coast, one in the Rocky
Mountain region to include the Utah Basin to the southwest, one in the
Mississippi River valley between the Alleghenies and the Rockies, and
one on the East Coast. Albright suggested Lawrence C. Merriam, of San
Francisco, as district officer for the western district, Herb Maier for
the Rocky Mountain district, and Paul Brown for the midwestern district.
Albright suggested that we invite the director of state parks for
Pennsylvania to head the eastern district.
The rapidity with which the program took shape in one
afternoon was most interesting. No doubt Albright had given the subject
a great deal of thought and study, although when he opened the
discussion one would have thought it was brand new.
Evison and I got together the next day and worked out
an arrangement under which he would spend half of his time with us. That
arrangement didn't last long, because within a few days he was spending
the greater part of the day with us. Herb knew the state park people, he
was a former newspaperman and a good writer, and to the Park Service he
was a godsend.
Paul Brown, one of the four proposed district
officers, was Colonel Richard Lieber's right-hand man in the Indiana
state park system, one of the best in the country. Since he lived in
Indianapolis, we decided that city was a good place for the midwestern
district headquarters. Lawrence Merriam, a forester in private practice
and a capable administrator, agreed to take the West Coast district,
with offices in San Francisco. Herb Maier, an excellent architect who
had done some work for the National Park Service, agreed to take the
Rocky Mountain district, with headquarters in Denver. The director of
state parks in Pennsylvania, J. M. Hoffman, took the eastern district
temporarily and operated out of our Washington office. These four men
stayed on for two or three days after the meeting to work out the
details of setting up offices, allotment of funds, and so on. We had
been given an advance of CCC funds for the purpose of organizing our
part of the program.
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S. Herbert Evison and Wirth stand before
the power plant installed by the army for the CCC camp in the area known
as the "basin" near the top of Chesos Mountain, at that time a Texas
state park. Later it became a part of Big Bend National Park.
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As yet, the CCC was vague in the minds of many who
would ultimately be very close to it. On April 4, Superintendent Eivind
T. Scoyen of Glacier National Park wrote a letter to Director Albright.
He, like all the other superintendents, had been doing a lot of thinking
about the new program, and he had a lot of work laid out but very little
money and equipment. He wrote in part:
Yesterday, when we were planning our job on the basis
of covering not only necessary but desirable reforestation work in the
park, we were astounded to find that it would require 14,000 men to
really reach all objectives. We were going on the assumption that these
men will not be hired locally, but will be sent in from centers of
population and on the average will not be experienced in woods work.
Such a situation will cut down the output by at least half over
lumberjack crews. To have such a force in the park will not be at all
practical and we finally arrived at the figure of 2,500 men as the
maximum we can handle but will be greatly surprised if we got that
many.
It is clear that Scoyen was thinking of a short-term
program that would operate just through the available workdays in
Glacier National Park during the summer months. He went on as
follows:
The question which seems to be causing the most
concern not only among ourselves, but others who may have some of this
work in charge, is that of supervision. It would appear that the only
practical solution would be to allow us to hire the foremen and other
overhead at the going rates of pay. Unless this is done it is
recommended that the crews be completely organized before they arrive in
the park and that park officials will not be held responsible for the
amount of work turned out. If we are to be responsible for this
it would appear that it will not only be justice to let us hire the
bosses, but to give us some authority to handle discipline. . . .
Although we could equip a crew of about 600 men out of our warehouse
with but little expense for some necessary items on which we are short,
it will seriously cripple our future operations if this is not replaced
as it will be worn out by the end of the year. If the Public Works
program comes through later we will need this equipment on other
projects.
Scoyen emphasized points that were unquestionably
important, but little did he and others know how the CCC was going to be
organized.
On April 5, as a result of the White House conference
on April 3, an executive order by the president outlined the
organization and administrative procedure for carrying out the
provisions of the CCC act. This order provided for a director and fixed
his salary; it established an advisory council, authorized the
expenditure of funds, provided for supplies and materials, and
determined the procedures for reimbursement.
On the same day, the new director of Emergency
Conservation Work, Robert Fechner, called the first meeting of the CCC
Advisory Council. The secretary of war appointed Colonel Duncan K.
Major, Jr., as his representative on the council; the secretary of
agriculture appointed R. Y. Stuart, chief forester of the Forest
Service; the secretary of the interior appointed Horace M. Albright,
director of the National Park Service; and the secretary of labor
appointed W. Frank Persons. Nobody knew Bob Fechner or what he had done
in the conservation field. The president even misspelled Bob's name on a
rough diagram of the CCC proposal he had penciled on a desk pad, making
it "Fechter." Yet he and his policies were the key to success or failure
of the CCC program. It was soon disclosed that Fechner had come up
through the ranks of the labor movement to become general vice-president
of the International Association of Machinists. He had risen to that
important level with only an elementary education in the Georgia public
schools. He had a reputation for fairness, tact, and patience in all
his dealings.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt quickly
sketched this organization chart of the Civilian Conservation Corps
during a meeting with the department representatives early in
1933.
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It was Fechner's fairness that impressed Roosevelt
and Howe, who resented the attack by William Green and the American
Federation of Labor on the proposed CCC program as a "forced labor"
project whose "dollar a day" wage would undermine union pay scales.
With that viewpoint Bob Fechner wholly disagreed. He knew little about
conservation, but he was a good organizer and administrator. Everyone
who got to know Bob Fechner loved him. He was a gentleman, always kind
and courteous, but firm; he made his decisions promptly; he was not
averse to discussion; and he was always willing to correct himself if he
felt he had made a wrong decision. He relied on the professional and
technical people of the various bureaus to do their work properly and
devoted his talents to providing them with the tools they needed, urging
and aiding them in a subtle way to work together across bureau and
department lines as they had never done before. He was considerate and
respected the opinions of others and their right to analyze his policies
and offer constructive suggestions. I don't believe he ever made a major
policy decision without first talking it over with the council.
Yet Fechner could and did make firm decisions on the
spot, and he made them stick. I remember a CCC Advisory Council meeting
in which a special problem was brought up by the War Department. The
army representative, a general, came in accompanied by a fairly large
staffa colonel or two, a major or two, and a captainand they
brought along a lot of material. After a few opening remarks and some
reports, Fechner started calling on us around the table, as was his
custom, so that each representative of a department could have his
say.
When his turn came, the army representative expounded
his problem, which had to do with the army establishing an equipment
pool for all CCC equipment and moving it into various compounds and
forts for repairs. The general got very excited about it. He spoke
loudly, pounded the table, grabbed papers from his staff sitting behind
him, and flung them on the table. He concluded by again bringing his
fist down on the table and saying, "Mr. Fechner, you have got to do
this! It's absolutely necessary!" He then stopped and looked at the
director. Bob Fechner had sat there, quietly listening, for about ten
minutes. Now he looked at the general and said, "Is that all, General?"
The general said, "Yes," and slammed the table again. Bob Fechner
replied, "I ain't gonna do it!" Those words left the general
dumbfounded.
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Robert Fechner, director of the Civilian
Conservation Corps, 1933 to 1939.
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Fechner turned to the representative of the Education
Bureau and asked whether he had anything to bring up, and the reply was,
"No, sir." He then went to the man from the Labor Department, who
answered "No, sir." Then he came to Fred Morrell, of the Agriculture
Department, and me. While we did have a few little things to discuss, we
felt it best not to bring up anything, and both of us replied in the
negative. With that, Bob Fechner took the gavel, pounded the table, and
said, "Meeting adjourned." He got up and walked out, and so did we,
leaving the military sitting there. It was a most startling performance,
and a very effective one. As I recall, Fechner never did reconsider that
subject.
Fechner was in his late fifties when he took the job,
and I really believe he undertook the task primarily because he liked
people, especially young people, and he felt that he could do something
to help them. One of the things he wanted to do more than anything else
was to inspect the camps, talk with the boys, and make sure that they
were well taken care of. He believed they should work, but he also felt
that they should get everything they possibly could out of the CCC
experience. He strongly supported and encouraged education for the young
men in the camps. He felt that the CCC, besides improving our natural
resources, had a responsibility to teach the boys how to work and do a
good job. He encouraged them to take pride in their accomplishments. He
approved the employment in each camp of eight or ten "Local Experienced
Men" (LEMs)older, unemployed craftsmen who could guide the boys in
doing skilled work such as carpentry, masonry, and the like.
Even though Bob had been an important labor figure,
he objected when some union organizers attempted to move in on the CCC
program in New England to form a union among the boys. The organizers
got into two or three camps and met with the boys, but when word of this
got to Fechner, he put a stop to it immediately. He didn't waste any
words or even call a hearing. His decision was made on the premise that
the government was doing everything that could possibly be done for
these boysthey were happy; they were getting good food; they were
sending money home to their parents; they were getting an education to
the extent that was possible; and they were contributing in a good,
healthy way to the conservation needs of the country and to their own
well-being. There was no need for a union, as far as he was concerned.
He sent orders to the camps to keep the union organizers out and gave
instructions that if any of the boys joined a union they were to be sent
home.
Often when he went on a trip to inspect the camps, he
would take Mrs. Fechner along, together with her sister, and his
secretary, Mrs. Holbrook. In the work-camp atmospherewhere there
were anywhere from 150 to 200 young men working, day after day, month
after month, under the management of menit wasn't always the
easiest situation to handle. Looking back at it, however, I believe that
bringing these ladies into the camps was really a very nice thing to do.
Their presence lent an air of dignity and a bit of homey atmosphere.
Fechner was very strict regarding the hours the boys
were to work. He wanted them to have time off for study and for
recreation. For the later, there was hardly a camp that didn't have
facilities for volleyball, softball, and baseball. Boxing too was a
popular sport. It was surprising to some of us that many of the young men
who showed up in the camps were illiterate. Bob Fechner made it clear
that he wanted the army and supervising forces to do everything possible
to see that nobody left the CCC without mastering at least the
fundamental elements of reading and writing.
A book entitled The New Dealers, published in
1934 by Simon and Schuster, which preserved the author's anonymity
under the cognomen "Unofficial Observer," had the following to say about
the Fechner character and personality:
At first the Army, which organized and officered the
camps, tried to turn the CCC into a purely army project. It found that
this quiet, stolid, friendly man, with his heavy spectacles and drooping
head, could not be outwitted or bamboozled by even the highest-ranking
generals. He is no policy-maker, no brain-truster, no administrative
miracleman. He is simply one of the storm troopers who undertook an
unprecedented job and did it well. The CCC experiment is one of the few
completely successful emergency measures in our history.
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