[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 126 (Tuesday, September 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1726-E1727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS AND NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS 
                                  DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GEORGE W. GEKAS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2001

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor the 
Civilian Conservation Corps on the occurrence of their upcoming 60th 
anniversary. This Saturday, ceremonies around the country will 
commemorate the work and sacrifice of the members of the Civilian 
Conservation Corps, these unsung heroes who built over 800 of America's 
national and state parks. In addition to these ceremonies, volunteers 
will work to restore original CCC projects. The achievements and 
contributions of the CCC to our nation are still being realized nearly 
sixty years after the program ended. I also would like to recognize the 
efforts of thousands of volunteers who will donate their time on 
Saturday, September 29, 2001. These volunteers, participating in 
National Public Lands Day, will put in a day of real work on projects 
ranging from trail construction and repair to habitat restoration and 
making public lands more accessible for disabled visitors. In short, 
the volunteers participating in National Public Lands Day will work on 
projects much like the projects that the Civilian Conservation Corps 
completed so many years ago. I express my deep gratitude to the 
volunteers and to the men who made up the CCC.
  Following the stock market crash of 1929, the United States, and the 
entire world, slid into depression. Banks failed, loans and mortgages 
were foreclosed, unemployment soared as factories closed their doors, 
farms were abandoned and bread lines grew in cities. In 1933, to help 
get men out of bread lines and back to work, newly elected President 
Franklin D. Roosevelt engineered the passage of legislative measures 
which created government work programs designed to lift the country out 
of the Depression. One of these programs was the Civilian Conservation 
Corps.

[[Page E1727]]

  The CCC would work in every state as well as in Alaska, Hawaii, 
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Although one of the most 
recognizable and remembered CCC projects is Skyline Drive, in 
Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, the CCC's roots are planted firmly in 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The CCC was based on a program that 
was already put in place by Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot. 
Pinchot, a Yale graduate who went to France and became recognized as 
the first American trained in forestry, served as Governor from 1923 
until 1927 and again from 1931 to 1935. The work camps that he created 
throughout the Commonwealth are credited with building 20,000 miles of 
paved roads. Governor Pinchot's work camps would become the model for 
President Roosevelt's CCC. Because of Governor Pinchot's early 
leadership, Pennsylvania would have 113 CCC camps, second only to 
California. A total of 194,000 Pennsylvania citizens served in the CCC 
nationwide. The CCC transformed the forests and natural areas of 
Pennsylvania and greatly enhanced the Pennsylvania Bureau of State 
Parks.
  The CCC, officially formed in 1933, would instill a unique blend of 
military-style discipline and social responsibility in every man that 
served. From 1933 until 1942 millions of men, mostly youths but also 
World War I veterans and some skilled laborers, gathered to complete 
civil engineering projects for a mere thirty dollars a month, twenty-
five of which was sent back home to their families. This work would not 
only earn them money to help their families through hard times but 
would teach them the value of their labor and challenge their minds. 
Upon introduction to the CCC the men would be given military-style 
physicals and then transported to Army training camps where they would 
be subject to a basic training and orientation program conducted by 
military personnel. From there they would be transported to the CCC 
district where they were assigned. Aside from the strong military 
presence there were also civilian teachers and ministers that would 
teach the men more useful skills that they would use throughout their 
lives.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the CCC had a great impact not only on 
the lives of its members but on the country as a whole. It was a 
program that put men to work building roads, walls, bridges, parks and 
countless other projects at a time when other nations put their 
populations, equally touched by depression, into work building bombs, 
planes and tanks. The same bombs, planes and tanks that former CCC men 
would face in Europe and the Pacific. The CCC worked to pull the nation 
out of depression but it also unified the country for the trying times 
to come.
  I urge every American to take the opportunity to find out about the 
CCC. Use the internet to look up the accomplishments of the CCC or take 
a trip to the Allegheny National Forest, Gifford Pinchot National 
Forest, Skyline Drive, the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail 
or any of the thousands of CCC sites to see the results of their 
commitment. Most importantly, seek out a person who served in the CCC. 
There are fewer every year and the knowledge and wisdom they posses is 
invaluable. Mr. Speaker, let us all recognize the CCC and its men for 
their contributions, and also recognize the volunteers of National 
Public Lands Day who are working to bring the accomplishments of the 
CCC to light.

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