Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents PRE-CAMP ORIENTATION MEETING SALT LAKE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE
Utah State Department of Public Welfare
Office of State Selecting Agency
Salt Lake City, Utah
July 3, 1939 AS-U-77
Mr. Hatch: (Director, Salt Lake County Department of Public Welfare) We have invited you to come today in order that you may get a little more insight into the CCC program and we do welcome you to this meeting. We are sorry that we weren't able to invite all of the parents to come to the meeting but another time we shall plan for a larger hall and invite the parents and anyone who might wish to come. Mr. Herman: (Supervisor, CCC Selection, State of Utah) I want to tell you something about selection; that is, the rules and regulations you have to meet before getting into CCC. In the office of the Director of the CCC in Washington are Mr. Persons and Mr. Snyder who have charge of the Division of Selection throughout the United States. Mr. Parsons and Mr. Snyder work through public welfare agencies and they name one agency to be the selecting agency in each state. In Utah it is the Department of Public Welfare The quota that they assign us is dependent upon the number of boys available for the Utah camps. Now, suppose in Utah it is one thousand--that is not the number, but suppose they assign one thousand boys. That means Utah can have one thousand CCC boys in camp at any one time, but boys resign and leave because of various reasons and each quarter' that is, every three months, we have an enrollment. We are beginning the July enrollment at the present time During this month we are going to replace boys who have left the camp for one reason or another--employment and all the various reasons. Now, in turn, the State Department of Public Welfare assigns to the Counties so many boys to enroll. To Salt Lake County they assign a certain number of boys to go to the CCC camp. You boys have applied for CCC enrollment. Now, the Salt Lake County Department of Public Welfare has certain rules and regulations by which to be guided. Those rules are not made by the State Department or the County Department. They are rules laid down by the office of the Director of the CCC, First of all, let me say, that in order to enroll, you must be at least 17 years of egg and lass than 24; that is, you cannot hays turned 24. You must be unmarried. You cannot be married and get in the CCC camp. You must be a citizen of the United States and you must be unemployed and in need of employment. Now some of you boys have been in school and you intend to go back to school in the fall. Your enrollment here is for a six months' period. Therefore. the CCC camp does not want you to enroll if you intend to go to school next fall. Preference in enrollment is given to the 18-year old and up group, Now, we are taking applications from you 17-year old boys but all of you cannot be enrolled. Some of you will but we do not have places for all of the 17-year old group. The reason for this is that 18-year old boys, generally speaking, are more mature and more able to carry on the work of the camp. Now, in selection, if you qualify for all these rules, we ask the questions: Are you physically able to carry on the work of the camp; and have you the ability and desire to get the most out of the CCC field? After you have made application, the county worker selects and certifies a certain number of you boys and you are sent to cue of the camps for physical examination. If the physical examination is passed, you are officially enrolled in the CCC. You are paid at the rate of $30.00 a month which includes shelter, clothing, food, and medical attention. Part of the $30.00 goes to your parents. The allotment, as we call it, goes to your parents; that is, $22.00 out of this goes to help your parents and $8.00 is to be spent by the boy on recreation. Captain Tatom: (Executive Officer, CCC, Fort Douglas District) Mr. Hatch and Mr. Herman have told you how you are selected. I would like to say a few words about what happens to you once the army gets hold of you. As you all know, the army is in charge of running the camp. That is easy to see by the clothing, supplies, recreation, medical attention and all those things. There is no military training. I am glad to see some of the mothers and fathers because Occasionally we have someone ask, "Are you trying to make soldiers out of these lads?" No, we are not trying to make soldiers out of anybody. The army was given the job because it was equipped with the supplies, food, etc. that can run these things. In a few months there will not be an army officer in any CCC camp. I know some of the questions that come up in your mind. The first one is "When do we eat?" and "What do we eat?" We eat three times a day and what you eat depends upon what kind of cook you have in your camp. Generally speaking, the food is much better than the average family's eats at home. The food is the best quality that the Government can buy. We buy nothing but inspected milk and meat and everything we buy is passed on by Government inspection so your food is good and there is plenty of it. It is served out of china plates and with desserts and everything that goes to make a good meal. Occasionally, in some camps, the cooks are not as good as in others but we usually find it out and correct it. We weighed all the men who came into camp and we found that the average boy gained 14 pounds the first two months he was in the camp. Now, how much do you work? Roughly speaking, You work 40 hours a week on the job. The rest of the time is pretty much up to yourself. We have courses at the camp that you will hear more about later. We have recreation. We have ping pony, baseball, basket ball, all the different kind of games that you could have in a place like that. Some of the mothers want to know how their sons are going to sleep, Every man has a spring steel cot, mattress, clean sheets, pillow cases, etc. Clothing. Every man is given a complete set of clothing by the Government, cotton clothing in the summer and woolen clothing in the winter. This includes everything it takes to make a complete outfit. Around the camp when you have dances and special occasions, you can wear civilian clothes. There is a certain amount of housekeeping to be done in camp and if some of you have never before washed your clothes, you are going to learn. We shall teach you. When its your turn to scrub the floor, we expect you to do it. Remember, there have been about two million. boys go through the CCC. Most of them have liked it. The ones who are there now started just like you and so when someone tells you to do something, you do it. Remember that two million others have done it and it hasn't hurt them. Older men, that is, the ones who have been in longer, will get you started off and if you don't make your bed up right, you will hear about it. Joining a lodge or going to work in a factory, you always haze a new man. You can expect that in the CCC. They will tie knots in your clothes and play all the tricks that young man can think of. They are all in the spirit of fun so don't go around with a chip on your shoulder--just wait three months until a new bunch comes in and you can have your chance to work on them. You have to pass a physical examination before you can come in. There are several reasons for making you pass a physical examination. First, for your own protection; second, we don't want boys in the camp who are not able to do their share of the work. It wouldn't be fair to take a boy who can't do his share. If you are reasonably sound and in good health, the doctor will pass you. You will be vaccinated against smallpox and in some camps will be inoculated against typhoid fever, and when the doctors get through with you, you will be inoculated against everything they can think of. You are very lucky to get that. The average citizen cannot afford to get it. In every camp we have a doctor and a complete line of drugs. We have five dentists in the camp. They come to each camp and spend about two weeks, look over your teeth and do the necessary work unless it is bridge work or something like that which the Government won't do. I see several lads here who wear glasses. The Government repairs broken eye-glasses for nothing. We have five chaplains. In the army we call them chaplains. We nave a Mormon and Catholic chaplain and three Protestants. They put on entertainments. You can go if you want. If you don't want to, there is nobody to force you to go. In addition to that in a lot of the camps, we run trucks to the nearest town so that boys can go to their own church. We have recreation trips. Some of the camps, of course, are not in town. Some of them are pretty far out so to get recreation, we run trucks into town in order that every man can get at least two trips a month to go to dances, picture shows, etc. All of the man of Utah go to one of six camps: Bountiful, Duck Creek, Provo, Box Elder County, Big Cottonwood, and Bryce Canyon. You might be sent to any one of the six camps. Now, I know everybody wants to go out to Bountiful; You can't all go to Bountiful and you can't all go to Bryce and you can't all go to Provo. We have certain vacancies in each camp and Mr. Herman has to send you where there is a vacancy. He told you about the pay, $30.00 a month, of which $22.00 must be sent home. The other $8.00 you can spend in any way you see fit. In each camp there is a little store. You can buy almost anything you need. The profits from the store belong to the camp and that is where the money comes from to buy magazines, moving picture machines and that type of thing. In each camp there are certain men who get $45.00 a month and some who get $36.00. Whether you get one of those jobs depends on how smart you are. Starting the fifth of July, we shall have a bunch of boys brought into Ft. Douglas to learn cooking from experienced cooks, and if you have an aptitude, it is a good chance to learn cooking. There are two CCC boys cooking down at the Hotel Utah. I think that covers most of the things that pertain to the army. When you come in, you sign up for six months. You take an oath to obey the rules and regulations, protect Government property, take care of your clothes and to stay in for six months. You can get out before the end of the six months. If your parents need you at home and they write a letter and prove that they need you at home, you will be given an honorable discharge and your ticket back. If you want to be discharged to return to school, you can be sent home. If you have a job, you can be given an honorable discharge and sent home, but when you say you have a job, you must come in with some proof because we will have it investigated, and unless it is a real job, we don't want to discharge you because if we do you go right back to where you are without a job. Now, for misbehavior, you might get a different kind of discharge. For misconduct, refusing to obey the rules and regulations, for small offenses, your captain can fine you up to three dollars for any one month or he can give you extra duties working on your own time. Those are for minor things that you bring on yourself. After you know the rules and regulations, you are expected to live up to them. You can be given a dishonorable discharge and you don't get your ticket home and you are not allowed to enroll in the CCC again. If you get a dishonorable discharge, you are going to hurt yourself when you look for a job. Information can be obtained from Ft. Douglas regarding a discharge. You are all going in with a clean record. Come out with a clean record. If you go absent from the camp without permission, you lose your pay for the time you are absent. No work--no pay, to make it easy to understand. Whenever a boy goes from the camp, the captain writes him a letter and also to his closest relatives asking that he please come back to camp. Whatever you do, don't desert. You lads call it quitting. That is about what it amounts to. A boy comes in. He can't take it. He decides he is going to leave. We call him a quitter and believe me, you will never amount to anything if you can't take it. I feel very strongly about this. I have a youngster myself who in a few years will be big enough to go in the CCC. We have letters every day asking, "Can't my boy get in? He has a dishonorable discharge. He didn't know what he was doing." Don't come around and tell your mother you didn't know anything about it. Your father won't be proud of you if you just quit your job and come home. He didn't quit his job and he doesn't want you to quit yours. Question: What is the penalty for leaving camp without permission from proper authorities? You may be fined a small sum or given extra duties to work out. Question: Is a boy allowed to have a car in camp? You cannot have a car. You get a dishonorable discharge for owning or operating a privately owned automobile. That is an order from the President. There are several reasons why. The President has held that young men in the CCC normally come from a family that cannot afford to own a car. He doesn't belong in CCC. Then there is the danger of accidents. One lad will have a car and five or six will pile in and the first thing you know, they are piled up on the road somewhere. This happened recently in one of our local camps. No liquor allowed in the camp and no gambling allowed. Of course, we can't always prevent some of these crap shooters from getting out but it is against the regulations and if you are found out, you can expect to be called for it. If you lose any Government property or dispose of it, you will not only be charged with it, but if you sell any Government property, it is a pretty serious offense, and you are turned over to the police and generally to the Federal Court. In other words, when the Government issues you a blanket, it still belongs to the Government, so don't dispose of any property. When you are discharged, you are given a suit of clothes to wear home. Question: If a person has had previous military training, does it affect his ranking in the CCC? No, it does not have any bearing on it at all. You will have a place to hang your clothes up and nearly everyone buys a small trunk through the camp store so that he can keep his things locked up. It has been very pleasant to find only a small amount of stealing but most men have their pictures, etc. that they like to lock up. Just take enough clothes to wear for a few days until you are measured up for clothes. It will take anywhere from a few days to 1 week. Take your Kodak, musical instruments, etc. along. Question: Is a boy allowed to take his rifle? Yes, you may take your rifle. It has to be locked up in the supply room except when it is-in use. That is to prevent accidents. Question: Is first aid taught? We teach first aid in every camp. They give a first-class course in first aid and the ores who pass get a card from the Red Cross. Question: What about the boys who have cards to go out on the 5th? Does that mean the other boys who have not received cards will not be able to go? Mr. Hatch: Some of you boys have cards to go out on the fifth and others haven't. Those who haven't received notices may get an opportunity. As I said before, we have to make a selection. We can't take any and all. There are now 60. Our quota was set at 60 but from past experiences, we have found we are always able to send more than the original quota. To those who are unfortunate and not able to be enrolled at this time, you may get in in October or in January. Every three months we have an enrollment period. Mr. Field: (District Educational Adviser, Fort Douglas District) Men. Some of you may think of yourselves as boys but when you get to the CCC, you are going to be considered as men. I should like to ask a few questions: How many of you have finished high school? How many of you have been in high school? You have all been to school. Now, how many of you are rather fed up with school? Now, I am not damning schools, In fact, schools are very important things. How many of you feel that school has prepared you to get out and earn a living? Most of you think, "Well, school didn't get me any money and I haven't bean able to get a job." Maybe sore of you are even blaming the school, It is only natural to blame the school. When you go to the CCC, you are not going to school. They are training groups. We have in the average CCC camp more equipment than at the finest vocational school in the country. Why, in the Big Cottonwood camp there is more equipment than in all the city schools put together. They have around $10,000.00 worth of tools in the machine shop alone. We have right around two thousand dollars' worth of equipment in our carpenter shop which is sign building and woodworking material. Along with that, we have our caterpillars which are probably worth up to $25,000.00, so you men can see that we have ample facilities for training young men in mechanics, approximately $100,000.00 worth of equipment. Of course, that naturally is our big set-up in that particular camp. Now, it is amazing what we have to train you men with--things that schools never thought of having. You will have opportunities that you thought you never would have. When you try to get a job, they ask you about experience. In the CCC you have a chance to get experience. Maybe you will start out with a pick and shovel. I suppose you all want to be truck drivers. That is usually the way. Besides that you are going to have a chance to receive good all-around experience which will enable you to say to an employer: "Well, Mr. Smith, I worked with a pick and shovel out at the CCC amp. I have driven a truck for six months without an accident. I worked on a caterpillar, worked in the carpenter shop for three months." He is going to prick up his ears. That is the thing we have to offer you men at the camp. If you want to be a surveyor, you can say when you leave the CCC, "I have had so much experience in the CCC camp. In addition I have completed a course in surveying and have this certificate to show you." Actual schooling in survey work is not available in the camp. However, boys have opportunity if ambitious enough to further their education to take correspondence courses in order to gain this vocational training. In the camp library there are books available on the subject. Now, that is the point, men, and I hope that as you go out to camp, you are all going to appreciate and take every advantage to better yourselves so that when you go to leave camp, you can get a job and what is more, you will have the knowledge that will enable you to keep it. When you get out to camp, your Educational Advisor is going to be your friend. He is going to talk to you about some of your hopes and then he is going to help you. There is quite an opportunity for CCC boys to get work with the Government. The greater majority of the clerks at Fort Douglas are former CCC men. Many are employed on these big State Road Construction jobs. I saw one job recently down at Cedar City where they are using big heavy equipment and paying former CCC men $1.00 and $1.25 an hour. Not everyone can get that, perhaps, but you have a chance at it. Question: What opportunities are available for CCC boys to learn printing? In one particular camp they do have a good printing set. However, that is the exception rather than the rule. They do in practically every camp have a newspaper which is published by enrollees and the stencil is cut and mimeographed so you could get some experience in that line. Mr. Henderson: (District Educational Adviser, Fort Douglas District) Each camp has what is known as an Educational Advisor. They are mostly professional men. They are all college men and have worked in vocational training. They have had boy scout work and things of that nature. So, you have at least two officers in a camp--doctor and an Educational Advisor. Now the basis of the organization of the CCC is, first of all, for employment, and, second, for citizenship. Our job is to turn you boys cut better equipped to get a job than when you come in, After you have been in for two years, we line up those men who are suitable for jobs and take them to the employment agency, and they attempt to place you. Mr. Field has placed the proposition ahead of you. Probably not more than 50% of the men who enter camp can get the training Mr. Field has mentioned. Only those boys who are worthy of it can get it, so it is up to you fellows. If you have the stuff and want to hold that kind of a job, you may be able to but you can't get it by wishing for it. How many of you have had previous CCC experience? Well, anyway, when you fellows come into camp, you will have a chance to prove yourself. Maybe this fellow is the best truck driver in the state but he has to prove it. If, in three or six months, he shows that he really is an excellent man, he will get his chance. Leisure Time: You have an opportunity to use your leisure time to benefit yourself and as we are attempting to make you employable and good citizens, it is worth your while to make use of your time by attending some of these activities which include everything that you can possibly think of. They are not giver, by the classroom method to which most of you are accustomed. Some of you fellows say, "I don't want to be a farmer." Or the other hand, some of you will have to go back to the farm and the camp will attempt to give you something that can help you aid your family's income on the farm. Recreation: Every man is given the opportunity and expected to take part in the recreational activities. Mr. Field mentioned the camp paper. Some of the camps have orchestras. Some of the camps put on dances either in the camp or in a town nearby. Every camp has a library. The library has three parts. There is a library composed of technical books and non-fiction. There is a traveling library that is made up of almost all fiction, and there is the periodical library made up of good magazines and newspapers. Each camp has from five to eight papers representing the towns you boys come from. Practically every camp is equipped with a motion picture machine. In other words, the Educational Department is taking care of your leisure time. I hope I have said something that has helped you out. Mr. Field has stated that the Educational Advisor is there to help you as is every overhead man. Mr. Thomas: (Camp Superintendent, Forest Service) You start work at eight o'clock in the morning and usually get in about seven hours of work a day. From my experience in the CCC I have found that you fellows from 17 to 24 have done some very fine work. We have had some fine demonstrations in the fires around here. The CCC boys have worked harder than anyone else. We have a work agency varying from five to seven foremen. Now, the CCC's have been operating long enough so that most of then have been in for five or six years. In Big Cottonwood we have a powder man who has spent practically all his life in construction work, in powder work, and spent three years on Boulder Dam. You will find men like that in all the camps. You boys can get a good deal out of this if you come in with that idea. Some of the other speakers mentioned Caterpillar operation. That is only one of the many things you boys are going to come in contact with. You will find some camps do practically nothing but road construction. The Bryce Camp is landscaping and building parks. In this country services of experienced gardeners are always in demand, men that know how to properly slope a bank or properly landscape or build a golf course. You will find, men, that you can get a good deal out of camp life. Now, we are stressing more and more in the CCC this vocational training. There is an excellent chance for you to further your educational training and in most camps, you can usually come out experienced in some kind of a line. It has been my experience that about 80% of the men are truck drivers until they are tried out.
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