WORK FOR YOUTH

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 13

WORK FOR YOUTH

THRESHOLD OF LIFE

PEOBLEM OF THE DAY

WHAT AMERICA IS DOING

SUCCESS OF C.CC. SCHEME

(By A. F. T. Chorlton.)

Of all the manifold problems of the depression it \iill generally be admitted that the must serious is the unemployment of jouth on the threshold of life. I saw ihe evil effects of this in several countries visited in the course of a sixteen months' world tour, notably in Britain, where nothing could have been more tragic than the spectacle of wtrkless young men, obviously in poor health, hanging round street corners :ii the towns of the depressed areas. ]'. saw also attempts sit coping with the problem by various methods in dtf'erent countries. What impressed me an being by far the most successful system in any country was that of the C.CC; (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the United States for youths and young men from 18 to 25 years, and, on .somewhat similar lines but with certain drawbacks, the Arbeitslager (labour Camps) in Ger-

many. For young people below that age (18-25) the British "Junior Instruction Centtes" seemed to have much to commend them. As juvenile unemployment i; till exists in New Zealand, some account of what is being done elsewhere for youth in enforced idleness may be found to offer useful suggestions for application here. I first came ncross the C.C.C. in California, while I was with a party in the high Siena Nevada. One evening a Federal District Superintendent of Forests, i::om Washington, paid a visit to our camp and by the light of the camp fire talked .for an hour on the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose achievements, material and humai:, he said, "would long outlive the other products of American emergency legislation." He stated that the enrolment in the C.C.C. had been so great that the number had had to be extended to over half a million young men and a special quota had had to be imposed on every State. In the course of a discussion after the talk he inv..ted me to visit the nearest of these camps operating in the Yosemite Valley and gave me an introduction to th(! officer in charge. I chanced to meet i boy from this camp who was on a weekend solo fishing expedition and 'ye, camped together. Members of the c: imps are free on both Saturday and Sunday, the necessary 40 hours of work per week being done on the other days. This young American, who was 1!1 and stood over six feet and looked :ia the pink of health, told me that before joining the corps he had been unemployed for over a year, and in desperation, as his parents were on relief ;md could not afford to keep him, he had hitch-hiked right across America ii a vain search for work. Some of the other lads in the camp, he said, had been in even worse positions and had known extreme privation and hunger. Some of them were university graduates. The only qualifications for membership of the corps were that one should come from a family on relief, be of good character, single, and "between the ages of 18 and 25. It we: 3 also practically essential that members should be prepared to contribute part of their 30 dollars (£6) a month to the support of their parents; mo; t of them sent home 25 dollars and kept five for' themselves. A complete set of clothing, both for on or off duty, was provided and replacements through ordinary wear and tear were fee. As all wore the same kind of clothes, there was no competition in dress. Food, housing, and equipment were free and many of the boys, my informant said, were even able to make small savings on their 5 dollars a month. He was most enthusiastic about th 2 scheme. Food was wholesome and plentiful. There was ample provision ::or leisure and the life offered all th« health of the country and none of tfri worry of the town. VISIT TO IJ.C.C. CAMP. Next week I v:.sited the camp and was shown round by the superintendent. The camp was on one side of a small clearing on ".he bank of a small river. In the centre was a flagstaff with the American flag: flying, and near it i was a large frame building used as asocial hall. and as dining-room in bad weather. Meals were normally taken at tables under the pines. Around the central buildin* were.wooden dormitories, resemblinj those at the Trentham Camp but on a smaller scale. On the outskirts were the huts of the married officials. Tin: open,part of the camp was laid ou; in the form of a baseball diamond. The superintendent, who was an officer of the U.S. Army Reserve, said that there were two army officers, regular or reserve, at each camp. He himself, like man r others, had lost his administrative position in the business world at the time of the Wall Street crash and had been existing with his family on the remnant of his savings until the C.C.C. scheme began. He then explained the system. The Forestry Service, hi: said, being especially equipped to deal with forestry and soilerosion work, selects the location of the camps and provides experts to supervise the work done during the 40-hour week. Outside this period the War Department exercises control. The machinery of the army recruiting stations is used for the preliminary medical examination sid enrolment, because it is the only machinery capable of handling cfiicicrtly half a million men. After enrolment. C.C.C. members spend a fortnight in a special army conditioning or hardening cenfrc, getting fit, playing gsmes, hiking, and]

doing a certain amount of physical work. After being vaccinated-against smallpox they are sent to the forest camp, which is administered by the War Department, covering outfitting, subsistence, medical attention, and the provision of recreational and educational facilities. In addition to the ■ two superintending Army officers and one or more forestry experts, according to circumstances, there were at this and other camps approximately 15 experienced woodsmen, most of whom had probably been previously unemployed. The balance of the camp was made up by the C.CC. members to the number of 185. Each camp was thus in effect a self-contained community of about 200 persons, including cooks, barbers, mechanics, and other : tradesmen needed, these coming from • applicants for enrolment in the C.CC. ' C.CC. BOTS AT WORK. ' Under the guidance of my friend I 1 saw the C.C.C boys at work. , They f are divided into parties, the size of the , party depending on the nature of the . work. The first party I saw was cut- | ting a trail through the woods to what : would later be a public camping ground •in this national park. Working stripped to the waist; these lads looked \ as hard as nails, with skins as brown as leather, a sharp contrast in retrospect ' to the pale and emaciated faces I saw ' later in the. slums of Chicago and New ; York and. later again, in the depressed ; areas of England and Wales. My 1 guide, this American lad, said he had [ gained 91b in weight in the first two ' months and this was confirmed by the camp doctor, who said that newcomers almost invariably picked up from 5 to 101b. in their first two months in camp. I saw other parties at work. One

party was clearing away a "skeleton" forest of blackened trees into which fire had spread after the trees had been killed by an insect pest. Incidentally this pest had been got under control by the concerted efforts of this and other C.C.C. groups. Another party again was planting seedlings. The largest team was preparing an area for a motor camping ground by clearing out the heavy undergrowth, levelling the surface, and providing a sanitary, waste disposal, and water supply system. A motor road from andther direction had already been cut through by the corps. Other work included the provision of fire breaks in the forest and look-out stations with telephone equipment for fire prevention and control. . Although a large part of its work lies in the prevention of forest fires, the C.C.C. has rendered valuable service in.the fighting of fires that have already broken, out. I passed through an area of burning forest near the Canadian border and here the C.C.C. boys had performed amazing feats of courage and endurance in checking the spread and bringing the fire finally under control. I was told that since the institution of the C.C.C. the annual bill for .forest fire loss in the U.S.A. had been reduced by over 75 per cent. The C.C.C. is also widely engaged in the afforestation of deteriorated lands of which I saw hundreds of thousands of acres in. the course of a long motor tour in the West. Thus land ruined and deserted by agriculture is being returned to its original forest. So, too, with soil erosion the corps is doing work of the utmost national importance. Belts of trees are being planted, terraces formed, and thousands of small dams built to check disastrous flooding and the devastation of deforested areas. Thus while much of unemployment relief work in America, as in Britain and elsewhere, is of doubtful economic utility, the same condemnation cannot be passed on what the C.C.C. has done and. is doing. Most of its work will assuredly pay for itself in the long fun. NO MILITARY PURPOSE. The question has been asked as to whether these camps have not a military ulterior purpose. I asked my C.C.C. friend and guide whether the management and control by the War Department did not have such an effect in producing a military atmosphere. "Sure, no," he replied, rather amused. "I will not fight in another Great War in Europe." The superintendent told me afterwards that the army officers in charge had received definite instructions that there was to be no military drill, nor was military discipline to be enforced. The only punishments allowed are deductions from pay* unpopular ' work, • and dismissal, and it is seldom necessary to punish at all. There was no penalty for desertion, but the number of desertions amounted to a mere fraction of 1 per cent. The boys were keen to remain on at the end of their six months' term, and the period had had to' be extended, the absolute limit being fixed at eighteen months. Although the normal wage was 30 dollars a month, outstanding qualities of leadership could be rewarded up to 45 dollars a month. There is provision for any amount of amusement at the camp. In addition to outdoor sports, football, swimming, baseball, fishing, hiking, there is a good library of all sorts of books, including many technical works. The camp had also a small radio and an old piano presented by the delighted parents of an "old boy" who had made good. There were also a number of other musical instruments in the camp, and at a community concert the exuberant good will of the vocalists and the accompaniment of mouth-organ virtuosos seemed to bring back memories of the old "roaring" camps of the Golden West. There was nothing of the "slave camp" or military institution about it at all. In addition, there are ample facilities for those who want to study and improve their education against the time they will go- out into the world again. Some of the courses are of a general nature; others are practical and technical. Many of the city boys are taking a keen interest in Nature and wild life, making collections of the flora and fauna in their spare time. All this is to the good. The superintendent gave me some figures as to cost. The food, he said, averager! 37 cents per head per day. The "o.H in" cost. including pay, I amounted to 65 dollars per head per month, but from this had to be subtracted the amount the boys were paving the Feriernl Treasury by the remittances they sent home to their parents. The balance. 40 dollars, included all administrative expenses in

Washington. Thus, for £1 17s 4d, as I worked out the American money, the Government was receiving five days per week work .willingly given on schemes of public utility. As the superintendent put it, the C.CC. was building not only forests but men. Among the Red Indians the work had proved so valuable that more than 75 camps had been established on their reservations. GERMAN LABOUR CAJVirS. It is a far cry in space from tho American C.C.C. to the German Arbeitslager or labour camps, but there are many points of similarity, and each in its own country has been eminently successful, according to the circumstances and characteristics of the respective peoples. I do not know which came first in point of time, and it is quite possible that they were developed quite independently of each other. I saw some of these labour camps in the Rhineland, but it would take too long to describe them in full. There are military aspects about them which do not exist in the American scheme, and would not thrive in the freer atmosphere of the Anglo-Saxon world. The ages hi Germany are from 17 to 25, and the wage is 12s 6d a month, with no allotment to parents. The camps are run by the German War Office and administered by army officers. Equipment is provided free. The work done is mainly agricultural, and lacks the variety of the C.CC. No attempt is made to make the work interesting, but then the German temperament is different from the AngloSaxon. German camps, while well equipped for sport and recreation, are deficient intellectually, libraries being particularly meagre. This is in keeping with the Hitler policy of discouraging the "cuff-and-collar" man. The slogan is, "Work with the spade is as honourable as. work with the pen." In pursuance of this policy, it is compulsory on all students of the universities—the numbers have been reduced from 123,000 in 1931 to 15,000 today— to spend at least six months in a labour camp. These camps are definitely military and Nazi in their atmosphere. Nazi flags, slogans, and party leaders' portraits are the sole interior decorations, and at least an hour a day is devoted to military drill, military none the less if it is goose-stepping with spades at the slope, or "presenting spades" instead of arms. However, the lads are much healthier for the life, and are doing valuable work in increasing the food production of the Fatherland against some inevitable "Tag" when it may lie necessary again to stand a siege; WORK IN ENGLAND. In a final word, one must mention the Junior Instruction Centres in Britain. There are ,165 of these in England itself, mainly for boys and girls of from 14 to 18 years, who have been unable to get work on leaving school. The "centres" are housed mainly in empty factory buildings and similar places, and the instruction is in the skilled trades such as might be given in a technical college. Though provision on these lines is made up to 18 years, there is no alternative after that but to go on the dole, unless there is a job available. The conclusion one comes to after seeing the poor health and demoralisation resulting from idleness on the dole is that there is much to be said for a different method of attacking the problem than that adopted in Britain, and also, it seems, in New Zealand. The problem of unemployment is not likely to respond readily to natural recovery, because there are other forces at work not only impeding recovery, but restricting employment As an interim measure for keeping up the manhood of the race the C.CC. system in America is the best, in my opinion, devised yet, and could be applied in a country like New Zealand, with problems similar to those of Western America, with prospects of equal success.