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.

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.

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.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt quickly sketched this organization chart of the Civilian Conservation Corps during a meeting with the department representatives early in 1933.

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 staff—a colonel or two, a major or two, and a captain—and 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.

Robert Fechner, director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933 to 1939.

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 boys—they 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 atmosphere—where there were anywhere from 150 to 200 young men working, day after day, month after month, under the management of men—it 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.