Chapter IX 
QUALITATIVE SELECTION 
The final determination of the applicants to be awarded the 
privilege of enrollment in the Civilian Conservation Corps is much 
more than a routine procedure. No formula can be constructed which 
7d.ll relieve the selecting agent of the important responsibility of 
exercising discriminating judgment with regard to the personal quali¬ 
fications of applicants. 
As is indicated in Chapter IV of this book, the Corps wants 
youths who have the personal qualities which will enable them to con¬ 
tribute to and profit by the broad program of work and training* Even 
though an applicant may meet all the legal requirements for admission 
to the Corps and even though the financial need of the applicant him¬ 
self or his family may be great, it is obviously undesirable to select 
the applicant who is (l) not likely to stay in the Corps for a six 
months 1 period of enrollment, or (2) not likely to do his share of 
work, or to profit by the experience and training available in the 
Corps, 
Qualitative selection is the second of three steps in the 
process of CCC selection. These steps are: 
1. Determination of the facts of eligibility for all appli¬ 
cants. Does each meet every eligibility requirement? 
2. Selection from the list of fully eligible applicants, of 
those youths whose personal abilities and qualities seem 
to indicate that they will (a) stay in the Corps for at 
least one full term of enrollment, and (b) contribute to 
and profit by the CCC work and training program. 
3* Certification of fully eligible and personally qualified 
applicants in order of financial need (as indicated in 
"Standards of Eligibility"). 
The second of these two steps is of especial importance. 
It is the heart of the selection process. It requires the best ef¬ 
forts of every selecting agent. Enrollment in the CCC is a privi¬ 
lege for which youths must be carefully selected, not a haven of 
refuge for youths whose only qualification is destitution. 
The need for judgment concerning the personal qualifications 
of applicants imposes responsibility upon selecting agents to develop 
skill in the process of selection. Following through the CCC career 
of each youth selected will help every selecting agent to see when he 
has made avoidable mistakes, and thus to know which youths are likely 
to succeed and which are not. This is not a field in which it is ever 
possible to say that a perfect job has been done, but it is a field in 
which steady progress can be made and is being made by alert selecting 
agents in all parts of the country. 
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