should ordinarily not turn to the Corps until it has become clear 
that CCC camp life is without question the most suitable opportunity 
for them. 
Interest in CCC as a Work and Training Opportunity 
The Civilian Conservation Corps is not primarily a relief 
program; it is a work and training opportunity for young men. It is 
important, therefore, that applicants should understand the nature of 
the CCC program and should not be selected for enrollment if they are 
unable to regard it as a work and training opportunity. The following 
examples will illustrate this point: 
Example 1 . In one agency a youth made application for en¬ 
rollment but did not seem too enthusiastic about being enrolled. Since 
he seemed qualified from such standpoints as mental capacity, dependa¬ 
bility, and maturity, and in view of the fact that his family was in 
need of relief, the selecting agent decided to "take a chance" with 
him. Two months later the boy deserted. The selecting agent sent 
him a post card and asked him to come in. By careful interview the 
selecting agent learned that the youth had gone to camp because his 
family had strongly urged him to do so. He, himself, was not anxious 
to go to camp. Later, the father of the youth got a job and could 
support his family again, so the youth took that first opportunity 
to leave. To that youth and to his family the CCC program was only 
a relief measure. He had no interest in the Corps as a work and 
training opportunity. It is not surprising, therefore, that his 
enrollment resulted in desertion. 
Example 2 . In another instance, a group of young men ap¬ 
peared at a CCC selecting agent's office and all wanted to make ap¬ 
plication. The selecting agent noticed that they were all older and 
more experienced than most youths who made application for CCC enroll¬ 
ment. He discovered that they were normally employed in a local steel 
mill. Most of them had been earning approximately $5 per day until 
they had been furloughed in a slack season. They decided, as a group, 
that until the steel mills picked up again, they would all join the 
CCC. These young men were mature, dependable, mentally alert. They 
were selected and enrolled in the CCC. Within three months, the mills 
opened up again and immediately they were re-employed at their old jobs. 
As enrollees of the Corps, they did not take any special interest in the 
work; they did not participate in the voluntary leisure-time training 
program; they were merely "marking time" until the mills opened up again 
and they could get their old jobs back. They received more cash on their 
former jobs in a week than they did in a CCC camp in a month. They con¬ 
sidered that the work was beneath them. Their enrollment in the Corps 
was clearly not successful. 
These are two examples of poor selection because the appli¬ 
cants were not interested in the CCC as a work and training opportunity. 
No youth who has been urged against his own desires to make application, 
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