Robert
FechnerRobert
FechnerRobert Fechner (1876-1939) received the Pugsley Gold Medal in 1939. He was director of the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-39), which played such a central role in the development of state and national parks in the US. Fechner was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on March 22, 1876. He was educated in the public schools of Macon and Griffin, Georgia, was a student for a few months at Georgia Institute of Technology, and at the age of sixteen learned the machinist’s trade in Augusta, Georgia. After serving a four-year apprenticeship, he joined the machinists’ union and was elected secretary of his local branch because of his unusual ability as a leader of men. During the next nine years he worked as a journeyman, or "boomer" machinist, traveling from place to place seeking jobs wherever he went. His travels took him through most of Mexico; to Central and South America, where he worked in mines, smelters, and on coffee fincas; and for a time to the Panama Canal where the French were making their unsuccessful attempt to link the Atlantic and the Pacific.
In 1905 he returned to Savannah, Georgia, as an employee of the Central Georgia railroad. In 1914 he was elected a member of the executive board of the International Association of Machinists and in 1925 became general vice president, an office he held until his death. He represented labor interests in numerous disputes and arbitrations.
He resided in Boston from 1914 to 1933, and was active in the city’s affairs and in civic and progressive movements. He served on the board of directors of the Ford Hall Forum, and was a member of the Massachusetts Civic League, Boston City Club and the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. In 1921, he became a visiting lecturer at the School of Business Administration at Harvard University and continued to do this in subsequent years. He also lectured at Brown University, Dartmouth College, Simmons College and Northeastern University on the subject of labor and industrial management.
In April, 1933, Fechner, who was a Democrat, was appointed by President Roosevelt as director of the Emergency Conservation Work program inaugurated by the federal government to reduce unemployment and to provide for the restoration of the country’s forestry and other natural resources. Fechner was a capable and respected leader of men, who possessed great administrative ability and indefatigable industry. He was endowed with the qualities of cooperation, patience, understanding, loyalty, courage and friendliness.
It was Fechner’s reputation for fairness, tact and patience that impressed President Roosevelt. Fechner was in his late fifties when he took the job and he undertook it because he liked young people and felt he could do something to help them with the CCC program. Connie Wirth who subsequently became the director of the NPS worked closely with Fechner at that time as the NPS official in charge of the CCC programs in parks. He observed: “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.”
The CCC required the cooperation of four major departments of the government–those of war, interior, agriculture and labor. The CCC men worked on forestry and park projects, to correct soil erosion, to perform flood control work, to eradicate insect and disease menaces in the forests, and to perform other work designed to conserve, restore and improve forests on the many millions of acres of cut-over and burned timber lands. The CCC engaged in an extensive program of recreational area development, rehabilitation of depleted rangelands in the public domain, and reclamation of arid lands in the western states. In most areas, state forestry or parks agencies had immediate charge over the CCC projects.
Members of the CCC were organized into companies of approximately 200 each, one company to each camp, and the camps were placed under the command of commissioned officers of the U.S. army or reserve officers. The army supplied the CCC camps and supervised their recreational activities. Each enrollee was paid $30 per month, of which at least $22 was deducted each month and sent to his dependent relatives. The records show that in more than 75 percent of the cases, the enrolled men allotted $25 or more monthly to their dependents, thus relieving the burden upon state and local relief agencies. Some of these men were skilled artisans and craftsmen and the CCC work was of the highest standard.
When the camps first were established, the intent was to operate them for a six-month period, but they were so successful that provision was made for their continuance. Indeed, in 1935 Roosevelt raised the enrollment goal from 250,000 to 600,000 men. The CCC peaked in October 1935 with 560,000 and thereafter declined to a level of about 300,000. Among the benefits of the program cited by Fechner were the performance of a great amount of needed forest and field conservation work; reduction of fire losses; lightened state and local relief costs; a marked improvement in the health and the moral and mental outlook of the young men; and a sound fundamental preparation for military life, should they be called upon for that service.
The CCC served a dual role in saving and restoring the nation’s human and natural resources. In the corps’s nine-year existence, over 2.5 million men wore its forest-green uniform and benefited from its educational and job opportunities. The enrollees planted some 2.25 billion trees, built nearly 6 million erosion check dams, carried out forest-stand improvement work on 4 million acres, engaged in tree and plant disease and pest control on 21 million acres, built over 122,000 miles of truck trails, fought hundreds of forest fires, and supplied a ready source of manpower for a variety of emergency situations. Perhaps the principal contemporary criticism of the agency was that it sometimes appeared to take jobs away from local residents; it was also attacked by some foresters, both in industry and in the federal service, who disliked the mixing of resource conservation with social rehabilitation purposes and who felt that political selection of supervisors and foremen was inconsistent with good forestry practices. The outstanding criticism leveled by later writers was that the CCC placed limitations on the number of black enrollees and practiced discrimination against those it did admit. Nevertheless, the widespread approval of the corps, which continues to the present, attests to its accomplishments and to the validity of the concept.
Major William Welch (Pugsley Gold Medal 1935) observed in 1935 that the depression had done more in two years for the parks of America than park enthusiasts had ever dreamed of. Through the CCC, it had been possible to open so many new parks that the number now (1935) was in the thousands. He said that in the 13 years since the National Conference on State Parks first met in 1921, the CCC had been mainly responsible for increasing the number of state parks from five to over 500.
Under Fechner’s guidance, more than $2.4 billion in federal funds was used to rehabilitate almost 2.4 million youths made idle by the Depression. So well did he perform this Herculean task that widespread praise came from Congressional leaders, regardless of party affiliations. Fechner remained as director until the time of his death. Fechner wrote:
"While every phase of conservation work had benefited during the past three years as a result of the work accomplished by our CCC camps, it appears to me that probably the development of an adequate state park system in most of our States has been the most outstanding feature of this work.
A number of States had already begun the development of a state park system prior to 1933, but there were many States in which no state park existed and where very little or no consideration had been given by the citizens of the State to the necessity or desirability of such recreational areas.
The action of President Roosevelt in recommending to Congress that a new organization be set up as a part of the national relief program immediately presented to all States an unexpected opportunity to accomplish results that in most cases had hardly been dreamed of. It was encouraging to note the immediate response made by practically all of the States just as soon as information was spread around that the development of state parks would be a major feature of CCC camp work. States, through their legislatures, or as a result of generous gifts on the part of individual citizens and groups, quickly placed themselves in line to apply for and receive these camps.
The Federal Government, through the CCC camps, is turning over to the various States practically without expense to them, a state park system that under ordinary circumstances would not have been created within our generation."