RELIEF: Five Weeks, 5%

To whip up some of the oldtime spirit that characterized the trimmer, grimmer A. E. F., President Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, the army of jobless forestry workers, last week commenced publishing its own weekly, Happy Days (“The Newspaper with a Smile”). Edited from Washington by Melvin Ryder, Vol. I No. 1 was frankly imitative of the A. E. F.’s Stars & Stripes. Cartoonist Abian Anders (“Wally”) Wallgren of Stars & Stripes supplied humorous sketches of C. C. C. camp life. A Cyrus Leroy Baldridge drawing (“Peeling Spuds”) was reprinted from Stars & Stripes. Pages of photographs showed enlistment lines, chow lines, tent lines, work lines. For the benefit of those who did not know what they swore to, the 237-word C. C. C. enlistment oath was reprinted. Local camp news appeared under such headings as ” ‘Sing in Rain’ at Hills Grove,” “Things ‘Nice’ at Allenton,” “Camp Perkins Is Busy,” “Two AWOLs Come Back.” Offered was a $5 prize for the best nickname for C. C. C. workers to match the A. E. F.’s “doughboy.” Happy Days was priced at $1 for six months—one day’s pay for each C. C. C. volunteer.

By no means ready, however was Happy Days’ public. President Roosevelt originally set C. C. C. at 250,000 young jobless. This was upped to 275,000 to include a special group of bonus-seeking veterans. Up to last week C. C. C. enlistments totalled 62,500, of whom 50,000 either had not yet been mustered into service or were still being “conditioned” in Army camps. After five weeks only 12,500 men or 5% of the original planned total had reached the woods. Director Fechner announced plans to have his army recruited to full strength by July 1.