Greenwood County History-
1930s (Part 4 of 10),
The following history of 1930 is the continuation of the column created by Mike Pitko in a chronological order.
In April 1933, Greenwood County was given a quota of 32 men under the Emergency Conservation Corps program. (CCC) Men chosen will be unmarried between the ages of 18 and 25, who are now on relief or whose families are now on relief. They must be citizens of the U.S., physical able to perform ordinary common labor, free of disease and have a desire to enter the work force. The applicants will be divided into three or more groups. They will report to a U.S. Army Recruiting station where they will be given a preliminary exam, and transported to an army conditioning camp, probably Fort Leavenworth or Fort Riley. There they will get a final physical exam and will be formally enrolled in the emergency conservation corps. The men agree to work for a period of six months. The work to be done will be in national and state parks and forests. It will include such work as planting trees, thinning of timber, tree trimming, wood cutting, insect and tree eradication, fire prevention and firefighting, park trail and road building, flood control and soil erosion work. No discrimination to race, color, creed or politics. There will be no military training. Men will be paid $30 a month and provided with clothing, food and shelter. Men will be expected to allot $25 a month of their pay to their families or dependents.
Men will be organized in companies of 200 each. They will work five eighthour days for a forty-hour week. There will be recreational activities provided. Bulletins may be secured at the Eureka Chamber of Commerce. They should be read carefully by the men and members of their family before application is made. The men will be given discharge papers bearing their record of accomplishment and testifying to their industry, aptitude, and general qualifications, which papers will be used and helpful to the men when applying for other jobs.
A new relief plan took command of the Kansas unemployment situation. The New Civil Works project will provide relief work with 30 hours of work each week at forty cents an hour. This means a minimum of $48 a month. In Greenwood County approximately 700 men were shifted to the new Civil Works plan. This county at this time is allowed ten projects, five on state highways and five on county roads. Greenwood County was one of the first counties to have its projects approved. County projects will cost $24,800 with $20,000 for graveling county roads and about $4,000 on construction work. The state will sponsor projects in the county on Hwy. 54 east and west of Eureka, Hwy. 96 near Severy and Hwy. 11 ( now called Hwy 99) near Madison at a cost of $25,000. The government is requiring that 65% be spent on labor and the remaining 35% on supervision and materials. Laborers will receive their pay weekly.
The county is laying in supplies of lumber and hand tools in preparation for the work. At a later date a number of laborers will be used in crushing rock for the roads where gravel in not available in the immediate vicinity.
Two thousand and sixteen rural schools in the U.S. failed to open in 1933 as the economic depression shrunk taxes. The financial situation of the schools is as bad or worse, in the larger cities than it is in the rural areas. Teachers in some cities have been unpaid for months and more than 40 million dollars is now owed in back salaries to teachers who carry on because they cannot see children suffer. There are 200,000 unemployed teachers and the school enrollment has increased more than half a million in the last few years.
By the end of November 1933, there were 567 men at work in Greenwood County under the new Civil Works plan. The estimated number of men working will increase to 640 next week. The pay now is $12 a week.
Ninety-seven percent of the nation’s banks depositors are now insured under the new FDIC. Deposits up to $2,500 are insured and will go up to $10,000 in July 1934. All national banks and members of the federal reserve system are insured. State banks are required to meet rigid conditions by federal authorities if they want to become members of the federal insurance guarantee. There are 579 state banks and trust companies in Kanas in January 1934.
To help unemployment and the needy a number of programs were started, some by legislative action and some by executive action by the President. Here is a partial list of those programs and the year they were started.
CCC- Civilian Conservation Corps (1933) Put unemployed young men, age 18-25, to work in parks and national forests.
PWA-Public Works Administration (1933) Paid private contractors to build large-scale projects proposed by the states.
CWA-Civil Works Administration (1933) Hired unemployed directly to work on local projects.
WPA-Works Progress Administration (1935) Hired the unemployed directly and became the largest of all public works programs.
NYA-National Youth Administration (1933) Hired young men and women, both in and out of school for work programs.
REA-Rural Electrification Administration (1935) Brought electricity to isolated rural areas. FSCC-Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation (1933) Distributed surplus food and commodities to those in need.
PWAP-Public Works of Art Project (1933) Put artists to work Art and Culture Project of Federal Emergency Relief Adm. (1934) Plays, concerts and art work-put actors, musicians and artists to work.
Treasury Section of Fine Arts (1934) Over saw artworks created to enhance public buildings, notably post offices.
(one of the projects was the painting in the Eureka post office) Federal Dance Project (1933) Off shoot of the Federal Theatre Project and provides special opportunities for unemployed dancers.
Electric Home and Farm Authority (1943) Helped Americans purchase electric appliances.
Farm Security Adm. (1937) Provided low-interest credit and other services to farmers in need.
