Old-time front row kids will recognize cowboy star Denny Moore as the unfortunate hobo. But no six-guns here. The short's actually a good glimpse of what Roosevelt's New Deal expected from one of its creations, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The program employed young men, usually urban, to work in rural conservation areas, thus giving them a way out of the crippling 1930's Depression. As an object lesson, the adult leader tells the cadets the story of unemployed Vince Bader (Moore), a young man riding the rails westward. Luckily the hobo soon finds a wallet. But what Vince doesn't know is that the empty leather belonged to a murdered man. So when he's discovered with it by a crowd, he's accused unjustly of murder. Will the angry mob lynch him. For the CCC cadets, Vince's story represents an object lesson in the hazards of what might happen if they drop out of the Corps.
I'm not surprised Warner Bros. produced the short; among Hollywood studios-- they were the one most interested in chronicling Depression Era hardships. Of course, 13-minutes is barely long enough to crystallize a plot, but the short does manage. And in the process, it furnishes a snapshot of New Deal hopes and efforts to confront a crippling calamity. All in all, the lesson remains an interesting little moral even for our own era.
