WPA!
Works Cited
"A Report on the Work Program of the Works Progress Administration." US Community Improvement Appraisal, 1939.
Roosevelt, Franklin D., and B. D. Zevin. Nothing to Fear the Selected Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932-1945. S.l.: S.n.], 1946.
Walker, Forrest. The Civil Works Administration: An Experiment in Federal Work Relief. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979.
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1025
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-wpa/
http://www.wpamurals.com/almaMI.htm
The Legacy
- By 1940, the economy had recovered; Congress terminated the WPA in late 1943 (WWII)
- "The WPA was one of the most productive elements of FDR's alphabet soup of agencies because it put people to work building roads, bridges, and other projects...it gave men and women a chance to make some money along with the satisfaction of knowing they earned it." -- Ronald Reagan 1990
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1960): Bob Ewell, the resident slacker of Maycomb County, is described as "the only person fired from the WPA for laziness."
- "The best way to solve this crisis is for the federal government to create a new national jobs program, similar to the innovative work programs created by President Roosevelt during the 1930s Great Depression." --National Jobs for All Coalition 2011
The Results
US Community Improvement Appraisal: A Report on the Work Program of the WPA April 1939
Joe Cox
- Most of the post office works of art were funded under the Treasury Department’s Section commissions
Works Progress Administration
The Projects
- 1935: improve infrastructure; roads, electricity, water conservation
- 1936: public facilities; parks, public buildings, airports
- 1937: agricultural; fertilizer production
- As WWII approached, increasingly defense related
- Federal Project Number One:
- Federal Art Project
- Federal Music Project
- Federal Theatre Project
- Federal Writers Project
- Historical Records Survey
Who benefited?
- Eligibility:
- American citizen, 18 years or older, able-bodied, & unemployed
- Certified as in need by a local agency of the WPA
- Placement based on previous experience or training
- Payment: $19-$94/ month; average $52.50
- the region of the country
- the degree of urbanization
- the individual's skill
- 13.5% of WPA employees were women in 1938
- FDR safeguarded private enterprise from competition with WPA projects by including a provision in the act that placed wage and price controls on federally funded products or services.
Why?
(Work Projects Admin.)
- FERA Inadequacies
- "useless projects in the disguise of relief"
- loafing
- “Give a man a dole,” he observed, “and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both body and spirit” - Hopkins
- Broad spectrum of unemployed
- FDR's initial response about artist relief vs. Hopkins and Mrs. Roosevelt
What is the WPA?
- Created April 8, 1935
- Emergency Relief Appropriation Act
- Goals of FDR and Harry Hopkins:
- employ breadwinner suffering from long-term unemployment
- maintain self-respect, work ethic, and skills
- work with state and local governments on roads, bridges, school, post-offices, city halls, parks, etc.