When
Franklin D. Roosevelt became president
he put his friend, Harry Hopkins, in
charge of the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The purpose of
the WPA was to give wages to people currently unemployed. By 1936
over 3.5 million people were employed on various WPA programs. This
included the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC), the National Youth Administration
(NYA) and the Public Works Administration
(PWA) under Harold Ickes, the Secretary
of the Interior.
The Sower, January, 1934
(1)
Franklin
D. Roosevelt, speech in Boston (October, 1932)
We have two problems: first, to meet the immediate distress; second,
to build up on a basis of permanent employment.
As to immediate relief, the first principle is that this nation, this
national government, if you like, owes a positive duty that no citizen
shall be permitted to starve.
In addition to providing emergency relief, the Federal Government
should and must provide temporary work wherever that is possible.
You and I know that in the national forests, on flood prevention,
and on the development of waterway projects that have already been
authorized and planned but not yet executed, tens of thousands, and
even hundreds of thousands of our unemployed citizens can be given
at least temporary employment.
(2)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, radio broadcast,
Fireside Chat (28th April, 1935)
My
most immediate concern is in carrying out the purposes of the great
work program just enacted by the Congress. Its first objective is
to put men and women now on the relief rolls to work and, incidentally,
to assist materially in our already unmistakable march toward recovery.
I shall not confuse my discussion by a multitude of figures. So many
figures are quoted to prove so many things. Sometimes it depends upon
what paper you read and what broadcast you hear. Therefore, let us
keep our minds on two or three simple, essential facts in connection
with this problem of unemployment. It is true that while business
and industry are definitely better our relief rolls are still too
large. However, for the first time in five years the relief rolls
have declined instead of increased during the winter months. They
are still declining. The simple fact is that many million more people
have private work today than two years ago today or one year ago today,
and every day that passes offers more chances to work for those who
want to work. In spite of the fact that unemployment remains a serious
problem here as in every other nation, we have come to recognize the
possibility and the necessity of certain helpful remedial measures.
These measures are of two kinds. The first is to make provisions intended
to relieve, to minimize, and to prevent future unemployment; the second
is to establish the practical means to help those who are unemployed
in this present emergency. Our social security legislation is an attempt
to answer the first of these questions. Our work relief program the
second. The program for social security now pending before the Congress
is a necessary part of the future unemployment policy of the government.
While our present and projected expenditures for work relief are wholly
within the reasonable limits of our national credit resources, it
is obvious that we cannot continue to create governmental deficits
for that purpose year after year. We must begin now to make provision
for the future. That is why our social security program is an important
part of the complete picture. It proposes, by means of old age pensions,
to help those who have reached the age of retirement to give up their
jobs and thus give to the younger generation greater opportunities
for work and to give to all a feeling of security as they look toward
old age.
The unemployment insurance
part of the legislation will not only help to guard the individual
in future periods of lay-off against dependence upon relief, but it
will, by sustaining purchasing power, cushion the shock of economic
distress. Another helpful feature of unemployment insurance is the
incentive it will give to employers to plan more carefully in order
that unemployment may be prevented by the stabilizing of employment
itself.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
