Work Projects Administration

Works Progress Administration. One of the most prominent of the New Deal agencies, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in 1935 as an ambitious and wide‐ranging federal jobs program. Harry Hopkins, an advocate of federally funded employment for the jobless, was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934 to head the WPA's immediate predecessor, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a limited work‐relief program operating under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Its funds exhausted, the CWA ceased operations after only a few months.

The WPA, funded under the 1935 Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, differed from the CWA by seeking to provide employment on necessary projects rather than merely make‐work tasks—to replace relief with real jobs. WPA undertakings included such diverse activities as building and road construction, day‐nursery work, bookbinding, a federal theater project, a writers’ project, research for the Library of Congress, the creation and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities, and many other forms of blue‐ and white‐collar employment. Jobs were of limited duration and usually paid prevailing wages. All told, the WPA employed some 8.5 million people.

The WPA—along with the entire New Deal—encountered considerable opposition from conservatives in Congress. In 1939 the Dies Committee, headed by Congressman Martin Dies of Texas, investigated alleged communist influence in the agency, focusing on the Federal Theater Project, which was terminated that year.

Renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, the WPA became increasingly involved in defense work; by late 1941, 40 percent of its workers were employed in defense projects. After the United States entered World War II, war work and military service drastically reduced unemployment and in 1942, Roosevelt declared that the WPA had “earned an honorable discharge.” It was disbanded on 30 June 1943.
See also Depressions, Economic; New Deal Era, The; Unemployment.

Bibliography

Paul S. Kurzman , Harry Hopkins and the New Deal, 1974.
Anthony J. Badger , The New Deal, 1989.

Kenneth Franklin Kurz

Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, when it was made part of the Federal Works Agency. Created when unemployment was widespread, the WPA—headed by Harry L. Hopkins until 1938—was designed to increase the purchasing power of persons on relief by employing them on useful projects. WPA's building program included the construction of 116,000 buildings, 78,000 bridges, and 651,000 mi (1,047,000 km) of road and the improvement of 800 airports. Also a part of WPA's diversified activities were the Federal Art Project, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Theatre Project. Close to 10,000 drawings, paintings, and sculptured works were produced through WPA, and many public buildings (especially post offices) were decorated with murals. The experiments in theatrical productions were highly praised and introduced many fresh ideas. Musical performances under the project averaged 4,000 a month. The most notable product of writers in WPA was a valuable series of state and regional guidebooks. WPA also conducted an education program and supervised the activities of the National Youth Administration . At its peak WPA had about 3.5 million persons on its payrolls. Altogether WPA employed a total of 8.5 million persons, and total federal appropriations for the program amounted to almost $11 billion. There was sharp criticism of the WPA in a Senate committee report in 1939; the same year the WPA appropriation was cut, several projects were abolished, and others were curtailed. A strike of thousands of WPA workers to prevent a cut in wages on building projects was unsuccessful. Steadily increasing employment in the private sector, much speeded just before and during World War II, caused further drastic cuts in WPA appropriations and payrolls. In June, 1943, the agency officially went out of existence.

Bibliography: See D. S. Howard, WPA and Federal Relief Policy (1943).

Works Progress Administration (WPA) National project in the USA created by Congress in 1935 under Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to stimulate national economic recovery. Billions of dollars were contributed to the scheme in which work programmes provided jobs for the unemployed. About two million people were registered on WPA rolls at any one time between 1935 and 1941.