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• •v r< HlWl:8Tl:RN JUL 2 9. 1!35 UNIVl:"81TY no. 4--51 u,IIIAJlf'. ·,· T H'E WORKS PROGRAM --- Works Prcgress Ac..~inistration - - For release August 1, 1935. Hopkins emphasizes rural phase of Works Progress Administration projects. The drive to employ the countryls able workers on government jobs ru1d to direct them into available private employment will not miss the country areas and small towns, Harry L. Hopkins, Works Progress Administrator, said today. That there is urgent necessity to care for the Nationls rural and small town unemployed is shown by the fact that approximately 40 percent of the 5,000,000 fmnilies on relief are to be found in the oren country and towns under 5,000 in population, Mr. Hopkins said. "The city used to b~ a giant magnet drawing unemployed labor from the country, 11 Mr. Hopkins pointed out. "This is no longer true. For a while~ after the beginning of the depression, the flow was reversed, going from city to country. Now even this movement has slowed do,m. Una~ployed needy people are in both city and country. 11 11 Work is largely the answer for both areas, 11 he said. This i.s borne out by the fact that, contrary to the general belief, a majority of the families on relief in the open country ar~ those ; whose economic heads, whether men or women, are not farm operators. They comprise a group of workers who maintained themselves in the past by working at a great variety of trades and jobs. 11 It is plain that the country and small town problem is not predominantly a farm-operator problem but essentially one of finding work for non agricultural workers, just as it is in the city, 11 Mr. Hopkins declared. 11 Pla.ns are being made under the $4,000,000,000 Works Program to take care of the rural u.-ri.employed who were on relief rolls as of May, 1935, 11 he continued. "One of the main features of this program will be an extensive secondary road-building program. A substantial sum will be spent by the Works Progress Administration for this purpose." About two-thirds of the roads in the United States are not State highways subject to Federal funds. It is these roads which will come under the Works Progress .Administration. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY -2- No-4---51 !1~ ?.ddi tio::i. to the secondary road program, other measures designed to alleYiate the unemployment prob],.em in the ru.re.l e.reus incJ.ude the following: Construction projects of various kinds, such as s:..na.11 dams, levee building, rebuilding streets, w1terworke and sewage disposal, extension of lightil'!g systems, colllI!lun5.ty a.anitatirm projects, recreational :projects, stre.am pollution control, and sanitary surveys. The Resettlement Administration will also hava a program for rural areas . to aid far:t!l families. Mr. Hopkins pointed out that attempts were boi:-:ig made to provide employment for as mauy typos of skills as possible. "We have :'ou~d that to m0et th3 cmpl'.)yment needs of the rural relief populatlan," Mr. Hopkins said, "the Works Program must :provide for a wide ra.:;:1ge of occupationc:..l skills. That is, we must as nearly as posoib,le put people to doing th-:, w::,rk they hav::J been used to. Thil? io iF,,portar.t to keep human t1.lent and abilities fr,)m dPtorio".'ating. "When they get opportunltiun to resume private employment we don't want thom demoralized :fror.1 the dol'.J. Our people don't waJ1t a hand-out, but something to help them hold the::.r heads up. This is v;hat the Works Pro- gram is attem:pting to do. " Figure □ f::-om tho research studies of the Works Progress Ad.minis- tration show that there are nearly 2,100,000 rural and small town household~ receiving relief. Of this n1un.bcr, a total of 1,500,000 families, or 71 per- cent, were fm:nilies with othor thn..."'1 farm operator heacls. This number fncludc,~1 farm laborer fn.,'llilies. About 600,000 households, or 29 p";rcent of the totnl, were families whoso heads wore classed as farm operators. Of this number, about 48 percent wore tenant families, 38 percent were fc.rm owncrc, and 14 percent Were families of fa.rm croppers 11 ving in the southern states. Tho great majority of the 1,500,000 non farmer hends of rural o.nd town houneholds on r0liof are unskilled laborers. One-third of them are " unskilled indu.strfo.l lc.borerc, while mor,:i than 350,000 are fnm la.rorrrs. ,._ t her 350,000 are skilled und ao~d-skilled industrinl work. ers. .nuo "White Collar" workers, including professional, proprietary, and clerical workers, include 100,000 heads. Thero are 60,000 servants in th~ group. Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY -3- Ifo-4---51 'l'hc above fieures were based on proportions revealed in 138 sample cmmtj_es selected as representative of the nine major agricultural These counties containod eight percent of all rural and tcwn fami- areas. lies in tl1e genora.l population of the areas they 2·eprescmtod. in turn, contained Tho are9.s, 54 percent of all sur.:h families in the United states as a whole. Th0 States ir.cludea. i1:. the stud.y were Alab9.Ill.a, Arkansas, Colorado, G0orgia., IlJ.inois, Indiana, Iowe, Kanss.s, Kentucky, Louj_siana, Michigan, Minneeotn., Mis.'.Jiaaippl, Missotil'.'i, Montana, Nebraska, New York, north Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, 01'.:lahomri., Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, 'fexas, Utnh, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. ---ooc000ooc--- Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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