Full text of Press Releases of the Works Progress Administration : Hopkins Expects Research Program to Yield Valuable Data on Unemployment Causes : April 17, 1936, 4-1151

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L,:;; 2 7 1938
4-1151

DOCUMENTS
ROOM

THE

WORKS

PROGRAM

*****
--Works Progress Administration--

For release in afternoon newspapers
of Friday, Ap ril 17, 1936

Hopkins Expects Research Program To Yield Valuable Data on Unemnloymont Causes.

The intensive study of the fundamental causes of unemployment now
being made by the Works Progre s s Administration, is 9Xpected by Administrator
Harry L. Hopkins to provide an accurate guide for the formulation of permanent
policies of relief and security for the Nation's unemployed.
The study, scientifically attacking the problem of unGmployment and
d~pendence along both economic and sociological fronts, with particular emphasis on the e ffects of technological advances in industry, is wider in scope
1¥1d more detailed than any othe r similar research.
Set up as the National Research Program, the study is unde r the general
~upe rvision of Corrington Gill, assistant administrator.
11 We

have had our hands so full,

11

Mr. Hopkins said, "relieving the

immediate distress attendant upon unemployment that we have not been able to
give as much thought as we would have liked to the conditions which brought the
situation about.
"Recognizing that unemployment is a problem which is likely to remain
for some years to come, we are turning our attention now to an examination
of its underlying caus e s,

Once we have diagnose d the trouble we will be in

a better position to work out a permanent cure. 11
One of the most significant phases of the study, Mr. Hopkins pointed
out, is that on reemployment opportunities end r e cent change s in industrial
techniques.
This unit, cooperating with representatives of major industrial
groups such as mining, steel, automobiles, lumbe r and leather goods, will seek
to discover the actual effects of the introduction of labor-saving machinery
in manufacture and commerce.

Not only will it consider the number of workers

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displaced by the~e innovations, but also the extent to which these workers
have been reabsorbed within the same industries because of increased production, or in other industries.
At the same time, an effort will be mRde to gauge employment capacity
of VB.rious industrial groups at different production levels.
determination may be possible of future unemployment

From this a

trends; in what trades

and occupations unemployment is most likely to occur; the possibilities of
reemployment in other fields; and whether or not there is likely to be a
residual group of more or less permanentlJr unemployed people.
11 I

am not impressed by arguments that labor-saving machinery is a

sort of Frankenstein to nhich all our un.:imployment ills mey be
Mr. Hopkins asserted.

attributed, 11

"There are a nu..rnber of other factors in the picture as

well, and to say that inventiveness should be checked or penalized uould be
to stay the march of progress.
"It is undeniable, ho'l7ever, that mechanization has brought about a
vast change in our whole social and economic condition in the last quarter of a
century.

I think it is essential that we discove r to what extent this change

has affected us a.~d how we may be st Rdapt our mode of living to it.

That is

one of the main purposes of this study insofar as unemployment is concerned.
We want to find out what effect this has had on the ratio of jobs to TTOrkers
and to learn how ue may bring them into closer relation."
Other phases of the National Research Progr8.111 will be concerned with
the social and economic consequences of the various forms of Federal benefits
on the national economy; a stuc.y of the occupational ch~racteristics of the
people on relief; the effect of reli ef benefits on wage levels in private
employment; a study of the debt structure in the United State s; a digest of
state public welfare provisions and a series of studies in chi:inges in the
relief population.

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