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FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
WORK PROJECTS .ADMINISTRATION
For Relea su on Delivery- - Schedul ed For
10 : 45 a . m. (Eastern Daylight Time)
Thursday, Sept ember 19, 1940 .
HOWARD O. HUWTER ADDJ:j.FSSES U. S . CONFERENCE OF MAYORS
Tho following address was doliver cd by Howard 0 , Hunter, Acting
Commissioner , Wo r k Proj ects Administrati on, before t he United Statos
Conference of Ma~ro rs at the Wald orf Astoria Hotel, Now York Cit y ,
at 10 : 45 A. M. , Eastern Daylight Sav i ng Ti me, Thursday, September 19 ,
19•.b0:
I appreciate the honor of addr essing the U, S, Conference of
Ma~rors on t ho def ense act i vH i e s of our wor'k: program .
Let .:ne begin by paying my respects t o the special defense ac t ivit i es
of your ver;;' d:i.stingu.ished president and my good friend , Ma yor LaGua rdia ,
The
Mayor has fou nd i t possible, on t op of all his h o,w:: duties as Mayor of Now
York and as loader of your orgnnization , to take on the assignment ,: of heading
tho United Stat es delegati on to the American- Co.m1.dinn J oint Defense Commissi on ,
I don I t know h ow he does it , but I do know -- and I am sure you wil l a ll agree
with mo
t hat in any task which Mayor La Guardia undortGkos we may expect to
s ec act i on .'.l.nd plenty of it .
Like Mayo r LaGuardia the Work Projects Administre,ti on has a ccep ted
an additi onal as s ignment in the field of nati onal defense .
Strictl y speaking,
it is an old assignment carri ed fo r ~ard under new cond itions and with new
responsibiliti e s .
As ;irou know , the v,"P.A fr om the b ee;inn ing of its existence has
b een carrying on pro,iects i mpo rt o,nt for t he na tional defense .
A large number
of these pr ojects hn.s be en under the dir ect suparvision of Federal agen cies .
Other projects have be en carri ed on in State and City p rogrruns .
A recent
calculation shows tha t more than $500 , 000,000 has been spent on i'i'PA national
defense projects in the p as t five years .
Theso0 ~~ilfilPif7 nati onal defense projects
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whdi-rJ,,a1rf-rirfl
o.lready b een
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done by the WP.A arc thoso sponsored 'by tho Army, lfav--.r, National Guard and
other military arms of Stato and Federal Governments.
As I shall s how later
t hey do not include many secondary projects which have a very real national
defense value.
Certain important cht=!x.ges were made in the present WPA .Act
which permit r elaxation in previous r oquir oments as to sponsors ' contributions
and Federal non-labor costs, desig11od. to make it easier for St a t es and co:CTmunities to carry on projects vit al t o the national defense .
The ivP~\ as you 1':now operates under a cooporati vo n.rrangoment with
l ocal or State gov0rnmont units .
The Federa l WPA is allowed to expend an
average of $6 per man month for non- labor costs, and tho local communities
ha.vo b een required to r.1ako contributions which for each State mus t average 25
percent of the total cost of t ho pro j e cts .
Now, however, wo face a nati onal defense energency.
In t h is
onergency it is tho country a s e.. whole , rat he r thA.n t he indi vidun.l CO!W:mni ties
th.1.t are es1iecially inter ested in having certain work done, and done quickly .
Co11gr ess accordingly laid down the principle tha t on projects which the Army
or Navy certifi es as import an t for national dofonse tho WPA may gr ant ap_l)rovnJ.
even though tho local comnuniti os cannot put up t ho p r ev i ousl y required
sponsors' contributions .
On tho so pro j ects we aro allowed to crant extra suns
for non- L ..b or c os ts, vdth the linitation thr· t these extra o.x:pondituros , in
excess of t :10 statutory $6 pe r man month , do not oxco ed for the coun try as a
whole tho total su:n of $25,000,000 .
It is well t o underst and tho pur 1nse of nationr.tl defense certificati on by tho War or Navy Doparti:i ont .
National clefenso certification is designed
to D.llow us to prosecute t h::iso defense projec t s which could not be prosocut.od
uncl.er last yoar 1 s WPA limitat ions .
There are two cautions to be kept in r., ind r egarding t h is funcl of
$25,000,000 .
In ibl:gi:tizicilr)l3t place this is not a largo S(Offi;J i~~nmsprcad ovor
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nany defense projects .
I n the seconcl placo, this suJ:1 will n0t be distributed
equally -- as would be a special funcl for school buildings .
The strategic
needs of nati onal c.efense are not equal in all the St a t es .
And, as you all
know, tho decision as t o which projects in which States are important for
na ti onnl clefonse rest s with tho War and Navy Dopartnents and no t with tho
W'PA,
However, i:mny of the WPA defense p rojects cn.n be, and will be,
carried out unier the regula r sponsors' c ontributi ons and non-labor limitations, and for tha t r eas on will not need t o be c ertifi ed by the Arny or Navy.
I mportant anong the t ypes of p roj ects which are essential to
na tio nal defense and which have been oper ated by the WPA in t he past and
which will be expanded in t ho future are airports .
The inport ro1ce of
adequate airport anc. ln.ncl:lng :field facilit i es is obvious .
While air1)ort
developwent in the past f ow years :nound our ci tics has be en p rina rily for
purposes of civil ancl co!:l:J ercial aviati on, t hese developr.ient s nevertheless
are of i mner..se nilitary value .
I n acLdition to ci vil airports, WPA is
developing s ome imp ortant strategic air bases for t he Arny a..-id Navy, including
the Northeastern Air Bas e at Ch ic opee Falls, Massachusetts, t he Southeastern
Air Base at Tar.1pa , Flori da ; t h o Sout hwestern Base at March Fi el d , in
California ; and the Northwestern Base at McChord Fi eld, i n Washington State .
More than 85% of all airport and landing fielcl c onstruction in the
past five year s has been done t hr ough WPA l)r oj ects, anc1 nore than half of all
airport construction since the beginni ng of aviation in this country has
b een done under WPA proj ects in the past fiv e years.
A second WPA activity of i npo rt ance to defense has been the
devel opnent of r on,cls and. highwa;y-s .
I::iportant ~)lans have been developed by
the Arny f or extensive
of priI!la.ry strategic highways , which
in:;_) rove □ ents
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improvements 11,rilJ. be done through t he Public Roads Admi ni strati on and. the
WPA, two units of the Fede r e.l Works Agency .
The vlPA is also pre1mred to
construct many additional a cce::s roads to :milit a ry reservati::ms and roads
within t hese r eservations .
I mention a irports and. roads :prir.1aril y b ecause they ar n -proje ct s
usually not sponso red. b7 branches of tho armed. forces .
Work which has alreg,dy
be on done b~r the 'WPA on projects for the militct.r y a.nc. naval agencies alone
totals over $250,000,000 .
A greatly e}._1)anded p ro gr [-)111 on mili to.ry and :1aval
res ervat i ons and on tra i Li ng grounds ancl c cimps is b Ging pl anned .
A few
such pl aces where extensi vc 'w"PA p r oj oc t s arc being operated at p r esent
include Portsmouth Navy Yard; For t Kn ox , Krrntncky; No.val Torpedo St at ion
at Newport , R..11.odo I s land ; Camp Dix, New J erse;n Philadelphia. Navy Yard ;
Naval Airp ort in ifashingt ca , D. C. ; the lfavr..l Air St rction .:1t P onsncoln ,
Florida ; tho Int er 2:.D..t i onal Airport at Miami; Lowry Field , Denver ; the
NavoJ. Air St a ti on at Seattle n.nd Co.mp J acks on, South Carolina.
Thorc is still ro om for more of those airpcrt and street and road
projects , nltho12gh it is unn.e rsto od thnt it is tho War Departr.1m1t thnt
decides as t o their mili t e..r y impo rt n.nce .
Frequently such p roj ects may be
of value to national defense and. at the sn.r.:ie time be of grent service to
the cities conce rned .
It is clear t hat the ci tics
i•J'G,1ld
be well justified
in undert aki ng many of these projects with full sp onsors ' contributions .
May I say that thero have be en a gr ec.1,t number of projects operated ,
and still being oporn.tod by tho WPA, which we cJ.o not list in our c ntego ry
of strictly nat i onal defense projects, bu.t which night well be considered
to have an i mpo rt&a-itzlcAJi.1.tionship to n. t ot ri,l defense
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m As one
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illustration only, I
l)y the WP.A.
PJ!i
thinking of the public health projects o;;erated
Many of these :'lave been opt,rated under the direct sp onsor ship
and s 11pervision of the U. S. Pu-olic Health Ser,rice, others und er State
health d opartments and many und.er yo,.1r own city hoalth clepe.rtments .
No
more enthusiastic sup:i;) ort er r:: of the WFA ca:;1 be found tl1an the public heal th
officials, fro~ the Surgeon General of the Public Roal th Service do\•m to
county h ealth officer~ .
As an illustration, :perhaps t:ic: most sp ec te,cular and important
project which has been done in tho fi eld of s :,:philis control is being
don.e under the City Board of :HoaltL of CLic2.go through a WPA project .
Tho
facts brought out in this proj oct and t he tochniq,_1.os dovol0:pod in finding
SY])hi1is, controlling it and curing it , Kill bo of i:,1monse value in a total
defense progra.'Il because r,o one will dispute tho i n:1)o rta.11ce of heal.th and
physid:al fi tr..ess not onl:r i!1 the armed. forces thar.isol ves but in the entire
civilian populctions .
And again on tho '·IhoJ.o q_uenti,in of white collar employment on WPA
projects, we are at present employing t r10us.:-.nds of 'lfPA workers in research
and statistical projects for various defense agencies .
So far wo hn.va had little or no difficult:, b
pr ovidi ng the labor
for the ne.tional d(~fense :projects without cripplir.e; rcgi1lur projects f or
commu.nit ;r improvomcmts .
!{::my of those comnunity improvements arc still
need.ed, and c-.l though thE\T are properly subordinated to defer,se needs, tl:.ere
is no though of abandoning this :part of th l, program .
Some pe ople nre aski ng the question as to how long ou.r local
governments cru1 o,gWiW~ b9n Fecterr~l coo;_)orntion bei:lg g~rf~Ra lliieffPUgh the WPA.
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This i s of course another way of asking how long l arge scale unernployraent
wi ll exist.
Once again ~re are hearing some old refrains from some familiar
q_uarters -
11
unemployment has disappeared" -
11 t
he WPA can be liq_ui dated 11
" such relief as remains canoe handled by the states Pvnd citios . 11
need to elaborate on this .
claims.
-
I do not
You are as familiar as I am ltJith these r ecurring
And no one hopes more than we do that unemplo ym ent will dis appear ...
but The f acts a rc that unemployment at tho pr os ,mt time numbers from
8 ,200, 000 to 1 0 , 000,000 accordi ng to the various estimat es, and tho pressure
on the WPA today to provide jobs is still sever e .
The WPA
$0
f ar this year
has given work to a small e r p erc entage of the unenployod than i n any p r evious
year,
This does not moan that there ha~ not bo en a very important a.l'ld
11 dynamic 11
i nc r et:tse in employment during the past
7½ years.
Since the low
po i nt in 1933 , there has been an incr ease of about 9 million pers ons employed
i n p rivate inclustry,
However, as you all know, the population has also been
increas i ng , and we have had a ne t increase of 600,000 new workers en.ch ye::i,r
lo oki ng f or j obs .
Over those 7½ yi::ar s , therefore, t b e r e ho,s bo on a ne t
incr co.se of 4,500,000 additional persons l ook i.:1g f or work.
Public utterances
made r ec ently to the eff ect that the govornmont has not p r oduc ed a single
priva t e j ob, are fan tast ic n11y untrue -- the most con s er vative es timat e shows
9 million more s o employed since 1933 .
Those who seek t o wash out a Fede ral progrnJn of work for the u nemployed are now using dofease expenditur es as their newes t excuse.
It is
true that defense nctivities arc being prosecuted with all t ho vigor of a
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being built and will be built to the utmost limit of the productive capacity
of this nation .
Everyone realizes , however, that this ta1.rns time .
ships take time for construction .
:Battle-
Machine tools must be ;,mde a.11.d instal led
in newly built factories before we get real mass production of airplanes .
Consequently , it is ne c ecsRry to consider ~1hen dofe:1se e:x;::'JCndi tures will
result in rising employment , in adclitj on to evaluat i ng their total effect .
Army and Nav:y appropriation~ , authorizat i ons , and commi tments made by the
present Congress total in the neighborhood of 15 billion dollars .
Appropria-
t i ons which represent tho !:laximurn that can be spent during the fiscal yGar
at tho present time total a'bout 7 bil l i on. d cl1.ars , and the ad0ption of the
request, contai ned i n tho Prcsi<ient 1 s moc;sago of September 14 l as t, raised
this to 8 . 6 billion dollars .
Thero is ;:i,J.wa;,cs o, substantial cc;,rr;;,r- oyer in
app ropriations at tha end of a fiscal
~rear a~1d ir.asmuch as a l a rge part of
the app ropriation h0.s just recently been made, or has not yet been enacted,
I think it would. be a major achievement if we are able to spend 5 bill i on
dollars for defense purp0ses during the fiscal ye2.,r 1941 .
Tho current rate
of defense expenditures is at tho rn.te of about 2 . 5 billion dollars n yo2..r ,
so that the rate o.t the end of the yo2,r 11rould have to b e substnntially in
excess of 5 b i Hion dollnrs in orde r to spend as much as 5 billion dollars
during tho fiscal year 1941.
During the pas t 7½ years we have read much experience r.w:d h2.vo
built up a ln.rge vcl'U.P.'.e cf il'lformn,tion conc e rni ng the effect that goverL110nt
expenditures haYe on pr ivat e er,1plo:,'me1:t .
Cc,nseq_u ently, it is possible to
cstimc.te with rcasoEablc accuracy the effect tLat n.n expendi t11re of 5 'billion
dollars for defense in o~"e ;rear will have
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pri Yate e;;J't)loymont .
Ori~inal1rom
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basis of past exp erience , an expenditllre of this amount should result in an
increase in private employ~nen t during ~he fiscal ye2..r 1941 , as compared with
fiscal 1940 , of approximate1:r 2 . 5 to 3 mill i on persons .
It r.:iay not be this
much if the hours of 1,;ork per week are increased in some industries and if
technologica l advan c e s con-l;im:.e to ona::.,l e the proc.uct ion of a larger amount
of goods with the same nwnber of man-hours of work ,
In addi tion to this :probable increase in employmenit i:c. I)rivat.e
industry , al1out 600 , COO me!l will be drr,..fted. c.uring the coming year .
This
increase in the Arm~r will be partly offs e t ovor th o next yoar by an
addi tio.o.al not L1creaso of 600,000 pe'.i.·sons l'Joking fo,.- work , si.rnply as a ro sul t
of the increase in the population of working agos .
A good part I but not a ll , of the •3mp loymen t increase will r e: sul t
in a doc rG ase in unell':ployrnen t .
Actually , sotH3 of tho increase will be drnwn
from the :..-ural population which is not covered acl.eo.uately in the current
eEtimates of unemployment , and a consid.erable m.unber of secondary workers
will undoubtedly be drawn into the labor r'l9.rket .
These latt e r also are not
all included in the unemployment es.timates .
Defense stimulation is 1.::.neven .
It p ro duced ca:paci. ty opera tions in
a few incb-1.stries, usually t he her.:.vily nechanizecl oner:,,
In other j_ndustries,
dislocations deve lop as r esources -:,,re siphoned into a relatively few
industries .
Our exports which are running a.t an a:rmu.1-1.l rate of 4 billion
dollars are being more a.nd more concentre.ted in the
groups .
WD.. r
n.nd heavy inclus try
Our markets for cotton , tobacc o , fruit , and ot:1o r goods not essential
to war are b0ing drastically curtailed.
disloca tions to be serious .
The expericnc(~ of Engl a nd S!:lows these
Un0mploy:,1cnt in England, for example , incroase d
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for six months after the war started. , in spite of huge war expenditures .
In short , our exr~erience during the last
71
years should n:ake us
extremely cautious in attempting to pl::i.n noductioilS in th e p ro g:,·am of work
for the 1:.ne~pJ.oyec:1. until the 3:x.pected. jobs in private industry actuall;y
materialize .
The process should be automatic .
Th3 W?.A. should employ needy
unemplo;red persons anrl should be reduced auto:oatically on_1Y. as these persons
are hire cc in :pri vatc industry , or , conversel:v , sho,.11c. increase o.11 tori, atically
when worirn:cs aTc lot out by private industry .
The unemployed mus t not shoulc1.er all of tho risks of the Defense
Pro gram .
Industry is expanding :nlant ce.:pacit;r with the asimrance thet the
cost of the plant will be amortized in a very f ew years , thus reducing the
risk involved in such expansion to a minimum .
Manuf2. cturors are coo:po1·::., ting
in acce1)ting defense orders with the ascur2nco that limi t o. tions on prof its
will be relaxed.
Em:1lo~red workers aro workj_ng longer hourr, a n cl r cco iv i ng
higher i.ncornes a,s a result of th0 Defense Program .
Now there is no question of tho loyalty of the :illlCmployod to U10
Nation in t:i_me of peGcG or in t,i mc of national cme:rgenc~; .
We cc:,,nnot <Us-
criminato against Ame: ricDn workers b-'lcause of the a~cident of their orrr,::1lo;;i~ont
or unem~oloyment status .
We munt :::esist bold attempts t '.l at have been ".la~l e a.:c1d
will be made to make the unenip lo:rec. be?.r t he maj or risks of the J;efense Progra..in
by being deniecl the o:::•portuni ty to work on your ovm useful public projects and
to ret a in their own decent American ri~hts ,
Some peo~ol s se em to think -- or n r e t encl to believe -- that the WPA
is keeping workers on its rolls for pur oly political pur poses ,
·well, I
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- 10 t hink that you mayors , who are up against the r-tern reali ti.es of the
si tuatior1 , know bett er .
You know that you are truring ce,re of ne arly a
r.:illion vrnrkers ·,vl-:o 8,re q_1.1n.lif i ed for WPA em'Dloy:;,1ent but
I✓ho
cannot be
assigned to WPA projec t s bcca·J.se of the limita tions cf WPA ff9propria.ticns .
As was to be eY:9ected and
? .S
I spod.fics.lly r,redic~ed on a radio
hook-up on l as t Febr11.a.ry 3rd., s illy ~:nd unfounded chart;i::is or0 being bandied
abcut to the effect that t he WPA is going to pad its rollr. for election
purposes .
I woul& like t o g ive th i s very eimr;le and con"oJ.etely factual
statement on this subject .
The national WPA emr)loymen t tok,l for the rr:ont:i of 0Gtcbor ·will
be one mi llio n eight hunclred thousancl TE; r sor.s .
T:1is nwn·oor :i.s in c;:act acc'nd.
with tho printed testimony a.s to \,rn:-iloyment schod.ulos su.rmi t tod to Concross
0
by tho Commissioner of the WPA .
This fig,.:..ro is 525 , 000 loss thar, tho nun:bcr
e:11ploye6.. by tho WPA on FobruA.ry 28 , \\'hich was the h:sgh po!'iod of t his calond.a.r
yoar .
This October om1)loyrncn t figure of the '!!PA is 100,000 los G than in
October 1 939 ,
1938 .
.'.l
non-election year , and. is 8.'b '.m t 1 , !:500 , 0CO l Gss tJ·. an Octolrnr
And. t ho high 11"PA e:nploymont in 1938 wnr simn~-Y tmcl solely duo to
oconorr.ic concU tions .
Who knows th i s ·oottor +,hp_n. Ropublic~rn , Domo0r,,tic,
.::.nd Socialist !lil'YO rs who mo t with mo in 1938 and in ~, no~-:pe.rtiR::-.n rr.::-,,nner
sscured rn1di tional :noney for the 1'!PA?
Moreover, if :rou cor.1pare the WPA work rolls with the esti:-::.g,tes of
unernplo~,rrne:1.t ccmpileri by the lfational Industr:al Cor_fere::1ce :Board - a
cons ervat ive business organizati,·n -- ;-rou will see tha·c the ~.'PA is novr caring
for an abnormally l ow p,;,rcentnre of tlv: total mun'her rif Lme1ay>lo;r0d workers .
In July 1939 1'TPA em:plo~rment represented 24 . 3 percent of the est:i.mated
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un employQe n t .
In J u.~e 1940 WPA employme nt represente d 21 . 5 percent of the
estimated unemp l oyment, and in J u l y 1940 this pe r cen t age had dropped to
20 . 1 .
I do not think the empl oymen t of 1 , 800 , 000 persons on WPA with
the p r esent J:illemp l oymcnt in the country , and t he presen t kn own need , is
to o much .
I franklJr s ay to you that a t very few timrn since 1933 he.ve I
had as much p r essure or as many requests fro m :priva.to 5.ndividuals or :publi c
offi cials to i ncreas e WPA cm~:Jl oymon t .
I do not know whether or not you
mayors think t h i s fi g·u re of employmcn ~ for October i s too high .
I woul d
venture to say I could fi nd a letter in rny files o:r a record of a t elephone
call from a v ory l arge majority of t he mayo rs in this room asking fo r
increas es of WPA quo ta .
At any ra.to WPA el1Tl1lc.ymcnt q_:rntas for each sta.te
for tho month of Octob e r will be released from our office t onigh t a nd by
to mor rov.' any l'.la_,yo r in this room can s..::curc from h is State WPA Ad.mirr1- -'; r ato r
the WPA quota fo r his city .
I assure you that this srialJ. increase is no t
po li t ical--in fact it is ~ r o'bably too srr,all in reference tc nced-- nnd
dofi ni t cly too su:all t o influen ce an election .
Back in 1932 we were t old t hnt the go-rnrnrnent should do noth:\.ng
for the 1.memployod 'hecnuso it wns ri.o,inst econ0m1 c 1£tw for t;he go v c rnmon t
to i n crco.sc i ts onond.i t uros in tho midst of business depression .
Today
we .'.'1.re t old that tho governmen t shoul d do nothing for tho uncmplo:Tod
be cause the govo rnmnn t noods to spend nll of its mono? for nntiom,l defense .
Some do not ston to ronlize -- or do not vrant t o ro~:lize -- tho full
implicn ti ons of 11['..tiour--,l o.cfenso unde r modern conditi on s.
S:oc:la? , w:,rs nro
to tal wr.rs, 1:~nd d.of cnso for totP.l wnr o must be tot2.l de:fm:.s n.
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- 12 I r. such total defense , mil it ary weapons -- :physical defenses -are most important.
Th.:;y ha,ve t:w first call on t?le :1ati0n 1 s energi es .
But at the same tirr.e v:e mu.st ccnti:1ue to builc'.. u:p the int2rnal (:efE:lnses of
the netion .
Vfo mnst strenn:then our econo;nic and. social str>J.cturc .
must continue the stn1ggle ng11inst '.~)ove rty ::-.nc. misery .
democracy in 1·1hich the hu:n11lest rcrson has a :; t ake .
We
We must have a
We rrr..1.st have a nation
whj ch ever y citizen will bo proud. to defend .
In the light of these requireP1ents for t otal ctefense we can a l l
of us l ook back upon our five y,:ia.rs of 1fPA work with tr,e feelL1 6 that tho
entiro program hao b oo n a ·progra:::1 of n::.:.ticnal c.oi'e:1.sc .
th&.n
1;,0
know .
We havo t'J.i1t bettor
We t':10ught that in maintaining tho economic structure ~nd
i n providing wor:c fo r the ,.,nompJ.o:,','3d wo were rebuilding the nation 1 s strength
f or :pcaco .
sn.rne
t i1:10
We we re co rTect in this , b0.t
\JC
rUd not r enlizG that at th e
we wer ,:; developing th2 !,at ion 1 s strength E~{:c1.L1st tho :: ventunli ty
of f~reifn atkck .
Just th~n..t of t1:w siture. tion -L n which we wo 1.1ld find ourselves if
our nati.on.-:i.l r.of .::ns'3 cmor t!:,mcy ~1ac. struck us with socio.1 end economic
conditio n s sLn:i.lar to thos e of 1932 .
'.fouJ.d our oc /)110::i;f have boon strong
encu:?.;h to ur,d.ort;:,Jrn the tn.ck of mc>ki:'.ls ou1· shore:s ir.prog:ncllo?
ifould the
ID'.:-ss os of pco::;ilo have bec1 '!:oac"'.y to c.ofc-nci a d.e>noc r o.cy thc,t die. not provide
them vrith breaa_, work , f'nd self-rof'moc-';?
I th ink tha t of ull the 1:u-; inine thiP.gs I r.ave hec,rd , or seen in
:print in the le.st f Jw mont~s , first plr-ic.e goes to the Gt8.tementG that the
WJ?A rolls coi1s:'..st of
c1,
lmnd1 of :::onsenit[',,l loaf~H's ;:,,nd p e rpetual reliefers
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- 13 -
who have adopted. the philosoph:r of expe ct ing to be mainte.ined b:.r t he
government fo r life .
These statements are usuall~r ac. compa:r.iecl by demands
tha t WPA workers be required to join the Ar~y or be <lenied relie f , or
t hat WPA be abar,donecl entire ly .
I am certain tha t you ma:ror s , who are unusually close t o the
actual facts of indus trial unemployment a nd relief have no such not i on ,
but for
of clarity I would like to pu t
J)llT]_JOSer~
n,
few f acts i nto this record .
In the first place ; .over eight million d iffe r ent individuals
have worked. on tho WPA in the :pat1t five years .
Tlci s is almost one out of
evory five American workers in business and i ndus try •
.At p res ent thore are
about one mill i on s even hundred. thousand on the WPA .
Six million thre e
hundred thousand hav 3 boon OL a nd aro not there today .
that not inclicato a
11
Docs that or doe s
fr ozen 11 lo acl?
In tho second p lace ; an average of a bout 100 , 000 persons voluntarily
leave tho WPA ev e ry month , mos t of t h em to take nriva to employment .
In
thousand.s of cases investigated exhaustively by the WP.A. wl1e r e charges 112.vo
been made t ha t WPA workers would not accept pr iva t e jobs , we hav e found
l ess tha:r.. 1 percent of these cho.rf;es true .
In the third p l ace ; wo arc opor~ting
R
p r ojec t in cooporntion with
St<1.to /J.ncl nr.tional vocutionRl schools for the tr['..ining r.nd r etrnining of \\fPA
r.nd other unemployed workers for jobs in indugtrios which i:cro onl:;1:.god in
no..ti onnl dofonso product i on •. From t hese schools , WPA wo r kers n:.:-o going into
defense i ndustry jobc .
They p rove to be competent , industrioi.J.s , and
vi~orously l oycl .
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- 14 And fourthly; it is ::ie r fe ct l y absurd t0 make cl:arges age.ins t
nearly one fifth of our ·,:orking popul a tion that the;l were loafers and.
sp0ng0d off t he government wl::m you can take even a. casual lo ok at the
enormous wealth which ha.::; be en cre ated b y t hese worker s i n the f orm of
IJhys ic:a l assE> ts to the c ou.I1try .
I know tha t no one neerls to tell you
mayors t :w.t th e Chicago outer dr ive and E,ark dovelopuent; thous,<:1.nds of
miles cf city streets; the New York a nd Lo s Angel es a irports ; th e 214
new school buil(.. i nss in Ne,.., Mexico , the 51 new armories in Oklahoma.,
tho sta t 3 fair nuildings 5.n Mi nneapol i s , the mus 8UB in Phil;:id.elJJhia, the
Lake Shore Drive and the n. i rpor t at Cl e·rnln.nd , cind the thousands upon
thous and s of publi c constr uct.ion j obs that have been done in this country
have no t_ been d.one by sho ve l le a ners an ci. 'bums .
they haven't b een c.nne by rmcking on
11
Ar. d , I mi gh t a l so adc'c •
cr~nd;rs ticks .
11
And so t o r:>.ny people e sking you , or asking us, wha, t t he nc1. ti on
has got t .:m for the money we hn.ve spent on t he WPA, I think we can t 3ll
them that it has gone to mri,b, the nation strong both in v:rn.co as well as
in war ; thnt it h2.s made onr Democro.cy vi tn.l by buildin 0 the thin~s tho.t
all of the peO})le ne a d and ca.VJ. use; t;hn.t it has mP.intni n ed skills , heo.lth
nnd work h9.bi ts of millions of temporn.rily unomploye cl Americc1ns, e.ncl that
it has been tho most worth while ,,ni rrofitc".b lo invertme nt th.,-,_t the
gove r mr.on t has e.'ITer made i::.1 ti:nes of peace , a!'ld will retui·n equal di vhi.ena.s
in preparation for t ota l defense .
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