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FEDERAL WORKS AGE:-JCY
WORK PROJECTS A:!)}11IlH S'.!'RATION
For Rel ease on Delivery ,
Saturday, l:arch S, 1940 .
The followin g speech was delivered by Col onel F. · C. Harrington , ·
Commissi oner of Work Projects , bef ore the Confer enc e of Mayo r s at Birmingham,
Alabama, at 10_ a . m. ( Central Stand,;,rd Time) Saturday , March 9 , 1940:
I t ake particular p l easure in add.ress ing this Conf erence of
Mayors of Sout hern cities .
The WPA program in the South is often
r egar ded. as a rura l program .
But , while it is true that in the South
,ve do a good deal of work in rura l a r eas , a v ery considerable pro11ortion
of our emploJment is conc entrat ed in the ci t i es .
figur es whi ch make this situation cl oar .
I hav e some simp le
You £:.r e here r opr os 8nt ing
citi es with a popula,tion of 20 , 000 or over in t hi rteen Souther n Sta t es .
WPA eraploymont in all citi es of 25 , 000 or ov er in those thirt ee n Stat es ,
as of Februar y 21, was 185 , 000 , 9r approx i matdy 30 p erc ent of all WPA
emploync)nt in thcs o
S3.!11o
St a t es .
This means t ho.t tho WPA i s to a very significant oxt ont a
municipe,l p1·ogr8m in tho Sou th.
The point mi ght also be illustrated,
State by Sto.te , in tho distribution of Fedoral expenditur e s on WPA
projects .
For example , about one-fourth of such exp enditure in Alabama
during tho last six mo nths of 1939 was conc ent r ;:,,t cd i n Jefferson County;
nea rly half th:J ex:[)endi tur ,3s in Louisiana. wer e in Crl ean 9 Parish; more
than ono fif th of tho tota l exp enditur es in Tenness ee wer e in Sholby and
Davidso n Counti es , and so on.
The probl em of suitab l e 1:VPA p ro jec ts for tho citi es that you
r ep r es ent is t hus one of considerable i mporta nc e to you , n.s mayors of these
citi es .
In ov ory one of your citi es , t here are ~robab ly more people TTorking
for you on the WPA program .than are employed by any one r egul a r department
of
your municipal governments .
Deali ng vl'i th the WPA is fully as impor-
tant as any other function of your municipal governments .
And, on my s ide , le t me say that dealing with :rour communitie s
throue:;h ~·om.· municipal governments is as important a responsibility as
any t hat d,wolves u:9o n the administrative branch of the WPA.
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Our work program has two great responsibilities--that of
providing work for the needy unemployed, and that of using this work t •
.s re ate commu.ni ty improvements and ben:efi ts.
As Commissioner of the Work
Projects Administration, I am just as much interested in the second of
I do not want a day or an hour of WEt
these purposes as the first.
labor to be wasted -er misused.
I want every dollar of 'ITPA expenditure
and every lick of WPA work to pr•duce genuine benefits t.. our
communities.
The fact is that every American community is too much in
need of the improvements and services that WPA projects can pr.evide,
for us to be careless or wasteful in the planning and execution of such
projects.
Ill.is is particularly true of the whole southern r egion represented here at this Conference.
vast and acutely pressi~g.
The needs of this region have been both
.And you are all well aware of the extent h
which the welfare of the South has been advanced through the use of WPA
projects of various kinds .
I need not speak in detail of the construction
and improvement of reads, schools, hospitals, recreation facilities,
water-supply systems, sanitary sewer systems and other sanitary work .
I
need not dwell en the use yo~ have made of WPA service proj e cts in the fi elds
of public health, recreation and education.
The value of this work to the
South is beyond all question.
More than that--I think it can be said that there is no place
in the United States in which WPA projects have been so important an
assistance to community progress as here in the South.
Nowhere have
expenditures on WPA projects brought larger returns in civic welfare .
In ma.king use of \VP.A projects you have advanced your communities very
definitely along the path of general economic recovery a.nd social
progress.
And I am proud and glad tha.t the WPA ha s been able to be of
use in this way to the Southern people .
Now that I turn to the future,
once to brass tacks.
to you as sponsors.
I think it fitting to get down at
Certain questions are of direct practical interest
One of these matters is the requirem~t in the current
App~epriation Act that on projects approved subsequent to January 1~ 1940,
the state ave~age of sponsors' contributions shall be at least 25 percent
of the total cost.
On this point I hav~ a number of things to say, and I do not
know whether they will be any comfort to you, but I think they should be
of some practical valu~.
t. h;
,::l
,
The first thing is that the WJ?A must abide by
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Our V/PA State Ad.mini~trators must enforce it, and I must enforce
it .
(_
None of us has the power to make any exceptions from this require~ent.
And it is therefore a waste of ener{!;f and of time for anybody to ask us
to make such exceptions.
If you think the requirement is too stringent,
you should address your complaints and your arguments to Congr ess, which
macle the rule and alone has the power to change it.
If I am asked by Congr es s for
my
~pinion on the matter, I shall
say, as I have said before, that I am sympathetic to the general a im of
s e curing larger sponsors• contributions, because larger sponsors ' contributions mean better and more Wl')rthwhile WPA i mp rovements for the l ocal communities .
Whon the sponsors put ~p more money, it does not mean that the Federal
Government puts up less- -i t means thnt more money gJJes into the pot , wore
money for mat erials , on which, other thines being equal, the quality of a
WPA project depends .
On the other hand I shall also say, as I have said before , that since
the WPA must not only build community improvements, but must also take care of
the unemp loyment relief load, a p~licy of allowing adrninistrative discretion
in the size of sponsors I contributions is advisable for the best interests of
the program.
A community with a large unemp loyment relief load may not have
the fi:1.ancial resources to malre high sponsors I contributions for all the requfred p r o jects .
In such a s i t uationit is better for the WPA [:Jld the local
communi ty to get together on projects requiring smaller outlays for materials ,
than not to get together at all.
Sponsors ' contributions have ris en in recent years, as the Gene~a l
economic situation of the country has improved.
That is fair enough, for the
general economic improvement has mennt an increase in l oeal tax rece i p ts, and
arr increased local capacity to pay for WPA improvements .
The difficulty has
n.lwnys been thr.,t some communities do not share proportionately in genero,l econoBic improvement, and certain stranded or semi-stranded conr:runi ti cs a_o
share at all .
:10 t
It is on behalf of such connunities that the VTPA has exercised
its discretionary powers in the past .
The present lognl requirer.wnt still permits us to exorcise such dis cretion within each State, on condition that the whole State averages up to
the 25 percent level .
We intend to do our best to oake use of this latitude
to eas e the burden in cor:i."luni ties that are less able to raise noney for this
purpose .
But we shall need full cooperation within each State in order to
exe1'cise this latitude effectively.
We cnnnot accept less than 25 percent
frozi sone loc nl sponsors unless the State or other local spo nsors a:'e will i ng
to rmt up correspondingly larger contributions .
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A situation v1hich tends t o confus e t l:e issue of spoi1sors f co:i.1tri butio ns arises in nunicipalities which are under severe p r essure fron
groups who want to econouize and ·be.lance the budget--not over any
per iod of y ear s, but right now.
This is a v ery differ ent
re o.sonab l e
situation fron t hat
of lo cr.J.i ti es which actually have little or no resourc e s to dr aw upon to
provi de work for their uner:rp loyed .
I n sor.ie parts of the country the large suns that are spent ·by
~m1icipalities for dire c t relief add heavily to their budge ts .
But
r ep ort ed e:xpendi tur es for generc1l r eli ef , in a group of fift een reprosont ati ve Southern urban areas, during the fir s t half of the curr ent fiscal
y ear , w.1ounted to only one twenty-fifth of Feder a l WPA expendi tur os in
tho sane areas .
I n sone of the Southern citi e s r ep r e s ented here today
the tot a l anount of local direct r elief was only one forti e th of Federal
WPA expenditures ; in others i t was only one sixtieth; and in one city it
was one ni!.1etieth .
That is to say , relative ly little
m.one ✓-
is ·be i ng spent
on direct relief in thes e cities , and the WPA is depended upon t o p rovide almost
all t he relief prov i ded .
The reluctanc e to pu t up a dequate spo11sors I co nt ri-
butions for WPA p roj ects is thus not due to any h eavy expenditur es for an
alternative typ e of r e li ef p rogran in thes e cit i es .
Never t hele ss we e:r.:perience di ff iculty in so ne Souther n cities in
o·btainL1g enough accoptaole proj e cts to fill exjstin£; e1;ployn,_ 11t quo t as .
Tho
nain reason gi ven is obje c trnn to the 25 _percent re:-:i.uir -::,noEt as to spo~-.sors 1
fu..ii.ds .
Thero is a lso , i f I nn 2;.o t r.iisk.kc::1 , a not i on th.at t :10 Stccte Ad.Dini s-
trator or I can ·be por sund.od or bulldozed ircto r,,,~-z;nc cxer.;ptions f ron th i s
rule for tho benefit of these ci ti Gs.
We ca::121.0 t al tor the law , . and. we are
unable to make exceptions i n favor of l o cal ~vernmcnts t hat are abl e -but
m1willi11g t o finance par ticipat i on in WPA p roje cts.
I t is m;y h ope that when the facts are fully understood by t he
cities concerned , it will b o poss i bl e to work out mutually satisfactory
arr a:.1eemont s that will permit ret e ntion of a full q_uota of project omployme:nt for the needy unemployed of thos e cities .
But I am o·bligod to
add that unus ed employment quotas cannot o e held open indefi n itely.
iliey
wfll , after a reasonable t ime , be transfered t o other communities within the
State , or, if still unused, to some other State .
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There has been some rec ent improvement in the percentRge of
contributions to project op er at ions in Southern urban areas; but
furth er improvement is necessary to bring sponsors' funds up to the
statutory standard.
Tne financial posi ti on of Southern sponsors generally
has improved during the p eriod of WPA operation, and there is good reason
to believe that cities and counties are be tt er able than at any time
in the last five years to finance the local share of capital improvements and other activities that are included in the \vPA r.rogram .
In
gene r al, debts are lower, tax collections are better, and fi nancial
ope r a tions are balanced with less difficulty.
I have already noted
that gene r al r elie f costs do not , in this region, compete with the WPA
p rogram for local funds.
I have just be eu looking over r eports on the financial
conditions of some t~enty Southern municipa liti e s.
Th6se reports
definitely bear out the assertion I made a moment ago , that the financial
condition of Southern citi es has
improved during the WPA period.
And
they settle a question of f a ct conc erning the ability of certa in cities
to pay their due share of Y/PA costs.
particular.
I wish to speak of two citi e s in
I don't want to· embarrass anybody here , so I wi ll call them
City A and City B.
But what are the f a cts?
City A has an over-all tax
r ate that is lower than that of any other Sc-uthe rn City of compRrable size;
collecti ons
its current ta:x./are excellent , and its outstanding debt very moder a te. In
short, it suffers not from inability to pay but from s imple unwillingness
to p ey.
City Bis another city tha t is complaining against the 25 percent
requirement ,
This same city has just finished the most successful financial
year in its history, with an unprecedented cash balance of l a.rgEl proportions
in its treasury.
In addition to unwillingness to pay , there is also to be found
among some city officials an unwillingne ss to face the facts of the current
economic situation.
This takes the form of a hopeful belief that by next
spring or next fall or next wint er all unemployment wHl have vanished--so
that the re is no use to make definite provision for \VPA proje ct s in next
year's budget.
The result, in cities where that type of official thinking
prevails, is that unemployment needs are always unexpectedly large, and
it is always difficult to scrape up funds to sponsor WPA p roj ects .
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It seems clear to me that better planning, not only in each
locality, but with regard to the different needs and resources of all
the communities in each State, will minimize the difficulties involved
in s.ponsoring WP A projects.
I realize that you, as mayors, do not in some instances have
full authority to handle these arrangements.
Sometimes each department
of your municipal ·g overnments has its own separate dealings with the
WPA .
Sometimes it is the city council or other general governing body
that makes decisions concerning what WPA projects shall be sponsored.
These different methods often introduce considerable confusion into
the matter .
Yet WPA employment and projects are of prime importance to
every municipality.
These are not minor matters to be dealt with in a
catch-as-catch- can way .
I suggest that it is often advisable to have
a single person act as coordinator , empowerod to deal with the WPA on
behalf of the municipa.lity and all its departments .
Where this method
has been tried it has been working out very successfully.
I leav o this
suggestion with you for your consid.eration.
It is particularly imp ort nnt for every community to hav e a
largo reserve of approved WPA projects of various kinds , to permit smo oth
operations and to meet emergencies .
The following situation has actually
a~i~en in one largo American community: the only available reserve
project was a woman ' s sewing project--an activity that is hardly
adapted to n:icet unemployment needs among male laborers .
This is upu.sual ,
I am gl2.d to say, but reserve projects are not nlwo;vs perfectly suit ed
to actual conditions as they n.ri se ,, nor can they b ' v ery sui t .:.tblo unless
they are both nu.~erous and varied in type .
Abrupt fluctuations in private employment ar e chara ct eristic
of modern industry , and are familiar in every city in which factories
exist .
The WPA cannot do its part in meeting such emergencies without
preliminary planning of projects by the communities themselves .
I~
would be extremely helpful if the municipalities worked out budgets for
capital i mp rovements covering a period of several years .
Such budgets
would s;.101?1 the best order in 1l!hich various kinds of public improvements
should be made , and where the money would come from .
The setting up of
that sort of budget is not beyond the powers of any American municipality.
I need not say how greatly our Federal- local cooperation would be sim:::i lified if such long-term local budgets were gene:ral,. as I believe they will
be b efor e very .lone. b throughout the United States ,
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This brings me to somethinf: e lse that I tl:.ink yo u wish me to
d iscuss--the future o f the WPA.
I have been telli:1g you thnt :rou should
:iav e l o:1g-terrn p lans on your side in our j o int effo rts; and you mi ght
vrell reproach me for the lack o f any l o ng-term plan on our side .
mi ght say
11
You
How do we even know tha t t i1erc is Go i ng t o b e any WPA in
1941? 11
I am not g iven to making predictions but I think .I Cr'.n make
a pre tty 6uo d guess as to o n e thing.
As l ong as t he r e is lar ge-sca l e
unemp l oyment i n this country, I regard it as fairly c e rt a i n th.:1t ·ae
shall }1n,ve s ome kind of program of pub lic wo rk for t he unemployed .
Wheth er it is like ly to be a good p ro cram or a poo r p rogram is a question ·
that I will discuss presently.
:But first
I want t o s p e alc about t he p r e liminary question of
how
.
long we may expect our present lar ge-sco.le une mp l oymert situation t o continue .
That, of course, depends o n "business p rospe cts.
It narrows
to a questio a of whe th er increasing busi ne ss p r o sp e rity which we
a.own
c.11
hope for con, withi n the next y e['.r or s o , put the bulk o f our p r8sent u.nemp l oy ,,d to wo rk in pr ivat e indus try.
.And the answe r t o t hat quest i on is
that t here i s no prospect of any su ch sudden miracle .
Some peop le hoped for such a :niracle as a result of the Europ e an
war.
It vras freely predict ed that "business wo'.1-ld il1crease so greatly as to
put all our unemp l oyed to wo rk ai:d :nake it 1.eu e c e ssary for us to have any
Federa l vm rk program of puolic employment t h is ye ar .
I did not ·believe in
thes e exa gge rat e d no ti ons of the "benef it s that could accrue t o us fro □ a
Euro pe a11 war , and e arly last fall
radio .
I s tat e d ~y disbelief v e ry fra:.~~ly over the
I gav e the r easons why we should expec t ·busine ss l os s e s as woll as
business 6 a ins fron a war i n Europe .
I cave a sooer e stimate o f our utmost
possiole ga ins in emp loyment from increa sed war trade , and showed t hat v:e
vrould still have unemp loyment o n a large scale .
I s a id that we could 11o t
hope to found .Ar:lerica!l prosper ity on the mis er ies of war -torn Europe .
all that I said has been fully justified by su·osequent events .
And
The rrar in
Euror:e h as not s o lved our economic problems he r e in Amer ica, ar1d it cal1.c1ot
solve them .
We shall have to s o lve our own p r o blems by our own effo rts ri ght
here at home .
The cr ea ti on of a s o lid and eYiduring A."lleric o.n 1, ro sper i t y will require p atient and courageous effort ove r a l o ng time .
befor e we make t he
economic ad,]ustmer.ts
with ln.rge-scale unemployment.
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It ·-rill take
yoars
that wil l be needed t o do av,ay
case
can "be p ut
very
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During the month of Decemb er, our industrial p roducti on reached, a nd ev en
surpassed, the 1929 level; but we still had nine or ten million
unemp loyed, whereas in 1929 we had an av orage of about two million.
Why?
Becaus e wo ha v e in t:te meantime j_rrrprov ed our mach i nery to such an
ext <.: nt that it now takes fewer workers to produce the same amount of
goods as in 1929 .
And we hav e increas ed our labor suppl;1,r by six and
a half million workers .
At the same time we hc.·w c built up our productive
plant to a point at which- -for the moment at any ratc--it do es not offer
the same opportuniti 2s for inv os tm ont a,s in the past .
Do cs this mea n that we have reac hed a doad end in our industrial
developm ent?
Certainly not .
It means that
new phase of industrial devclo;, ment .
we
are just ent ering upon a
In order to put our millions of
unemployed to '\'!Ork , we must produce fa.r more goods of every kind than
v!C
produc ed in 1 929 .
We produced in 1929 , a nd vre produce now , goods
chiefly for the TilD.rket repr esented by the higher and middle income group s .
But th ore remains the vast market of the low-income groups , ,,_.hi ch
industry and business must cultivate and develop more fully .
It is in
this direction, the production of goods and services for our vast ,
undevelop ed dom estic mar ke t , that American prosperity must be looke1 for .
These adjustments will take time .
This view as to time is now
shared in the main by c0nservative financial experts and business leaders .
They have ceas ed to expect miracles .
They do not look for any sudden ourst
of business pros1)eri t:1 that will wipe out unemploym8nt this J'ear or next .
They are taking the long view .
view .
And I think that we also must take the long
If there is going to be large scale unempl oyment for years to come ,
then I think we ca.n look forward to a long period of Federal- local coop eration in public work.
There also exists in this country, along with unemploym ent , a
vast need for public works and improv8ments of many kinds .
The industrial
water- supply syst em that the PWA and the WPA hav e built for Birming:r,..am
is not tho las t one needed in the South.
plants e.re n eeded.
Huncl.r eds of s ewage dispos a l
Millions of new homc: s a re needed .
I could go tl-1rough
a long list and say th8 same thing about each separate item of public improvem ent .
In sp ite of all the school houses that our unemployed worl,;:ers
hav e built , we ar c still very far from having caught up with our needs in
that field .
And when we come to urgently need.Gd vrork in the conservation
of our national resourc es , we find a vast and long- term program waiting for us .
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In several States , th e WPA has begnn t6 coo pFlrate with t h e n ewlyestablishe d soil c once rvation d.istrict s i n doin6 the wo r ~: n e cessary t o save t he topso il on our- farms .
Most cf the St a tes
a1·e now organizing such s oil coi.1se rvatioh d.istricts and. the m1emp l oyed can be s et to doing this wo r k .
An adequate p ro g rarJ
will ta.:-::e fr om twenty to thirty yea rs to c 0mplet e .
I do not think tlcat we should eve r kee:9 our 1111emp loye d in
i dl enes s on a d ole .
I ci_o not p r op ose to waste words in co a aider ing
•
that p r os p ect .
It is not our American way of dealing vii tl1 tl1e 1:m-
em:9loyment problem -
or in dealing vii th human be ing s , e i the:r .
have too much r e sp ec t , both f o r v:o r k ar!<l for human be i ng s , t o kee;J
them a part lD::e that .
I have no doub t in my ovm mind that we shall contLme to
havo a publ i c work p ro g ram in t h is c oun t ry in 1 941 and for some yeo,rs
to come .
Whether it will b o as goocl. a program as tha t ul1i c~1 wo ;1ow
hav e d epends on w-hat kind of p r ogram our comrmmi ties wa~1t .
In tho
next e i gh t mon ths I t h ink we will h ear a gooc1. deal a bout the p r opo sal
t o "r eturn r eli ef to the states 11 •
What t h is :p ro po s a l o.ctually means
i s to "[JD.y over Fed,:3 ral r el i ef fund s to t h e states , to bo ex-,wndod there
und.c r state and l ocal co nt r ol--upon t he ir
O'.'ffi
l ocal wcr:: p :co 6 1·0.t1s or
on dir ect r elief , o r bo th, o.s th c7 m1:i.;y s ee fit .
Thi s , in m~r opinion , woulC:L be a s e ri ous backw,:,,,rci stoJJ .
We
hav e be en thr ough all thr.~t , and. we hav e left it f a r b ehind in our
"£) r es en t WPA pro g rnm .
I Lnow t hci,t tho VTPA can be imp r ovc cl_, out it
woul o_ be no im:9ro v ement to hand it bo,ck t o t h o states o.nc-. 1oca li tics ,
rri th i.10 .n.dc q_uz.t e me11ns of exercising Fedo r o.l c ontrol ove r Fed.orc:,l fnnds .
I cCLn see why some l ocal poli tici cms would f o.vor such c, schcmo , ·but I
ho:pe we a l l r eali ze ths,t t his is not th o way to k ·., ep pol itics or.t o f
r e li ef .
You wi l l be t old that it would. be more economi c 2.l t o r eturn
wor::- r clief to the st a tes .
Acco rding to s ome figur es t:'l:, t I :10.vo soon ,
it noul(l save two- thirds of our p r e s en t UFA c os ts .
r,ou.ld those so.vin[:;s c ome out of .?
'.7?A i n c.s follows :
A~ic'. ro
7
o.sk , y{no,t
Our curr ent man- month o:x:,)r ms c
$54 . 25 goes for na.gos to :p:;.•o j e ct i70 rkor s ;
co os f or materi::1.ls ; a nd $2 . 00 for ad.mini strati v o expense .
Oi.l
tr,e
$5 . 75
01.u· aw,1 in-
istrc.t5.ve exp ens e is co sm,,11 t hat you cn.nnot rmlrn o,ny sc.vinGs th(;re .
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- 10 All there is left t o cut i s th -J c o sts of nnt0ri:-.ls , o.:1d tl:1 0 •.rc,:_;o s -oc..id to
tho v,orkcrs .
Bric~s n.nd mortar cost money , c.nd if you. o.re rc.o..11y c oing
to s:wo money you nill have to 6 0 bac:;: t o l oo,f-rn2dn 6 :projocts ,
o.Jlc_
mor e th.'.:1.i.1 th[),t you uill have to pay your rmr~cors sto.rvo..tion vac;o s .
sl-10rt ,
3'0U
In
c::~n mo.kc si zo.ble savings only b7 to,kin:'.; it out of tiw ~1id os
of 'cho vmrkors .
T:1.0.t will b0 t ho argu.mont-- ccono;ny .
rr.'.:1.nt tho,t kind of oconomy .
econorv .
As l ont as
\7G
But I do not b elieve ,-re
I do not thin...]{: tl10.,t i::; our .Arn0ric 2,11 i6.o::i, of
hcwo u.._11om1Jloycd norkorc , c.nd as lo :1c: as -..-ro :10..ve
wor:: that needs to be done i11 our communit ies , I think we will fLi.cl_
that true economy will be s erved b~r :put tL-1 6 t he .-,,0r~ and t :1e no r ::ers
to::;etller .
T:O.ere is another feature of our p resent wo r ~:: :oro;'sram ni1ich
s~1nuld not be overlooked in any consideration of its usefulness .
T:1e
wages t'qat are paid to WPA workers are o;uickly spent for t he necessities of life .
I have some figures which show approximately how WP.A
worl:ers in the thirteen Southern Stat es here represented have · spcmt
their wa,; es .
I think ynu will be in terested. in · these figllres .
0nr total
iT?A w3£e payments in thes e thirteen States , from tho beginning of our ~wogram L1 1935 through Novem'::ler , 1939 , have a.mounted. to a littl e ovor 911
million d.ollars .
The National Resources Commit tee has ,101·lrnd o ",_t the
porcentaces of ex:9ondi ture for various items in tho wago- grou~, to r/1ic:1
rTPA workers chiefly bolong- -that is to sa~r, tho $500 to $750 a yo2,r inco110 group .
A:pplyine; these perconta:: _; os to W?A inco1:10s in tho South ,
HO
got tho following c stirnat ,:,c'l_ figures .
WPA workers in those thirteen Southern St :1tcs d.uri:1;; t:1.is
porioJ. hav,J s pent about 383 million dollars for foocl .
about 182 million dollars for r ent .
They have spent about 91 mi lli on
dollars for thG costs of household o·::iera.tioi1 .
million a_ollars for clothing .
They :1:w ,-:; 1nicl
Thc,y have s p ent :1oout 82
They have s-pent aoout 45 and a k1,lf L1illion
dollo.rs for street co.r fare and other forms of transno rtation .
Tho~r have
paid, n.bout 36 and a half million dollars to Sout~10 rn doctors an:l. hos:9 i to.ls
for mod_ical care .
And_ over 91 million dollars has bnen spent
O!l
ot:,.ei·
miscollc..noous items in the shops of your Southern to ..ms and citi e s .
I do not think I need emphasize the im::,o rto.nce 0f tl1cso "'.T~A
cu::;tomors cmd WPA w::i.gos in tho c ommerc e of tlrn Soutl1 .
You c;::~"1 i nagine
for yourself the consequences , if these r egulo..r oxpcndi tur os rrorc abn1:9tl:' vri thd.rci.wn from tho chcmnols of Sout:;.crn tro.d. 0 .
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Permit me to sey just n word o '.1 the subject of :r •; litics in connectio:::i. wi th th e WP A.
The Presid.ent has re:reatodly stat e d that politics
and th o WA should bo comple tely divorc ,:: d .
Trais idea has been implemented
oy Oon[;ress b;{ definite· provi sions in tho l aw under which we ore r ate and mo r e
rec ently by the :p assage of the Hatch Act .
These laws are specifically designed
to p rotect WP.A workers from :po litical threa,ts or p r omises i n colnection v.ri th
their jobs .
'rhey are intended t o p r event a.11y fo rm of pol i ti ca.l coercion of
VfP A Yrorkers ·by anybody i n o r out o f the W?A.
My duty in r espe ct to th e se Co.ngr essional l aws is cl e ar .
As
Commissi oner of the Work Projects Adm i nistrati on I s:1all 1:ot tolerate
The 'IVPA . p r ogrrun co!1c e rns its elf d ir ectly vri th :nore
any violation of them .
t han two and a quarter millio n workers .
I do not say t hat isolated instanc e s
of co e rci o n or attempted coercion will not o ccur .
the WPA wil l be rna~le .
Many charges of pol itics in
Some o f these charges will ·be aade by c andidates who
caiBO t think of anything e ls e t o say , or who want to avoid teol k ing a·bout r eal
is sues .
But some of these charges may be true --and if you think they are
truo, I n.rge yo u t o bring t hem to my attent ion o r to the attent i o:1 of the
Department of Justice, so that the gu.".l ty part i es may be p u n ishecl_ according
t o law .
In any case , you will r eali ze t h at charges of pol itics in the
'{{PA
must be spe cific, to mean any thi ng what e v e r, and that vague de,mnc i ations
o f our pol itica l iniquity may merely mean that a carcdidat e feels like tal king
throue;h h i s hat .
I do not think it am i ss a t th is gathering to quota from a l etter
which our Louisiana St ate Administrator sent t <J each Wf'A wo r ker in co:n.:1ection
with their p rimari es .
l a st month .
As you know, a hot run- off p rimary took p l ace there
I quo t e :
11 Before
the first DeIIDc r rit ic p rimary e l e ction last month I advis ed
I wish t o r em ind
you of c er t a in r egulat i ons pert a ining to po litical activity .
They nust
you now t hat th ese r egulat i ons are still in forc e .
The WPA is not
not under
suppo rti ng any candidat e s for
obligation t o vote for
you are qualified you can · vote as
ar.:y
or against
any
to have yo u fir ed for any po litic a l reason.
No
office .
candidates .
No one
you pJ.ease .
0
ne
oe
c[cil.
obeyed.
You· are
If
can tl-:.reaten
prc:ni s s
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you a better 'WPA job in return for your support.
for money for any political campaign.
No one can ask you
This is against the law.
If you
supervise the work of others and if you are a teacher in the adult
education progrnm or a recreation worker you must not be politically
active on or off the job. You must not use your influence to ge t votes
for any candidates or ot:1erwise help any cA.ndi d.at e for any office.
If ·
you are a WPA security work:e r ,Ii thout sup e:cvi sory duties you must not
talk politics on the job or on the project site.
You are employed by
the United States Government and your job does not depend upon the outcome of any election in Louisiana.
You do not owe your job to politics--
you will not lose it because of your vote. 11
In closing , I want to say that the ilPA program is getting better
all the time , in spite of all kinds of difficulties.
been in existence l ess than five years.
Our organization has
It takes much longer than that for
an organization of the size and compl exity of the WPA to settle down to
work at maximum effi ciency.
this.
Any industrialist or eng ineer will corroborate
Among our special difficulties, I will only mention the f .9,ct that we
have never had enough supervisors and othe r management people--that we
do not and cannot pay adequately those we have--and that we ne ce ssRrily
lose our best ones all the time as they return to private jobs.
SinilA.rly
we encourage--nay, we order--our proj e ct workers to accept work in prive,te
industry the moment it is available.
labor.
Thus we have a constant turnover of
Under these circumstances I think our acconplishments are
remarkably good.
:But we can do better, with your full cooperation.
Should the WPA program still be in op eration five years from now
I think you will have a good deal less to complain of, and fewer calls
upon your patience in your work with us.
I hope and beli eve that we in
turn will be able to say the same thing about you as our working partners.
It is a great ent erprise on which we are engae;ed together.
accomplished great things in our joint work.
We have already
We have much to be proud of,
and I think we can face the future with entire confidence.
__________ ,_________ _
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