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4-1 2 71 11.ort"iwestern AUG 1 3 1!36 Uni versity L ibra.-~ THE WORK S P:Et OGR A M •** --Wo rks Pro gr e ss Admini stration-- For Re leas e i n Sunday i:Jewsp a oe rs August ~ . 1 936 Williams Repli e s t o Criti c s of Works Pr ogress Admini stration lfotio n Picture Pr ogram. Deputv Works Progress Administrator Aubrey Williams toiav issued t he fol l owi ng stat emer:.t: The Rep iblica..."l Fati onal Comr.1i tt.ee, in t he face of t welve years of gove r nmental 1 precedent and. on the unsu-pported stat e:ne!1t of a d isgr-0.nt l ed former employee , h as s een fit t o rc.ds e t he c r y of 11 or opag a nda 11 becaus e t he Works Progress Admini stration is t aking some ~o tion p ictu r e s of i ts n r ogram. The Repu-b li can Nat ional Committ ee is l i,~e a s .na ll b oy wh istling in the dark. The- i.:tter abs1.:rdit;r of its attack is plain when v,e . i·eal ize that not a singl e picture has been produced under t he arrangemen t s o bi tt e rl ~r assail ed . The Reuub li c an • .National Cammi t tee has not the r emot e st i d.e a whe t he r or not these p ictu r e s wil l contain any propaganda v hatev e r. 1 I know they wil l not. Yet t he Committee releases an official attack upon the Wo rks Progress .Administration s olely on the str ength of a stat ement f ror.i t he fo rme r chief of a WPA s ec ti on ab 0lished nearly ttr ee months ago. Tactics of t his so rt, in lieu of an hori.est effo rt to get at the r e al facts, indic ate the extremity to v:hich the Re nu-blican :ifation e.l Committ ee has b ee n f o rc ed i n its effo:ct'i- ~ to bring di sc :"edi t to the Works Pro g r e ss Admin istrat io n . Thr e e succes sive Rer,-..iblican Ad2inistrations have p r oduced lit e rall y t housand s of reels of Fede ral motion uictur e s i n '1ozens of 1-rn.reaus, l 2 rg 0 and small, over a period of twelve lo ng years. Wliy , th en , the Renublican hubbub ove r a nerf ec tl~' legitimate and a ccepted method of p res enti ng pub li c information? Can it b e thd t he ReDublica.'1 1;ational Com:,,it tee is afrai d of the truth? Can it be fear t h2..t the eye of t he camera will r e v e al a gre at army of good s olid .American citizens at work in the construction of go od s ol id Ame rican imp rovements for the benefit of all the people? The Rermb lican Na t ion al Co1mni ttee a pparently seeks to deny t o t he i.:;o rks Pro gress .Administration, a r e s p onsible "3.gency of governDigitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY -2- No . 4-1271 ment, th e ri ght to t e ll its story through th e same medh,m vrh i ch Pr e side.:1ts Co olidge and Hoover used to t e ll the stori es of the Deuartments of Commerce , State, ~ost Office, Treasury, .A[riculture, I n t e ri or, Labor, War and Navy. The Republicans set every p r ecedent for Federal motion p ictures. As far as I kn.ow, no Democrat ever que stioned the right of these :rte.pub li can a dmin istrations to produce thousands of motion p icture re e ls, v1hich they did. The re was n 0 legitima t e r eas on to question thes e productions if they we re p r ope rly n r odu.ced . /1.rticle I, Section 9 of the Con s ti tut ion provides for "a r egular stat ement an.a. account'' of uub lic expenditures. Obviou sly the purpose of this mandate of the donstitution is to g ive th e elect ors a r epo rt, not only of the amoun t of r e ceipts and expenditur e s, but of t he ma.>1:1.e r in wh ich ex-pendi t u r e s ar e made and t t,e r e s ul ts obtained . Th e motion nicture is r ecogn ized everywhere as one of the b E:: st methods of :r,1 res en tir1g information. The WP A is p roud of its program. si ngle gov e rn ~en t a gen cy t oday. Its activiti e s are by far the large st of any It direct ly a ffec ts t he live s of more peopl e than any othe r Fede ral agency. The WPA makes no ap olo gy for an attempt to take its story b e for e the , bar of the Am e rican people. If anything, it has r e mained sil en t too long. The I Mayors of more than 1, 000 .Ame rican cities and to wn s, embracing all po litical faith s, h ave t e stifi e d in writing t o the good which WPA has don e for millic_m s of ci tiz un s L-i. dire ne e d, a.TJ.d -- for thousands of co mr:mni ties i n the form of 'Jetter facilities for the ave rage family. The WPA is not only a 6 roup of officials in Washington. It is th e officials of thousands of towns and counties and park boc:.rds and sch ool boards wh o have ori ?;inated and nut f o rward u s eful c o mmunity i:nprovem en ts which c ould bA done by lo c al peopl e who h &d no work to d o; a na. abov e all it is million s of si nce r e .Ame ri can Citiz e ns, willing and abl e to work , who with fe w exceutions have b een do in g th e ir best i n a v e ry J ifficul t situati on . These workers have b een lamp ooned. and ri d i cul ed as s hovel-l e aners and malconten ts, The facts ar e th at they are building 130, 000 mil e s of farl!l-to-market roads, b;1il ding or "improving,s·,200 schools, 5,700 playgrounds, 5,:300,other :9ublic buildings, more than 5,000 sewe r syst ems, more than 2,500 water systems, more than 500 airp o rts, thousands of fl ood control and conservation projects, and giving a myriad of h e alth Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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