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FEDERAL WORKS AGEl;cY
WOF.K PROJEC~S ADMINISTRAT ION
For Release to Morning Papers,
Friday, June 7, 1940.
The :ol~owing address was delivered by Mrs . Florence Kerr , _
.
Assistant Commissioner, Work Pro,iects .Ad.ministration at a dinner meeting of TTPA S:p~nsors and W?A State Staff at MHchell , South Dakota,
Thursday evening, June 6th. The address was broadcast over Station ICS OO.
WPA I S P~UtT IN NAT I OHAL DEFENSE
This meeting is held in an hour which we all recognize as one
of peril for civilization.
And it is also an h our in which our country
has begun the gigantic task of arming itself against gigantic danger~.
As Americans, our hearts are in that work of self defense .
And if we
meet to discuss other problems and other tasks, it is not because we are
ignorant of those dangers or indifferent to that task.
It is, rather ,
because we have faith in the accomplishment by our na tion of that task
of self-defense.
And it is also becaus e we have faith in the survival
of our civilization.
We look forward, beyond this hour of peril, to the
continuing progress of lll8~.kind.
Civilization may be said to have two lines of defense , an outer
one and an inner one.
An outer line of defense is one of arillDJllents , of
battleships and airplanes and of men who stand ready to give their lives
for tho protection of all that we hold dear .
The inne r line of defense is
not so heroic, but it is none the less essenticl .
For it consists simply
of helping the work of our civilization to go on.
With in the iron ring of our defensive armaments, we shall not
cease to plant and reap.
science or economics.
We shall not stop working in the fi elds of
We shall not forget our ideals of democracy, of
hU11lc..'L~ freedom, and of social justice.
that wc are prepared to defend.
These are among the things America.~
These arc among the fruits of civilization
that we are determined shall not perish from the earth.
All these things must now and henceforth be doubly dear to us.
And we at this moment have the privilege of defending that inner citadel
of our civilization.
We need faith in order to carry on our work at all .
I think we all have that faith.
of what we are doing our work.
We need , too, a sense of the importance
the feeling that we also serve our nation in doing
And we need mental serenity, in order to do our work properly
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and uell .
Montn.l serenity is in itself one of the most pr ecious fruits of
civilization.
All the great and significant works of the world, and much of
the humble but necessary work of the world, require mental serenity as a
habitual resource .
The discipline of education provides many of us with that
habitual r esource .
And it can be drawn upon even in the last extremes of
t umult and danger .
I n Plutarch' s Lives there is a story of the death of one
of the great scientists of antiquity , Archimedes of Syracuse, who was killed
by a Roma_Tl soldi er duri ng the sack of the city .
Up to the moment of h is
death , the Greek scientist was calmly working out an engineering problem.
The battle itself is now remembered only on that account .
There is an extreme example of mental serenity , and so is the next
one I am going t o mention.
One of the great short stories of the world,
which I think we have all read , written nearly a hundred years ago , tells
about a certain day in a schoolroom.
It was the last clay in which the native
language of that place could be taught , for it was now a conquered province .
The lesson went on as usual .
It dealt with the rules of grammar , with syn-
tax, with the conjugat ion of verbs and the declension of nouns .
It would
have been a commonplace and tiresome lesson , except for the fact that it was
the last lesson; now all realized how dear that language was to their hearts .
But I think every reader of the story felt so me thing which the schoolmaster
did not say -- that it could not be the last l esson, because that language
represented civilization -- and civiliza tion must in the end triumph over
tyranny .
Now we in this co1.LT1try not only beli eve that civilization will in
the end triumph over tyranny - - we are determined that civiliza tion shall
triumph over tyranny .
is -
And so today the defense program of the United States
and quite rightly -- in the foreground of all our minds .
The defense
of our rc 2Jublic is now the great primru'y fact to \7hich we must orient all our
private and public plans of every kind.
And we who are concerned with the activities of the Work Projects
Administration have to c onsider what effect our national def ense program lllc.'\Y
have on our ,,ork program for the unemployed.
What can we do to help along in
national defense ? And what need will there be for the help our program can
give ?
Owing to episodes of the past few weeks , the WPA is being viewed
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now i n a ne"'" li' .o. ,t .
l.:,u
11
of t he WPA.
1T'here
ar e th ose wh o pro f ess t o see a speedy liquidation
-
Thank God, 11 t hey sq,y,
11
we can non be rid of the WPA. 11
the r emar k the other day tha t WPA was in t ho gutt er.
of the truth.
I heard
This i s the antithesis
I so.y to you --- that W'PA is not in the gutt er but on t he very
front line of our inner def ense .
We all know t ho.t men v1ho have been long out of work a rc not effecti v e citizens.
If required to defend their country , thoy will not ll18ke cffect-
i ve soldiers.
Men out of work lo se their sl--:ilJ.s .
They lose their heal th.
And eventually, t ~10y lose the ir spirit , t he ir mor n.l e , and their patriotism.
Foder o.l Security Administrator Paul V. UcNutt in his Memori a l Day address at
Arlington Cemetery , call ed attention to the f a ct tha t,
seize the suord t o pro t e ct a jobless way of life .
11
Mon a r e not cage r to
Nor are they '17illing to
die for a country i n whi ch democra cy means a br ead line and soup ki tchen. 11
There
his church.
asked:
11 W
hy
\'v:l.S
once a great religious l eader who chanGed the hymnal of
He wanted songs and music tha t peopl e would enj oy singing.
He
should the Devil have all the good tunos? 11
And we must ask ourselves, why should the Dicta tors have all the
ideas as to how to keep t he ir citizens busy and Democra ci es deny the ir citizens .work , r efus e them tra ining , and offer them only the hope deferred that
maketh the heart sick?
than tha t .
We can give all of them a chanc e to serve in the up-buil ding of
our civilization.
fens e.
Our Ame rican Republic can off er its citi zens more
It is not only a ques tion of our immedi a t e national de-
It is a question of our wholo natio nal future .
We can give our
people something to ~ork for a s TTell as , if necessary , something to defend.
I n America today we have 9 mil lion unemployed.
idle
mm1
So long as we have
and idl e capital, idle f a ctori es and i dl e mills -- .;e a r e fn.lli::1.g
far short of givi ng all our citizens a chance to serve in t he u~buil ding of
our civiliza tion.
And we also are falling far short of r eaching the total
pr epar edness mar k so necessary for our country to attain.
What t he WPA has done and is doing to maint ,' lin and incr ease the
wor king skill s of a proportion of t hose 9 million unemployed is what vrc should
have done and should be doing noTT on a cons ider ably larger scale .
The WPA
hn.s helped to keep its Hor kers fit for -rrhat ever t asks they rnuy be CE'.lled upon
t o perform.
And it is helping t o mn.i ntai n t hei r f a ith i n the Republic nhi ch
we may all be called upon to defend.
The dir e ct help that we
c@
give to the national defense program is
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illustrD..ted by the kind of help rm have alrcEtdy given .
A peace- time
army of unemployed needy workers has be en r10rk ing for yen.rs on t ho
The fact
improvement of our a irport faciliti es throughout t he nation .
that WPA hns cons truct ed 200 ne'\7 airports ri.nd reconstruct ed 300 others
gives us f ood f or thou ght t od-,;y· .
A'!.le
Look a t t he r oads we hnvo built .
dofe11"'.,, o?,
they important to our n"u. t1'on,.,1
u.-
Tl''"'
1· s
n cr
.... ...
""'" ,,.,.,,,s
S 1· mp le
Both
•
ai r port and roa d-building programs arc among those r.rhich will be given
We con do much more, how~
pri ority in our plnns f or nationnl defense .
ever , thru1 build r.tirports and roads .
I t l1ink we are equipped t o h;)..Ildle
virtU[tlly ever y t ype of ~or k needed for nati onal defense tha t civili ans
can do .
Nov,
nhat ar e some of the s ervice s tho.t our professional @ d
service projects ar e pr epar ed t o r ender t o our country in an
The list is no doubt lo:.1ger t bnn many of you thi nk .
emergency ?
Do you know t hnt
we
have 10, 000 adult educat i on teachers, who could be transferred t o literacy
classes o.nd cle.ssos in
11 Functi ons
of Government and Americn.nizo.tion ?11
They nre o.ls o pr epare:id to g ive specinl services t o foreign born .
Our
Recr ec'.\ti on projects co...'1 provide i mmedi n.t e .dat ,1. on r ecr .:inti onri.l fr.1.cili ties
and l eadersh i p in n:ny section of the country .
And we could supply rec-
r eati ono..l l eadersh i p quickly in any conc entr o.ted e..re['.. .
As part of a. :i: ood conservatiol! progr am, we could v er y readily
expand our gardening and canning projects .
Thirty- six thousand workers
on School Lunch p roj ects and ano t her 36 , 000 worke r s on housekeeping
aide p rojects a r e capable of taking part in food conserva tion pro graE1 s
and in the development of training for home gardens .
Our Hbusekeeping Aide p rojects could provi de day nursery service
for cl1ildren of working mothers.
aid.es nlso in large numbers .
The se p ro jec ts could supply nurses 1
With a small amount of training by Public
Healt:1 Depnrtments , housekeepi ng aid.es woul d be equi pped to do p r n.ct ical
nursing.
We could expand. all Univers ity Research proj ec ts having a bcnring
on militc'.),ry preparation.
Record. proj ects -- employing 85 , 000 wo r kers in
cl crico..l t ;s,,'J) c ncti vi ti es -- could imm ediatel y shift t wo- third.s of the ir
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employracnt to clcric~l or fact-finding service directly related to defense preparation .
Projects providing
tabulating units -- each uith
severnl hundred trnined statistic.:.,l i7orkers -- could be made available
in key cities for i~.nodiate service on any statistical study needed by
agencies clealing u i th nn.tional. defense.
The WPA ranks here as elsewhere
could be refilled cmd truining could go on continuously supplying no,-,
workers as they- r10re needed.
Nor, I mif;ht go clleo.d and. tri,lk at len{;th D.bout these comnuni ty
service Dro,jocts of ours -- uhat they are cloinf. and Tihat they cnn do .
But I vmnt to raise tho question ui th you _:, since I knmv it v1ill be
raised in every corn1uni ty -- v,hcther tho work we arc doing is a luxury
when there is c 6 reo.t nntional defense progran under wr.:,y.
And tho true rJ1Siver, it seens to me, is that this rrork is a part
of our national defense o.nd it would be even if the whole world were at
peace.
Will our nation be stronger if we drop our public health work?
Will our nation be stronger if millions of children sit hungry
in school every day?
Will the nation be stronger if 'fie cut do,m every kind of conmuni ty service by dropping our WPA service projects?
I think those questions answer thenselves.
But I wo,nt to go further and deeper in this inquiry.
We have
had a great depression, and the brunt of it has fallen upon tho workers
of the nation.
They have been plunged into poverty and misery.
of theu have been unalbe to fincl a..11.y work .
1lillions
I do not intend to recount the
~h.:;l c gtoa.t effort of the New Deal to restore onr economic systen to
p roper functioning.
But during this period it has been necessary for tho
government to cooperate rli th our comr.nmi ties in providing public ,-mrk for
the needy unemployed.
For the last five years the WPA has been our first
line of defense agn.inst povcrt;,r ancl :r.iisery.
In soi:1e other countries of the world , where no such internal line
of defense existed, tho poverty a::1d nisery of :t1illions of vrnrkers uent on
until it ha.cl a grin result -- those \7ho had nothing to lose followed t:1e
leadership of dictators Md subnitted the:r.iselves to the tyrannies which
at least offered then food, work, and hope.
In this country the WPA has been the first line of our-internal
defense against joblessness, against despair~- n.nd against dictatorship.
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I think tha.t tho gre.1.t nncl t 0rribl e lesson of c ont ompor ~.ry history is s imply this -- th:-,t clictntor shi p s nris c out of the festerin g
Misery nnd pov e rty breed d.ictators .
swc,.mp of human mis e ry .
About hnlf a c entury ago, an
po v e rty are the opportunj_ty of dictators .
America n p oet \7rote
11
Mise ry r,nd
poem ab out tho Hn.n wi th th0 Ho c -- a t YPe of bru-
tnl iz o,l dos pnir wh ich ne hoped cli cl not re ally e xist in Junerica .
th e question of who.t rrould happ en
11 Y
:hen
God after the silence of tho c,mturi es . 11
has n ot yet spoken .
He nsked
thi s dumb terror shall r eply to
Porh;>.Ds the M,_,_n with t h0 Hoo
But I t h ink ue hnve s oon :.1.broe,d ?.hn.t th e terrible
nnswe r of despair is .
J3ut there ITore some other lines in that p oem that I ~ish to
One lino nslrnd " who shn,11 robuj_ld th e music nnd the dr eam11 in t hat
r e cal l.
mind .
Ou r nntion h as fo r seven y cnrs been eng.'.'l,gecl in a g r oat t o.sk of
e conomic reconstruction .
We hav e be en, in s low and pati ent
and -pr.'.l.ctica l
ways , rebuildi ng the music n.nd th e dr eam -- the nm.sic nnd the clr oam of
Ame rico..
We nr o not content to live on th e bitter edge of p overty .
work is far f r om finish ed .
I t h as only b egun .
Our
We a re e ngaged in cr eating
an Amor i cn. that shall b elonc to everybody -- to the ol d who h ave done the ir
vrn r k , to the young whose wo rk is s till to do , to women a.nd men , to uorkers
a n d. o.rti sts a nd sci enti s ts , to the whole Ame ric an pe ople .
It u ill be a
p rosp0 rous America. , but it will b e a broad- based prosperity of the many ,
and '.i.10t the f an tastic jerry- built drea.11-pagodE1. Prospe rity of 1929 tha.t tottered into coll n:ose b e en.us e it wa.s built on the shifting .sancls of misery .
The emer gency of nationr.l def ense i s one r:hich will not permit
exce ssi vc slouness or overcaut i ousnoss -- we hc,vo s een to w'!'l.at cl.is,.ts t ors
these mny lend.
thoroughly .
Nationn.l d.efense r equir es tho.t ue e.ct quickly , an:l
We h~v0 b c [(U.,.~ quickly en ou gh , and I do not doub t the thor-
oughness with vihich we sh a ll c1.o t he job .
I bel ieve , moreover , tha t tho
way rre c a r ry out our grea t t as k . of nn tiona l defense o.gai nst ext e r nal
aegros s ion will hel p to show us hoTT to ca rry out our othe r 6Tcat t ask
our oqunlly gr eat task -- of inte rno,l defense agai nst mis ery and poverty .
These two for ms of def ense go toce th e r .
.And n e ither need be slacked or sligh t ed .
out or
Neither one can be dropped •
We can go forwar d on both the
n.nd inner line s of nn.tional de f ense .
And I think ,re must g o forn~rd .
We shall be tol d t hat in orde r to defe nd our democracy it uill
be necessnry to rob the uo r~ democra cy of a ll meaning for millions of
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helpless people .
Do not believe it .
Our adva~ces in social justic e , in
economic domocrncy, in better r10rkin0; conditions, c.re not n luxury tho.t
'178
mu.st give up .
They nre e. pc~rt of the America thnt we a.re preparing to
defend .
TTe shall defoncl. our country by every monns that modern scienc e ,
mech[l.Iliccl ine;enui ty , human skill , :1.nd human discipline , courage and
devotion co,n provide .
'fle shall defcnct ou:- country by keeping it n cow1try
tho. t is c':.eo.r to our henr ts , and by mnking it n country ever noc..rcr to our
hopes ond dreams .
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