Tera Perala
12/5/12
Period 4b
Works Progress
Administration
The
Roaring Twenties were a time of luxurious living and spending in the United
States. However, it all came crashing down in 1929, which marked the beginning
of the United State’s deepest economic downturn, also known as the Great
Depression. It left million of Americans unemployed, homeless, and hopeless.
However, president Roosevelt helped turn the economy around by creating the New
Deal, which was a series of relief programs in the United States. One of these
organizations was called the Works Progress Administration. The Works Progress Administration was
created during the Great Depression to put men and women back to work.
The
Great Depression began in 1929. During the twenties, people spent in excess and
believed that the stock market would continue to rise steadily for an infinite
amount of time. They ignored warnings from economists, who believed that a
constant rise in the stock market was impossible, and that one day it would
crash. Their predictions were extremely accurate, because on October 29 1929,
over sixteen million shares were traded, and the Dow Jones lost 30 points. This
day has been remembered since as “Black Tuesday.” It completely wiped out
investors and consumer spending dropped for years to follow. This caused large
declines in industrial output, which led to high unemployment rates. In 1930,
investors began to demand deposits in cash from banks, which forced the banks
to liquidate loans. President Hoover’s Administration made an effort to help
failing banks by using government loans. In return, banks would loan to
businesses, which would hire back employees. By 1933 about fifteen million
Americans were unemployed, and nearly half of the banks in the United States
had failed. Living was almost impossible for some families, and they were
forced to make great sacrifices. Many farms could no longer afford to harvest
crops, resulting in the farms being shut down, and leaving more people without
jobs.
In
1933, President Hoover and the New Deal created an organization called the
Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was headed by Harry Hopkins. Harry
Hopkins was always dedicated to helping and relieving the struggling and less
fortunate. He first worked in the Ghetto of New York at the New York
Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP). Later in his career he was appointed
the executive secretary of the Bureau of Child Welfare. He also worked with the
American Red Cross, American Association of Social Workers (AASW), and the New
York Tuberculosis Association. After the Great Depression hit, he worked with a
relief organization called the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
(TERA). Then he became the head of the WPA.
Roosevelt
and Hopkins put their brilliant minds together and realized that all across
America, the streets, bridges, sewage systems, parks and forests were eroding
and crumbling to the ground. They decided to make the main focus of the WPA to
rebuild the face of America by employing millions of jobless people and putting
them to work on different projects to reconstruct. The organization also
focused on putting artists and teachers back to work. Hopkins believed that
they had every right to be relieved as other workers. Also, they worked to
employ women as well as men. Although the WPA paid equal wages, the women were
generally employed with lower wage jobs such as school lunch cooks, book binders
and care for the elderly. Furthermore, workers were sent to places burdened by
natural disasters to fight against floods, fires and hurricanes, and to
eventually rebuild what was destroyed.
Conservatives,
who believed that the organization was inefficient and wasteful, often
criticized the Works Progress Administration. They thought that it was a
communist group, and that it gave people bad work habits. However, regardless
of the cruel criticisms it received, the WPA impacted millions of Americans in
an extremely positive and hopeful way. For instance, in 1933, unemployment was
at 2.49 percent across the United States. The WPA employed eight and a half
million of those citizens. They spent 10.5 billion dollars employing them. The
administration also funded artists in the creation of 2,566 murals and 17,744 sculptures
that are displayed in buildings all across the United States. The federal art
support from the WPA also led to the creating of the Nation Endowment for the Humanities
and the National Foundation for the Arts.
Congress
shut down the Works Progress Administration in 1943. Millions joined the
service during World War II and millions of other people were hired by other
companies, causing the need for mass-employment to drop drastically.
Unfortunately, soon after the WPA was terminated, Hopkins passed away in 1946
due to terminal illnesses.
The
Great Depression was a time of turmoil and despair for men, women, and children
all across the United States. It left millions of workers unemployed, homeless,
and starving. However, in this time of hopelessness, President Roosevelt and
the New Deal created an organization that saved millions of lives. The Works
Progress Administration put Americans all across the nation back to work, not
only to restore the eroding beauty of the country, but to also help improve and
save other people’s lives. Although it was shut down in 1943, the WPA remains a
symbol of hope and salvation during times of disturbance and anguish.
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