Works Progress Administration / Works Project Administration (renamed 1939)
WPA graphic
overview
Formed	April 8, 1935 (1935-04-08)
Preceding	Federal Emergency Relief Administration
Dissolved	June 30, 1943
Employees	3.3 million in 1938 (peak). Provided almost 8 million jobs between 1935 and 1943
Annual budget	$1.4 billion (1935)
Key document	Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935

Typical sign on a WPA project

Employment and Activities poster for the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1936

The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Works Project Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects,^[1] including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.^[1]

It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western areas.^{[citation needed]} The budget at the outset of the WPA in 1935 was $1.4 billion a year (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion.^[2]

At its peak in 1938 it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men (and some women), as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost eight million jobs.^[3] Full employment, which emerged as a national goal around 1944, was not the WPA goal. It tried to provide one paid job for all families where the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.^[4]

The WPA was a national program that operated its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments, which provided 10%-30% of the costs. WPA sometimes took over state and local relief programs that had originated in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) or Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) programs.^[5]

Liquidated on June 30, 1943 as a result of low unemployment due to the economic boom of World War II, the WPA provided millions of Americans with jobs for 8 years.^[6] Most people who needed a job were eligible for at least some of its positions.^[7] Hourly wages were typically set to the prevailing wages in each area.^[8] However workers could not be paid more than 30 hours a week. Before 1940, there was very little training to teach new skills, to meet the objections of the labor unions.

Enacting the WPA[link]

Created by order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the WPA was funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935.^[9]

The WPA was largely shaped by Harry Hopkins, close adviser to President Roosevelt. The WPA was initially intended to be an extension of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration work program, which funded projects run by states and cities.^[10] Both Roosevelt and Hopkins felt that the route to economic recovery and the lessened importance of "the dole" would be in employment programs such as the WPA.^[11]

Women[link]

Some WPA programs included adult education.

About 15% of the household heads on relief were women. Youth programs were operated separately by the National Youth Administration (the NYA). The average worker was about 40 years old (about the same as the average family head on relief).

The WPA was consistent with the strong belief of the time that husbands and wives should not both be working (because the second person working would take one job away from a breadwinner). A study of 2,000 female workers in Philadelphia showed that 90% were married, but wives were reported as living with their husbands in only 18 percent of the cases. Only 2 percent of the husbands had private employment. "All of these [2,000] women," it was reported, "were responsible for from one to five additional people in the household."^{[citation needed]}

In rural Missouri 60% of the WPA-employed women were without husbands (12% were single; 25% widowed; and 23% divorced, separated or deserted). Thus, only 40% were married and living with their husbands, but 59% of the husbands were permanently disabled, 17% were temporarily disabled, 13% were too old to work, and the remaining 10% were either unemployed or handicapped. An average five years had elapsed since the husband's last employment at his regular occupation.^[12] Most of the women worked with sewing projects, where they were taught to use sewing machines and made clothing, bedding, and supplies for hospitals, orphanages, and adoption centers.

Relief for African Americans[link]

The share of Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and WPA benefits for African Americans exceeded their proportion of the general population. The FERA's first relief census reported that more than two million African Americans were on relief during early 1933, a proportion of the African-American population (17.8%) that was nearly double the proportion of whites on relief (9.5%).^[13]

By 1935, there were 3,500,000 African Americans (men, women and children) on relief, almost 35 percent of the African-American population; plus another 250,000 African-American adults were working on WPA projects. Altogether during 1938, about 45 percent of the nation's African-American families were either on relief or were employed by the WPA.^[13]

Civil rights leaders initially objected that African Americans were proportionally underrepresented. African American leaders made such a claim with respect to WPA hires in New Jersey: "In spite of the fact that Blacks indubitably constitute more than 20 percent of the State's unemployed, they composed 15.9% of those assigned to W.P.A. jobs during 1937."^[14] Nationwide during late 1937, 15.2% were African American.

However, by 1939, the perception of discrimination against African-Americans had changed to the point that the NAACP magazine Opportunity hailed the WPA, saying:

It is to the eternal credit of the administrative officers of the WPA that discrimination on various projects because of race has been kept to a minimum and that in almost every community Negroes have been given a chance to participate in the work program. In the South, as might have been expected, this participation has been limited, and differential wages on the basis of race have been more or less effectively established; but in the northern communities, particularly in the urban centers, the Negro has been afforded his first real opportunity for employment in white-collar occupations.^[15]

Projects funded[link]

Works Progress Administration road project.

Total expenditures on WPA projects through June 1941, totaled approximately $11.4 billion. Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings, including the iconic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, and the Timberline Lodge on Oregon's Mt. Hood.^[16]

More than $1 billion was spent on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities and school lunch projects.^[17] One construction project was the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the bridges of which were each designed as architecturally unique.^[18] In its eight year run, the WPA built 325 firehouses and renovated 2384 of them across the United States. The 20,000 miles of water mains, installed by their hand as well, no doubt aided in a more fire protected country.^[19]

The direct focus of the WPA projects changed with need. 1935 saw projects aimed at infrastructure improvement; roads, bringing electricity to rural areas, water conservation, sanitation and flood control. In 1936, as outlined in that year’s Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, public facilities became a focus; parks, buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects were funded. The following year, saw the introduction of agricultural pursuits in projects such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of fungus pests. As the Second World War approached, and then eventually began, WPA projects became increasingly defense related.^[20]

One project of the WPA was funding state-level library service demonstration projects, which aimed to create new areas of library service to underserved populations and extend rural service.^[21] Another project was the Household Service Demonstration Project, which trained 30,000 women for domestic employment.

South Carolina had one of the larger state-wide library service demonstration projects. At the end of the project in 1943, South Carolina had twelve publicly funded county libraries, one regional library, and a funded state library agency.^[22]

During the middle of the Great Depression, the Elizabethton, Tennessee city government utilized labor and resources provided by WPA to complete a newly established, nine hole municipal golf course on seventy acres of land that was deeded in 1936 to the city for $1.00 by local golfers.^[23]

Wyandotte County Lake, in Kansas City, KS was a part of the New Deal Act proposed by President Roosevelt. The construction of the lake was a way for residents to seek employment while providing a method of water conservation for Wyandotte County. Construction on the lake started in 1936 and it was not fully complete until 1943. The WPA was very hesitant about approval and in March, Frank Holcomb, Chairman of the County Commissioners was opposed to any large additional expenses. However, as negotiations cleared the way, some work was restarted in the summer of 1938 on shop buildings, etc.^[24]

WPA historic building architectural drawing, Anson Brown Building, Ann Arbor, MI

Poster from 1940 summarizing WPA's achievements.

Summer pay scales in 1938 were: Skilled workers (69 hours per month) = $78.66, Semi-skilled workers (79 hours per month) = $62.40, Unskilled workers (107 hours per month) = $49.25. During the winter of 1938, approval for the rebuilding came from President Roosevelt for the necessary WPA money. New dam plans called for the construction to be just south of the original dam. Army Corp engineers worked 18 hours a day monitoring every step, which included spreading the dam out to absorb weight. In February 1941, the announcement was made that the county would become owner and maintainer of the park by the WPA.^[24]

Employment[link]

The goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered. Harry Hopkins testified to Congress during January 1935 why he set the number at 3.5 million, using Federal Emergency Relief Administration data. Estimating costs at $1200 per worker per year, he asked for and received $4 billion. Many women were employed, but they were few compared to men.

In 1935 there were 20 million persons on relief in the United States. Of these, 8.3 million were children under sixteen years of age; 3.8 million were persons who, though between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five were not working nor seeking work. These included housewives, students in school, and incapacitated persons. Another 750,000 were persons sixty-five years of age or over.^[25]

Thus, of the total of 20 million persons then receiving relief, 13 million were not considered eligible for employment. This left a total of 7 million presumably employable persons between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five inclusive. Of these, however, 1.65 million were said to be farm operators or persons who had some non-relief employment, while another 350,000 were, despite the fact that they were already employed or seeking work, considered incapacitated. Deducting this two million from the total of 7.15 million, there remained 5.15 million persons sixteen to sixty-five years of age, unemployed, looking for work, and able to work.^[25]

Because of the assumption that only one worker per family would be permitted to work under the proposed program, this total of 5.15 million was further reduced by 1.6 million—the estimated number of workers who were members of families which included two or more employable persons. Thus, there remained a net total of 3.55 million workers in as many households for whom jobs were to be provided.^[25]

The WPA employed a maximum of 3.3 million in November 1938.^[26] Worker pay was based on three factors: the region of the country, the degree of urbanization, and the individual's skill. It varied from $19/month to $94/month.^{[citation needed]} The goal was to pay the local prevailing wage, but limit the hours of work to 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week; the stated minimum being 30 hours a week, or 130 hours a month.^[27]

Criticism[link]

The 5 & 10¢ store. Poster for the Works Progress Administration shows various items that can be purchased at a five and ten cent store. Silkscreen print by the NYC Federal Art Project, between 1936 and 1941

The WPA had numerous critics, especially from the right. The strongest attacks were that it was the prelude for a national political machine on behalf of Roosevelt. Reformers secured the Hatch Act of 1939 that largely depoliticized the WPA.^[28]

Others complained that far Left elements played a major role, especially in the New York City unit (which was independent of the New York State unit). Representative Martin Dies, Jr. went so far as to call the WPA a “seedbed for communists”.^[29] Exaggeration was rife—such as a false report circulating in 1936 that the cost of killing a single rat in one extermination endeavor was $2.97 (over $48 in current dollars).^[30]

Much of the criticism of the distribution of projects and funding allotment is a result of the view that the decisions were politically motivated. The South, as the poorest region of the United States, received 75 percent less in federal relief and public works funds per capita than the West. Critics would point to the fact that Roosevelt’s Democrats could be sure of voting support from the South, whereas the West was less of a sure thing; investing in the West was a way of swaying voters.^[31]

There was a perception that WPA employees were not diligent workers. Employers said the "WPA is bad for people since it gives them poor work habits. They believe that even if a man is not an inefficient worker to begin with, he gets that way from being on WPA."^[32] Having been on the WPA made it harder for alumni to get a job because employers said they had "formed poor work habits" on the WPA.^[33]

A Senate committee reported that, "To some extent the complaint that WPA workers do poor work is not without foundation. ... Poor work habits and incorrect techniques are not remedied. Occasionally a supervisor or a foreman demands good work."^[34] The WPA and its workers were ridiculed as lazy. The organization's initials were said to stand for "We Poke Along", "We Piddle Around", "We Putter Along", "Working Piss Ants", or the "Whistle, Piss and Argue gang". These were sarcastic references to WPA projects that sometimes slowed down deliberately because foremen had an incentive to keep going, rather than finish a project.^[35]

New Deal officials did take measures to prevent political corruption. In particular President Roosevelt created a `division of progress investigation` to investigate complaints of malfeasance.^[36]

Popular culture[link]

Other references to the WPA in popular culture include:

• WPA Blues, a 1937 song by Casey Bill Weldon, also recorded by Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter: "Everybody's working in this town/ And it's worrying me night and day/If that means working too/ Have to work for the WPA"
• Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird noted a typical comment. Bob Ewell, the resident slacker of Maycomb County, is described as "the only person fired from the WPA for laziness."

U.S. entry into World War II produced a sudden change of national needs and priorities. These WPA workers are assembling an air raid warning map for New Orleans within days of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Evolution and termination[link]

During 1940, the WPA changed policy and began vocational educational training of the unemployed to make them available for factory jobs. Previously, labor unions had vetoed any proposal to provide new skills, saying there were already too many unemployed skilled workers.^[37] Unemployment ended with the beginning of war production for World War II, as millions of men joined the services, and cost-plus contracts made it attractive for companies to hire men and train them. With the mass-employment need essentially gone, Congress terminated the WPA during late 1943.

See also[link]

• Civil Works Administration
• Civilian Conservation Corps
• Federal Art Project
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Federal Project Number One
• Hatch Act of 1939
• List of locks and dams of the Upper Mississippi River
• List of Works Progress Administration artists
• National Recovery Administration
• New Deal
• Public Works of Art Project
• Section of Painting and Sculpture

General:

• Great Depression
• Public works

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Jim Couch, "The Works Progress Administration" Eh.Net Encyclopedia (2004)
• Ginzberg, Eli. "The unemployed". New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004
• Hopkins, June. "The Road Not Taken: Harry Hopkins and New Deal Work Relief" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 29, (1999)
• Howard; Donald S. The WPA and Federal Relief Policy (1943), detailed analysis of all major WPA programs.
• Leighninger, Robert D., Jr. Long-Range Public Investment: the Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press (2007), providing a context for American public works programs, and detailing major agencies of the New Deal: CCC, PWA, CWA, WPA, and TVA.
• Lindley, Betty Grimes & Lindley, Ernest K. A New Deal for Youth: the Story of the National Youth Administration (1938)
• McJimsey George T. Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy (1987)
• Meriam; Lewis. Relief and Social Security. 900 pp. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1946. Highly detailed analysis and statistical summary of all New Deal relief programs
• Millett; John D. & Gladys Ogden. Administration of Federal Work Relief 1941.
• Rose, Nancy. The WPA and Public Employment in the Great Depression (2009)
• Singleton, Jeff. The American Dole: Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State in the Great Depression (2000)
• Smith, Jason Scott. Building New Deal Liberalism: the Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956 (2005)
• Taylor, David A. Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2009
• Taylor, Nick. American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work (2008)
• United States Senate. "Report of investigation of public relief in the District of Columbia". Washington D.C.: 1938
• Williams, Edward Ainsworth. Federal Aid for Relief. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1939. (Ph.D. thesis)
• Wood, Margeret Mary. "Paths of loneliness: the individual isolated in modern society". New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1953
• Young, William H., & Nancy K. The Great Depression in America: a Cultural Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007 ISBN 0-313-33520-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Works Progress Administration

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Executive Order 7034

• Footage of the Federal Theatre Project's 1936 "Voodoo Macbeth" - with informative annotations.
• The Index of American Design at the National Gallery of Art
• Works by the Works Progress Administration at Project Gutenberg slave narratives
• Guide to the WPA Oregon Federal Art Project collection at the University of Oregon
• WPA inspired Gulf Coast Civic Works Project
• An Introduction to the Employer of Last Resort Proposal from Dollars & Sense. Includes several images from the original WPA.
• Guide to the Works Progress Administration Collection on Orange County, California, 1935-1939. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
• Living New Deal Project
• Soul of a People documentary on Smithsonian Networks
• Works Progress Administration Tampa Office Records at the University of South Florida

WPA posters[link]

• Posters from the WPA at the Library of Congress
• The Work Projects Administration posters, consisting of over 900 examples of artworks, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Libraries and the WPA[link]

• The WPA Library Project in South Carolina
• South Carolina Public Library History, 1930-1945
• WPA Children’s Books (1935-1943) Broward County Library’s Bienes Museum of the Modern Book

WPA murals[link]

• Database of WPA murals
• WPA-FAP Mural Division in NYC, and restoration of murals at the Williamsburg Houses and Hospital for Chronic Diseases on Welfare Island
• WPA mural projects by noted muralist Sr. Lucia Wiley
• WPA Artist Louis Schanker
• WPA Artist Robert Tabor

Eduardo Vargas

Personal information
Full name	Eduardo Jesús Vargas Rojas
Date of birth	(1989-11-20) 20 November 1989 (age 22)
Place of birth	Santiago, Chile
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Napoli
Number	16
Youth career
2006	Cobreloa
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2006–2009	Cobreloa	53	(10)
2010–2012	Universidad de Chile	54	(18)
2012–	Napoli	5	(0)
National team‡
2009	Chile U-20	5	(3)
2009–	Chile	9	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 March 2012. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 27 October 2011

Eduardo Jesús Vargas Rojas (born 20 November 1989 in Santiago, Chile) is a Chilean footballer. He currently plays for Napoli^[1][2] as a forward.

Biography[link]

Career[link]

Vargas started playing in amateurs teams in Renca, Santiago, but he didn't participate in other youth team, because he lived very far away from any club of greater Santiago. In 2006, he continued playing in an amateur Chilean third division team, where he participated in a tournament played in Puerto Montt. He was the top scorer of his team.

Later, Osvaldo Hurtado contacted Vargas with Jorge Aravena (In this moment coach of Cobreloa), where he was submitted to several evaluations. Finally he was incorporated to Cobreloa squad in 2006.

He participated in Cobreloa B, third Division team, scoring with the team, against Universidad Arturo Prat on 7 August 2006, after he scored another goal against San Marcos de Arica on 28 August 2006.

Universidad de Chile[link]

On January 2010 Club Universidad de Chile signed the winger from Cobreloa for around $700.000. His high caliber performances in the Chilean Championship and the 2011 Copa Sudamericana have piqued the interest of several prominent European clubs, including Internazionale with manager Claudio Ranieri recently alluding to a January move for the forward. Other interested clubs include Arsenal, Valencia, Milan, Liverpool, CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, Napoli, and Chelsea.

On November 2011 he was chosen as a candidate for South American Footballer of the Year^[3] (finally, was only defeated by Neymar, and got the second position), and in December he was chosen Chilean Footballer of the Year 2011.

Eduardo Vargas scored twice in the Final of the 2011 Copa Sudamericana. He scored in the 3rd minute and in the 87th. His two goals helped "La U" achieve its first international title, and he was elected the best player of the tournament. Also, Vargas is the top scorer of the Copa Sudamericana's history with 11 goals.

Napoli[link]

Napoli finally purchased the player's services for around USD 18,000,000 (£11.5 million).^[4] On 23 December 2011, S.S.C. Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis, announced that Vargas will finally arrive to the club. "I would like to inform you officially that we purchased Vargas, a few minutes ago I received a call from Dr. De Nicola, who visited the footballer and gave his ok under medical and athletic profile. We signed the contract and we also won the competition by strong Club who wanted the player. This is the testimony that our observatory is always open and we are continuously looking for young talents in the world that can make the case of Napoli and for the growth of our team".^[5] Vargas arrived to Napoli on 6 January 2012 and signed on 9 January.^[6]

International career[link]

In 2008, Vargas participated in the Toulon Tournament, Milk Cup, where he was chosen as the tournament's best winger. He also took part in the Kupa Talents Cup, where he was awarded as the best player of the tournament.

Vargas was a regular in the U-20 National Team during the squad's friendly games prior to the 2009 South American Youth Championship. However, he did not make it to the tournament due to an injury.

He scored his first international goal in an official FIFA competition against Peru. Chile went on to win that match 4-2.

International goals[link]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 September 2011	AFG Arena, St. Gallen, Switzerland	Spain	0-2	3-2	Friendly
2.	12 October 2011	Estadio Monumental, Santiago, Chile	Peru	2-0	4-2	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Club statistics[link]

As of 9 March 2012

Honours[link]

Club[link]

Universidad de Chile

• Chilean Primera División (2): 2011 Apertura, 2011 Clausura
• Copa Sudamericana (1): 2011

Napoli

• Coppa Italia: 2012

National Team[link]

• Toulon Tournament (1): 2009

Individual[link]

• Top Scorer Copa Sudamericana (1): 2011
• Best Player Copa Sudamericana (1): 2011
• Best Player Chilean Primera División (1): 2011
• Best Forward Chilean Primera División (1): 2011
• 2nd South American Footballer of the Year: 2011
• Forward of the "Ideal Team of America": 2011^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• BDFA profile
• [1] --jdlc--