Works Progress Administration

Examples of Works Progress Administration in the following topics:

• Competing Solutions

  • The creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933).
  • The Tennessee Valley Authority (1933) was the first large-scale public work project.
  • The program was replaced by the Works Progress Administration in 1935.
  • Civil Works Administration (1933/34) provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed.
  • Photograph of Works Progress Administration Worker Receiving Paycheck, Records of the Work Projects Administration, National Archives

• The Second New Deal

  • In 1935, the Roosevelt administration unveiled legislation that would be known as the Second New Deal.
  • The work programs of the "First New Deal" were solely meant as immediate relief, destined to run less than a decade.
  • Employment of children under the age of 16 was forbidden and children under 18 were forbidden to work in hazardous environments.
  • Roosevelt nationalized unemployment relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins .
  • The National Youth Administration was a semi-autonomous WPA program for youth.

• Relief and Conservation Programs

  • The act also created the Public Works Administration (PWA), an agency in charge of public works projects.
  • The PWA was complimented by a rival agency (with a confusingly similar name), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects, hiring unemployed, unskilled workers.
  • These public works programs provided relief by employing millions of under-and-unemployed Americans.
  • The Roosevelt administration oversaw the creation of the Resettlement Administration (RA) and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
  • Identify the methods used by the Roosevelt administration to provide relief during the Depression

• The Varieties of Progressivism

  • Purification to eliminate waste and corruption was a powerful element, as was the Progressives' support of worker compensation, improved child labor laws, minimum wage legislation, limited work hours, graduated income tax, and women's suffrage.
  • Historian William Leuchtenburg describes the Progressives thusly:
  • The result was "municipal administration," which effectively managed legal processes, market transactions, bureaucratic administration, and urban reform.
  • Pro-labor Progressives such as Samuel Gompers argued that industrial monopolies were unnatural economic institutions that suppressed the competition necessary for progress and improvement.
  • In this 1913 political cartoon, Woodrow Wilson uses tariff, currency, and antitrust laws (represented by buckets) to prime the pump (representing prosperity) and get the economy working.

• Social Justice

  • The Progressive Era witnessed an increasing interest in social reforms.
  • Progressives set up training programs to ensure that welfare and charity work would be undertaken by trained professionals rather than warm-hearted amateurs.
  • In The Jungle (1906), socialist Upton Sinclair repelled readers with descriptions of Chicago's meatpacking plants, prompting many Americans to rally behind the federally-mandated remedial food safety legislation passed under Roosevelt's administration.
  • Leading intellectuals also shaped the political and social progressive mentality.
  • In general, it targeted privilege, unfair wealth gaps, poverty, irresponsible administration, and all forms of social and political corruption, which Progressives believed were retarding the expansion and growth of a more egalitarian, democratic nation.

• Features of Progressivism

  • In addition, the Progressive Era saw many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments, thereby making them more efficient.
  • Progressives believed the family was the cornerstone of American society, and that government, especially municipal government, must work to solidify and support the family.
  • Progressives tirelessly worked to reform and modernize schools at the local level.
  • Progressive scholars, based at emerging research universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and California, worked to modernize their disciplines.
  • President Wilson uses tariff, currency, and anti-trust laws to prime the pump and get the economy working.

• The Retreat from Progressivism

  • The 1920s saw a rejection of the Progressive ideology of Woodrow Wilson; however progressive ideals continued in various ways.
  • One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government.
  • The election was seen, in part, as a rejection of the "progressive" ideology of the Woodrow Wilson Administration in favor of the "laissez-faire" approach of the William McKinley era.
  • The work was not nearly as dramatic as the suffrage crusade, but women voted and operated quietly and effectively.
  • Describe the central components of the turn away from progressivism that characterized the Harding administration

• Conclusion: The Successes and Failures of Progressivism

  • The 1883 Civil Service Reform Act (or Pendleton Act), which placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called "spoils system", permitted the professionalization and rationalization of the federal administration.
  • The Progressive Movement lasted through the 1920s; the most active period was 1900–18.
  • Furthermore, racism often pervaded most progressive reform efforts, as evidenced by the suffrage movement.
  • At the local, municipal, and state level, various Progressive reformers advocated for disparate goals that ranged as wide as prison reform, education, government reorganization, urban improvement, prohibition, female suffrage, birth control, improved working conditions, labor reform, and child labor reform.
  • Summarize the successes and failures of Progressive efforts during this era

• Civilizing the City

  • The Progressives worked hard to reform and modernize schools at the local level.
  • During the Progressive Era, many states began passing compulsory schooling laws.
  • Progressives believed that the family was the foundation stone of American society, and the government, especially municipal government, must work to strengthen and enhance the family.
  • Many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments.
  • Progressive mayors were important in many cities, especially in the western states.

• America and WWI

  • The war came in the midst of the Progressive Era, when efficiency and expertise were highly valued.
  • Food Administration.
  • As part of Wilson's War Cabinet, Baruch worked closely with Hoover.
  • Food Administration.
  • Food Administration.