1942: Work Projects Administration

The activities of the Work Projects Administration during 1942 were largely directed toward the war effort. Special provisions incorporated by Congress in the Act appropriating funds for WPA operations in the fiscal year 1942, as in 1941, facilitated the cooperation of the WPA in the Nation's war program. Projects certified by the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy as important for military or naval purposes were exempted from many restrictions that usually apply to WPA projects, thus speeding their completion.

More than two-fifths of the total WPA employment on June 30, 1942 was devoted to war projects. The general scope of WPA activities did not materially change, however, and valuable contributions were made to the physical facilities and public services of communities throughout the country. The construction and improvement of highways, roads, and streets continued to be a major activity. New airports were built and many enlarged or improved.

WPA workers continued to construct and improve public buildings, including armories, mess halls, warehouses, and other buildings at military and naval establishments. Among the public buildings were schools, hospitals, libraries, gymnasiums, and other structures for community use.

WPA activities provided a wide variety of community services important to the public welfare. These services included adult education classes; nursery schools; school lunches; medical and health services; and clerical, research, and professional assistance to many local and Federal governmental agencies.

A major activity of the WPA since July 1940 has been the vocational training project set up under the national defense program. Through this project workers are trained in those manual occupations essential to war industries. At the end of June 1942 about 36,000 WPA workers were employed on training projects, bringing the total number enrolled in vocational training courses during the two-year period to about 265,000.

Under the nation-wide scrap collection project sponsored by the War Production Board the WPA expanded its work of removing steel rails. Between Oct. 1, 1941, and Sept. 30, 1942, nearly 96,000 tons of steel rails were collected. The WPA also participated in the collection of scrap from agricultural and urban sources in cooperation with the WPB. WPA workers collected 194,000 tons of scrap metal from the latter part of April through Oct. 20, 1942.

The WPA nursery school program, in operation in every state, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands since July 1935, has almost doubled its activities in response to war needs. Special provision for this program was made in the 1943 Appropriation Act which stipulated that not less than $6,000,000 of appropriated funds be used for day nurseries and nursery schools for children of employed mothers.

The WPA program operated on a smaller scale during the fiscal year 1942 than in any previous year. During this period an average of about 970,000 workers were employed on WPA projects.

Under orders of President Roosevelt issued on Dec. 4, 1942, however, the Work Projects Administration will be liquidated as promptly as possible during the first half of 1943. Because of increasing job opportunities for project workers, work relief project operations will be closed out in many states by February 1943 and in others thereafter as soon as feasible.

1941: Work Projects Administration

The Work Projects Administration (established 1935 and made a part of the Federal Works Agency in 1939), provides useful public work for the unemployed. It cooperates with state and local governments in construction work of practically all kinds, and in providing public services of many kinds. The state and local governments sponsor such WPA projects and pay a share of the project costs; in general they pay for materials and equipment, while the WPA pays the wages of the project workers.

Other WPA projects are sponsored by Federal agencies. The WPA has done much work for the Army and Navy at forts, camps, arsenals and shipyards. This work was increased when the national defense program started and intensified after war began. At the end of 1941, nearly a third of WPA employment was on defense projects. Projects certified by the War and Navy Departments as important for military or naval purposes take precedence over other projects.

During the six years of operation ending with June 1941, WPA workers constructed or improved more than 600,000 miles of roads. These include chiefly farm-to-market roads, also include city streets, strategic highways, and access roads to military and defense centers. About 73,000 new bridges were built by WPA workers, and 44,000 others reconditioned. WPA workers constructed nearly 500 miles of new airport runways, and many hangars and other airport facilities.

WPA workers have in six years constructed or improved 110,000 public buildings; these include school buildings, hospitals, libraries, gymnasiums and other structures for community use, and also armories, mess-halls, warehouses and other buildings at military and naval establishments. Some of the 22,000 miles of new storm and sanitary sewers installed by WPA workers were for military and naval centers. Parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and other recreational facilities, and storage dams, reservoirs and other conservation works are among WPA accomplishments.

Outside the construction field, the WPA gives assistance in many kinds of community service. It conducts literacy, naturalization and other adult education classes; conducts nursery schools for pre-school children from low-income families; serves school lunches; helps to provide medical and health services for persons who could not otherwise afford them; and assists in clerical and research projects carried on by local and Federal agencies, including those doing defense work.

The WPA also carries on a national defense vocational training project. In June 1941, about 35,000 WPA workers were in training for occupations required in defense industries, and nearly 120,000 in all had been in training during the preceding twelve months.

At various times the WPA program has given employment to some 8,000,000 different persons. During the 1941 fiscal year, the average employment was about 1,700,000. This represents a reduction of about 17 per cent from the 1940 average, and of nearly 44 per cent from the 1939 average. During this year a large number of workers left the WPA for jobs in defense and other private industries; but defense employment did not exist in many places, and there were still 1,000,000 unemployed workers on the WPA waiting lists when the calendar year ended.

WPA expenditures during the fiscal year 1941 were $1,326,000. Sponsors spent nearly $347,900,000 as their contribution to the cost of WPA projects. The appropriations for the fiscal year 1942 (ending with June 1943) were $875,000,000, which provides for an average employment of 1,000,000 needy unemployed workers.