Why Was The Public Works Administration Able To Improve The Economy?

The Works Progress Administration was passed in April 1935. The WPA put unemployed people to work in public works projects across the country. It contained a much wider variety of programs than earlier agencies: theatrical productions (the Federal Theatre Project) and writing projects (the Federal Writers' Project), as well as the construction of schools, playgrounds, and other public

Unemployment rates were overwhelmingly high and poverty was common in lower class families and locations. In order to solve some problems, FDR started many organizations such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civil Works Administration (CWA). The poor individuals in America were not being helped by the government and it could be argued that the government had been turning a blind eye to the sufferings (Doc A). The CWA have people jobs and turned out being very effective because it provided jobs but also improved conditions of cities when roads and buildings were improved upon. The CCC worked in much the same way, providing jobs that helped to maintain the

The New Deal was the set of Federal Programs that were made by President Roosevelt, and it was a good deal because it created many programs that helped people. It resolved most of the hardships that the Americans faced. In response to the Great Depression, a program called, “Public Works Administration,” was created. An image of workers building a dam on the Mississippi River showed of the Public Works Administration which was taken on November 16, 1934, and the photographer is unknown. It was “created in response to the Great Depression and lasted from 1933 to 1943. It led to a numerous construction projects throughout the country, culminating in hundreds of new dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools” (“U.S. Engineers. Mississippi River Lock #18”). This program created construction projects and built improved highways, water system and government facilities. This is one of the positive effects because it constructed many new projects that helped people, providing employment, stabilizing purchasing power and improving public welfare. There were many other programs including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the

Other programs during the New Deal were the civil Works Administration, which created jobs for the unemployed, and the Public Works Administration, which was created to provide economic stimulus and jobs. A very important program passed during the New Deal was the Tennessee Valley Authority, a program established to develop the economy in the Tennessee Valley region, and it was the largest public provider of electricity in the United States.

1935: Works Progress Administration (WPA): The Works Progress Administration was a part of the Second New Deal created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The purpose of the WPA was passed to try to gain relief among the American citizen who were affected by the Great Depression and unemployment. The WPA did multiple things such as found jobs for the elderly, employed people without competing with private industries, and funded the works of artists and writers. The Workers Progress Administration is significant because it helped bring jobs back into the lives that had suffered from the Great Depression and gave hope to Americans that the standard of living would begin to get better.

Many of the New Deal’s relief programs were revolutionary; the federal government was now responsible for relieving the problems of society previously left to individuals, states, and local governments. Work relief programs, such as the popular Civilian Conservation Corps, which offered unemployed Americans a chance to earn wages while working to conserve natural resources, and the Works Progress Administration, which gave unemployed Americans

The New Deal was a specific set of government works programs put into effect by President Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal took action to bring fast economic relief as well as improvements in industry, finance, agriculture, housing, the labor force, etc. The traditional American policy of laissez-faire was opposed in the new democratic promise of the “New Deal”. The majority of the New Deal was enacted in the first couple months of FDR’s presidency, which later became known as the Hundred Days. The first objective was to lessen the hardship of the large amount of unemployed workers in the nation. The Works Progress Administration(WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) were created to establish short term government aid to temporary jobs. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created to develop rules to govern trade practices, hours, child labor, wages, and collective bargaining. Also, the New Deal worked to avoid another stock market crash and bank failures.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) gave insurance for bank deposits and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to protect the people from stock-market companies committing fraud. An agricultural program , the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to raise prices by providing subsidies to farmers to reduce crop production. The New Deal was filled with government works programs to help pull the country out of the Great Depression but,

The New Deal was a set of federal programs with the principle of social-welfare liberalism. President Roosevelt was deeply compromised to help the most vulnerable in the ongoing crisis. In second inaugural address he outlines the progress of the New Deal “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bed morals…. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come to the conviction that in the long run economy morality pays.” At some extend President Roosevelt proudly tell the Nation that he was heading to the right direction to progress. Some of the New Deal successful programs that brought relief and dignify living to many Americans were Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) a direct governmental regulation of farm economy to resolve the overproduction problem. In the unemployment relief, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) that provided federal funds for state relief programs. Public Works Administration (PWA) a construction program that lead to Civil Works Administration (CWA) that provide work for more than 4 million Americans repairing, building, and constructing America's infrastructure. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that mobilized young men to do reforestation and conservation work helping their family’s income and the country reservation. In 1935 in housing issues Works Progress Administration (WPA) Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) that help many Americans keep their

During this time, “…FDR promised ‘a new deal for the American people’” (Polenberg, 8). FDR quickly realized that in order to win over the citizens of the United States and to fix the crisis they were in, he had to address the two main things that he saw every American wanted during this economical depression. Polenberg informs his readers that FDR saw that the two things every American wanted was “…Work; work with all the moral and spiritual values that go with work. And with work, a reasonable measure of security—security for themselves and for their wives and children” (p.8). Knowing that these were the two main aspects (at the time) that FDR had to place the majority of his attention on, he went to work immediately as “He feared that a resolution was likely if he failed, as Hoover had, to solve the nation’s problems” therefore he begun formation of the first New Deal reforms (Polenberg, 8). These reforms were “…designed not so much to promote reform as to proceed recovery,” (Polenberg, 9) therefore indicating that “…the Roosevelt administration intended to move the country in a dramatically new direction” (Polenberg, 9). Some of the programs that the New Deal initiated were: the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), the NRA (the National Recovery Administration), the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the CWA (Civil Works Administration), and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) just to name a few (Polenberg, 9-13). Each reform act was aimed at recovering a different but specific area of society. For example, the TVA worked to “…provide cheap electrical power… and… help prevent soil erosion and control floods” (Polenberg, 13) while the AAA “…served as the foundation of New Deal farm policy… balancing agricultural production and consumption so as to avoid surpluses and ensure that

The New Deal also attempted to help workers. The workingman was one of the people hardest hit by the Great Depression. At one point during the one in four Americans, 25% were unemployed. FDR saw this as a major problem and attempted to correct it with a massive public works programs. The New Deal set up agencies such as the Federal Emergency Relief Association (FERA) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). FERA was given one billions dollars to help end hardship. Under FERA, the Civilian Works Association (CWA) and the Civilian Conservation Core (CCC) helped to ease people’s suffering. The CWA hired 4 million people to help do public works projects. The CCC took city boys into the country to do construction work. Their pay was mailed home to their families to help ease the financial struggles. The TVA was perhaps the most successful New Deal project. It built 20 dams and provided cheap power. It also put many people to work.

Americans, during the 1930s, clearly needed help. Too many were unemployed, struggling, starving, and/or homeless. One of the biggest legacies of the New Deal is that it combated unemployment with jobs in infrastructure. Many agencies and programs were set up to help increase America’s infrastructure and provide many needy people with jobs. One of those organizations was the Works Progress Administration. Incredibly, the WPA employed an average of 2.1 million people annually for a total of almost 8 million people. It had become largest New Deal program and required almost 11 billion dollars to fund it (Friedrich). The WPA was made with one goal in mind: to get people back to work so they can get money in their pockets to survive. The WPA built highways, airfields, public buildings, and did rural rehabilitation such as planting trees. In total, it had built around 110,000 public buildings, 600 airports, 500,000 miles of roads, and 100,000 bridges (“New Deal”). Like the WPA, the Civilian Conservation Corps, had been created to provide jobs, but it was mainly for younger Americans. This program had employed and put 3

The New Deal help created jobs and money to a lot of people in the 1930s. The New Deal created jobs by “creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for unemployed people” (history.com/topics/new-deal). This administration gave jobs to millions

The next step in FDRs New Deal is recovery. The objective of the National Recovery Administration was to create codes for businesses to follow. These codes would then help to provide minimum wages for employees, restrict the number of hours worked to prevent over time and set prices and production levels. The goal was to fix the American economy by limiting competition, rising power purchased by the consumer and hiring unemployed workers back to work for them once more. By mid-1933, the new agency achieved the voluntary acceptance by nearly 600 industries of new codes. The new codes covered nearly 30 million workers. One problem was that the chief administrator was chosen because of his well-known service in the WIB during World War I. Sadly,

Moreover, another method in which Roosevelt used to revitalize the labor market was through the Civil Works Administration also known as the CWA. Similar to the Works Progress Administration, the CWA was introduced in 1933. This relief program also allowed for the construction of bridges, roads, but mostly focused on inner city projects. Nonetheless like the WPA, the CWA only “ employed up to 4 million people per week through March 1934.” This goes to show that there was only a number amount of people to get jobs, this was determined by the “Household budget deficit principle of the CWA.” Furthermore, to put this in simpler terms, the CWA was given certain amount of money in order to have unemployed people working, therefore

Millions were out of work. The government began public works projects to help bring growth back to the economy