Civil Works Administration
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The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to create jobs for millions of unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the organization. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933.
The CWA was a project created under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Because the FERA failed to give people jobs, another program was needed and the CWA was set up along with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a.k.a. the CCC.
The CWA created construction jobs, mainly improving or constructing buildings and bridges. It ended on March 31, 1934, under the advice of Lewis Douglas, after costing $200 million a month. So much was spent on this administration because it hired 4 million people and was mostly concerned with paying high wages.
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[edit] Accomplishments
The CWA's four million workers "laid 12 million feet of sewer pipe and built or made substantial improvements to 255,000 miles of roads, 40,000 schools, 3,700 playgrounds, and nearly 1,000 airports (not to mention 250,000 outhouses still badly needed in rural America)."[1] The program was praised by Alf Landon, who later ran against Roosevelt in the 1936 election.[1]
[edit] Opposition
Although the CWA provided much employment there were many who criticized it for its expensiveness and limited effects. Over the course of its five month run, it spent over a billion dollars, although initial plans projected a maximum cost of $400,000,000. Al Smith and Harold Ickes were two main protesters, and it is much from their objection that the CWA was ended in March 1934.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Kennedy, David M., Cohen, Lizabeth, Bailey, Thomas A. The American Pageant. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
- Lawson, Don. FDR's New Deal. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1974.
- Nardo, Don. The Great Depression. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000.
[edit] External links
- 1934: A New Deal for Artists" is an exhibition on the artists of the Great Depression at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Civil Works Administration Photographs 119 images showing work projects in King County, Washington established under the auspices of the Civil Works Administration in 1933-34.
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