Evening star., 1936-12-08

and the excellence of the projects
from the standpoint of utility and
social desirability.
Supplies Work for Many.
The real justification, however, for
a program Of public works at time
of economic depression is that 1t sup
plies work for a number Of people.
depending upon the amount Of money
expended, who otherwise would be un-
employed.
p. w. A. has accomplished much
more in providing employment than
is commonly supposed. Yet If I were
asked tonight to state how many men
have been given employment as q
result Of P. w. A., truthfully I could
not give the correct answer. I do
not know.
do know, however. that tables Of
figures intended to show the number
Of men at work on given project do
not always reflect the true situation.
An announcement, for instance, that
P. w. A. has 100000 men at work on
its projects is misleading because 1t
reflects only the number working at
the sites Of the projects. In reality
this employment at the site is only
a small part Of the larger volume of
work that has been created by P. w. A.
A factual study recently conducted
by an independent outside source
showed that the ratio Of indirect tc
direct employment on completed p.
w. A. municipal power plant projects
is AZ to l. In other words, for every
days work at the site Of such projects
there are between four and five days
work created away from the site-in
mines, manufacturing plants and
shops and in transportation services.
Realizing that the indirect labor on
power projects is higher than in con-
nection with many other types of con-
struction, requested that Secretary
Of Labor Perkins have her United
States Bureau Of Labor Statistics
make an independent investigation OF
P. w. A. projects to determine the
ratio Of indirect to direct labor.
/. Study Took Two Years.
This intensive study by the impair
tial United States Bureau Of Labor
Statistics has taken two years. and
the authoritative report Of the results
was announced today. It shows that
the Public Works Administration Gre
ates two and one-haf times more
work in private industries supplying
building materials than it does in the
building trades constructing its prof.
jects. Reduced to its simplest terms
this means that when it is reported
that a particular p. w. A. project
will provide 1000, 900 man-hours of
work at the site the additional en-
ployment provided, including off-the-
site or behind lines" employment
is 2,500,000 man-hours, making total
Of 100000 man-hours.
This creation Of jobs from the site
of the project has been most difficult
to understand. And yet it should be
easily comprehensive, for every one
VINO pduScS W tIuIlk, IuuSI A1lOW tl1ht
all of the steel and bricks and lumber
and other materials that 60 into p. w
A. projects must come from some
where and that for their production,
fabrication and transportation q vast
amount of labor Is required.
To date there has been spent on
Public Works Administration projects
some 1,6o0, 900, 900 for materials and
supplies. The biggest part Of this
has gone directly to labor.
have so far attempted to state
briefly to you some of the reasons for
the success of the Federal p. w. A.
program. I shall now speak briefly
Of the future Of public works In the
United States. I do not want it to be
understood that I assume to speak
with authority on this subject. I can
only tell you what my hopes are. l
can only discuss in very broad ano
general way certain principles which
on the basis of past experience,