Evening star., 1937-10-24

abandoned because OF TACK OF
funds until 81 1925 900 P. w. A.
allotment 1D1s made.
BY JOHN L. COONTZ.
~ w. A. has come to town.
u The new court house Of
Clay County. Mo, is but one
4 of thousands of buildings,
public edifices. swimming pools, hos
pitfalls. water and power plants built
throughout the United States by the
far-fiung hand of P. w. A. And now
p W. A. is folding its tents and re-
tiring from the stage. BY executive
order P. w. A. goes out of existence
in June. 1889.
Casting the eye back from its fifth
birthday last June to the Summer
of 1888. what has P. w. A. accom-
plished for the country? In dollars
and cents We know that Uncle Sam
got his moneys worth as the phrase
goes. For grade A steel he got grade
A, for concrete mix he got what he
specified For pl, ster and stone he
drew aces. But what did the country
get?
There are things deeper in life than
monetary values. There are the in
tangible things that we want and
seek after to make us better men and
women.
P. W. A. delivered many things.
but in looking back over the record,
in turning the tablets of stone and
reading on the reverse. there is moth
ing shown on the face equal to the
inscriptions there. These are the
intangibles, the unseen, the unre-
vealed achievements in the hurly-
burly of material accomplishment.
The education of American youth
is, perhaps, the greatest single factor
in maintaining and perpetuating our
American institutions and form of
government. Let us, then. look at
what P. w. A. has done for the school
system OF the Nation.
$500 900, 900 in 1926.
In 1926 the total capital outlay
for schools in the United States was
$40o, 900, 900. In 1882 it had dropped
to $200.O00,0 900 and in 1888, before
P w. A. had gotten under way, 1t
had further decreased to 100000, 900,
with manifestations of complete
suspension of school construction by
1884
P. w. A. tackled the problem. 1t
set out to replace and consolidate
one-room schools, to replace obsolete
buildings, to provide additional &C.
commodations for the ever-growing
number of school children through
out the country and to improve ex-
isting school buildings
The toughest problem tackled by
P. w. A. in reha bilitating our ma
tional school system was that Of the
replacement of insanitary and con-
demned buildings and the housing Of
pupils attending school on a part
time basis due to inadequate housing.
The agency made this its first con-
Germ.
Something Of that problem is seen in
ton Association with reference to
school needs in 80 cities throughout
the United States made prior to the
existence of P. w. A. It was pointed
out that in these cities having
population of more than 10000 in
habitants additional building facili-
ties for 2.7o0,oO0 pupils were needed
to replace condemned and tempo
rary structures and to provide full
time accommodations for all pupils.
Some $4,000 of these pupils were
housed in school buildings which had
been considered as unsafe or in
sanitary. Another $4,000 were housed
in portable, rented or other tempo
rary school structures. A third group,
391 900, was estimated to be able to
attend school only part time because
of overcrowded conditions. And there
we're some $4,000 consolidated schools
needed for 100000 rural pupils. at
the time attending school in poorly
equipped buildings.
10 Per Cent Of Construction.
Today, as P. w. A. draws to close
there stands to its school credit f1nan-
cial help to approximately 10 per
cent of all school building construc-
ton in the United States in the
last four years. Loans and grant
| allotments have been made for more
than 3,700 school projects, applicants
in every State receiving allotments.
The totol amount of these allotments
in loans and grants approximates
$500, 100000, providing school con-
struction estimated to cost more than
$3.50, ,000,000 Assistance has been
given in the building of more than
1000 auditoriums, 1,720 gymnasiums,
S84 libraries and 1000 shops and cafe
| terias.
P. w. A. has done meritorious work.
It is true that assistance, where
| given, has been supplemented by
grants. from which the Government
expects no remuneration-no remu-
neration beyond the intangible one
of better citizens, healthier and hap
pier young people throughout the Ma
ton and adequate facilities for devel-
opment.
Back of the stage, it is observed
that no grants, no assistance given
any community has resulted from ad-
vanoes made by P. WA. The Ameri-