Evening star., 1938-07-05
SPEED RECOVERY
PLANS, |CKES SAYS
Secretary Urges Cities to
Act at Once to Get
P. W. A. Projects.

P. w. A. Projects.
Following Is the text Of an address
oy Secretary Of Interior Harold l.
1ckes. entitled p. w. A. on a Time
table" delivered last night on the
National Radio Forum, arranged BY
The Star and broadcast over a Nation
wide network of the National Broad
casting System:
Tonight. as speak to you, the 1898
Public Works Administration program
Is of to a flying start. Within mat
ter OF hours after President Roosevelt
signed the bill, P. w. A. announced
more than 1000 projects that were
taken from the reserve that we had
built up against such an emergency
a. existed. We approved school build
ings, hospitals. bridges, street paving
projects. sewage and waterworks sys-
TENS. and other enduring projects
which We considered entitled to carry
the imprimatur Of P. w. A.
simultaneously with announcing
these projects providing for more than
six hundred million dollars worth of
construction, We sent contracts to the
applicants so that work could start
promptly. I am confident that never
before in our history, with the possible
exception Of the emergency days Of
the war, has any Federal agency acted
with greater promptness than that
with which P. w. A. has acted on this
occasion.
In the race for recovery, P. w. A.
has thrown the gears into high. It is
now up to our towns, cities, States
and other public bodies to keep the
recovery machine rolling along smooth
ly and swiftly. Upon the promptness
with which our cities act depends the
speed with which men will be put to
work. factories will be given orders,
materials will be produced and put in
place, and business in general stimu-
lated.
As the Public Works Administration
enters its sixth year, we are operating
a recovery engine Of proven power.
When we first turned to public works
in the far-darker days of 1888 we were
testing an untried theory. We were
unafraid, but We were not sure how it
would work We did not know how to
start. 1t. operate it, or stop it. In fact,
IN the beginning, we were not always
In agreement as to what public works
project was. Now we know just what
We are going to do. how we are going to
DO it, and why, and where, and when.
Record Construction Program.
Five years ago, P. w. A. plunged
INTO the largest construction program
In the history of the world. In doing
80 it accepted certain guiding princi-
Piles: First. it recognized the imperative
need for creating immediate employ
ment, and second, it imposed the re-
quirement that public works financed
by P. w. A. should be useful and So
cially desirable. To these principles
P. w. A. added the condition that
projects should be sound from q legal,
financial and engineering viewpoint.
All Of these criteria have been success
fully met.
Several months ago, when 1t became
apparent that there might be need
for another P. w. A. program, we pre-
pared for action. We knew that speed
would be the prime requisite So we
streamlined procedure and improved
methods to cut down the time con-
sumed between the receipt Of an appli-
cation and its approval. This is why
we are of to flying start with our
machine in high gear.
If we are to keep up the pace We
have set. and SO achieve our goal, it
Is essential that the local communities
and private industry understand what
we are doing and give US their instant
and enthusiastic cooperation. The
fact is that P. w. A. can act only when
our towns and cities have submitted
applications for projects which repre-
sent socially useful, permanent i'm
provements. Because We had built UP
a backlog Of desirable projects, we
were able to make a quick start. But
from now on the speed with which we
operate will depend entirely upon the
speed with which new projects are
submitted to us by communities, and
the speed with which actual work on
the projects is begun
To comprehend P. w. A., we must
bear In mind that its program is not
. single localized effort. Most of us
aze familiar with the black and white
p. w. A. signs that have stood in front
oe almost $4,000 projects during the
last five years. We have seen workmen
heretofore jobless find steady, normal
employment at the prevailing rate Of
pay because p. w. A. had approved a
project. We have seen buildings,
wharves, bridges, waterworks systems,
sewage disposal plants, and many
other types of projects play their part
in making their communities better
places in which to live. But wonder
II we have all appreciated the fact
that the P. w. A. construction job is
only the visual evidence Of an oper-
alton which exerts an invigorating
influence upon the entire economic
structure Of this country.
What It Means to Industry.
Let Us consider what this means
for American industry: for the ordi-
nary American business man. Let us
regard for a moment what P. w. A.
actually accomplished during its first
five years. What did 1t mean for
American industry? For the ordinary
business man? For those who wanted
work and could not find work to do?
P. W. A. created directly at the sites
Of it's projects total of more than
one and a half billion hours of direct
employment for men at prevailing
wages. It did more than this. as we
now know as q result of careful study
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Of
the Department Of Labor. For each
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