The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-06-24
BY JAMES THRASHER
NEA Staff Correspondent

NEA Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, June "a -
Works Project Administration,
once the biggest show on earth,
has folded up. There wasn't so
much as the toot of a press ag
ent's horn TO signal its depar
ture, let alone any fanfare. None
of WPA's bitter critics was
heard to sigh with relief, nor
were any tears discerned in the
eyes of those who defended the
New Deals work program.
There still are some brickbats
and confetti TO be swept up, but
the big parade has passed. A
couple of programs are finishing
up in Puerto Rico and the Vir-
gin Islands. Here in Washington
they are making microfilms Of
WPA records and disposing of
property still in the agency's
possession. But the WPA pay
roll, which in the peak month
of 1899 had 1894 ,594 names, has
dwindled TO about 5000. BY
June 30, almost exactly eight
years from the time WPA start
ed, the work will be done, the
books closed, and the doors
locked.
Since May I, there hasn't
been a single WPA project 60
ing in the continental United
States. And with the projects
have gone the red, white and
blue signs that proclaimed
them. Workers from the re-
gonal offices have been uproot-
ing and collecting the metal ones
for salvage
WPA SPENT $4,000. 900 900
What is left of WPA's once
complex and expansive admins
tration system is now slowed
costly in couple of unimposing
offices in the Interior Depart
ment. Here WPA valedictor-
ians can get their vital statistics
from small staff of Federal
Works Agency employees who
are clearing up odds and ends
Probably the most imposing
statistic is the total WPA ex-
penditure - S13,00O,0O0.000 in
round numbers. OF this, S10,-
111,1O3, 886 was Federal funds,
and the balance came from state
and local agencies. The $780,
600 workers who drew WPA
checks during the agency's eight
years of existence got consider
ably less than half the total
amount. Their annual wages av-
eraged out to 1852 per capita.
WPA workers did lot OF
screwy things to earn their
money, but they also did a lot
of good. Much of what once
looked like made work" has
been a distinct help TO the ma
ton at total war Soil reclama-
ton, flood control, reforestation,
and roads that made IL billion
board feet of lumber readily ac
cessible look a lot more import
ant today than they did few
years ago.
Working for WPA wasn't just
matter of leaning on your
shovel, the records show. EN-
ployees did just about every
thing from hewing the Lewis
and Clark Highway out Of Roc
ky Mountain granite to painting !
post office murals. They built |
golf courses and ski jumps |
They chisled and modelled l6,-
500 pieces Of sculpture. They
served billion school lunches. F,
sewed 375,OOO,0O0 garments.
and carried "bookmobile" lib
raries to backcountry commun-
tiles.
They presented hundreds of
plays. including countrywide
premiere of Sinclair Lewis 1T
Can't Happen Here" They in
structed aliens in English and
the fundamentals of citizenship.
They wrote guidebooks, dug Is
600 miles of drainage bitches in
mslarial regions, renovated o.,
600 books, built 500 school
buildings. 200 hospitals, 5000
athletic fields. 800 parks.
WORKED FOR ARMY
AND NAVY
But even while they were do
ing all this. and much more,
they also were working for the
Army and Navy, right from the |
beginning of WPA. At time
when war seemed remote, they |
built barracks and mess halls
and armories for the services.
They put up barbed wire. built |
bomb shelters and erected sand I
bag barriers. They built $4,000 |