Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-25
By Ed,Oard A. Harris.


most enormous army of peacetime
workers ever assembled in the history
of the United States. In any post
mortem on its passing the ironic fact
stands out that the Works Projects
Administration, phenomenon of an eco
nomic upheaval caused in part by the
repercussions OF World War I, was
amortized largely by the drain on man
power by World War II.
The case history OF the WPA Is not
placid. Its course was turbulent, packed
with pathos and percussion, filled with
the drama, the strains and stresses of
Its component workers. Now that its
course has been run, baskets of dry sta
tlstlcs summarizing its concrete &C
complishments can give only skeleton
outline of the story. Its characterize
ton and color and most significant
meaning are interviewer in the lives of
the eight and half million men and
women who at one time or another were
on WPA rolls.
President Roosevelt, in ordering disso-
luton of the agency, said: The WPA
has reached creative hand into every
county of this Nation. 1t has added to
the national wealth, has repaired the
wastage of depression and has strength
ened the country to bear the burden Of
war. BY employing eight millions of
Americans, with 30 millions of depend
ents 1t has brought to these people re-
newed hope and courage. 1t has MAIN
tanned and increased their working skills,
and it has enabled them once more to
take their rightful places in public or in
private employment
When the President issued his STOP
order last December 4. eight million
persons had been employed in work
relief since the WPA was set up in
1885; by the time the last worker was
cut off the payroll June 30 the total
was half million more. The rolls have
been flexible, expanding accordion like
when the Nations economy faltered and
contracting when business thrived, an
inverse index of the country's economic
stability.
s,334,594 at Peak.
From peak of 1884, 94 in November,
1889, the number had dipped to $4,000
by last December. The turnover always
fast-paced, had accelerated even more
IN recent years as war industries and
private enterprise absorbed more and
more workers.
Thus about one-ffth of the Nations
workers were on WPA rolls at various
times. The effect of putting them to
work instead of giving them the dole
when they were down and spiritually
out cannot be told in terms of bridges
built and docks repaired. Glimpses into
their lives, as affected by the psychologist
cal paycheck paid by the WPA, will best
be revealed in the novels and plays and
musical compositions of WPA alumni.
The WPA, first established as the
Works Progress Administration, had
many rocky moments. The strike at the
Writers Project in ST. Louis was no iso-
lated disruption: there were Walkouts,
mass protests, wholesale firings in other
parts of the country. The Workers Al
lance, an organization of the unem-
preston, gave WPA administrators fire.
quent headaches.
There were laundering charges that
Communists had inf1ltrated heavily into
WPA ranks, and Congress passed a law
withholding work relief from any known
Communist or Nazi sympathizer. In
New York, Arts Project dramatists
staged plays with social meaning, and
reactionaries walled in high dudgeon,
demanded their removal from the rolls.
WPA artists painted murals with bold
sociological strokes, and sometimes were
banned. Federal symphony orchestras,
playing in parks and municipal audi
forums, sometimes got in jams with the
musicians unions. Actors Equity clashed
over the status of WPA members. The
impact of the WPA upon the country
was both deep and tempestuous.
War Demonstrated Value.
But perhaps the most insidious and ef-
fectlve sabotaging of the agency came
IN the form of a -light-hearted
kidding born of an iota of fact The
fact, as explained the other day by
George H. Field, former WPA deputy
commissioner, was that at an early
period in the history of the organization
masses of workers were kept waiting for
material and had little to do in the
meantime. Sometimes little loafing
was unavoidable. And so the Jokes
rlppled up and down the land, famed
and exaggerated by many who had only
contempt for persons who couldn't find
jobs in private industry when there
weren't any to be found The word
"boondoggling" was added to the Eng
fish language.
Gradually the Nation as whole
aWoke to the realization that those on
work relief were not strange hybrid of
shovel-leaners from Mars, but were rank
and-flle Americans left high and dry
by the recession of employment, through
no fault of their own. 1t learned that it
was vital to preserve the skill, the work
habits, the health and the morale of its
unemployed labor supply
And it looked around, too, at the more
visible results. Towns, counties, States
We'd with one another in seeking ap-
proval for local projects The kidding
ceased. When var came, the final telling
chapter on the WPAs usefulness was
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