Evening star., 1943-01-31
BY Robert Curtis Harper.

oy oOUClt Sul tlS 11dI pCI.
WPA-criticized as wasteful and de-
Tended as a "rebuilder' Of lives-legally
dies tonight.
It's gone, but will not be forgotten.
Just now Americas sole preoccupation is
winning global war. At more appro-
PIRATE season WPA's assets and liabilities
may be appraised dispassionately.
wPA spent s52,e3s,s 800 in the District.
Two high-ranking District government
officials assert that WPA sums spent In
laying water and sewer lines and building
highways could have been expended more
economically If the District government
had had the sole disbursement of the
total Federal and sponsor sums involved.
Opposition to WPA was voiced by the
Engineering News Record, as follows:
The WPA philosophy OF work relief
Of using the construction function as 4
device to make subsistence wage Jobs
was inherently wasteful. The fact that
some such procedure may have been
necessary IN the extreme depression
emergency in which we were caught
merely emphasizes the challenge to find
something better. Unless we can, we are
merely drawing the blueprint of
poverty-stricken and decadent Nation"
Employed 10000 Here.
During it's lifetime here WPA and its
predecessors. CWA and FERA, gave en-
ployment to 10000 persons A chart
Allowing the miles of roads, streets, water
and sewer mains built, lunches served,
garments made, Fairgrounds buildings
constructed and reconstructed and prof.
ects along industry training lines tells an
interesting story, but not the whole story.
WPA's friends claimed that accomplish
ments reveal shovel-leaning could not
have been this New Deal agencys major
preoccupation; critics asserted the same
benefits could have been realized at less
cost. The debate may be endless.
The 52,638,soo expended here included
the cost of materials as well as wages
Men on WPA rolls did not re-enter
private employment as fast as oppor-
tunity offered, its critics contended, one
reason being men who left WPA and
the bottom Of the WPA certified list.
Another reason for WPA unpopularity
was that it was never equipped with ma
ehinery to do the Job Of 4 contractor; it
could provide hand labor only.
Economic Waste.
Declining to comment on the social and
political elements involved in WPA's
creation, Maj. John Blake Gordon, Dis
trict sanitary engineer, and Capt. H. G.
Whitehurst, District highway engineer.
agreed that the public works aspects Of
WPAs program resulted in economic
waste.
"In the first place." Mai. Gordon
stated, "WPA worked on less than q
normal work week, and that made the
overhead higher per unit of construction.
I'm the early stages Of WPA there was
double supervision. The District govern
ment had Its supervisors In that the
local government was responsible for the
work, and WPA had supervisors in charge
Of their own men. Later that dual
supervision was corrected and reduced to
single supervision, either our man or
their man, whichever was better quail
ded. We gave overall supervision, which
was not q duplication Of work"
"Our men," Mai. Gordon continued,
worked 10 hours . week and WPA en-
ployes worked only 80 hours. It wasn't
feasible to lay Oh Our men while the
WPA workers were idle. To that extent
the District government employees worked
less efficiently those 10 hours because
they did not have complete organiza-
ton.
at was also true that In the early