page_title: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms
section_title: Relief for unemployed
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms / First term domestic affairs / First New Deal, 1933–34 / Relief for unemployed
caption_attribution_description: English: Poster promoting the Civilian Conservation Corps made by the Illinois WPA Art Project Chicago
context_page_description: The first and second terms of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt began on March 4, 1933, when he was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States, and ended with Roosevelt's third inauguration on January 20, 1941. Roosevelt, a Democrat from New York, took office after defeating Republican President Herbert Hoover, who had presided over the start of the Great Depression. Roosevelt led the implementation of the New Deal, a series of programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to Americans and the American economy. He also presided over a realignment that made his New Deal Coalition dominant in the Fifth Party System.
  During his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented major legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders. The Emergency Banking Act helped put an end to a run on banks, while the 1933 Banking Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provided major reforms in the financial sector. To provide relief to unemployed workers, Roosevelt presided over the establishment of several agencies, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
context_section_description: Relief for the unemployed was a major priority for the New Deal, and Roosevelt copied the programs he had initiated as governor of New York. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the largest program from 1933 to 1935, involved giving money to localities to operate work relief projects to employ those on direct relief. FERA was led by Harry Hopkins, who had helmed a similar program under Roosevelt in New York. Another agency, the Public Works Administration (PWA), was created to fund infrastructure projects, and was led by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, one of the most aggressive of the New Deal empire builders.  Seeking to increase the federal role in providing work relief, Hopkins successfully pushed for the creation of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which would provide employment for anyone who was unemployed. In less than four months, the CWA hired four million people, and during its five months of operation, the CWA built and repaired 200 swimming pools, 3,700 playgrounds, 40,000 schools, 250,000 miles (400,000 km) of road, and 12 million feet of sewer pipe. The CWA was widely popular, but Roosevelt canceled it in March 1934 due to cost concerns and the fear of establishing a precedent that the government would serve as a permanent employer of last resort.
  The most popular of all New Deal agencies – and Roosevelt's favorite– was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC hired 250,000 unemployed young men to work for six months on rural projects. It was directed by Robert Fechner, a former union executive who promised labor unions that the enrollees would not be trained in skills that would compete with unemployed union members. Instead, they did unskilled construction labor, building roads and recreational facilities in state and national parks. Each CCC camp was administered by a U.S. Army reserve officer. Food, supplies, and medical services were purchased locally. The young men who worked at CCC camps were paid a dollar a day, most of which went to their parents. Blacks were enrolled in their own camps, and the CCC operated an entirely separate division for Indians.
caption: Poster by Albert M. Bender, Illinois WPA Art Project Chicago (1935)
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