Works Progress Administration (later renamed Works Project Administration)

Works Progress Administration (later renamed Works Project Administration)

About the Law

Works Progress Administration, commonly known as WPA, is among the series of programs created by the United States Government in the 1930s to limit the economic factors suffered after the Great Depression. A huge number of Americans had ended up being jobless around six years after there was a crash in the security exchange. Following this huge unemployment in 1935, congress, together with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came up with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which aimed at employing 3.5 million Americans in which $5 billion would be utilized. The deal by the president intended to help America recover from the effects of the great depression (Couch, 2008). 20% of the Americans during this time were unemployed, and the deal would help provide employment facilities as well as give salary to these individuals. This would significantly improve the living standards of the people living in America.

Implementation of the law

Works Progress Administration (WPA) was implemented in July of 1935. The government, through Franklin D. Roosevelt, called for the implementation of the New Deal, which would help in the economic recovery, relief, and reform of the economy in the United States. The implantation of the law was in a bid to improve the economy of the United States after the Great depression. The law helped in securing employment slots for different citizens with definite pay. In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was renamed to Works Projects Administration. The administration had significant economic impacts in the United States. Many facilities were built as a part of the group’s projects. They embarked on manufacturing and build 130 new clinics, more than 4,000 new schools, bring together 29,000 new scaffolds, fixed 280,000 million of streets as well as ensuring that they planted a significant number of trees among many other developmental practices (Couch, 2008). The WPA policy significantly helped the economy of the United States as it offered a lot of employment opportunities for the Americans, and they were thus able to fend for themselves.

Summary

Works Progress Administration was designed to help in improving the economy of the United States by offering employment to those who were jobless. The Americans who were hired by the Works Progress Administration were those in need of a definite pay and the various job opportunities ranged from creating public parks, constructing bridges, constructing airports and buildings to creating roads. The program was beneficial to the Americans, and many influential people, such as Hopkins, were engaged in the project. Before the project had been canceled in 1943, it made a huge disbursement of $11 million, which was given to the unemployed people as relief funds (Couch, 2008). The program, when compared to the other programs that provided direct relief to the American citizens, was more advantageous since providing people with jobs, is more favorable than giving them funds as a relief. The effective functioning of WPA was ensured through supervision by the state government. The financing and approval of the program were, however, by the federal government. WPA was instituted to offer employment facilities to multi-millions of individuals (Goldberg, 2005). The program did not discriminate against any individuals as it considered the well-bodied and provided them with employment slots. At the same time, those with problems such as those with mental health issues were offered financial aid to ensure that wealth was distributed in different parts of the country. The women were also paid the quality of wages as their male counterparts.

There existed a considerable need to help the people living in the United States, and this is what led to the development of the Works Progress Administration.  The Works Progress Administration, which was created by President Roosevelt, was a response to the Great Depression in the United States. Roosevelt came up with the plan together with the congress since many Americans had lost their jobs after the stock crash (Goldberg, 2005). The plan aimed at lifting America from the depression by providing them with job opportunities at a definite pay. The program served the purpose of proving incomes to Americans from different states that significantly relieved the nation’s economy. The program ran for a successful eight years, and in its tenure, over 85 people were employed, which significantly improved their living standards as well as the economy of the country. Both unskilled, skilled, the young and older men and women were provided with opportunities to work to earn a living. Conclusively, the program remains known for its public works projects and employment to tens of thousands of writers, musicians, actors as well as other artists in the country. The lives of different Americans were hence improved through this program.

References

Couch, J. (2008). Works Progress Administration. EH. Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. March 16, 2008. URL http://eh. net/encyclopedia/the-works-progress-administration, 5.

Goldberg, C. A. (2005). Contesting the status of relief workers during the New Deal: The Workers Alliance of America and the Works Progress Administration, 1935–1941. Social Science History, 29(3), 337-371.