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N0KFQ > TODAY 06.05.13 15:11l 41 Lines 1778 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 39585_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - May 6
Path: IZ3LSV<IV3YXW<I3XTY<I0OJJ<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 130506/1403Z 39585@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.54
...
May 6, 1933:
FDR creates the WPA
On this day in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an
executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs
created under the auspices of the Emergency Relief Appropriations
Act, which Roosevelt had signed the month before. The WPA, the
Public Works Administration (PWA) and other federal assistance
programs put unemployed Americans to work in return for temporary
financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the
United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone.
While FDR believed in the elementary principles of justice and
fairness, he also expressed disdain for doling out welfare to
otherwise able workers. So, in return for monetary aid, WPA
workers built highways, schools, hospitals, airports and
playgrounds. They restored theaters--such as the Dock Street
Theater in Charleston, S.C.--and built the ski lodge at Oregon's
Mt. Hood. The WPA also put actors, writers and other creative
arts professionals back to work by sponsoring federally funded
plays, art projects, such as murals on public buildings, and
literary publications. FDR safeguarded private enterprise from
competition with WPA projects by including a provision in the act
that placed wage and price controls on federally funded products
or services.
Opponents of the New Deal in Congress gradually pared back WPA
appropriations in the years leading up to World War II. By 1940,
the economy was roaring back to life with a surge in
defense-industry production and, in 1943, Congress suspended many
of the programs under the ERA Act, including the WPA.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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