Over the weekend, economics professor John Henry wrote this guest column at Naked Capitalism revisiting the circumstances and origins of one of the most successful agencies of the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (later renamed the Works Project Administration). While conservatives hated the WPA then and still hate it now, the truth is that the America we live in was built by the WPA. Consider this tally from the article:
- 560,000 miles of roads built or improved
- 20,000 miles of water mains, sewers constructed
- 417 dams built
- 325 firehouses built; 2384 renovated
- 5,000 schools constructed or renovated
- 143 new hospitals, 1,700 improved
- 2,000 stadiums, grandstands built
- 500 landing fields; 1,800 runways (including participation in the construction of LaGuardia Airport, NYC)
- State and municipal parks, including the foundation of the extensive California state park system.
- 100 million trees planted
- 6,000 miles of fire and forest trails created
- Education: Through 1941, 1 million enrolled in adult education courses, 37,000 children in classes and nursery schools; 280,000 received music instruction, 67,000 art instruction.
- Libraries were built. These were especially directed toward poor and rural communities.
- Zoo buildings constructed
Henry’s argument is that the success of the WPA, which, at its height employed 3 million Americans, could be used as a model for a government-originated works program today. Between the need to put millions of people back to work and the need to rebuild much of the infrastructure that was constructed by the original WPA 75+ years ago, a modern version of the WPA would be more than useful now. Sadly, it’s almost certainly completely impossible in the current political climate.
For another way to look at the scope and impact of the WPA, you might like to have a look at this Library of Congress online collection of over 900 WPA posters that were created and issues for a whole host of programs, educational issues, travel, and other informational purposes.
