The WPA and Federal One:

Putting America and its Artists Back to Work           

 

“Historians strive constantly to improve our collective understanding of the past through a complex process of critical dialogue—with each other, with the wider public, and with the historical record—in which we explore former lives and worlds in search of answers to the most compelling questions of our own time and place.”

                                                AHA Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct

 

“Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious beauty; filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort and opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more advanced. In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure. In no nation is the government more worthy of respect. No country is more loved by its people. I have an abiding faith in their capacity, integrity and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope.”                                

                                    Herbert Hoover, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1929 

 

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”

                                      Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

 

“…all of these projects, all of this work that we are doing, spring from a necessity, a definite human need, a need of this generation, a need of the year in which we live and of last year, and the year before.”

                                     Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 18, 1936

                                                

Herbert Hoover, a wealthy mining engineer who had never held elected office, made the speech referenced above less than eight months before the stock market crashed and the country plummeted into the great depression. His efforts to combat this situation included volunteer recruitment, public works projects like theHoover Dam, tariffs, increases in corporate taxes, and an increase in taxes for the top tax bracket from 25% to 63%. Although these programs did little to help the country during his time in office, they did establish the groundwork for more successful programs in the next administration. It is these post Hoover programs which will form the backbone of our study.

 

This course reviews the history of this period, and the extraordinary world of the alphabet soup that was the New Deal including, but very much not limited to: FERA, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, a precursor to the Works Progress Administration, WPA; the Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC; and the Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA. Not to be left out will be the National Recovery Administration, NRA and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, AAA. Special emphasis will be placed on the arts projects: Federal Arts, Music, Theatre and Writers Projects, FAP, FMP, FTP, FWP which came into being due to a strong belief on the part of a number of administrators including Aubrey Williams that, “We don’t think a good musician should be asked to turn second-rate laborer.” We will look at the programs from 1933 to 1943, how they came to be, and their ultimate demise beginning in 1938 with the attack on the Federal Theatre Project by Martin Dies and his Special Committee on Un-American Activities.  

 

We will look at some of the bigger than life personalities who aided Roosevelt in his efforts to bring American’s back into the workforce. These include men such as Harry Hopkins who remarked in 1935 as the projects were continually under attack, “They are damn good projects—excellent projects…dumb people criticize something they do not understand, and that is what is going on up there—God damn it!” along with Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins as well as Hallie Flanagan, Director of the FTP. It was the accusation by members of the Dies Committee that, “A government Agency, supported by public funds, has become part and parcel of the Communist Party,” which led to FTP’s early exit from the WPA programs. 

 

It is the aim of this course that through your work, more will be known of this brief period of our history.