jan 1, 1933 - PWA

Description:

PWA: A New Deal construction program established by Congress in 1933. Designed to put people back to work, the PWA built the Boulder Dam (renamed Hoover Dam) and Grand Coulee Dam, among other large public works projects.
CCC: Federal relief program that provided jobs to millions of unemployed young men who built thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and other structures in state and national parks, bolstering the national infrastructure.

Most Americans felt the reality of the depression at home, in the form of unemployment and fear of eviction. By 1933, local governments and private charities had exhausted their resources for relief and looked to Washington for assistance. Although Roosevelt wanted to avoid a budget deficit, he asked Congress to provide relief for millions of unemployed Americans. In May, Congress established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Directed by Harry Hopkins, a hard-driving social worker from New York, the FERA provided federal funds directly to state relief programs.

Roosevelt and Hopkins had strong reservations about the “dole,” the nickname for government welfare payments. As Hopkins put it, “I don’t think anybody can go year after year, month after month, accepting relief without affecting his character.” To support the traditional value of individualism, the New Deal put people to work. During the Hundred Days, Congress established the Public Works Administration (PWA), a large-scale construction program that would construct the Boulder and Grand Coulee Dams, and several months later Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and named Hopkins its head. A stopgap measure to get the country through the winter of 1933–1934, the CWA nevertheless provided jobs for 4 million Americans, repairing bridges, laying highways, and constructing public buildings. The CWA lapsed in the spring of 1934 under Republican opposition, but a longer-term program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), annually mobilized 250,000 young men to do reforestation and conservation work. Over the course of the 1930s, the “CCC boys” built thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and other structures in state and national parks, bolstering the national infrastructure (Map 22.2).

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