Seventy-five years ago, on May 6, 1935, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034, creating the Works Progress Administration.
The WPA was a fiscal strategy recommended by the famous economist, John Maynard Keynes, to get unemployed people during the Great Depression back to work.
Keynes theorized that when the private sector was reluctant to employ workers, the government had the responsibility to "prime the pump" and become the employer of last resort, even if that increased the deficit.
The Works Progress Administration was the largest New Deal agency.
It employed millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing.
Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western populations. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion, or about 20% of all federal spending.
During our current Great Recession, many progressives have argued that we need another fiscal stimulus of similar magnitude to get the country growing again.
Without government action, waiting for the economy to recover on its own will hurt millions of unemployed workers and their families, as well as increasing the deficit at all levels by spending money for unemployment, and other safety net benefits.
So, deficits will increase if the government does nothing, or uses stimulus spending to benefit families now and rebuild our infrastructure for the future.
Learning Activity
Students need to understand more about the role of government in stabilizing the economy and the strategies that were employed by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
Assign students to create a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least seven slides) that addresses the Document Based Question (DBQ):
"Distinguish between the first New Deal and the Second New Deal, each of which lasted 100 days. Using your knowledge of the New Deal, cite examples of programs in each of its stages that met the needs for relief of the poor and unemployed, recovery of the economy and legislative reforms to blunt the impact of future economic downturns."
Research Pathfinder
Click the 1930s icon > Relief, Recovery, and Reform
