TABLE 2.—Works Progress Administration expenditures for administrative purposes, by object of expenditure,1 through Nov. 30, 1936 TABLE 3.-Number of Works Progress Administration administrative employees, by annual salary rates,1 half month ending Nov. 30, 1936 1 Excludes about 2.000 temporary employees engaged in investigating the current need for relief of Works Progress Administration workers and 1,225 National Youth Administration employees. TABLE 4.-Number of Works Progress Administration administrative employees, by States and by annual salary rates,1 half-month ending Nov. 30, 1936 Annual salary rate Less $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 $7,000 $8,000 $9,000 $10,000 TABLE 4.-Number of Works Progress Administration administrative employees, by States and by annual salary rates,1 half-month ending Nov. 30, 1936—Continued Annual salary rate to to Less $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 $7,000 $8,000 $9,000 $10,000 to to 1 Excludes about 2,000 temporary employees engaged in investigating the current need for relief of Works Progress Administration workers and 1,225 National Youth Administration employees; also excludes a small number of part-time employees. SAFETY PRACTICES AND ACCIDENT COMPENSATION FOR WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION WORKERS I will file with the committee statements dealing with safety practices and accident-compensation provisions for W. P. A. workers. These show the steps taken by the W. P. A. to reduce accidents and the actual record made. EXHIBIT B SAFETY ON WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION PROJECTS The prevention of accidents on the 100,000 projects operated by the Works Progress Administration is important primarily and most obviously from the humanitarian point of view. In addition, it should be noted that the more accidents there are, the greater the compensation and medical costs and, as a consequence, the smaller the balance available for relief wages. Ever since the inception of the Civil Works Administration an organized and consistent effort has been made to provide safe working conditions, and a continuous improvement in the record has resulted. When the Federal Government in 1933 first undertook to put 4,000,000 idle persons to work, the United States Employees' Compensation Commission predicted 100 injuries involving loss of time for each million man-hours of exposure. There proved to be, however, only about 48,000 injuries involving disability for work of 1 day or more, or a frequency rate of 41 per million man-hours of exposure. During the same period, there were 328 compensable fatalities, or a rate of one accidental death for every 3,600,000 man-hours of exposure. Under the emergency work relief programs which followed the Civil Works Administration a still better record was made. Disabilities were reduced to 40 per million man-hours of exposure, and fatalities to 1 for every 4,100,000 man-hours of exposure. The safety record during the first 17 months of the Works Progress Administration is even more remarkable From the beginning of the program to November 30, 1936, injuries causing loss of time of 1 day or more numbered 68,580 at a frequency rate of 18 per million manhours of exposure, while fatalities were reduced to 1 in each 6,500,000 man-hours of exposure. This improvement under the Works Progress Administration has resulted in a tremendous saving in expected Government expenditures for compensation costs. Because of the drastic reduction in the expectancy rate $15,000,000 of the $37,000,000 reserve fund appropriated to satisfy compensation claims under the Works Program has already been returned and made available for the payment of relief wages. The amount paid out through November 30 by the United States Employees' Compensation Commission to cover death claims, disability benefits, medical expense, and hospitalization costs arising from accidental injuries sustained by workers in the course of their employment on Works Progress Administration projects totaled less than $4,000,000 of the $22,000,000 now set aside to cover compensation claims of all agencies participating in the Works Program. The cost of conducting the Works Progress Administration safety program in the 48 States has been approximately $3,500,000. As now organized, the safety work in each State is directed by a State safety consultant and his staff of safety representatives. A district safety inspector is assigned to each district in the State and project safety inspectors are provided for those projects sufficiently large or hazardous to require full-time inspection. Regular inspections of all operating projects are made. Safety devices are provided and used wherever necessary, and adequate first-aid facilities are maintained. With the assistance of the American Red Cross and the United States Bureau of Mines, over 250,000 relief workers have been trained in first-aid during the three work-relief programs. Buildings to be occupied by project workers must be inspected and approved before their use is permitted, and all trucks and mechanical equipment used in connection with work are frequently inspected to insure their safe operation. An intensive educational campaign to stimulate accident prevention is conducted in every State. Up-to-date codes and instructions relating to safe practices are made available to all engineers, supervisors, foremen, and others responsible for the prosecution of work. All project proposals are carefully reviewed for safety provisions before they are finally approved, and sponsors are fully informed of their responsibilities for the safety of workers on their projects. Every accident on a Works Progress Administration project, regardless of any personal injury involved, must be reported in detail by the foremen in charge at the scene and time of its occurrence. EXHIBIT C INJURY COMPENSATION, WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION Section 2 of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 115) extended the limited compensation provisions of the act of February 15, 1934 (48 Stat. 351), to persons injured or killed by accident in the performance of duty while receiving security payments for services rendered as employees of the United States. The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1936 (49 Stat. 1608) made the same benefits applicable to employees of the United States (except administrative 1) paid from that appropriation. ORGANIZATION At the inception of the Works Program, compensation sections were organized in each State for the purpose of meeting the problems that arise with accidental injury or death, in the performance of duty, to employees of the Works Progress 1 Administrative employees qualify for the full benefits of the Federal Compensation Act of Sept. 7, 1916. Administration. Briefly, these sections consist of a State compensation officer at State Works Progress Administration headquarters and a district compensation officer in each of the several districts of the State. District compensation officers designate persons in local offices and on projects to issue requests for medical treatment or hospitalization and prepare the preliminary reports of injury. State compensation officers arrange with medical societies and hospital associations for adequate medical and hospital care by reputable physicians and hospitals prepared to render high-grade service. In view of the dire economic circumstances of our workers, the urgent need for prompt payment of the small amounts of compensation 2 that the act of February 15, 1934, allows was readily apparent. Appreciating this need, the United States Employees' Compensation Commission conferred upon the Works Progress Administration the privilege of authorizing local installments of initial payments of compensation for periods not to exceed 30 days. The Works Progress Administration further attempts to allay the inadequacy of the compensation benefits by permitting an injured worker to work overtime upon his recovery and recoup to the greatest possible extent the difference between what he would have earned as wages and what he received as compensation. If his injury is serious, or disabling for more than 15 days, another qualified member of the family is assigned during the principal wage earner's period of disability. An injured employee is never dismissed but reassigned as promptly as possible upon his recovery. ESTIMATED COMPENSATION COSTS Consulting the injury experience of the Civil Works Administration Program, the United States Employees' Compensation Commission estimated that $28,000,000 out of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and $9,000,000 out of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1936 would be required to meet the anticipated costs of compensation claims. Later facts indicated that these amounts were in excess of probable costs, and rescissions amounting to $14,200,000 were made from the $28,000,000 fund and $800,000 from the $9,000,000 fund. NUMBER OF COMPENSATION CASES AND PAYMENTS MADE As of November 30, 1936, there had been reported to the compensation sections of State and district Works Progress Administrations a total of 56,142 lost-time cases involving cash payments of compensation of 1 day or more and approximately 220,589 cases not involving cash payments of compensation but resulting in medical or hospital expense to the Federal Government. The approximate number of cases of both classifications is 276,731. In addition to the handling of injury and death cases for Works Progress Administration employees that are injured or killed by accident, State and district compensation sections also assume similar responsibilities for the Resettlement Administration and the National Park Service. Disbursing officers of the United States Treasury, upon the certification of State compensation officers, had paid out $496,666.61 in satisfaction of local installments of initial payments of compensation. In addition to this amount, the Commission has thus far expended a total of $633,556.72 for cases which involved more than 30 days' disability, death,3 or permanent injury. The Commission has also expended $3,044,380.49 for the payment of medical, hospital, and incidental expenses in connection with those of the 276,731 Works Progress Administration cases and an estimated 30,000 cases of other agencies, for which vouchers have been submitted to its offices in Washington. As of November 30, 1936, therefore, total expenditures for compensation amounted to $4,174,503.82 out of the total reserves of $22,000,000. PROPERTY DAMAGE CLAIMS State and district compensation sections also investigate claims for the loss of or damage to privately owned property resulting from the negligence of Works Progress Administration employees. These claims, which may not exceed the 2 No worker can receive more than 83 cents per day after a waiting period of 3 days during which no payments are made. As a result, the act of February 15, 1934, enjoys the unique distinction of being less liberal than the least liberal of State workmen's compensation acts. 3 The Commission has allowed 400 fatal cases and 350 additional cases are now under consideration (approximate figures). sum of $1,000, are forwarded to Washington for determination and certification to Congress in such amounts within $1,000 as the Administrator deems justified. The several States have thus far submitted approximately 1,000 claims of this character. NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION Mr. HOPKINS. At a later point in the testimony I will discuss the adjustment of our program to the rising employment in private industry. At this point I would like to submit for the record a statement dealing with the National Youth Administration. Mr. TABER. Is the Youth Administration under you? Mr. HOPKINS. Yes. Mr. TABER. It is a part of the W. P. A.? Mr. HOPKINS. Yes, all its funds come through the W. P. A. (A statement on the National Youth Administration is filed for the record. It follows.) EXHIBIT D NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION Foreword The National Youth Administration is now well along in the middle of its second year of operation, having been created by Executive Order on June 26, 1935. During this time the program has been in a state of continuous progressive development. The majority of the difficulties of operation encountered in the initial setting up of the program in the main have been overcome. The highest type of cooperation has been afforded the National Youth Administration by educators, Federal agencies, State, and municipal agencies, as well as other groups, both national and local in character, who are carrying on a program in behalf of youth. In spite of the apparent improvement in economic status in the majority of American families, this improvement has not advanced to the degree where youth coming from erstwhile indigent families and families now recovering from economic stress can be assured of continuance in the pursuit of education or the necessary basic training for a job. The benefits of general recovery have been slow in reaching needy youth 16 to 25 years of age. School authorities have estimated that between two and eight times as many young people applied for opportunities to remain in school through participation in the National Youth Administration program as were finally accepted. National Youth Administration budgetary limitations have prevented a large segment of deserving youth from further school benefits. In spite of the fact that withdrawals of out-of-school youth from National Youth Administration work projects are increasing, it is obvious that National Youth Administration benefits are being extended to only a small portion of the youth who need the opportunities on the works projects. The National Youth Administration extended during its first year of operation, which included 9 months for student aid and 6 months for work projects, benefits totaling $42,206,268 and directly reaching nearly 600,000 young men and women in the peak month of its operation. Under appropriations provided by the First Deficiency Act of 1936, from July 1, 1936 through December 31, 1936, $33,501,239 has been allocated, which includes an unanticipated additional allocation of $4,000,000 to 17 drought-stricken States for added student aid to young people from families impoverished by the drought. In order to maintain the program at the present level to the end of this fiscal year, it will be necessary to extend funds as follows: Student aid.. Work projects.. Total_ $18, 342, 044 19, 496, 752 39, 745, 556 |