Source: Report showing the financial status of funds provided in the Emergency Relief Appropriation Acts of 1935 and 1936 as of Dec. 31, 1936; U. S. Treasury Department. That is a summary of the funds appropriated to agencies other than the Works Progress Administration, to which was allocated $2,613,000,000. FUNDS ALLOTTED TO LOCK AND DAM CONSTRUCTION ON UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER Mr. CANNON. In reference to the item for the Engineers, that includes the little dams on the Mississippi River, does it? Mr. HOPKINS. I think so. Colonel Harrington can tell you about that, I think. Colonel HARRINGTON. I will obtain the information and insert it in the record. (The information requested is as follows:) Funds allotted from the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 to lock and dam construction on the Upper Mississippi River St. Paul District: For application to lock no. 3, Red Wing, Minn.; dam no. 7, Rock Island District: For application to dam no. 11, Dubuque, Iowa; lock no. 13, St. Louis District: For application to lock no. 25, Cap au Gris, Mo-- Total___. Allotments $9,073, 000 11, 425, 000 2,462, 000 22, 960, 000 WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION ALLOTMENT UNDER E. R. A. ACTS OF 1935 AND 1936 The Works Progress Administration has been allocated $2,613,436,000, of which $1,188,000,000 was from the 1936 act and $1,425,000,000 from the 1935 act. I should like to discuss something about the number of people that were employed with these funds made available to us and the purposes for which the funds were used, that is, the types of projects that were prosecuted. NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED ON W. P. A. PROJECTS When the Works Program was initiated it was estimated that jobs could be provided for 3,500,000 persons. This goal was reached early in December 1935. Subsequently, employment has varied by not more than a few hundred thousand from the 3,500,000 level. Peak employment was recorded at the end of February 1936, when the number of persons working was slightly in excess of 3,850,000. During the following months the number engaged on Works Program projects dropped gradually to 3,300,000 persons at the beginning of July 1936. At this time the emergency situation caused by the prolonged drought in many middle western and southwestern States reversed the trend, bringing the total employment to above 3,500,000, by the end of October. Since that date the alleviation of the drought conditions together with the improvement in employment by private industry and an investigation to determine the current relief needs of all W. P. A. workers, has caused a steady decline. On December 26, 1936, total Works Program employment was only slightly in excess of 3,000,000 persons. Except for the first few months of the program, the Works Progress Administration has accounted for from 70 to 80 percent of each month's Works Program employment. A peak employment figure for W. P. A. amounting to slightly over 3,000,000 was reached early in March 1936. During March and for each succeeding month until August 1936 the trend of employment on W. P. A. was steadily downward. In August, the added burden of emergency drought cases more than offset the prevailing downward tendency in the regular W. P. A. load, and employment resumed an upward trend which continued through October. Employment on W. P. A. projects since October has been steadily declining chiefly because of transfers of persons employed because of the drought to the Resettlement Administration for care under its grant and loan program. That means that 10 months ago we had put 3,036,000 on the W. P. A., and the W. P. A. employment, therefore, in 10 months has dropped from 3,036,000 to slightly less than 2,200,000. EMPLOYMENT OF FARMERS ON WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION PROJECTS THROUGH RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION Mr. CANNON. How many of those were farmers engaged in W. P. A. work through the Resettlement Administration? Mr. HOPKINS. You mean of any number we had, how many were farmers? Mr. CANNON. You report that you had so many on W. P. A. work. Mr. HOPKINS. Yes. Mr. CANNON. All of those men have been taken off, as I understand it, and those in dire need have been certified to the Resettlement Administration. Mr. HOPKINS. Because of the drought, we put 350,000 drought families on Works Program jobs. Mr. CANNON. There is no amount of money spent in the entire relief program that was better spent than the money spent for that purpose, and no greater emergency arose than that which arose when you took the farmers off, with their families, with the need for feed for livestock going into the winter, when they are in the condition that they are in now throughout Missouri. I am speaking only of Missouri; I do not know about the rest of the country. Mr. HOPKINS. The policy of the Administration in connection with that was to carry these people on the works program up until the winter months. Mr. CANNON. That is the very time they need work. Mr. HOPKINS. Yes; but that is when it is very difficult in most of the drought States to do any work. I have the exact number of people working on the drought, by States. In South Dakota there were 57,298; in North Dakota there were 42,475; in Oklahoma there were 40,376; in Missouri there were 36,215; in Wisconsin there were 34,069, and in Kansas there were 20,665. Those were the people we put on in the States mentioned. Drought funds have been made available to the Resettlement Admintration to provide relief for these people, and these funds are available for that purpose. Mr. CANNON. When you allow them a grant of only $10 a month- Mr. CANNON. When you do that, you put a mark on such a man as long as he lives. You should give them sufficient funds to keep their stock alive during the winter. In my region we have had three successive crop failures and the farmers are destitute. That does not give them enough to clothe and feed their children during the winter, and their stock are starved. When you only give them $10, it puts them on charity. Mr. HOPKINS. So far as the question of what the Resettlement Administration is doing in Missouri for these families is concerned, I would say there is another motivation in the Government's part in transferring families from the Works Program to the drought, and that concern the funds we have available. The CHAIRMAN. There will be a representative of the Resettlement Administration before the committee during these hearings, and we can take that matter up with him. Mr. HOPKINS. I think, as the Congressman has indicated, one of the most effective methods of meeting that emergency situation last summer was the setting up of work projects. Mr. CANNON. I do not think you could have spent your money more effectively and advantageously than in spending if for that purpose. EMPLOYMENT UNDER OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES Mr. HOPKINS. Although W. P. A. projects have provided the bulk of the Works Program jobs since the last months of 1935, the relative importance of the W. P. A. program and of the programs of other agencies has changed considerably during the period of Works Program operation. The number of persons engaged in Emergency Conservation Work (which had been in operation for 2 years prior to incorporation under the Works Program) was largest in August 1935, when it approached 600,000 and comprised about two-thirds of the total number employed on Works Program projects. After declines during the fall and winter months, employment in C. C. C. camps and on other Emergency Conservation Work projects has remained relatively stable at approximately 400,000 persons. Activities of other Federal agencies got under way somewhat later than those of W. P. A. and Emergency Conservation Work, owing to the difference in the nature of the projects and to the fact that much of the work is prosecuted under contract. The number of Works Program jobs provided by these other participating Federal agencies exceeded 660,000 in June 1936 when the programs of the P. W. A. and Bureau of Public Roads were at their height. Since the middle of 1936, owing largely to the completion of projects operated by these two agencies, employment under agencies exclusive of W. P. A. and Emergency Conservation Work has declined gradually. A total of slightly over 400,000 persons were employed by these agencies by the end of December. DATA ON EMPLOYMENT PROVIDED ON PROJECTS OF WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION, EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK, AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES BY STATES I am submitting detailed data on employment provided by each agency in each State. (The tabulations appear below.) Week ending TABLE 2.-Works program employment, by major agencies, excluding administrative employees July 1935 to December 1936 Dec. 28. 10 1145 68223 3 Less than 500 persons. Employment during week ended Dec. 12, 1936. 1 Does not include persons receiving rehabilitation loans and grants. 2 Does not include employment on Bureau of Public Roads projects previously authorized under the Hayden-Cartwright Act, but financed by $100,000,000 apportioned to States out of the funds provided by the Emergency, Relief Administration Act of 1935. NOTE.-Signed Works Progress Administration, Division of Research, Statistics and Records. |