“Here’s the Deal,” Joe Biden—We Need a Big Jobs Program Now

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A WPA worker receives a paycheck, 1939.

A WPA worker receives a paycheck, 1939.
Priority employment in the WPA went to those in need of relief.
Photo Credit: Courtesy National Archives

In his first Inaugural Address in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt confronted the Great Depression with a promise of “action and action now.” Fast forward 88 years. In the face of a worsening pandemic and a sliding economy, Biden made the same pledge: “In this moment of crisis,” he said, “we have to act now…. we cannot afford inaction.”

Biden has moved quickly to propose a supplement to Unemployment Insurance (UI), bigger cash tax credits and an extra one-time payout of $1,400.  Many unemployed adults, however, don’t qualify for UI. Jobless workers without children will get little-to-no help from a larger Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. The extra $1,400 will only stretch so far.

President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins

President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins
A close advisor to FDR, Hopkins was an architect of New Deal relief programs.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Library of Congress

What Biden has not yet proposed is a large, federally subsidized jobs program. His “Build Back Better” plan calls for 18 million good paying jobs, mostly in infrastructure. But he has not yet presented Congress with specific legislation. The nation needs action and action now.

The New Deal’s jobs programs show the way. From the start, Roosevelt made clear that his “primary task” was getting unemployed Americans back to work.

In his First 100 Days, FDR created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and tapped Harry Hopkins to run it. He told the Washington newcomer: Get immediate and adequate relief to the unemployed, and pay no attention to politics or politicians. Three days later, Hopkins got to work and within an hour sent $5 million in cash relief to four million destitute American families.

Hopkins immediately recognized, however, that unemployed workers did not want a handout. They wanted jobs. FERA soon offered not just cash relief, but the opportunity to earn the same amount through work relief. Instead of a handout, it provided the dignity of employment.

Unemployment office, 1938

Unemployment office, 1938
“Jobless men lined up for the first time in California to file claims for Unemployment Compensation.”
Photo Credit: Photo by Dorothea Lange. Courtesy, Social Security Administration

In November 1933, Roosevelt and Hopkins went much further. The experimental Civil Works Administration (CWA) offered the unemployed real jobs that paid the prevailing wage. Within a month, the CWA hired four million to carry out over 4,000 projects.

The program was temporary. Hopkins regretted its end in 1934. He saw the CWA as proof that unemployed Americans wanted to work and as the best model for providing them jobs until they could be absorbed into the regular labor market. With the CWA in mind, Hopkins lobbied for an Employment Assurance Corporation to serve as the employer of last resort.

The Social Security Act of 1935 lacked a permanent job assurance program. Nevertheless, FDR, who disfavored what he called “the dole,” told Congress: “Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers.”

Why Can't You Give my Dad a Job?

Why Can't You Give my Dad a Job?
1937 Photo by Daniel HagermanPublic Domain

The result was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which under Hopkins’ leadership provided millions of subsidized jobs over its seven-year run. The WPA ranks among the New Deal’s most successful programs. It might have lasted longer but for the nation’s shift to a wartime economy.

The New Deal’s history holds valuable lessons for the new Administration. “People don’t eat in the long run,” Hopkins said, “they eat every day.” The most powerful antidote to poverty is immediate employment and decent wages. With adequate earnings, most Americans can keep food in the refrigerator, avoid eviction or foreclosure and meet life’s other necessities.

So, here’s the deal, Mr. President. Just as FDR’s New Deal rested firmly on jobs programs like the CWA and WPA, your program to Build Back Better requires a large, permanent federal jobs program that will quickly put millions of Americans back to work—and by doing so, restore not only our economy but our faith in government as well.

 

Dr. June Hopkins is the granddaughter of Harry Hopkins, professor emerita at Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus, and author of “Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer.” David Riemer is a Senior Advisor on the Workforce for Social Security Works and author of “Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0.”

Matanuska Colony Community Center (Palmer Historic District) – Palmer AK

Reply

What is now the Palmer Alaska Historic District was founded in 1935 as the Matanuska Colony Project. It was one of 100 New Deal resettlement programs and involved major efforts by FERA and the Resettlement Administration. The town site of Palmer expanded rapidly with the relocation of 203 colonists from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1935 under the Relocation project.  Prior to that the area was composed of homesteads primarily. The Palmer Historical Society has a Colony House Museum that is a ‘house’ as it would have been in 1935-1945.  It is an original colony house moved into the historic district.

A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes formal characteristics of the district: “Within the boundaries of the Matanuska Colony Community Center there are twenty-seven buildings, one site, two structures, and one object. They stand in a nine block area in the City of Palmer. Eighteen buildings, two structures, and one site are contributing properties in the historic district. […]

The contributing properties were built between 1935 and 1940 as part of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration’s (FERA) Matanuska Colony rural rehabilitation project. A non-profit organization, the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation (ARRC) incorporated to implement the plan. Centered around a quadrangle, the integrated community center reflects early community and land use planning. The community center buildings originally shared many of the same building elements. One to three stories in height, all buildings were frame construction and most had rectangular floor plans.”

The Matanuska Colony Community Center consists of the following properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places:

  1. Water Tower (AHRS Site No. ANC-747).
  2. Warehouse (AHRS Site No. ANC-711).
  3. Cannery/Creamery (AHRS Site No. ANC-478, later known as Mat-Maid Building).
  4. Alaska Railroad Siding (AHRS Site No. ANC-755).
  5. Chicken Hatchery (AHRS Site No. ANC-480).
  6. Palmer Depot (AHRS Site No. ANC-089).
  7. ARRC Administration Office (AHRS Site No. ANC-690).
  8. Beauty/Barber/Cobbler Shops (AHRS Site No. ANC-479).
  9. Trading Post (AHRS Site No. ANC-477).
  10. Central School (Borough Building, AHRS Site No. ANC-483).
  11. Quadrangle Site (AHRS Site No. ANC-754).
  12. Dormitory (AHRS Site No. ANC-481).
  13. School Superintendent’s House (AHRS Site No. ANC-693).
  14. Manager’s House (AHRS Site No. ANC-692).
  15. Accountant’s House (AHRS Site No. ANC-694).
  16. Staff House #1 (AHRS Site No. ANC-751).
  17. Staff House #2 (AHRS Site No. ANC-695).
  18. Staff House #3 (AHRS Site No. ANC-696).
  19. Staff House #4 (AHRS Site No. ANC-698).
  20. (a & b) United Protestant Church and Parsonage (AHRS Site No. ANC-248).

 

Campbell House – Palmer AK

Reply

This 1935 Colony House was built as part of the New Deal resettlement program that brought colonists from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to Palmer Alaska in 1935.

The building has recently been restored and accepted to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the recent Recipient of the 2013 Alaska Association for Historic Preservation Award of Excellence.