Relief

Sponsors' contributions have varied with the financial resources of the community, the character of the public improvements it de sires to carry out, and the gravity of the local unemployment prob lem. They have averaged about 2o% for the nation as a whole since July 1937. Beginning Jan. 1, 1940, the average of sponsors' contributions for each State is required by law to be 25% of the total cost of projects subsequently approved and initiated.

During the fiscal year 1938-39, the Federal Government's cost was about $61 per man month of employment, including average wages of $52.50 a month, materials $6.5o and $2.00 for adminis tration. These costs will be increased, though not substantially, in consequence of a revision of wage policies laid down by the Congress in the 1939 appropriation act which forbids geographical differences in excess of differences in the cost of living. The new wage schedule ranges from $31.20, the lowest unskilled wage in the rural South, to $94.9o, the highest professional wage in the cities of the North.

One of the complications in the security wage which had hitherto affected the efficiency of WPA operations was removed by the 1939 relief act. This was the requirement that prevailing hourly wages be paid on WPA projects, a requirement that necessitated the determination of monthly hours so that total earnings at the prevailing hourly wage rates would not exceed the applicable monthly security wage. This tended to result in a limited number of hours of work per month that often varied greatly between different classes of workers on the same project. Under the new provision all WPA workers must work 13o hours a month in order to earn their security wages.

About 8o% of WPA activities are in the construction field, while 2o% represent goods projects (canning projects and sewing rooms for women) and white collar projects.

There is little space here to discuss the variety or the value of WPA accomplishments. For this the reader is referred to the U.S. Community Appraisal Report, representing a survey con ducted by ten independent national organizations and summarizing reports from nearly 8,000 communities. Ninety-five per cent of the reports state that WPA work has been worth while and of permanent value to the community. The reader is also referred to the periodical inventories of physical accomplishments published by the WPA, which give detailed figures both as to construction and non-construction projects.

The Federal Works Agency, 1939.

Under the Governmental Reorganization Act of 1939, the Works Progress Administration (renamed the Work Projects Administration) has been consoli dated with four other public works agencies (the Public Works Administration, the U.S. Housing Authority, the Public Roads Ad ministration, and the Public Buildings Administration) to form the Federal Works Agency. The consolidation into one agency is intended to achieve a close co-operation between work projects and contract public works which was first attempted in the Works Program of 1935. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Na tional Youth Administration which were included in the Works Program of 1935 were transferred to the Federal Security Agency under the 1939 reorganization.

In the new Federal Works Agency, the WPA continues to oper ate work projects, taking its workers from the relief rolls, and pro viding the bulk of all Federal emergency employment.