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Affiliation: referring to artists employed by the WPA from 1935-1943.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was instituted
by presidential executive order under the Emergency Relief Appropriation
Act of April 1935, to generate public jobs for the unemployed. The WPA
was restructured in 1939 when it was reassigned to the Federal Works
Agency.
By 1936 over 3.4 million people were employed on various WPA programs.
Administered by Harry Hopkins
and furnished with an original congressional allocation of $4.8
billion, the WPA made work accessible to the unemployed on an
unparalleled scale by disbursing funds for an extensive array of
programs. Hopkins argued that although the work relief program was more
costly than direct relief payments, it was worth it. He averred, "Give
a man a dole, and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a
job and you save both body and spirit."
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