The decision to pay lower wages limited the number of experienced foremen, while many of the workers feared that completion of their present project might mean unemployment. During that time, the WPA built 600,000 miles of roads and highways and tens of thousands of buildings and bridges as well as many other projects. The WPA employed 3 million people in its first year and over 8 million during its eight years in existence. The goal of the WPA was to fund only useful projects that provided wages large enough to offer material security but not so large as to draw workers away from employment in the private sector. In contrast to the purpose-driven citizens who spent each day engaged in honest labor, Roosevelt suggested that the dole created “a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.” Roosevelt declared that the government “must and shall quit this business of relief.” Offering direct cash payments was “to administer a narcotic,” Roosevelt believed.

The first priority of the WPA, the president declared, was to transfer an estimated 3.5 million Americans from the relief roles to the payroll of federal works projects. Most WPA workers were engaged in construction projects, although the WPA also employed writers, musicians, artists, and actors through various programs., which together with future allocations would spend $11 billion over the next eight years. The goal of the WPA was to be an employer of last resort for those who otherwise would not have jobs and would presumably find their way onto relief roles. The WPA spent an estimated $12 billion and employed over 8 million people during its eight years of existence, although usually only about 1.5 million were employed at any given time. The flagship program of the “big bill,” as Roosevelt called it, was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) A federal jobs program created in 1935 and administered by Harry Hopkins. Funds were also allocated for the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration, an agency that financed publicly owned electric cooperatives that provided power to most rural communities for the first time. This agency provided part-time work for college students and was designed to both finance student education and delay the entry of young adults into the full-time labor market. Among the programs this bill created was the National Youth Administration.

In April 1935, Congress approved a massive spending bill that authorized over $4 billion in new projects. Although he used PWA funds efficiently, critics believed Ickes moved too slowly in creating jobs. In addition, the PWA was under the management of the frugal Harold Ickes. In contrast, job growth had been slow within the PWA due to the planning required before beginning major construction projects. The short-lived CWA had created the number of jobs needed to spur recovery, but it had been dismantled due to the haphazard nature of the program and escalating costs which expanded well beyond the CWA’s anticipated budget. Roosevelt and Congress agreed it was time to move beyond the limited federal jobs programs that were created in 19. However, there had not been any significant economic recovery, and unemployment levels remained near their 1932 peak. As the 1935 legislative session began, the US economy was more stable than it had been when Roosevelt took office.

3. the wpa spent money on the arts.