New Deal Accomplishments

Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) provided financing for the building of at least 24,170 new freight cars and the repair of 40,877 existing freight cars. The freight car above is an X31 automobile box car, one of 7,000 freight cars PWA financed for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1934. Sources: (1) Statistics from a PWA accounting report, highlighted in, "PWA Aided By Gain On Rails: Government Investment In Carrier Bonds Helped by Business Increase,"  Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance , in  The Oklahoma News  (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), November 22, 1936, p. 4; (2) "New Car Contract Nears Completion; P.R.R. Files Report," Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), December 12, 1934, p. 10. Photo from "Pennsylvania Builds New Automobile and Flat Cars," Railway Age, Vol. 96, No. 13 (March 31, 1934), p. 462. Unknown photographer, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes . Above: The PWA's financing of freight c...

Above: Very early on there was a New Deal concern for dental health. These photos show dental health projects conducted by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) between 1933 and 1934. The exact nature of these projects is not described, but they were probably designed to teach children good brushing habits, at CWA-run nursery schools and/or dental clinics.  Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes . Above: A CWA dental clinic in New Jersey.  Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes . Above: "CWA Dental Clinic No. 2," a lithograph by Elizabeth Olds (1896-1991), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 19...

Above: One of the one million+ new culverts that the WPA installed across the United States. This photograph, taken on May 8, 1936, shows a 48-inch corrugated metal culvert installed on the Foxville Farm-to-Market road in Frederick County, Maryland.  Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives . Above: Another WPA culvert project in Frederick County, Maryland, this one on the Burkittsville-Petersville Farm-to-Market Road, April 20, 1937.  Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives . Above: A WPA-installed culvert on Lake Shore Drive, Cleveland, Ohio, ca. 1936. Photo from the National Archives . Above: The description for this photograph, taken in Binghamton, New York, between 1935 and 1943, reads, "One of the 2 culverts built by WPA workers in the city. This project is known as the Bayless Ave. Culverts and employed 37 men." Photo from the National Archives . Above: The description for this photograph, taken on April 24, 1939, reads, ...

Above: These women are employed in the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA, 1933-1934). It's unclear how many school and library books CWA workers repaired, but it was certainly a very large number. Newspaper archives are filled with articles such as: "Library Assisted With CWA Money: 5,375 Books Repaired On Outlay of $742" ( The Scranton Republican , Scranton, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1934, p. 7); "Women of CWA Repair 8,887 Books In County" ( The Picket-Journal , Red Lodge, Montana, January 25, 1934, p. 1); and "20,000 School Books Cleaned and Repaired" ( Reno Evening Gazette , Reno, Nevada, February 19, 1934, p. 10, noting CWA).  Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes . Above: Americans employed in the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA...

Above: Whenever there are economic downturns the unemployed are demonized. It happened during the Great Depression, the Great Recession (see, e.g., here and here ), and it will happen again-- like clockwork --during the next economic calamity. People with media megaphones will try to convince us that things would be perfectly fine if "lazy-good-for-nothings" would simply get off the couch and find a job. It is a habitual and gross distortion of reality, and lets the rich and powerful off the hook, no matter what crime, fraud, or mistakes they made that caused or contributed to the problem. Marriner Eccles, a successful banker and the Fed Chairman from 1934-1948, said in 1933: "The present condition [i.e., the Great Depression, unemployment] is not the fault of the unemployed, but that of our business, financial, and political leadership." Further, and as the image above makes clear, there is a grand irony to the demonization of the unemployed; and that is this: t...