xt7n028pgj2c https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7n028pgj2c/data/mets.xml United States. Work Projects Administration Works Progress Administration Administrative Publications United States. Work Projects Administration 1941 1 sheet (folded): illustrations 44 x 31 cm folded to 23 x 11 cm UK holds archival copy for ASERL Collaborative Federal Depository Program libraries. Call Number: FW 4.2:D 36 books  English Washington, D.C.: Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Works Progress Administration Administrative Publications United States -- Work Projects Administration United States -- Armed Forces -- Military construction operations Military bases -- United States -- Design and construction National Defense and the WPA, 1941 text National Defense and the WPA, 1941 1941 1941 2021 true xt7n028pgj2c section xt7n028pgj2c  

NATIONAL
DEFENSE

AND THE WPA

F ESERVATION
“’ copy *

 

 WHAT THE WPA HAS DONE
TO STRENOTHEN AMERIOA

ork of many kinds, important to national defense,
Whas been done by the Work Projects Administration
ever since it began to provide public work for the
unemployed in 1935.

In addition to other public improvements and serv-
ices, the VS PA has constructed or enlarged or otherw .
improved some 550 landing fields for aircraft. This is
85 percent of all work done on American airports in
the past five and one-half years.

WPA workers have also built or impro 'ed more
than 15,000 military and naval building , such as
barracks and office ’ quarters, mess halls and kitchens,
armories, storage buildings, and garages.

Other WPA work at military and naval reservations
includes installation of utilities, road building and rail-
way extension, and construct 1 of gun ranges and
maneuver grounds, docks and wharves.

EXPANSION OF DEFENSE WORK

hen our national defense program got under way

in summer 1940, Congress authorized an expansion
of \VPA defense work. Since then, defeI '0 projects
have had priority. By mid-December, I 'ojects worth
$350,000,000 were in operation, and the total value
of all defense projects operated by the WPA since its
establishment had risen to well over $80 000,000.

Besides other defense work, the WPA is new building
and improving roads that give acce to airports,
military and naval reservations, and centers of defense
industr ; doing work on strategic highways designated
by the War Department; and operating health and
sanitation projects in the vicinity of training camps.

T ousands of WPA workers are being trained for
jobs in defense industries; others, as aviation ground
servicemen, and as hospital orderlies and ward helpers.

White-collar acth s include research and records
projects related to defense, making maps and surveys
for the Army, and education and recreation work in
areas of military or industrial concentration.

In all these ways, our men and women who cannot
find private employment make their own contribution
to national defense. And in so doing, they become
effectively a part of our American democracy, with
faith in its institutions and a stake in its future.

THE WPA HELPS THE NATION

TO PUT ITS UNEMPLOYED

 

TO WORK ON NATIONAL DEFENSE

PROJECTS

 

 Army posts, to accommodate a prospective land force
of 1,400,000 men, will need more and better facilities.
The \VPA has already done work at 80 percent of all
Army reservations. This is the receiving room of a
WPA-built infirmary at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina.

 

Navy yards and other shore facilities will become in-
creasingly important as our Navy grows. The WPA
has done work at 90 percent of all naval establishments.
It built these overhead crane tracks, as well as racks
to store armor plate, at Portsmouth, N. H., Navy Yard.

Vocational training of workers for skilled jobs in defense
industries is increasingly important. Thousands of
WPA workers with proven aptitude and work habits
are attending classes to fit themselves for such jobs.
Thousands have already graduated into private em—
ployment. This is a machine—shop class at Los Angeles.

Educational activities of the WPA are being extended to
Army and Navy reservations and centers of defense
industry. Classes are conducted to meet special needs.
This is a class in typing, intended to help soldiers with
their “paper work,” at Barksdale Field, in Louisiana.

THE WPA HELPS THE NATION

National Guard armories in 1935, in one out of three
cases, were reported inadequate for training purposes
or safe storage of rifles and other Federal property.
Since then, the TVPA has built or improved 600 in all
parts of the country. This one is in Oklahoma.

Training stations are as indispensable to the Navy as
yards, ordnance plants, and ammunition depots. This
barracks building was erected jointly by the \VPA and
the Public \Vorks Administration, at the U. S. Sub-
marine Base & Training School, New London, Conn.

Good roads are essential in these days of motorized
movement. Already the WPA has built or improved
over half a million miles of roads; and it is now em—
phasizing construction of “access” and reservation
roads, and improvement of strategic highways. These
troops are on maneuvers near Fort Benning, Georgia.

Morale is the foundation of defense. A former WPA
worker, John Lawton (right) of Massachusetts, was
the first man taken into the Army under Selective
Service. “Uncle Sam gave Inc a job when I needed it,”
he said. ”I’m glad to do my bit for Uncle Sam now.”

PUT ITS UNEMPLUYED TO WORK ON

 

 

 

r

Training camps today are far better equipped than they
were in 1918. Thanks in many cases to the WPA,
they have proper drainage and sewerage, and either
ample barracks or tents with concrete foundations and
electric lights~like these at Fort Hancock, New Jersey.

Seaplane bases as well as land airports must be developed
to meet increases in our air force and our pilot-training
program. (Such work also benefits civil aviation.)
This shows a compass-calibration platform built by
WPA workers for the Coast Guard at Salem, Mass.

Americanization work is being carried on by the WPA
through literacy classes for aliens seeking citizenship
and also through classes and discussion groups in the
field of public affairs. These men are preparing to
become American citizens by learning new to read
and write lin a WPA literacy class at Columbus, Ohio.

Wholesome recreation is being increasingly provided by
the WPA in areas of military and industrial concen-
tration. The program includes supervised entertain—
ment, sports and games of many varieties. This is a
WPA-conducted dance at Mitchel Field, Long Island.

NATIONAL DEFENSE PROJECTS

 

  

 

 

 

itt,

Our new soldiers benefit from many a WPA improvement. These mem-
bers of an antiaircrait unit are eating in a WPA-built mess hall at Camp
Edwards on Cape Cod. Army officials have commended both WPA
work already done and the speed with which new projects are begun.

Our new aviators generally learn to fly at WPA-built or -improved air-
ports. This shows a student pilot and his instructor at Lockport, 111.
Emergency expansion of our military air force and pilot-training program
has emphasized the importance of WPA airport work from coast to coast.

TO BUILD UPIITS DEFENSES

WHAT ARMY AND NAVY MEN SAY

Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff:
“111 the great task of preparing for national defense,

I the WPA has proved itself an invaluable aid.”

Robert P. Patterson, Under Secretary of War:

“The WPA is helping to provide the facilities which
make it possible for us to mobilize and train an Army
adequate for the defense of America.”

Lewis Compton, former Asst. Secretary of Navy:

“From my own personal inspection, I can testify to
the high value of the contribution which WPA workers
are making to our national defense.”

Brig. Gen. H. A. Dargue, Asst. Chief of Air Corps:

“Without the help of the \VPA, we should be far
short of our present state of preparedness for air
defense.”

Maj. Gen. John F. Williams, Chief of National Guard:

“Our task of training and caring for our men will
be much easier this year than it was in 1917 and ’18,
because of the construction and improvement work
that the WPA has done at training facilities throughout
the country.”

Admiral Wm. D. Leahy, former Chief of Naval Operations:

“Without the help of WPA workers, we would be
unable to complete our vitally important defense
facilities as rapidly and efficiently as we must.”

WPA DEFENSE WORK*
Landing fields for aircraft. 205 new, 338 improved, and so additions.

Alrport buIldings. 57o erected, 1,101 improved, and 82 additions built.
These include: '

New Improved Additions
Hangars ............ 180 277 22
Administrative buildings . . . 92 (32 21

Other airport buildings . . . . 298 762 39

Other defense bUIldlngS (chiefly Army‘a’nd Navy property). 2,043 new,
12,646 improved, and 280 additions. These include:

New Improved Additions
Barracks 328 1. 048 2
Ofl'leers’ quarters 23

Storage buildings ....... 362

Mess halls and kitchens . . . . 431

Garages ............

Arinories

Administrative buildings . . .

Barns and stables

Hospitals and infirmaries . . . '

Other buildings ........ 775 2, 653

Defense roads. 1,061 miles of roads built or improved on Army and
Navy reservations. (Accomplishment figures are not yet available for
work done on “access" roads and strategic highways.)

Defense utilities (an Army and Navy land). 130 utility plants, 226 miles
of water lines, 239 miles of sewers, and 204 miles of telephone and tele-
graph lines built or improved.

 

*These figures cover 65/; years of WPA operation, to December 15, 1940.

 

FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
JOHN M. CARMODY, Administrator

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
HOWARD O. HUNTER, Commissioner

April 1941 16—21499 II. 5. GOVERNMENT PRINTING orrrcr:

KY

11111

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