Civil Works Administration

The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to rapidly create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933 and put Harry L. Hopkins in charge of the short-term agency. Roosevelt was convinced that jobs were much better for everyone than cash handouts.

The CWA was a project created under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). The CWA created construction jobs, mainly improving or constructing buildings and bridges. It ended on March 31, 1934, after spending $200 million a month and giving jobs to 4 million people.

Read more about Civil Works Administration:  Accomplishments, Opposition

Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or works:

    The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman’s soul.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast
    crowned him with glory and honor.
    Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
    Bible: Hebrew Psalm VIII (l. VIII, 5–6)