FDR - Jean Edward Smith [223]
The Social Security Act of 1935 was far from perfect. Despite Roosevelt’s desire for universal coverage, only 60 percent of the labor force was initially insured. Farm laborers and domestics—two categories of workers who needed security most—were not covered, nor were teachers, nurses, and those who worked in firms employing fewer than ten people.* Benefits for other programs, such as unemployment compensation, aid to the handicapped, and support for dependent children, varied substantially from state to state.84 And the provisions for health care and housing that FDR had originally requested proved impossible to obtain. Nevertheless, passage of the act marked a watershed in American history. The responsibility of the nation toward its citizens was redefined. “If, as our Constitution tells us, our Federal Government was established among other things ‘to promote the general welfare,’ ” said FDR, “it is our plain duty to provide for that security upon which welfare depends.”85
The second item on Roosevelt’s 1935 agenda was to curtail relief and find jobs for the unemployed. In his State of the Union message on January 4, FDR recommended “the orderly liquidation” of existing relief agencies and the adoption of a national plan to provide work for 3.5 million people currently on the dole. “The Federal Government,” said the president, “is the only governmental agency with sufficient power and credit to meet this situation.”86 Congress responded on April 8 with the largest appropriation in American history: $4.8 billion for Roosevelt to spend largely as he saw fit.87
With the money in hand, the question for FDR was how to organize work relief. The choice was whether to rely on Harold Ickes and a monumental program of public works or turn to Hopkins who surely knew how to put money in circulation. The rivalry between Hopkins and Ickes to be top dog spending the $4.8 billion was intense. Ickes claimed Hopkins wanted to prime the pump with a fire hose; Hopkins called Ickes stubborn and self-righteous.88* Ultimately FDR turned to Hopkins. “Ickes is a good administrator,” the president told Donald Richberg (who had succeeded Hugh Johnson at the NRA), “but often too slow. Harry gets things done. I am going to give this job to Harry.”89 Roosevelt hived off about a quarter of the appropriation for Ickes, gave a small amount to Agriculture secretary Wallace, but awarded the bulk to Hopkins. On May 6, 1935, the president issued an executive order establishing the Works Progress Administration (WPA), “which shall be responsible to the President for the honest, efficient, speedy, and coordinated execution of the work relief program as a whole, and for the execution of that program in such manner as to move from the relief rolls to work on such projects or in private employment the maximum number of persons in the shortest time possible.”90 Hopkins was appointed director; his mandate was to put people to work.
For Hopkins, administering an ongoing work relief effort proved far more complicated than managing the spurt of seasonal jobs provided during the winter of 1933. Federal contracting regulations intervened, paperwork increased exponentially, and on-site supervision became exceedingly time-consuming. Hopkins’s small but dedicated staff was initially overwhelmed. Assistance came out of the blue from an unlikely source: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Mr. Hopkins was having a great difficulty getting underway,” said General Lucius D. Clay, later military governor of Germany. “And I went over with General [Edward M.] Markham [chief of engineers] to see Mr. Hopkins, and said, ‘We would like to lend to you, in each of your regions, a capable, competent Engineer officer who would bring with him a capable and competent chief clerk who knows how to disperse and set up public funds, just to get you going.’ ”
Clay said Hopkins was very suspicious at first but accepted the offer, and the Corps sent many of its best officers to assist the WPA: Colonel