(See front cover)
¶ More bathtubs in Arab, Ala. and more
open plumbing in Beech Grove, Ind.
¶ A new home for Virgin Islands lepers;
new nuts & bolts for the Alaska Railroad.
¶ Waterworks for Spearfish, S. Dak. and
a sewer system for Poulsbo, Wash.
¶ A fresh coat of paint for Washington's
Howard University and a new roof for
the post office shops in Washington.
These and a hundred similar projects President Roosevelt approved last week to launch the greatest public works program ever seen in U. S. history. Definitely sanctioned was the first spending under the National Recovery Act as a means of providing new jobs. For this purpose Congress had authorized the President to borrow $3,300,000.000. It was the President's intention to use this sum down to the last cent, if need be, to help boost the U. S. to higher economic ground.
$115,513,610 Starter. But President Roosevelt was not stepping out on a wild spending spree, as his careful and cautious start last week indicated. Eighty cents out of every Federal dollar spent was meant for wages and the President was determined to make each dollar count in reducing breadlines and taking families off public charity. The first batch of projects approved called for a total outlay of $115,513,610 of which $64,561,542 was for purely Federal purposes. The largest single item was $38,000,000 to press forward with Boulder Dam. The balance was to be used mostly for renovation and repairs on Government plants. Another $50,000,000, as required by law, went for roads in national parks and forests and on Indian reservations. Twenty-five municipalities, none larger than Montgomery, Ala. (pop. 66,000) got $952,068 for waterworks and sewer systems. Of this sum 30% was an out & out gift to each town and the balance was a loan which the Government expected to be repaid. It was estimated that this expenditure of $115,513,610 would supply 21,517 men with work for one year.
Though the President had full responsibility for this monster program and final approval of each construction job rested with him, its actual direction fell to his Secretary of the Interior, short, thin-thatched, bespectacled Harold Loy Ickes. Last fortnight President Roosevelt 'made Secretary Ickes Administrator of Public Works, put him in complete command of that phase of the National Recovery Act.
Ickes Week. During his first week on the job as Public Works Administrator, Secretary Ickes:
¶ Reached his office every morning by 8 o'clock or before.
¶ Worked there three nights until after 11 o'clock.
¶ Missed his milk-&-sandwich luncheon at his desk four times. ¶ Divided the U. S. into ten public works districts, preparatory to having the President appoint a regional administrator in each.