Work Pays America




 

"This Nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work."

First Inauguration Speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt


On Works Progress Administration (WPA) public works. Reel 1, highways and streets are graded and paved. A concrete bed is laid for an Atlantic City reservoir. Shows airports at Newark, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia under construction. Buildings are razed in slum clearance projects. A sewerage project is completed. Reel 2, traffic control studies are made. Auto drivers are given fitness tests. Trachoma patients in rural areas are examined by traveling nurses and taken to WPA clinics. Shows supervised play and child care at WPA nursery schools, and adult education classes. Reel 3, murals are painted at the West Point Military Academy. WPA units present stage shows. Reel 4, WPA units carry out relief projects in flooded areas and in dust-bowl sections. Director Harry Hopkins inspects flooded areas in 1936. Food and medical supplies are delivered to dust storm victims. Dams are constructed to check erosion. Reel 5 shows park and playground areas that have been improved by WPA projects. Includes shots of Fort Niagara, restored colonial forts, and Abraham Lincoln landmarks in Springfield, Illinois.

Work Pays America, was released in 1936. Produced by the Works Projects Administration (WPA), it presents an overview of WPA public works projects. Included are descriptions of construction projects, traffic control studies, medical and childcare, and the work of the Federal Arts projects.
 

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Work Pays America