The Works Progress Administration in Oregon: An Administrative Overview

The depression of the 1930s had an early effect on the state of Oregon. A decline in timber and agricultural production resulted in severe unemployment in the late 1920s. State and local charitable organizations attempted to care for the unemployed but they did not have the financial resources to do so. Although President Herbert Hoover was worried about the effects of the growing economic crisis on the business community, he continued to believe that the depression would be short lived despite the worsening social conditions. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president he initiated a series of measures aimed at ending the depression and bringing people back into the work force. Among those measures was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In Oregon the WPA built upon earlier state relief organizations. However, unlike the earlier Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the WPA was a federal organization staffed with federal employees. Its programs were run according to federal guidelines and regulations and much of its funding came from the federal government. Those guidelines often worked against the state programs. The mean