When Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped into the White House on March 4, 1933, the country was gripped by the Great Depression. Bank failures and record unemployment were ravaging the nation. Roosevelt knew Americans wanted a confident president who could lead them through the storm, and he was determined to hit the ground running.
One of Roosevelt’s early plans to counteract the Depression was the establishment of the Civil Works Administration, or CWA. The CWA was designed to create jobs for unemployed Americans. From the beginning, Roosevelt intended it to be a temporary program, offering immediate relief during the winter of 1933-1934. The CWA provided construction jobs to improve or build buildings, roads, and bridges. Rural areas, including North Dakota, benefited the most. Grand Forks County was able to put over 2,000 people on the payroll thanks to the program.
Although the CWA employed four million workers, critics claimed there was nothing of permanent value in the program. Roosevelt responded, saying the criticism reinforced his original vision of the CWA as a temporary solution. He announced the program would end in March 1934. But not everyone agreed with ending it. With increased employment and improvements across the state, North Dakota objected to the program's end. On this date in 1934, the Bismarck Tribune reported that North Dakotans had sent a resolution to President Roosevelt protesting the proposed end of the CWA. The resolution warned of “starvation and misery” without it.
The CWA ended in November 1934, but it was not the end of aid to North Dakota. The program was the precursor to the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, which picked up where the CWA left off. Schools were improved in Valley City and Wishek. A swimming pool was built in Oakes. The city hall in Beach was upgraded. Communities across the state saw new water and sewage systems, libraries, baseball diamonds, parks, city halls, and courthouses. Though the CWA isn’t as well-known as the WPA, it laid the groundwork for the public works projects that helped pull the country out of the Great Depression.
Dakota Datebook by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- Bismarck Tribune. “Protest to Roosevelt Against CWA.” Bismarck ND. 3/6/1934. Page 1.
- North Dakota State University Library. “WPA.ND.” https://library.ndsu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/bddbd19e-8602-4ad4-bc85-8a7c4ec4948c/content Accessed 2/5/2025.
- People’s World. “This Day in History: FDR Unveils the Civil Works Administration.” https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/today-in-labor-history-fdr-unveils-civil-works-administration/ Accessed 2/5/2025.
