Today in labor history May 6 FDR signed Executive Order 7034 & appropriated $4.8 billion for the WPA

[Omaha Steve]

May 06



May 6, 1935
With the country sunk in the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034 and appropriated $4.8 billion for the Works Progress Administration. The WPA put millions of Americans to work constructing buildings, painting murals to decorate them and performing plays for audiences that had never before seen a dramatic production. In the process, many were saved from poverty and starvation.

400 black women working as tobacco stemmers walk off the job in a spontaneous revolt against poor working conditions and a $3 weekly wage at the Vaughan Co. in Richmond, Va. - 1937

Labor history found here: http://www.biglabor.com/history.php & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_05_06_2009

[MannyGoldstein]

1. But FDR Never Gave Cash to Bankers nt

[Captain Hilts]

2. FDR did not reinforce existing power structures. He created new ones.

FDR: Isn't that right, old girl?
ER: Indeed it is, darling. We wouldn't have had it any other way! That Capt. Hilts is so astute!

[Captain Hilts]

3. Kick.