Public Works in the Post-Emergency Period

Report Outline
Stabilization of Employement by Public Works
Proposed Permanent Public Works Program
Long-Range Problems in Public Works Policy
Special Focus

Stabilization of Employement by Public Works

Prosperity resulting from the current defense program has been viewed with a dubious eye by leaders of industry and labor, and by large sections of the general public. Remembering that depression followed” the last war, experts and commentators are almost unanimous in pointing out the dangers of deflation, unemployment, and business collapse when defense production is tapered off. Widespread attention is already being devoted, therefore, to plans for meeting the anticipated difficulties of the post-emergency period.

In England, Arthur Greenwood, minister without portfolio in the Churchill cabinet, was recently relieved of other duties to devote his full time to plans for post-war reconstruction. In the United States, several federal government agencies have already undertaken studies for the same purpose and a resolution by Senator Wagner (D., N. Y.) to create a Post-Emergency Economic Advisory Commission “to study the problems likely to confront the nation at the conclusion of the defense emergency” is pending in the Senate.

Almost all proposals for smoothing the transition from emergency production to normal peace-time activities include public works construction as a major feature. The National Resources Planning Board has begun the task of studying and coordinating specific plans for future public works projects, to be ready with basic data if a post-emergency program is given advance approval by Congress. In a memorandum to Chairman Frederic A. Delano dated January 4, 1941, President Roosevelt wrote: