Editing Works Progress Administration (section)

==Evolution==
[[File:Colonel Harrington 2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Francis C. Harrington]], WPA national administrator 1938–40]]
On December 23, 1938, after leading the WPA for three and a half years, [[Harry Hopkins]] resigned and became the [[Secretary of Commerce]]. To succeed him Roosevelt appointed [[Francis C. Harrington]], a colonel in the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] and the WPA's chief engineer, who had been leading the Division of Engineering and Construction.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|417–420}}

Following the passage of the [[Reorganization Act of 1939]] in April 1939, the WPA was grouped with the [[Federal Highway Administration|Bureau of Public Roads]], [[General Services Administration|Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division]], Branch of Buildings Management of the [[National Park Service]], [[United States Housing Authority]] and the [[Public Works Administration]] under the newly created [[Federal Works Agency]]. Created at the same time, the [[Federal Security Agency]] assumed the WPA's responsibility for the [[National Youth Administration]]. "The name of the Works Progress Administration has been changed to Work Projects Administration in order to make its title more descriptive of its major purpose," President Roosevelt wrote when announcing the reorganization.<ref name="FDR on FWA">{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15748 |title=Message to Congress on the Reorganization Act |last=Roosevelt |first=Franklin D. |date=April 15, 1939 |website=The American Presidency Project |publisher=Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley |access-date=2015-06-29}}</ref>

As WPA projects became more subject to the state, local sponsors were called on to provide 25% of project costs. As the number of public works projects slowly diminished, more projects were dedicated to preparing for war.<ref name="Leighninger Cultural Infrastructure"/>{{Rp|227}} Having languished since the end of World War I, the American military services were depopulated and served by crumbling facilities; when [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|Germany occupied Czechoslovakia]] in 1938, the U.S. Army numbered only 176,000 soldiers.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|494}}

[[File:WPAMapMakersGoToWarNewOrleans1941.jpg|thumb|WPA researchers and map makers prepare the air raid warning map for New Orleans within days of the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] (December 11, 1941).]]
On May 26, 1940, FDR delivered a [[Fireside chats|fireside chat]] to the American people about "the approaching storm",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/speeches/speech-3316 |last=Roosevelt |first=Franklin D.  |title=Fireside Chat 15: On National Defense (May 26, 1940)|publisher=Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia |access-date=2016-02-25}}</ref> and on June 6 Harrington reprioritized WPA projects, anticipating a major expansion of the U.S. military. "Types of WPA work to be expedited in every possible way to include, in addition to airports and [[air base|military airfields]], construction of housing and other facilities for enlarged military garrisons, camp and cantonment construction, and various improvements in navy yards," Harrington said. He observed that the WPA had already made substantial contributions to national defense over its five years of existence, by building 85 percent of the new airports in the U.S. and making $420&nbsp;million in improvements to military facilities. He predicted there would be 500,000 WPA workers on defense-related projects over the next 12 months, at a cost of $250&nbsp;million.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|492–493}} The estimated number of WPA workers needed for defense projects was soon revised to between 600,000 and 700,000. Vocational training for war industries was also begun by the WPA, with 50,000 trainees in the program by October 1940.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|494}}

"Only the WPA, having employed millions of relief workers for more than five years, had a comprehensive awareness of the skills that would be available in a full-scale national emergency," wrote journalist Nick Taylor. "As the country began its preparedness buildup, the WPA was uniquely positioned to become a major defense agency."<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|494–495}}

Harrington died suddenly, aged 53, on September 30, 1940. Notably apolitical—he boasted that he had never voted<ref>{{cite news |last=Associated Press |date=October 1, 1940 |title=WPA Head Dies in Connecticut |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1940/10/01/page/16/article/f-c-harrington-wpa-head-dies-in-connecticut |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=2016-02-25 }}</ref>—he had deflected Congressional criticism of the WPA by bringing attention to its building accomplishments and its role as an employer.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|504}} Harrington's successor, Howard O. Hunter, served as head of the WPA until May 1, 1942.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{Rp|517}}