A1189 GOV* Pub
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^ * ^FEDERAL YJORKS AGENCY
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION,.
Howard 0. Hunter
Acting Commissioner
Florence Kerr Harvey E. Becknell, Director
Assistant Commissioner Research and Records Projects
RESEARCH AND RECORDS PROJECTS, ^ -f < tr
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Research and Records Program
Organ!sation
The Research and Records Projects, as their name indicates,
embrace within their program two major categories of activities: (l)
Research projects, which collect, compile, tabulate, summarise, and
analyze factual information; and (2) records projects, which inventory
public records, install new records, or improve existing ones hp organ¬
izing, rrorganizing, classifying, or-indexing them.
These projects are sponsored hp the established agencies
of government, national, state, and local, with the two latter groups
playing the larger role. Under the governmental system of our
American democracy it is the state and local governments which per¬
form the great majority of day-to-diy functions for the body po?itic.
During each month of the past yean* the average number of
U?A—pa-id workers employed on Research and Records Projects was
approximately 85,000. The activities of this vast corps of worxors
have furnished governmental agencies throughout the country with in¬
formation and operating instruments which they could not otherwise
have obtained because of the limited resources of botn public and
private bodies interested in improving government and extending
knowledge. Through the research projects the bane of human knowl¬
edge is being widened, pevtiailnrly in the fields which tnis
democracy ha.s delegated to its agencies of government; through the
records projects, which provide them with more effective working
tools, these agencies arc improving their ability to servo the
public and perform their functions speedily, accurately, and
coui te.bly,
Out standing contributions have been and arc daily being-
made to almost every field of knowledge. Research projects provide
information concerning housing, land use, tan delinquency, tan
assessment, traffic, transportation, health, public welfare, crime,
cdue felon, natural resources, agriculture, silviculture, economics,
sociology, commerce, tra.de, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology,
history, chemistry, physics, metallurgy, medicine, law, and politi¬
cal science.
Records projects malic it possible for the agencies of
government to cpora.to more efficiently and in many instances a.t
lower ultimate coot. Public records are maintained primanily for
the convenience and protection of citizens, and simple modern
record-keeping structures promote the fulfillment of this purpose.
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Government;?.! agencies are enabled, to apoly tax laws more justly
and to provide citizens with accurate inforr.ir.tion on the many
points, such as age, citizenship, land ovmership, and even
scholastic achievement, where complex modern society demands
documentary proof. Adequate research into the activities and
problems of government is also facilitated.
P-5U
WPA 9524
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Public Administration Progra,m
Each of the projects which constitute the Public Admin¬
istration program is designed to assist some bureau, department,
agency, or office of government in the more efficient performance
of its assigned duties, by improving its day-to-day administrative
devices or gathering data essential for the determination of policy.
Probably a greater number of citizens are affected directly in
their daily lives by the Public Administration program than by any
other group of Research and Records Projects. The fields in which
this arograra operates are chiefly those where the average citizen
is most a;.,-are of the government's functioning as it relates to him -
the protection of property rights, the levying and collection of
tares, and the passage of laws and ordinances.
Indexing
Ever since the King of England granted 1and patents to
companies organized to colonize and trade, the recording of rights
to property in what is now the United States has boon an essential
function of those alio governed it. There are no records more
vital to our economic and social system than the land records and
consequently none which it is more essential to maintain accurately
arid accessibly. In hundreds of recorders' offices throughout the
country, ViPA workers have boon engaged in the task rehabilitating,
indexing, organizing or reindexing the land records. Indexes by
grenters (sellers) and grantees (buyers), and by tracts or lots rued
blocks lia.ve been installed.
Similar stops have been taken for the improvement of
other types of records in other offices. The highly important
group of -vital statistics records - records of births, deaths,
marriages, and divorces - are being indexed, organized, repaired,
bound, and prejorved. In the courts, workers axe preparing indexes
to pL-.ir.tiffs, defendants, adminis treat )rs, guardians, wills, estates
entered for probate, notaries public, lis pendens, liens, and
judgments.
Tax Records
Many towns, vill >-cc, cities, counties, and in some in¬
stances whole stales arc being mapped to determine whether or not
all lands which axe required by law to be listed for tax purposes
have been so listed. It appears probable that the number of acres
previously omitted from t.ao tax rolls which arc located through
this medium will be equivalent to the total acreage of the three
smallest states in the Unior. In addition, alteration is being
called to instances whore tax payers heave been paying taxes on
more land than they owned or -where two tax payers unknown to each
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other have been paying taxes on the same parcel of land.
Many taxing units, particularly cities, are sponsoring
projects to collect data on both improved and vacant real property
which will m;iee it possible for assessors to give similar treatment
to similar properties. Injustices have grown up in the past be¬
cause assessing officia.ls have not had adequate records or informa¬
tion upon whicn to base their assessments.
Upon occasion, taxing units attempting to take tax deeds
upon delinquent property have found themselves without the power
to gain title because the property description under which the
tax w.-.s levied was illegal or the record was incorrect. This
situation deprived them of the ability to sell the property in
order to restore it to the tax-producing class. The installation
of norc adequate records and accounting systems makes it im¬
probable that these unfortunate instances will bo repeated in the
future.
Public Property
A large number of governmental bodies have never had a.
satisfactory system for maintaining an inventory of publicly-
owned realty or personalty. WPA projects arc repairing this lack
by instp.lling pcrpctuol inventory systems and inaugurating centrally
controlled purchasing systems. These projects result in direct
and almost immediate fiscal benefits to the communities sponsoring
them.
Codification of Ordinances
Other projects operating throughout the country .arc
indexing the governing body's proceedings and codifying the
ordinances of counties, cities, towns, and villages. These
projects have revealed that in many municipalities ,rfinances
arc still in effect which should have been repealed years ago;
they arc relics of the "horse end buggy" days which serve no
current administrative need. In other instances it has been found
tn.at two ordinances passed at different times and not repealed
either conflicted or duplicated each other wholly or in part. One
city police department made the uncomfortable discovery that an
ordinance requiring all trucks to be equipped with speedometers
which it was enforcing had. been introduced into but never passed
by the common council.
Res carch
Research projects operating in the field of public .admin¬
istration help to determine administrative policies of the
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governmental afencios concerned, iui-1 often lend to modification
of laws, Ilony of these -rtrojects Investigate such aspects of
taxation or nubile finance as the ratio which exists between
the assessed value and the true value of real property, the
fluctuations in tax rates, ana the trends of governmental
receipts and disbursements. Other study the organization and
functions of government as well as the effects of rcorganizatio
which, ht.vo been made. Studies of the income tax statements sub
nittod by tax payers in the past act as a guide to further
legislation covering such taxes.
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Historical Records Survey Program
Since September 1, 1939, the activities formerly carried
on by the Historical Records Survey as a "unit of Federal Project
Ho. 1 have been continued as a series of state-wide projects
operating in all states and the District of Columbia, The sponsors
of these projects are state bureaus, departments, or educational
institutions, which may be classified as follows: State Archive
Departments, 13; Universities, 12; Historical Societies, 7; State
Libraries, 5; State Departments and Secretaries of State, 5; and
other bureaus of departments, 9.
The object of these projects is to increase the accessi¬
bility to public officials, scholars, and the general public of
the archival and other source materials for the history of our
country. As the means of achieving this end they prepare and
duplicate inventories of Fedora.!, state, county, municipal, and
other local public archives; inventories, guides, and calendars
of manuscript collections, including church archives; and in¬
ventories of books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the
United States and its territorial possessions prior to January 1,
1891, and newspapers located in the United States. They also
transcribe selected older and more important archives and manu¬
scripts as a measure of preservation and arrange archives, manu¬
scripts, and printed material whore such treatment is necessary as
a, preliminary step to the preparation of inventories and the im¬
provement of the storage and public availability of archives.
Inventories of Public Archives
The most important single activity of this section has
been the. preparation and duplication of the archival inventories.
These inventories arc not end products in themselves, as are the
final reports of many other research projects, but are tools de¬
signed to equip the scholar adequately for further research. In
the process of preparing the inventories it lias been necessary for
the Historical Records Survey projects to produce a "frame of
referonce" in the form of brief histories of the governmental
units concerned as well as summaries of the legislation under
which these governmental agencies have evolved.
Early American Imprints
Another important aspect of the Historical Records
Survey program is bibliographical research. The phase of this
field to which emphasis is being given at present is the list¬
ing of American imprints issued prior to certain datc limits.
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For the Rocky Mountain states this date lir.it is 1891 but for
the other states it is 1877, the year after the United States
Catalogue began publication. This .activity will serve the
nation as a whole and the scholars in particular in good stead
in the years to come. Its results take the form of inventories
of the printing produced by a. particular state or locality for
specified periods, with indications of the present location of
known copies of each item. An incidental but highly significant
result of the American Imprints Inventory is the feeding of
thousands of new titles and new loce.tions into t-xC Union Catalogue
at the Library of Congress, through the process of checking all
imprints listed by the projects against the Catalogue to determine
whether they had been previously recorded.
Manuscripts
The light which is shed upon historical events by the
letters, diaries, and'other personal papers of the individuals
who participated in them needs little emphasis. The fact that
official records and semi-official documents closely related to
others in the public archives frequently find their way into
private manuscript collections increases the importance of this
category of source materiel to scholars in many fields. The
preparation by the Historical Records Survey projects of guides
to the country's depositories of manuscript collections, of more
detailed analyses of the holdings of particular institutions, and
of itemised lists of the contents of especially significant
collections is a service of inestimable value to scholars, li¬
brarians, and others \?ho deal with research materials.
The records of churches and religious organizations
are also a major source of data on American social history and
in many cases they arc the only source from which vital statistics
can be obtained for the long period before the official registra¬
tion of such informal ion became compulsory.
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Social Survey Program
Hie Social Survey program is a kaleidoscope of projects
embracing such diverse yet related fields as population, .employ¬
ment, unemployment, industry, occupations, trade, family income
and expenditures, crime, juvenile delinquency, relief, welfare,
heath, and disease. The preponderance of certain of these fields
of study over the others and the nature of the information sou,-pat
vary from time to time, as the character of the program is adjusted
to meet changing conditions, newly arisen needs, or the increased
urgency of particular social problems.
The majority of projects are designed to study specific
problems, Thoy may result promptly in remedial measures; or they
may investigate the character and extent of the problem, indicat¬
ing that the solution will require many years but frequent^
pointing the direction in which such a solution must lie. Some
projects have a less immediate purpose, attempting merely to
supply data, which increase man's knowledge of himself and his
social and economic structure, rather than to resolve a. concrete
problem. The information supplied by projects of this kind, how¬
ever, is an arsenal of potential weapons with which in the years
to come problems now almost unforsccn can be defeated as they
arise.
Governmental agencies are displaying a growing interest,
reflected in the trend of the Social Survey program, in developing
integrated consolidated projects or scries of projects which marshal
e„s much information an possible for the better planning of govern¬
mental services, in addition to the special undertaking devised to
study a special problem.
Typical Surveys
The largest proportion of the Social Survey projects which
hn.vo operated up to the present were conceived as tools to aid in
planning and legislation. Studies of social security and relief ad¬
ministration have pointed out certain deficiencies in the control of
both. Specialized studies in the fields of crime and uolicc report¬
ing have helped many communities to achieve a better understanding
of the social and administrative problems involved. The survey and
analysis of existing urban recreational facilities has focused
attention on areas where these were inadequate or unsuited to
the group they were intended to serve.
Industrial studies have demonstrated the need for new
approaches to the problems of government's relationship with in¬
dustry. Surveys of youth in the labor market may indicate that
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nor; rales of apprenticeship arc required or they may shed light
on the educational, vocational, and recreational needs of youth.
She development of governmental programs <..irectod to¬
ward public health needs depends to a largo ovtent upon the
collection and interpretation of factual information regarding
disease and health.
Other typos of Social Survey projects and the needs which
they serve are almost as numerous as the complexities of modern
society.
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land Use and Hour,in,;- Survey ProATa.ni
Although the projects which comprise the Land Use and
Housing Survey progrojn .are social surveys, tliey are sufficiently
specialized and unified in character to be considered as a distinct
program. These projects attempt to analyze -and appraise man's
activities in two directions: his efforts to provide himself with
o. domicile, and the \xses to which he pxits his principal resource,
land.
Housing
Prior to the Uorld Uar, the role plryed by American
governments in the field of housing was largely a passive one,
confined chiefly to enforcing minimum standards with regard to
such features as sanitary facilities and ventilation. Beginning
with the Uorld War period, however, end to an ever increasing
extent since that time, our governments have tended to take more
positive steps to secure bettor housing for their citizens,
especially the low income groups, either by offering inducements
to private agencies in the wa;y of loans and tax exemptions or,
less frequently, by engaging in the construction of low cost houses.
A natural outcome of this trend was the creation during the depression
period of national agencies such as the Federal Housing Administration,
the United States Housing Authority, and the Resettlement Administra¬
tion, to which were assigned specific tasks relating to the improve¬
ment of housing.
As a result of their increasing responsibility with regard
to housing, local, state, end national governmental agencies were
confronted with a need for accurate, detailed information on the
condition end adequacy of existing structures. The Real Property
Inventories and Low Income Housing Area Surveys which are being
made by T7PA research projects in all carts of the country are the
result of that need. Realization of the problems involved in rum-J.
housing is growing and the number of projects in that field is ex¬
pected to rise steadily.
Land Use
In urban areas land use is closely related to housing
and data on both are needed for better city planning, zoning, and
slum elimination. The character of the neighborhood in which his
house is situated and the relation of that neighborhood to the
other sections of the city are almost as important to man in
seeking a satisfactory domicile as the structure itself.
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Land use in rvrnl areas has a direct bearing on the
conservation of water, forest, and other natural resources and
also on such problems as needs for recreational areas. The
loud use surveys conducted as a part of the "dPA research progra.:
c,re furnishing sto.te agencies and county land use committees wit
the ba.sic data which they require for land use planning. In¬
creasing interest is also being shown in the rural-urban fringes
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Traffic Survey Program
The Traffic Survey program is maae up of projects which
study the movements of people, their vehicles, and their goods
over the arteries designed to carry them. State and comity high¬
way and road commissions, police departments, traffic departments,
planning commissions and hoards, and similar agencies sponsor
these projects, recognizing that the need for such surveys will
e;:ist as long as accidents, problems of congestion, and problems
of movement continue.
There are only five states in which traffic survey projects
nave not operated. Thirty state governments have sponsored projects
state—wide in character, and sixteen comities have had county--ide
projects. In addition, traffic projects have functioned in about
140 cities.
Surveys
An important type of project in the field of traffic
research is the rural highway planning survey. Projects of this
character, operating in conjunction with 27 state highway depart¬
ments and the United States Public Roads Administration, have
accounted for an expenditure of four and. one-half million dollars.
Lass transportation surveys, school bus transportation surveys,
grade-crossing studios, end surveys for the solution of particular
problems such as safest routes for school children are other
typical studios.
These projects involve the securing of information from
existing records and field surveys and the tabulation, summariza¬
tion, and graphic presentation of data. The da.ta to which such
treatment is given arc intended for use in achieving practical
solutions to problems involving the economics of operating trans¬
portation facilities, methods of financing improvements, the
planning of new facilities, the installation and construction of
a. vide variety of engineering improvements for the reduction ox
accidents and. facilitation of traffic movement, the improvement
of police and court procedure, and the intelligent direction of
safety educational efforts. The analysis and interpretation of
data, the development of recommendations for improvements, and
tiic- writing of final technical reports r.re the responsibility of
the sponsors of traffic survey projects, although project workers
furnish clerical assistance in the preparation of the reports.
Records
The Traffic Survey progran includes records projects
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as well as research projects. Workers install improved modern
record-keeping systems. Some of these are designed to he of
maximum utility in accident prevention work, others are designed
to make adequate maintenance of traffic control devices possible
while others make better traffic law enforcement possible.
Education and UniversIty Research Program
Projects of this type have been of great assistance
to state and local boards of education and to colleges and uni¬
versities throughout the nation. The more effective and economi¬
cal cal operation of oar educational systems and the progress of
scholarly research are facilitated by projects which install
record systems, augment original research, complete administra¬
tive investigations and surveys, and systematize unorganized in¬
formation for the use of fixture scholars.
Education
Studies have been made to appraise the adequacy of
existing school buildings and to determine present and future
school needs on the basis of the trend and geographic distribution
of the school population. Information of this kind makes possible
accurate estimates of the basic amounts which must be spent for edu¬
cational purposes and minimizes misdirected effort and waste in
school construction.
Educational standards .:xrc being raised and techniques
arc being improved by studies of the effectiveness of teaching
methods and school curricula. Llany communities have adopted,
revised, or extended testing programs which measure mental
ability, achievement, aptitude, interests, and Vhavior.
IIorm.nl children have been studied as well as "problem" children
and mentally and physically handicapped children. Special
studios have also been ria.de in the field of vocational guidance.
Modern record systems such as emulative student personnel
records, teachers' record systems, ar.d records of educational board
meetings have been installed in many parts of the country.
Uni v c r s i ty P.c s c ar ch
The area in which University Research pi",;ccts render
technical or clerice.l assistance to research under a .kings is as
broad and diversified as the scope of scholarly investigations.
Conducted under the 11motion of competent scholars in all
branches of university activity, these projects accelerate human
mastery of the fields of onemistry, "biology, rhysics, botany,
zoology, medicine, bacteriology, pharmacology, ag"-1' cvltu1*-, silvi¬
culture, metallurgy, radio-a.ctivity, lav/, sociology, economics,
language, phonetics, axithropolovy, pal- ontolo/y, and archaeology.
In the latter two fields, projects arc ?„iso opera-tod
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by museums and other institutions for the excavation of pro-
historic sites raid mounds, particularly in locations which
might soon be transformed in order to meet men's present needs.
Historic material which might otherwise be destrc .5 is col¬
lected in a scientific manner to be used in museums and by
scholars.
The results of project activities in these fields of
research are usually given more general availability through-
incorporation into articles in learned journals.
WPA ARCHEOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL PROJECTS
★ Statewide projects
A Non-statewide single or
multiple unit projects
WPA 3520