The Great Depression Poster Analysis

The attached image is a poster created by the Works Progress Administration, a temporary work relief program, during the great depression. While promotional materials from the WPA largely depicted the work they had provided or projects they had undertaken, this one is quite different. Its main message is one of general safety for workers of all stripes. The caption acknowledges the dangers that everyday laborers face and encourages caution in avoiding them. Such advice coming from the employers was, at the time, rare. Corporations, motivated primarily by profit, cared not for worker safety and prioritized economic efficiency. Consequently, they rarely promoted worker safety publically. It was not until the genesis of the WPA, a government program

The formation of the WPA helps to explain not only the message expressed by the aforementioned poster but the reason its main idea was novel. During the early 1920s, the Great Depression had devastated the American economy and displaced millions of workers. As historian John L. Robinson wrote in his book The Great Depression, “The calamity’s paralyzing severity and dismaying persistence enveloped the whole republic; nationwide statistics reveal that fully a third of the workforce was unemployed, and by 1933 the nation’s business activity had plunged to half that of 1929.” With such a substantial portion of the workforce unable to provide for themselves, the federal government assumed an active role in alleviating hardships once President Franklin Roosevelt took office. The first attempted mechanism of aid was direct relief: states were allocated millions of dollars to provide the unemployed with necessities in the form of food vouchers. Instead of employing those who had lost work, the original programs consisted largely of such direct relief. For instance, in Pennsylvania, workers were given necessities such as milk and bread and expected to survive on such rations rather than with wages earned through

For even when workplace reform was enacted in the early twentieth century, reform efforts specifically targeted employers rather their workers. The Great Depression was preceded by an epoch known as “The Progressive Era,” which was a time of unprecedented workplace safety improvements. However, the vast majority of the reform was governmental regulation targeted at specific industries and practice. Historian Andrew M. Scott of the University Chicago writes of the societal and governmental changes that occurred during this time period in his article “The Progressive Era in Perspective.” He clearly shows that the task of reform was exclusively dictated by the government. For instance, in 1912 dissatisfied workers formed the progressive party, which was concerned largely with issues of poor work conditions (among other things). The main goal of this party was governmental regulation of business, immigration, and other aspects of society. Its candidate in the election of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, garnered more than 4,000,000 votes, indicating that the public affirmed the need for governmental intervention at the federal