Critics of the Works Progress Administration saw it as nearly communist, but the agency, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as a Depression-era stimulus package, delivered a solid return on investment. A piddling program by 2010 standards, it spent $165 billion (inflation adjusted) over seven years. (Compare that to last year's $787 billion stimulus.) The result: some 8 million jobs; thousands of roads, parks, and public facilities, such as San Antonio's Riverwalk and New York's LaGuardia Airport; and myriad works of writing and art created for the nation. New York painter Marcus Rothkowitz got $1,500 in today's dollars per month for turning in a piece every four to six weeks. The WPA was "a godsend," said the artist later known as Mark Rothko, "to so many who needed help." 
-- JEFF CHU

thu, april 08
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