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Prior to the Great Depression, relief of poverty was a minor part of state government activity. The state had long maintained that charitable institutions, individuals, churches, or local governments were the best sources of assistance for the destitute, thus supporting a concept of public relief that can be traced even beyond colonial times to the English poor law system of the sixteenth century. North Carolina made one of its earliest efforts to address the plight of the unemployed in December of 1930 when Governor O. Max Gardner created the Governor's Council on Unemployment Relief. Subsequently, relief committees were organized in eighty-two counties to identify needs, and local governments were encouraged to provide work-relief jobs. Funds were raised, then administered by such organizations as the Salvation Army, and the Community Chest. In March of 1931 the General Assembly commended the governor's action and passed a joint resolution requesting a report on the council's findings. By the following year, Congress acknowledged that local efforts could not adequately serve the needs of countless citizens affected by the depression. Under the federal Relief and Reconstruction Act of 1932, Congress authorized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make funds available directly to the various states. In September of that year, Governor Gardner created the Governor's Office of Relief as the agency to direct a program of both direct financial assistance and work relief in North Carolina for those persons able to hold jobs. Existing private and public agencies were used to direct the program in the various political subdivisions throughout the state, and local advisory boards were appointed in each unit. In choosing work projects, authorities were charged with selecting public works of permanent value that would not have been undertaken without access to federal funds. These projects included highway and road maintenance; construction and repair of public buildings; beautification and improvement of school grounds, other public buildings, and municipal parks; drainage efforts and water and sewer extensions; geodetic surveys; lunches for school children of families on relief; and other work benefitting communities at large. These activities under the Governor's Office of Relief constituted a pioneer program for the state, conducted with no regulation by the federal government. The Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 superseded the Relief and Reconstruction Act, and all unused funds were transferred to the new Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). By the end of May, North Carolina received its first grant of federal funds under provisions of the Federal Emergency Relief Act. The state's efforts to combat the effects of the depression continued to be administered by the Governor's Office of Relief until August 1933, when the relief effort was reorganized as the North Carolina Emergency Relief Administration (NCERA) to conform with requirements of FERA. At that time the governor appointed a state Emergency Relief Commission consisting of six members and one director to serve as a policy-making and advisory body and to interpret the policies of FERA. Administrative responsibility for the Emergency Relief Administration was vested in the state relief administrator who was directly responsible to the state Emergency Relief Commission and to the federal administrator. Although the NCERA itself functioned as a state agency, the federal relief administrator held direct control over all state agencies, with authority to grant or withhold funds, and power to assume full control of any agencies when deemed necessary. Since it was national policy for all states that were financially able to provide matching funds, the federal relief administrator requested that North Carolina contribute equally. In response, Governor John C. B. Ehringhaus insisted that the state was already providing all the assistance it could. Although the federal administrator relented, North Carolina did not receive as much funding as most other southern states--nor were its projects funded by FERA as numerous. Under guidelines issued by FERA, administrative and program activities of its state counterparts were divided into three major divisions, each headed by a director. The Accounting and Auditing Division was charged with establishing a uniform system of accounting and with exercising financial control in all the local administrations. To discharge its obligations, the division employed a chief auditor and a staff of field auditors. The Work Relief Division was required to select work projects and maintain performance standards. The third division, Social Services, was in charge of establishing social work policies and approving social work personnel in the local administrations. Following federal policies, the primary objective of the NCERA during the initial stages of its organization was to provide subsistence financial assistance as a temporary means of relief for distressed persons. During the early stages of the NCERA operations, funds for projects and personnel were generally distributed locally by county government officials. Since FERA's regulations specified that federal funds be administered by public agencies, the private agencies formerly directing relief activities in the cities and larger towns were taken over by the NCERA and converted into public agencies. During 1933 Congress also established emergency conservation work for the purpose of giving employment to thousands of unemployed young men and to perform useful public works in areas such as conservation, protection, and restoration of the forests and wildlife; control of soil erosion and floods; and development of public parks, recreational and historical areas. In an executive order of 5 April 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established this program as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC worked cooperatively with various agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor. The latter department was responsible for enlisting the state Emergency Relief Administrations as recruiters for the various CCC programs. From the outset, the NCERA became the state selection and enrollment agency, screening all candidates and having authority to recruit local agencies to assist them. The CCC Selection Division of the NCERA was responsible for working out the details of selecting the CCC candidates, known as juniors, setting local quotas to meet the state's quota, and transporting candidates to the initial acceptance stations following examinations by the U.S. Army. The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) was another program that developed a cooperative relationship with the Emergency Relief Administrations at the federal and state level. The CWA was erected in November of 1933 to undertake construction projects such as building airfields, bridges, and sidewalks, and its programs were established in various states, including North Carolina. Under federal policies governing the CWA, the state and local Emergency Relief administrators already in place were charged with serving also as CWA administrators. After four months of operation of the CWA, President Roosevelt decided to discontinue the agency and transfer its activities and funding to the NCERA offices. Following the transfer of the CWA functions to the state, the entire program of the NCERA was reorganized under the three major divisions of Social Service, Works, and Rural Rehabilitation. The primary objectives of the expanded agency were to establish long-range programs for the rehabilitation of stranded populations and destitute persons in rural areas; and to provide work for the unemployed through a comprehensive program to conserve natural resources and promote public works and various professional services not in competition with private business. Under the reorganized program, the Social Service Division became the foundation of the other divisions and programs. Social Service was given responsibility for determining who was eligible for direct relief, work relief, or rehabilitation; for evaluating the extent of need of each applicant; and for deciding budgetary requirements. The division was also charged with assisting individuals and families with problems and with encouraging and assisting families in obtaining employment in the private sector. The division continued efforts begun before the reorganization of the NCERA, working with a variety of agencies and placing clients in other federal programs, such as the National Youth Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the U.S. Employment Service, and the Soil Conservation Service. Also, in anticipation of passage of the federal Social Security Act of 1935, the Social Service Division conducted a survey of relief families to determine the extent of need in all cases with potential for coverage under the Social Security Act. Working with local administrations, the Social Service Division examined in detail the individual relief records of over 105,000 relief families in the state. Though closely related to the Social Service Division, the Transient Division was formed in 1934 specifically to direct the care of homeless and nonresident individuals and families. In addition to the state office in Raleigh, the division established centers in Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh, Salisbury, and at camps in several rural locations. The State Works Division supervised and coordinated the activities of all district and local works divisions so that uniform procedures were followed throughout the state. By May of 1934 most of the important former CWA projects had been approved as Emergency Relief Administration projects. An important adjunct of the CWA was the Women's Division, initially established by FERA to initiate and promote various projects that would provide suitable work for trained and untrained women. During the latter period of the CWA's operation, all women's projects except those involving clerical work and lunch room work were suspended. After the reorganization, however, the Works Division established a Women's Work Department; thereafter, employment options were expanded to include jobs in public health, public welfare, surveys, research projects, and recreational programs. The Rural Rehabilitation Division emerged during 1934 as another major program of the NCERA. During the previous year the administration of Governor Ehringhaus had authorized a survey of farm tenant families in eleven counties to be submitted to the emergency relief director of FERA. A rehabilitation plan based on the survey was developed and was put into effect on 1 April 1934. The Rural Rehabilitation Corporation, which was both non-profit and self-liquidating, was incorporated under state charter in October of 1934 for the purpose of giving direction to the rural rehabilitation program. The corporation was organized as a finance corporation to handle all the business activities of the division and, like many other chartered corporations, it was permitted a wide scope of activities. All financing of clients was solely through the Rural Rehabilitation Corporation, so that the client's indebtedness was to only one organization. Following the merger of the CWA with the NCERA, the former Accounting and Auditing Division was reorganized as the Finance Division. Subsequently, all statistical and financial work carried on separately under previous divisions was transferred to the Finance Division, and a state statistician was added to the staff to compile reports for both the state and federal offices. As part of the reorganization in 1934, the NCERA employed bonded disbursing officers in each local administration and made these officers responsible to the local administrator and to the chief auditor for the disbursement of funds. The NCERA also conducted several special needs programs in addition to the activities carried on through its major divisions. One of these was the Emergency Education Program, initially authorized in a memorandum from FERA in August 1933, for the purpose of giving work to needy, unemployed teachers. The program placed eligible teachers in rural elementary schools and in literacy campaigns for adults unable to read or write. In May 1934 the program was placed under the new division of Emergency Relief Education and was expanded, subsequently becoming involved in vocational rehabilitation, workers' education, parents' education, and nursery schools. In 1934 the General Assembly authorized Governor Ehringhaus to appoint a special Rural Electrification Commission, but made no provision to finance its work. Subsequently, the governor received cooperation from the NCERA in conducting a survey by the Rural Electrification Commission, to determine the extent of the state's needs. The project contributed to the NCERA's effort to provide work for unemployed technical and professional persons, and to aid in the development of rural life. In early 1935 President Roosevelt addressed Congress in his State of the Union message and outlined plans to supersede the federal Emergency Relief Administration with a new program of emergency public employment. Roosevelt's intent was to divorce work programs from direct relief and to return to the states by the end of the year the duty of providing funds for the relief of unemployables. Using authority granted by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 1935, the president issued executive orders the following May to create two new agencies: the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to administer works projects for the able-bodied unemployed; and the Resettlement Administration (RA) to address problems of rural poverty and to administer approved projects involving resettlement of destitute or low- income families from rural and urban areas. The RA was designated to take over the rural rehabilitation and land programs initiated under FERA--such as those of NCERA's Rural Rehabilitation Division. (The RA was transferred by executive order in 1936 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and its name was changed to the Farm Security Administration by the secretary of agriculture in an order effective 1 September 1937.) In May of 1935 the General Assembly recognized the North Carolina Rural Rehabilitation Corporation (NCRRC) as a state agency and designated it as the successor of the NCERA when it ceased operation at the end of the year. Under terms of the enabling act, the NCRRC was limited by the terms of its original charter, but was given generally broad powers as a social and financial instrumentality. It was also authorized to accept loans, grants, and other assistance from the federal government. During late 1935 Governor Ehringhaus submitted a request to FERA for a final relief grant to North Carolina. In keeping with federal recommendations, the governor asked for sufficient funds to integrate the remaining relief activities into the ongoing work of the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare and the local welfare units. Approximately two hundred thousand dollars was granted by FERA to the state for that purpose, and the funds were transferred to the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare for use at the beginning of 1936. With the promise of these funds to strengthen programs, the state and county welfare agencies were charged with the responsibility of coordinating relief efforts. In addition to routine duties, the county units were to work with the unemployable as well as those eligible for employment through continuing federal programs such as the WPA and the CCC. REFERENCES: P.L., 1931, Resolution 27. P.L., 1935, cc. 288; 314, ss. 1, 2; 459. Badger, Anthony J. NORTH CAROLINA AND THE NEW DEAL. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1981. Pp. 40-50. Corbitt, David Leroy, ed. ADDRESSES, LETTERS AND PAPERS OF JOHN CHRISTOPH BLUCHER EHRINGHAUS, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1933-1937. Raleigh: Council of State, 1950. Pp. 320-321, 390-391, 475. Cutter, Walter A., ed. PIONEERING IN RURAL REHABILITATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. Raleigh: North Carolina Emergency Relief Administration, n.d. Kirk, J. S., Walter A. Cutter, and Thomas W. Morse, eds. EMERGENCY RELIEF IN NORTH CAROLINA: A RECORD OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA EMERGENCY RELIEF ADMINISTRATION, 1932-1935. Raleigh: North Carolina Emergency Relief Commission, 1936. Leuchtenburg, William E. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL: 1932-1940. New American Nation Series, edited by Henry Steel Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Pp. 140-142. Powell, William S. NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Pp. 292-293, 488-495. Roosevelt, Franklin D. PUBLIC PAPERS AND ADDRESSES OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. Vol. 2, THE YEAR OF CRISIS, 1933. Compiled and collated by Samuel I. Roseman. New York: Random House, 1934. Pp. 107-110, 329-337. ---. Vol. 4, THE COURT DISAPPROVES, 1935. Compiled and collated by Samuel I. Roseman. New York: Random House, 1938. Pp. 143-156, 163-168. U.S. Superintendent of Documents. MONTHLY CATALOG: PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. January-December 1937. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1937-1938. P. 1127. |
