AGENCIES OF 1935

National Labor Relations Board: This independent agency was created to promote organized labor. It holds secret ballots to determine whether a company's employees wanted to unionize; it also prevents unfair practices by either employers or unions. After the NLRB was formed, organized labor received a significant boost in this country. By 1941, there were 10.5 million unionized workers, three times as many as a decade before.

Rural Electrification Administration: This agency was created to raise the standard of rural living, and to stop the migration of rural Americans into the cities. After the REA was created, nine out of ten farms received electricity for the first time. Ironically, electrification did not slow down migration into the cities, but actually sped it up after machines replaced countless farm hands.

Works Progress Administration: The WPA created a massive labor army out of the unemployed - so massive, in fact, that Republicans charged it was a Democratic vote gimmick. In 1934, there were over 11 million unemployed; the WPA, over its eight-year span, put 8.5 million of them to work, at a cost of approximately $11 billion. The agency's construction projects produced more than 650,000 miles of roads, 125,000 public buildings, 75,000 bridges, 8,000 parks and 800 airports.

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