INTRODUCTION

The President's Organization on Unemployment Relief (POUR) and its predecessor, the President's Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE), were established for the nationwide coordination and stimulation of plans, programs, and activities to provide employment and relief during the economic depression that began in 1930. The Emergency Committee itself was preceded briefly by a committee organized by the President on October 17, 1930, consisting of six members of the Cabinet (the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, the Interior, Labor, the Treasury, and War) and of the Governor of the Federal Reserve Board. This committee was to consider plans for meeting the unemployment problem of the coming winter by strengthening and supplementing State and local efforts to that end, by developing in cooperation with industry methods for increasing employment, and by encouraging the construction of needed public works. On October 21, 1930, however, the President announced the appointment of Col. Arthur Woods to take charge of organizing this program. Colonel Woods was under instructions to organize a special committee of which he would be chairman and the Cabinet committee was relegated to an advisory capacity.

The function of the Emergency Committee, as it developed, was not to undertake any direct action to increase employment or to reduce unemployment but rather to guide, facilitate, and coordinate the efforts in those directions of governmental, especially State and local, bodies and of quasi-public and private organizations. In pursuing this essentially advisory function the Woods Committee (as it was informally known) did not develop a fixed organizational pattern. There were changes from time to time as its operations progressed. The offices whose functions are outlined below are representative of the organization at the height of its activity.

The Public Works Section maintained and released statistics of public, semi-public, and private works projects. The Relief Division maintained close coordination with the Red Cross, Community Chests, family welfare associations, churches, and other national and local welfare and employment organizations for the purpose of appraising estimates of relief needs, informing the organizations of relief methods, and promoting relief fund drives. The Industrial Section undertook special studies of industrial and business organizations to ascertain how they were stabilizing and stimulating employment and were alleviating the effects of unemployment, and it sought to promote construction activities by public and semi-public bodies. The Women's Division undertook to instruct women in the part they might play in combating the depression; engaged in campaigns for prudent spending, proper nutrition, and home improvements; and cooperated with women's organizations in their unemployment relief and job-finding work. The Statistical Division prepared charts, tables, and maps containing official unemployment and relief data. Seven regional advisers and other field representatives of the Emergency Committee had the responsibility of spurring the organization of State and local employment and unemployment relief committees and of coordinating their work on

an intercommunity basis. The Publicity Section widely publicized the activities of the Committee and other groups and prepared the Committee's press releases. The Secretary (assisted by the Chief Clerk) handled personnel and other housekeeping activities for the Committee, including the maintenance of its files.

In April 1931 Colonel Woods left his position as chairman and on May 1, 1931, F. C. Croxton was appointed as acting chairman of the Committee. The Committee was reorganized on August 19, 1931, as the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, with Walter S. Gifford as Director. To assist Mr. Gifford, the President appointed a nationwide Advisory Committee. There were also created the following committees from the membership of the Advisory Committee: (a) the Committee on Employment Plans and Suggestions, headed by Harry A. Wheeler; (b) the Committee on Program of Federal Public Works, headed by James R. Garfield; (c) the Committee on Mobilization of Relief Resources, headed by Owen D. Young; (d) the Committee on Administration of Relief, headed by Fred C. Croxton; and (e) the Committee on Cooperation with National Groups and Associations, headed by Eliot Wadsworth.

With a somewhat different staff and the membership of the abovenamed committees, the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief ("Gifford Organization") continued the Emergency Committee's work of stimulating and coordinating the activities of local, State, and national relief and employment agencies; sponsoring unemployment relief programs; encouraging public works construction; and serving as a clearinghouse for ideas and information.

Since Congress failed to make a deficiency appropriation of $120,000 to enable the Organization to continue its work until June 1933, the Organization was terminated on June 30, 1932. A few of the officials transferred to the Emergency Relief Division of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, where they answered correspondence as late as March 1933 and liquidated the affairs of the Organization. By Executive Order 6060 of March 2, 1933, the President directed the transfer of the records of both the Committee and the Organization to the Department of Commerce and ultimately to the National Archives.

The records described in this inventory are those of the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, 1930-31, and its successor, the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, 1931-33, in the National Archives. These records constitute Record Group 73, Records of the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, and amount to 125 cubic feet. They include the central files of both agencies; records of the Office of the Director of the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief; the general records, correspondence files, and files on city unemployment relief committees of the Office of the Assistant Director; general files of the Public Works, Industrial, and Publicity Sections and of the Relief and Women's Divisions; tables, charts, questionnaires, and maps of the

Statistical Division; some records of the Committees on Cooperation with National Groups and Associations, Employment Plans and Suggestions, and Mobilization of Relief Resources; files of certain Emergency Committee and Organization officials; indexes to individual, organizational, and construction projects; and press releases, bulletins, and other publications of the Emergency Committee and the Organization.

Records relating to the Emergency Committee and the Organization are in two record groups. Record Group 40, General Records of the Department of Commerce, contains--among the files of the Office of the Secretary of Commerce--about a half cubic foot of correspondence, reports, statements, and publications, 1930-33, pertaining to the organization of the President's Emergency Committee for Employment and the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, to their programs, activities, and administrative management, and to economic conditions. Record Group 187, Records of the National Resources Planning Board, contains--among the files of the Federal Employment Stabilization Board-a small quantity of records, 1930-33, relating to the Committee and its Public Works Section. These records consist of correspondence, reports, and statements pertaining to the policies, program, and personnel of the Committee, and reports and statistical data regarding Federal and private construction activities. The personnel files of the Emergency Committee and the Organization are among those of the Department of Commerce at the Federal Records Center, St. Louis, Mo.

The late Leo Pascal, compiler of this inventory, wished to acknowledge the help received from the descriptive reports and notes prepared by Coburn Kidd, a former member of the National Archives staff.