The fourth meeting of the 2018-2019 Fredonia Shakespeare Club year was held on Nov. 1 at the Lanford House, hosted by Harriet Tower. President Joyce Haines welcomed 13 members.

Priscilla Bernatz read the minutes from the Oct. 25 meeting. The minutes were approved as written.

One nomination was proposed for membership and a brief introduction of the proposed member was given to the Club. Club members will vote on acceptance of the proposed member at the Nov. 8 meeting.

The Club’s area of study for the 2018-2019 year is “The World Between WWI and WWII.” Croxton read Mary Walker’s paper “WPA 1930s” which is summarized as follows:

In 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Roosevelt cared about people who were suffering. In his first Hundred Days in office, the ground work for the New Deal was laid. He had a bipartisan congress that worked with him for the good of the country and its people. Imagine that! Roosevelt’s goal was to put people to work. 15 million people were unemployed.

On May 6, 1933 Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the WPA (Work Progress Administration) to provide jobs for millions of people left unemployed by the Great Depression. A host of programs followed, aimed at stemming the Depression.

The WPA offered jobs to 8,500,000 of the unemployed. These were primarily construction, repair work and manual labor. The goal was to employ the most unemployable people on relief until the economy recovered. The people were paid between $19 – $94 per month. They worked 8 hour days, 40 hours per week with a minimum of 30 hours.

Roads, bridges, schools, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks, post offices, museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, fairgrounds, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, water fronts, city halls, gyms, university unions, airports, hospitals and more were built across the country under the WPA program.

Across the country 5,900 new schools were built; 9,300 new auditoriums, gyms and recreation buildings; 1,000 new libraries were constructed, 7,000 new dormitories and 900 new armories were built. 2,302 stadiums, grandstands and bleachers were built; 52 fairgrounds and rodeo grounds, 805 swimming pools, 1,817 handball courts, 10,070 tennis courts, 2,231 horseshoe pits, 1,101 ice skating areas, 138 outdoor theaters, 254 golf courses, 325 firehouses and 65 ski jumps. $11.4 billion was spent on these WPA works.

Nicki Schoenl assisted at the tea table.

The next meeting of the Club will be held at the home of Schoenl, when Tower will present her paper on “Alfred Adler.”