The New York State Temporary Emergency Relief Administration:
October 1, 1931 By June Hopkins, Ph.D. Associate Professor,
Armstrong Atlantic State University In 1930, with unemployment
rising and jobs becoming increasingly scarce, American citizens
began to feel the effects of the economic downturn that began
with the Stock Market Crash the previous October. The Great
Depression was just beginning. The problem of unemployment in
New York State and in its major cities grew increasingly
critical, and it was obvious that neither local funding nor
privately-supported agencies could handle the crisis. Despite
the lack of accurate statistics, all cities had reported that
unemployment had reached unprecedented proportions. New York, as
the leading industrial state, had an especial need to maintain
and develop the wage-earner market. With the support of both
labor and business, Frances Perkins, the state industrial
commissioner, told Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt that
public works projects were “the greatest sou