Harry Hopkins (1890–1946) was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's friend, adviser, key relief coordinator, and head of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In a 1933 radio address that was later published in June Hopkins's 1999 book, Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Performer, Hopkins said: "Who are these fellow-citizens? Are they tramps? Are they hoboes and ne'erdowells? Are they unemployables? Are they people who are no good and who are incompetent? Take a look at them, if you have not, and see who they are. There is hardly a person…who does not know of an intimate friend, people whom you have known all your life, fine hardworking, upstanding men and women who have gone overboard and been caught up in this.… They are carpenters, bricklayers, artisans, architects, engineers, clerks, stenographers, doctors, dentists, farmers, ministers."

It was for these carpenters, bricklayers, engineers, and other workers that President Roosevelt (1882–1945; served...