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Civil Works Administration workers repaving road in front of the Philadelphia Zoo's administration building, Philadelphia, PA, June, 1934.
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Men paving a road in front of a building.

Credit: Courtesy of Temple University, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pa

When Mayor J. Hampton Moore refused federal assistance, WPA state administrator Edward Jones moved 12,000 Philadelphia WPA employees to the suburbs. After S. Davis Wilson became mayor in 1937, federal relief poured into the city; the WPA alone employed more than 47,000 people. Moore's opposition, however, had cost the city millions of dollars in relief and lost it construction projects that benefited other municipalities throughout the state.

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