Harry Hopkins (1890–1946) was a social worker, New Deal relief administrator and presidential adviser. He directed federal relief and work programs before serving as commerce secretary and coordinating wartime supplies and communications with Allied leaders.
Hopkins was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and graduated from Grinnell College in 1912. He entered settlement work at Christodora House in New York, then worked in employment assistance and child welfare. During the First World War he managed civilian relief for the American Red Cross.
The Depression brought him into New York's Temporary Emergency Relief Administration. It combined direct assistance with public work for unemployed people. Budget limits and assessments of need shaped access, while Hopkins pressed for useful projects that would provide wages.
In 1933 Roosevelt brought him to Washington to lead federal emergency relief. Direct payments met immediate needs, while work relief offered wages through public projects. The short-lived Civil Works Administration provided emergency employment before the Works Progress Administration became a larger continuing program.
Executive Order 7034 of May 6, 1935 made the federal relief administrator also head of the WPA. It required progress reports, investigation of wages and working conditions, and scrutiny of delays. Hopkins's responsibilities connected funding with recruitment, project administration and paid employment, including cultural work.
Appointed commerce secretary in 1938, Hopkins left that office in 1940 but continued advising Roosevelt. In 1941 he visited Britain to assess military needs and Moscow to discuss American support. Lend-Lease work required coordination across production, finance and shipping.
After American entry into the war, he worked with military and civilian officials and attended Allied conferences. Truman sent him to Moscow in 1945 after Roosevelt's death. Hopkins died in New York in 1946, having moved from domestic relief administration to international wartime coordination.
From social work to state relief
Hopkins was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and graduated from Grinnell College in 1912. He entered settlement work at Christodora House in New York, then worked in employment assistance and child welfare. During the First World War he managed civilian relief for the American Red Cross.
The Depression brought him into New York's Temporary Emergency Relief Administration. It combined direct assistance with public work for unemployed people. Budget limits and assessments of need shaped access, while Hopkins pressed for useful projects that would provide wages.
References: [1] [2]