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Register of the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA)
Records for San Joaquin County, Calif.,
1933-1941
MS 103
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Title: State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA)
Records for San Joaquin County, Calif.,
Date (inclusive): 1933-1941
Collection number: MS 103
Creator: State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA),
San Joaquin County, Calif.
Extent: 1.5 linear feet
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA)
Records for San Joaquin County, Calif., MS 103, Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
In winter 1931, California's economy first began to feel the full impact
of nationwide depression. Transient, homeless men became a major problem in the
state, and to aid them, Governor Rolph--armed with a budget surplus--had thirty
labor camps created where the indigent were housed and fed while they cleared
brush and built roads.
By 1933 California's surplus funds were gone. Newly-elected President
Roosevelt soon urged through Congress his Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA), which was intended to provide matching funds for relief
to the states. These funds were to be administered by State Emergency Relief
Administrations. California's new Republican governor, Frank Merriam, supported
this concept and, by June, the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) was
in place. Counties submitted work projects to SERA, which authorized county
expenditures on the projects then reimbursed the county governments after they
had paid workers for their labor.
Later that same year, the U.S. Congress created the Civil Works
Administration (CWA) which also provided work relief for California's indigent.
The CWA focussed on larger public works projects, paying more than 150,000
citizens to build bridges, schools, airports and other public structures.
Both FERA and CWA were superseded in 1935 by the Works Progress
Administration (WPA). The WPA took over many San Joaquin county projects that
were begun by SERA, but the latter continued to operate--presumably on state
and local funds alone--through 1941.
SERA ultimately sponsored more than one hundred projects in San Joaquin
county. These included road work, construction at the County Fairgrounds and
the County General Hospital, and agricultural pest control. The agency also
provided numerous county agencies with clerical assistance, operated camps for
indigent workers, and distributed food and fuel to the needy.
The State Emergency Relief Administration records for San Joaquin county
contain project applications, correspondence, and reports. Because project
numbering varies from year to year, papers relating to specific project
proposals are arranged by project proposal date.
1.5 linear ft., four boxes, arranged chronologically.
Consists of correspondence, memos, resolutions, and project applications
largely generated by San Joaquin County, Calif. Board of Supervisors, R.C.
Branion, Director, State Emergency Relief Board and Harry L. Hopkins, Director,
Civil Works Administration. Box 1 contains records for 1932-1934. Box 2
contains records for 1934. Box 3 contains records for 1935. Box 4 contains
records for 1936-1941.