| Summary |
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to portray Capus Miller Waynick, a New Deal administrator, by examining the North Carolina branch of the National Reemployment Service, the agency in which he served, and secondly to examine Waynick's political career during the Depression decade. The paper begins with a brief personal history of Waynick prior to 1931 when he first entered North Carolina politics. His experienced gained in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1931, as a Representative from Guilford County, and in 1933 as Senator from District 17 strengthened and extended his bonds with North Carolina's political elite. Contacts, friends. newspaper connections, and associations placed Waynick in contention for the position of North Carolina Director of the National Reemployment Service. This agency, created within the Department of Labor and under the auspices of the United States Employment Service, aided in fulfilling the National Industrial Recovery Act, Title II, passed by Congress in 1933. Charged with the responsibility of securing jobs for North Carolina's unemployed on private as well as government sponsored projects, Waynick carried through on federal directives. Waynick's position within the National Reemployment Service is carefully examined in terms of how he adjusted his service to meet the changing directives from Washington as well as pressures and complaints from the state and local level. After resigning his position with the National Reemployment Service, Waynick continued in politics at the state level with the Ehringhaus Administration as Chairman of the State Highway and Public Works Commission. As chairman of the powerful and political highway department, Waynick's tenure encompassed a period wherein the state participated in the building of the Blue Ridge Parkway, maintained an extensive highway system, expended funds for multiple road and bridge projects, and continued to improve the antiquated prison system. Proving himself to be more of a newspaperman than a politician, his neutral position in the gubernatorial elections of 1936 terminated his chairmanship of the department with the incoming Hoey Administration in 1937. This study concludes with an evaluation of Waynick's career as a politician and New Deal Administrator. Although perhaps too much of a newspaperman to remain within North Carolina's circle of political elite, Waynick retained enough political ability and clout to return to the political arena in the 1940s. |
