Administrative files, 1938-1943.

ArchivalResource

Alabama. Governor (1939-1943 : Dixon). Administrative files, 1938-1943.

Administrative files, 1938-1943.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122330927

The Governor is the chief executive of the state whose function is to administer the laws of the state. One of the activites used to accomplish this function is the administering of executive decisions and actions. This series consists of the administrative files of Governor Frank Dixon. It contains correspondence, reports, photographs, pamphlets, publications, and telegrams. Roland Mushat, Dixon's secretary, responded to the bulk of the governor's routine correspondence. The records document the activities of the numerous state departments and agencies. Dixon replaced the spoils system with a merit system for hiring state employees. The early years of his administrative files contain correspondence from or in support of state employees who lost their jobs as a partial result of the implementation of the new system. The files continue to document the federal relief and recovery programs that were established during the administrations of Governors Benjamin Meek Miller and Bibb Graves. The activities of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) were documented throughout the Dixon administration, even after the United States entered World War II in 1941 Dec. The war effort is documented throughout the records of Governor Dixon beginning in fiscal year 1941 (Oct. 1940 - Sept. 1941). The Selective Service System files contain information on recruitment, draft boards, industry, defense programs, jobs, propaganda, rationing, civilian defense, and physical examinations. Among the groups and agencies represented in these files are: Office of Price Administration (OPA), Alabama Salvage Comission, Alabama War Chest, and the Office of Emergency Management. There is also a file on the Army Air Force training program at Tuskegee. The records of Governor Dixon also contain considerable information regarding the ongoing debate over freight rates. This issue was the main topic of concern at both the Southern Governors' Conference meetings and the Southeastern Governors' Conference meetings. Other subjects and issues documented in these records include: the poll tax, lynching, Jim Crow laws, construction of the Dauphin Island Bridge in Mobile County and the Sheffield-Florence bridge between Colbert County and Lauderdale County, and the Finnish Relief effort.

48 cubic ft. (48 records center cartons).

Alabama Department of Archives and History