(WPA workers installing a water main. Image courtesy of the University of Maryland College Park Archives.)
WPA workers were often insulted during the Great Depression. They were labeled "shovel-leaners," "lazy good-for-nothings," and "ditch-diggers." As unemployed men & women they were insulted, and when they took jobs in the WPA they were insulted. The insults--like the insults directed at the poor & unemployed today--never stopped.
(WPA workers opening the ground for new water lines. Image courtesy of the University of Maryland College Park Archives.)
Of course, the people calling the WPA workers "ditch-diggers" failed to mention the fact that the ditches were filled with new water mains and sewer lines. And they enjoyed the luxury of clean water and modern sewage--that the WPA workers provided to them--while insulting those very same WPA workers.
(WPA workers lowering a sewer line. Image courtesy of the University of Maryland College Park Archives.)
Across America, the WPA installed 16,117 miles of new water lines and 24,271 miles of new storm & sewer drains. The "ditch-diggers" modernized American infrastructure. And that infrastructure allowed businesses to expand and new communities to develop.
My grandfather lost his farm in the great depression. Per the 1940 Census for Illinois he had been engaged for 39 weeks in public emergency work as a ditch digger reworking sewers in Clarke County, Iowa. While my grandmother was living back in Illinois raising three kids by herself.
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