WPA disaster relief brought smiles to the distressed

Above: The description for this 1936 photograph reads: "Sharpsburg, Pa. - flood relief station. Refugees receive food and clothing - 6,000 people out of 8,270 population were supplied at the WPA station, set up in YMCA bldg." Disastrous floods hit Pittsburgh and surrounding areas in March 1936. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A closer look at the center of the photograph shows how grateful these flood survivors are for WPA assistance. It's not often that people smile so vibrantly after a disaster; but when the government is truly on your side, and not in Wall Street's back pocket, it must bring a great sense of relief. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

For a variety of reasons, the U.S. government's response to the disaster in Puerto Rico has been subpar. Days and days after Hurricane Maria left the island, drinking water is still in short supply, hospitals are overwhelmed, power is out over most of the territory, most cell towers are toppled over, other vital infrastructure has been destroyed, and people are even trying to use the San Juan Airport as a shelter from the surrounding chaos.

During the New Deal, the WPA had a thorough and well-managed disaster response program. The WPA used formerly-unemployed men & women to bring food, supplies, and manpower to people in distress. Today, we've been fed too many lies about the unemployed being useless, and told too many fairy tales about the magical power of the free market, to even begin to imagine what a full and fast government response could look like.

And so now, Puerto Rico is experiencing the worst of both worlds - an underfunded, unimaginative government, and a callous and often-times incompetent private sector.

There are many good people trying to help Puerto Rico, and there will be inspirational stories during the recovery, but the response is far short of what a WPA-type program could do.

New Deal Art: "Flood Control"

Above: "Flood Control," a sculpture by Karl Lang (1897-1952), created while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1942. This sculpture is at the F. Edward Hebert Federal Building in New Orleans. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Carol M. Highsmith.

In the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card by the American Society of Civil Engineers, dams and related flood control systems received a "D". 

During the New Deal era, massive investments were put into dams, levees, flood walls, etc. We could do the same thing today, if we stopped cowering before the rich, like frightened mice, and taxed them more.

The super-wealthy have gobbled up more and more resources over the past few decades (thanks, in large part, to the the massive tax cuts we foolishly handed them) but they've done little-to-nothing to improve the nation - unless you think crumbling infrastructure, as well as boring jobs, stagnant wages, reduced benefits, and underfunded retirements are wonderful things.

It's well past time that we tax the hell out of the rich and fortify America's infrastructure.

WPA scrubbing

Above: "Woman Scrubbing," a painting by Elizabeth Terrell (1908-1993), created while she was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Sheldon Museum of Art.

Above: "Scrub Woman," a ceramic sculpture by Gustave Hildebrand (1897-1950), created while he was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1942. A description for this artwork states, "By recognizing and honoring her hard work, [Hildebrand] pays tribute to all working women. Hildebrand’s work coincides with President Franklin Roosevelt passing the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a move that placed protective limits on hours and wages." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Carol M. Highsmith.

Above: Another piece titled "Scrub Woman," this one a lithograph by Isaac Soyer (1897-1981), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935. Do you ever wonder why housekeeping and domestic work pays so little? It's very hard work and it keeps us clean, which is important for disease prevention and good hygiene. Are these not valued things? It seems to me that these types of workers deserve very good wages and/or a much more generous earned income credit. Of course, the latter might require that super-wealthy Americans pay higher taxes, and many people (especially those on the political right) don't want the super-wealthy to pay higher taxes. They believe that it's better for the super-wealthy to have more money to throw on the Wall Street roulette wheel, wreck the economy, and send jobs overseas, and then pass along the ill-gotten profits to their lazy children in the form of dynastic wealth. Hmmm... call me old-fashioned, but scrubbing floors, keeping things clean, and hindering the spread of disease seems more valuable to society than that. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Sheldon Museum of Art.

Above: A woman scrubs the floor during a WPA housekeeping training program in Pittsburgh, 1936. Between 1935 and 1943, WPA housekeeping aides made 32 million visits to assist low-income Americans who were experiencing illness or emergency (Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43, 1946, p. 69). Many housekeeping aides went on to secure private housekeeping employment after their time in the WPA. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: Happy to graduate from a WPA housekeeping training course in Cleveland, Ohio, ca. 1935-1943. Many people claim, then and now, that the unemployed are lazy and don't want to work, or that so-called "low-skilled" workers don't deserve good pay and benefits. It's complete b.s. of course - just mean-spirited propaganda, used by the super-wealthy and their political, think tank, and talking head stooges to maintain America's vile caste system. Most people, like the formerly jobless Americans you see above, just want an opportunity to work and get fairly compensated for it. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

New Deal Art: "Big Dip"

Above: "Big Dip," a lithograph by Harold Faye (1910-1980), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1938. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

WPA Flowers

Above: The description for this photograph, ca. 1935-1943, reads, "A display of 300 exotic and rare Orchids for the public, in the Volunteer Park Conservatory at Seattle, was cultivated by ten needy [i.e., unemployed] women, like the worker in the photograph, on a project of the WPA." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: "Lincoln Park Conservatory," an oil painting by Reathel Keppen (1895-1945), created while she was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1943. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: The description for this photograph reads, "For her training on a WPA project at the Public Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle, the worker in the picture [and] nine others will receive a certificate as a Gardener, with a specialty of Orchid culture. On this project, sponsored by the Parks Department, the women have raised 10,000 Orchids in addition to other rare plants." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: "Dahlias," an oil painting by Bumpei Usui (1898-1994), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1938. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: Two other WPA workers on the orchid and rare plant project at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. The Volunteer Park Conservatory began in 1912 and still operates today. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: "Netherlands Still Life," an oil painting by Harold Bowler (1903-1965), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: The description for this 1939 photograph reads, "Wishing more than anything else to see an orchid, Mrs. Helen Stagier came from frozen Fairbanks, Alaska, to Seattle, last Christmas and got her wish. Washington State Administrator, Don G. Abel beside her in the photograph..." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A WPA poster promotes a flower show in Hinsdale, Illinois, ca. 1936-1939. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

New Deal Storm Art (5/5): Big Blow - A Drama of Hurricane Country by Theodore Pratt

Above: One of my favorite WPA posters, a promotion for the Federal Theatre Project's production of Big Blow. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Artist: The poster above was created by artist Richard Halls (1906-1976). According to the website Posters for the People, Halls' "early years were spent traveling through the U.S. and Europe with his father, a sculptor whose commissions included many public monuments... Halls joined the FAP from 1936 to 1939 where he created many posters for the Federal Theatre Project... Halls began to work as a freelance illustrator, but a part-time job as an instructor at City College of New York redirected him to a career in education. From 1952 to 1976 Halls taught advertising art and design on the faculty of the State University of New York at Farmingdale. He received his B.A. from Adelphi University in 1961."

The Play: The Big Blow appears to have been an entertaining and moderately successful melodrama set in Florida, where the playwright, Theodore Pratt, was living at the time. The Internet Broadway Database lists the play as running in New York, from October 1, 1938 to February 1939, while Halliie Flanagan, the director of the Federal Theatre Project, records it as running all the way to April 1939 (Arena, 1940, p. 381 - Flanagan also writes of Big Blow performances in Boston, p. 230). Some of the players in Big Blow appear to have enjoyed reasonably successful acting careers after the production of the play, including: Kendall Clark (1912-1983), who played Wade Barnett; Dorothy Raymond (1914-2008), who played Sarah Barnett; and George Mathews (1911-1984), who played "Deefy." Mathews went on to become a prolific character actor in shows like Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

New Deal Storm Art (4/5): Thunder and Lightning

Above: "Thunder in the West," a watercolor painting by Lloyd Moylan (1893-1963), created while he was in the WPA's art program, 1942. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Arizona Museum of Art & Archive of Visual Arts.

Above: "Lightning," an oil panting by James Stovall Morris (1898-1973), created while he was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

New Deal Storm Art (3/5): "Marooned"

Above: "Marooned," a color woodcut print by Albert Abramovitz (1879-1963), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. According to the Brier Hill Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, Abramovitz's "work was widely exhibited across the United States... and was distinctive both for his unusual technique and radical socio-political point of view... His works are in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Spencer Museum of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Library of Congress. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

New Deal Storm Art (2/5): "The Gale"

Above: "The Gale," an oil painting by Charles Anton Kaeselau (1889-1972), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. According to askArt, Kaeselau was born in Stockholm, Sewden. Information on the Living New Deal, shows that Kaeselau painted murals at the post offices in Concord, Massachusetts, and Lebanon, New Hampshire. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Stanley Staniski.

New Deal Storm Art (1/5): "Before the Storm"

Above: "Before the Storm," an oil painting by James Floyd Clymer (1893-1982), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, ca. 1933-1934. Clymer was "known for his Regionalist style of land, sea and cityscapes, [and] created paintings with an emphasis on color and form. His works possess a clear and simple style, easily understood by the masses" ("James Floyd Clymer," Julie Heller Gallery). Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

New Deal Art: "Cold Inferno"

Above: "Cold Inferno," a lithograph by Francis Bernard Shields (1908-1990), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.