The WPA produced hospital masks and other PPE

Above: A woman's outfit and a nurse's uniform, both made in a WPA sewing room in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ca. 1935-1943. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A WPA sewing room, Millville, Massachusetts, November 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The WPA makes PPE

As we're witnessing so many problems with personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic--for example, stockpile shortages, conflicting advice on when the public should use masks, and states competing against one another for needed supplies--it's interesting to remember the WPA production of PPE during the New Deal era.

On October 22, 1936, the St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, Minnesota) reported the following WPA project at the St. Cloud Hospital: "Three workers, directed by Sister Maryola, are making hospital supplies for county patients. The hospital, as sponsor for this project, buys all material. It is converted into pneumonia jackets, gowns, sterile towels and table covers, masks, surgical garments, robes, pajamas and wash cloths... 'We are receiving great returns for our investment in this work,' Sister Maryola said today, 'Previously, we bought all our garments ready made. The cost to us was much greater and the quality of the articles could not be compared with that maintained on this WPA project'" ("Relief Women Sew To Provide Needy Families With Clothing," p. 6).

(Interestingly, the St. Cloud Times recently reported that college groups, in response to coronavirus, are "working to create face shields for medical workers and to sew cloth masks," and also that the St. Cloud Hospital is going to be converted "into a 420-unit ICU" coronavirus care center.)

In Florida, for an Orange County tuberculosis hospital, WPA sewing room workers made, "One hundred and forty-four pneumathoraz sheets, 400 nurses caps, 348 nurses slips, 301 kitchen aprons, 600 towels, 144 bed pan covers, 144 urinal covers, 360 mattress covers, 240 bath robes, six bath mats, 400 patients gowns, 600 masks, 100 dresser scarfs, 160 screen panels, 422 doctors and nurses general gowns and 48 doctors operating gowns" ("Sewing Room Aids Hospital," The Orlando Sentinel, September 19, 1937, p.2).

The WPA had many projects like the above, helping hospitals and patients during the tough times of the 1930s, when diseases like diphtheria, small pox, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and polio were serious problems. The Final Report on the WPA Program notes that WPA workers produced "117,800,000 household articles and hospital and institutional gowns and articles" (p. 67). 

The action of the New Deal vs. the sloth of neoliberalism

In studying the New Deal pretty intensely (even obsessively) for about ten years now, I've concluded that New Deal leaders had several traits that, by and large, do not exist in today's "leaders." Two of these traits are: Imagination and action. For example, New Deal leaders had the imagination to think about sewing jobs for the unemployed, and they also had the action-oriented mindset and willpower to transform their imagination into reality.

Today, on the other hand, our leaders are immersed in neoliberalism. Their thought processes constantly revolve around privatization, outsourcing, and deference to super-wealthy investors. They don't think, "What can I do?" as much as they think, "What do my wealthy donors want to do?" Is it any wonder then, that our PPE production was sent overseas, our national stockpiles were underfunded, and we're currently experiencing a PPE crisis?

Yes, today, if you mention things like Medicare-for-All, a new WPA, or higher taxes on the wealthy to improve the common good (for example, our national emergency stockpiles), you'll be met with a blank stare, at best, or more often a dismissive "Oh, that's just pie-in-the-sky! Be practical, will ya!"

Make no mistake about it - the people who portray themselves to be the "practical" ones, and the "adults in the room," have gotten us into this mess. They have never failed to browbeat and mock those who have imagination. They have never failed to let Corporate America trounce the public good. 

But they have failed us.

Above: "Girl Sewing," a color woodcut print, created by Bernard P. Schardt (1904-1979), created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1935-1943. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.