New Deal Hard Times Art (5/10): "God's Shadows"

Above: "God's Shadows," a wood engraving print by Todros Geller (1889-1949), created while he was in the WPA's art program, 1940. According to his Wikipedia page, Geller "regarded art as a tool for social reform... His work was commissioned for stained glass windows, bookplates, community centers and Yiddish and English books." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

According to a recent brief by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, "On any given night, over 175,000 people are unsheltered, sleeping outside or in places not meant for human habitation. On a positive note, unsheltered homelessness has been declining nationally for several years, but some jurisdictions, particularly some large cities, report increases." The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that "Despite money and effort, homelessness in SF as bad as ever," with area residents complaining about "tent encampments, needles and human feces." One San Franciscan in the article said:

"The Powell Street BART Station is basically a homeless shelter, and not a well-maintained one. There are homeless people sprawled all over the place, sometimes shooting up, sometimes with clothes not completely covering their backsides. Some people have seen people masturbating. There's the smell, the dirt. The needles, the human waste, the garbage. I just don't understand why we think it's OK."

Actually, of course, probably very few people think homelessness is okay, but our collective, rigid, and even religious devotion to "free markets" and "job creators"--coupled with the brainwashing we've been subjected to about the evils of "big government"--prevents us from effectively dealing with the problem. Rates of homelessness go up and down, depending on the number of band-aid solutions at any given time, but the core problems underlying homelessness, for example, lack of affordable housing, lack of good-paying jobs, income & wealth inequality, right-wing attacks on the social safety net, mental health problems, and so on, are likely to continue for many years to come.

During the New Deal, there were many policies and programs that effectively dealt with the homeless and the near-homeless, for example, more affordable housing opportunities; transient and homeless work camps for the willing & able-bodied; and a jobs program--the Civilian Conservation Corps--for young men who were wandering around the countryside, on trains or hitchhiking, in a fruitless search for work. We could do the same things today, if we had enough energy and empathy.

"Seeing who is walking into soup kitchens and who we're seeing when we do outreach, they're barely hanging on... they're recently released from the hospital with colostomy bags. There are people with cancer on the streets, severe diabetes, heart disease, a lot of really severe mental illness combined with addictive disorders."

--Jennifer Friedenbach, Director, Coalition of Homelessness, "Despite money and effort, homelessness in SF as bad as ever," San Francisco Chronicle, June 26, 2017 

New Deal Hard Times Art (4/10): "Two on a Bench"

Above: "Two on a Bench," A lithograph by Eli Jacobi (1898-1984), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1939. According to the Asheville Art Museum, "Jacobi worked for the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA Federal Arts Project in New York. His specialty was block printing. Jacobi was also successful as a magazine and book illustrator. He was a contributing illustrator to Nation, Saturday Review, and Living Age magazines." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Many people, especially those on the political right, often praise capitalism for fostering competition. And in every competition, of course, there are winners and losers. So what do we do with the losers of capitalism? Well, many people, especially those on the political right, would have us neglect and shame them, by cutting back on social safety net programs and labeling the losers "takers," "parasites," and "lazy good-for-nothings." To me, it seems intellectually dishonest and/or very cruel to, on the one hand, praise competition; and then, on the other hand, pretend there are no losers in the competition or, if acknowledged, neglect and shame them.

If we are going to praise capitalism, and glorify the competition it creates, then we should at least have the honesty and compassion to help the losers of capitalism get back in the game - through more liberal debt relief, using the government as an employer of last resort, better access to health care & medicine, more free or even paid job training, and perhaps even a universal basic income. In other words, we need to give more life to the general welfare sections of the Constitution (the Preamble and Article I, Section 8), to counteract the inherent negligence of capitalism and competition.

But will we do so? Well, considering that intellectual honesty about capitalism and competition would ultimately require hard work (e.g., crafting legislation, creating programs, staffing programs, evaluating programs, etc.), whereas intellectual dishonesty requires little more than insulting the poor, self-righteous rhetoric, and dog whistles, I think we can safely assume that we're going to continue to ignore and pooh pooh the general welfare sections of the Constitution, even as our quality of life is continually whittled away by debt, stagnant wages, job outsourcing, and financial fraud by the financial elite.

"In its Preamble, the Constitution states that it was intended to form a more perfect Union and promote the general welfare; and the powers given to the Congress to carry out those purposes can be best described by saying that they were all the powers needed to meet each and every problem which then had a national character and which could not be met by merely local action."

--President Franklin Roosevelt, March 9, 1937, Fireside Chat

New Deal Hard Times Art (3/10): "Starving Woman"

Above: "Starving Woman," an artwork by Marjorie Eakins (1910-1974), probably created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1939. According to AskArt, Eakins was  born in San Francisco, went to San Francisco State College and the California School of Fine Arts (today called the San Francisco Art Institute), studied under the muralist Diego Rivera, and "During the 1930s she produced lithographs for the WPA." There's little or no information on this artwork on the Internet, so it's hard to know exactly what the artist intended. For example, what is the woman starving for? Love? Hope? Well, judging by her gaunt face, the artist probably meant "starving" in the literal sense: not enough food, malnutrition. Today, as the wealthiest Americans keeping eating up more and more of the nation's wealth, and gleefully scavenging off the financial carcasses of the lower classes, and howling for more tax cuts, food insecurity is a persistent problem in the United States - and the food that is available (i.e., affordable) to lower income groups is often very high in sugar, salt, and fat - but low in vitamins and minerals (see, e.g., "Poverty, tight budgets foster food insecurity in West Las Vegas," Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 14, 2017. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Ackland Art Museum.

Above: A WPA poster promoting good nutrition. Through public information campaigns, recreation programs, surplus food distribution, garden projects, school lunches, expanded healthcare services, and more, the New Deal improved America's health and fitness. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

New Deal Hard Times Art (2/10): "One Third of a Nation"

Above: A WPA poster promoting the WPA's production of One Third of a Nation. In her 1940 book Arena, WPA Theatre Director Hallie Flanagan devotes an entire chapter to One Third of a Nation, "A play about people living in slums, about the historic development of slums and about their tragic effect on human lives" (p. 211). One Third of a Nation was perhaps the WPA's most successful theatre production (see, e.g., Susan Quinn, Furious Improvisation, 2008, pp. 225-228), but it also made enemies. Flanagan recalled one theatre owner who said, "Big money is going to fight this play... Big-monied people like landlords don't want people thinking about slum conditions" (Arena, p. 220). Image courtesy of George Mason University.

In his inaugural address to begin his second term as president, Franklin Roosevelt said: "I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day... 

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children... I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished... Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people. It can make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified support and legitimate criticism when the people receive true information of all that government does... If I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand that these conditions of effective government shall be created and maintained. They will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers of injustice..."

Roosevelt's heart was in the right place, but he was wrong about the American people demanding and maintaining good government. Through apathy, celebrity distraction, and a powerful lack of empathy, the American people have allowed their federal and state governments to be hi-jacked by the super-wealthy and their political marionettes. The government doesn't serve average Americans today - it threatens them with incarceration and poverty, places them in inescapable debt, and allows their livelihoods to be sent overseas. Today, the government doesn't tax record-breaking wealth more; instead, it places ruthless restrictions on debt relief for struggling Americans (e.g., student loan debtors and the entire territory of Puerto Rico). Today, the government doesn't ensure universal health care; instead, it allows pharmaceutical companies to overcharge and overdose us. Today, our government is not effective and just, as Roosevelt had hoped; instead, it is corrupt and foul-minded, neglecting those who are suffering and coddling those who are not.

"It is perverse and obscene. We are creating a generation of indentured people. It is mind-boggling that we would do this to a whole generation of young people."

--Daniel Austin, law professor, Northeastern University, on inescapable student loan debt ("Joe Biden Backed Bills To Make It Harder For Americans To Reduce Their Student Debt," International Business Times, September 15, 2015)

New Deal Hard Times Art (1/10): "Buried Treasure"

Above: "Buried Treasure," a crayon lithograph by Mabel Dwight (1876-1955), created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1939. According to the Brier Hill Art Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, "During the Depression, Dwight produced a series of powerful anti-fascist works and, as a participant in the Federal Arts Project, she created twenty-five lithographs dealing with social matters." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: During the New Deal, there were several initiatives to alleviate hunger: CCC boys got three square meals a day at their barracks and work sites; the WPA served hot lunches to underprivileged children; and the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation (FSCC) distributed food & food items to those in need. The U.S. Food Stamp program also had its genesis in the New Deal, managed by the FSCC. The two stamps you see here were used in that program. Image scanned from personal collection.

WPA library services helped develop young minds

Above: This young child is exploring the world with a WPA-provided book in Athens County, Ohio, ca. 1935-1943. WPA workers brought millions of books to millions of children - and to adults too. The WPA staffed existing libraries, built new libraries, repaired books, wrote books, transcribed books into Braille, constructed talking books, held storytelling events, and delivered books by car, by truck, and by horse. Today, however, many libraries have to beg for government support - because the political right is forever trying to take money away from the common good in order to give tax cuts to millionaires & billionaires. Which approach do you think is better for America's children? Healthy funding for libraries, or tax cuts for the rich? Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The New Deal lithographs of Harold Anchel

The following lithographs were made by Harold Anchel (1912-1980), between 1935 and 1943, while he was in the WPA's art program.

Above: "Knitting." Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Above: "Cafeteria." Image courtesy of the Illinois State Museum.

Above: "City Playground." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: "Woman." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above: "Horseshoe Pitching." Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Above: "Dance Hall." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.