Part I
In Extremis
1. THE END OF JOBS
Unemployment figures vary among New Deal histories. Here I rely primarily on Brown, 134, 145. Fifteen million unemployed is used by Manchester, 28.
Rise in suicide rate: Galbraith, 133–34. People felt fear…'dark, uncertain future: These views are not unique and are expressed at greater length in any number of New Deal histories, but I rely heavily on Barber.
Hoover to Fourth Pan American Commercial Conference, Oct. 8, 1931, from the American Presidency Project Web site, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=22840. Coolidge to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Jan. 17, 1925, from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 16th ed., 614.
Babe Ruth’s salary and quote: Arthur Daley in New York Times (henceforth NYT), Aug. 19, 1948, 29.
Bank failures and unemployment figures: Watkins, Hungry Years, 41. New York City unemployment: Caro, 369.
3.2 percent unemployment rate: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, 126. Hoover acceptance quote: NYT, Aug. 12, 1928, 2.
The composite picture of frustrated job seekers is approximated from accounts in many depression histories, as are the composites of the further effects of joblessness below.
Children in foster homes and orphanages: NYT, June 5, 1932, 17.
By 1932, the situation of city dwellers: Watkins, Hungry Years, 342–47.
And no matter where they lived: ibid., 60–62; 68–70.
Americans slow to turn to charity: ibid., 73. Hoover quotes: NYT, Oct. 23, 1928, 2.
Schoolteacher quote: Bauman and Coode, 78.
Elizabethan poor laws: Brown, 3, 13. Chamber of Commerce poll results: ibid., 109. Quote: NYT, Dec. 18, 1931, 5.
Shrinkage of state and local tax revenues and charitable contributions covered generally in Brown, chap. 5, “The Battle for Federal Relief Begins,” 103–23.
Winslow Township, N.J.: NYT, Jan. 3, 1932, 20.
2. THE PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN
Exchange between Thomas Bell and Judge Alfred Coxe: NYT, Jan. 7, 1932, 25.
Los Angeles “slave market”: NYT, July 8, 1932, 9. Statewide unemployment rate: Go, Charmaine, U.C. Berkeley, Unemployment Relief Distribution in the Bay Area During the Depression. Online at eh.net/Clio/publications/unemployment.htm.
Letters suggesting decorating and clothes from NYT, Apr. 25, 1932, 14, and Feb. 13, 1932, 12. Hoover auto construction quote from NYT, Apr. 2, 1932,1.
New Ford price from NYT, Apr. 3, 1932, Special Features Section, XX6. Per capita income figures from U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts, Table SA1-3, http://www.bea.gov/regional/spi/drill.cfm.
Apple sellers and shippers described in Watkins, Hungry Years, 76. Hoover quote from Hoover, 195.
Shoeshiners described in Watkins, Hungry Years, 76–77. Fuller Brush success from Manchester, 33–34.
Larchmont woodcutting from NYT, Feb. 22, 1932, 16.
White Plains unemployed golf caddies from NYT, Apr. 24, sec. II, 1; Apr. 26, 1932, 14; May 18, 1932, 44. St. Louis golfing clothes donations from NYT, Oct. 9, 1932, 28.
Arizona gold prospecting from NYT, May 22, 1932, sec. III, 6; July 3, 1932, sec. II, 6. California gold mining from NYT, July 3, 1932, sec. IV, 18. Unemployed making jobs by setting fires from Andrist et al., 179.
Weed pullers from NYT, Aug. 10, 1932, 6; Aug. 12, 1932, 17; Oct. 9, 1932, sec. II, 6. Pittsburgh Plate Glass actions from NYT, June 26, 1932, sec. II, 7. Miami auto tax from NYT, June 8, 1932, 28.
Garden plots from NYT, May 9, 1932, 17. International Harvester farms from NYT, Apr. 20, 1932, 42. Needy family adoptions from NYT, Mar. 7, 1932, 7; Mar. 10, 1932, 23. Savannah fish donations: NYT, Aug. 14, 1932, sec. II, 6. Train station food baskets: NYT, Apr. 14, 1932, 18. Al Capone soup kitchen: pictured in Charles, following 122. Watch finder rewarded from NYT, Feb. 7, 1932, 22. Eighty-two New York City breadlines from Manchester, 35. Times Square soup kitchens: Watkins, Hungry Years, 59.
Pennsylvania jobless from NYT, Sept. 27, 1932, 38. St. Louis relief figures from NYT, Dec. 24, 1932, 5. New York City unemployed from NYT, Oct. 31, 1932, 1. One in seven in city on relief from NYT, June 10, 1932, 21. Lillian Wald entreaty from NYT, July 8, 1932, 19. Labor forecast from NYT, July 18, 1932, 2.
U.S. Steel production figure from Manchester, 34. Spread-the-work movement from NYT, Sept. 2, 1932, 1.
Thirty-four million with no income from Manchester, 36.
3. PLEAS ON DEAF EARS
Pinchot to Hoover, Aug. 18, 1931, from National Archives and Records Administration, Hoover Presidential Library online, www.ecommcode.com/hoover/hooveronline/text.109.htm.
Cox bio material from University of Pittsburgh Library System, Archives Service Center online, www.library.pitt.edu/guides/archives/findingaids/ais695.htm.
Cox motorcade from NYT, Jan. 8, 1932, 3.
Gorky from Manchester, 23. Hoover flood relief role: Barry, 275–89. Hoover quoted in NYT, Jan. 8, 1932, 3.
Chamber of Commerce quote from NYT, May 2, 1930, 1. “…sixty days too late” quoted in Manchester, 26. “The real victory”: NYT, Jan. 8, 1932,3.
Cox’s army did not leave: NYT, Jan. 8, 1932, 3. Hearst support for Garner: Black, 219.
Home again in Pittsburgh: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Web site on the Strip District and Father Cox: www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/strip/strip_n10.htm.
4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF “RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM”
“Rugged individualism”: Hoover campaign speech, New York City, Oct. 22, 1928; text from NYT, Oct. 23, 1928, 2.
Hoover bio material: Barry, 275–89.
Umpiring rather than playing: text of Hoover speech, NYT, Oct. 23, 1928,2.
“World lives by phrases”: Barry, 289. Also see Manchester, 26, for view of Hoover’s belief that depression was a public relations problem.
Col. Arthur Woods and Emergency Committee for Employment: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 169–70.
Eight million out of work, doubling previous year: ibid., 171. POUR announcement, Gifford background: NYT, Aug. 20, 1031, 1. Hoover radio address, quote: NYT, Oct. 19, 1931, 1, 4.
The next morning’s report: NYT, Oct. 19, 1931, 1.
Thrill of a great spiritual experience: Brown, 99; also Schlesinger, vol. 1, 173. Will Rogers’s joke: H. Hopkins, 62–63.
POUR, Gifford haplessness from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 173–74.
Business leaders’ outlooks from NYT, Jan. 1, 1931, 35.
Hoover quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242.
Mellon joke quoted in ibid., 245; Manchester, 24.
Hoover to Rudy Vallee from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242; Manchester, 27.
Vallee and Crosby versions at number one: Malcolm Macfarlane’s Bing Crosby Diary 1930–1939, online, http://community.mcckc.edu/crosby/brother.htm.
5. HOOVERVILLES AND HUNGER
John Glenn recollection: Glenn, 23.
Eviction figures: Watkins, Hungry Years, 57, 60.
Eviction joke: ibid., 57.
Rent strikes: NYT, Feb. 9, 1932, 18. Farmers’ revolt against foreclosures from Leuchtenberg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (henceforth FDR), 23–24.
References to Hoovervilles, etc., appear throughout depression-era histories, including Schlesinger, vol. 1, 245.
Seattle Hooverville: Online Encyclopedia of Seattle/King County History (www.historylink.org/output.cfm?file_id=741). St. Louis Hooverville: NYT, Jan. 17, 1932, sec. III, 6. Youngstown Hooverville from Watkins, Hungry Years, 58; Connie Eisler anecdote from family interview; Pittsburgh shantytown from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Web site, www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/strip/strip_n10.htm.
Hard luck on the river: NYT, Aug. 3, 1932, 17; Nov. 25, 1932, 3. “Civilization creaking”: Kessner, 170. Unemployed carpenter Hollinan and baby buggy home in Central Park: ibid. Hoover Valley: NYT, Sept. 22, 1932, 3.
Connecticut ocean liner housing petition: NYT, Sept. 29, 1932, 3. Los Angeles streetcar housing: NYT, July 6, 1932, 2. Houseboats for the homeless on Lake Pontchartrain: NYT, July 24, 1932, sec. II, 6. Detroit tent city: NYT, Aug. 7, 1932, 8. New York City homeless housing proposals: NYT,Oct. 3, 1932, 9.
British heir: NYT, Oct. 7, 1932, 2.
Hoover quoted on starving, hoboes: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242; also Manchester, 41. Seven-course meals in black tie: ibid., 23.
Starvation figures are notoriously difficult to confirm, since death often is attributed to other causes. The report of twenty deaths in 1931 comes from the University of Houston’s digital history Web site, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/children_depression/depression_ children_menu.cfm. The report of 105 deaths in 1932 comes from www.bookrags.com/research/great-depression-timeline-gdnd-01/. NYT, June 1, 1934 (25), reports 31 deaths by hunger and 104 by malnutrition in 1932. Mother and daughter starving: NYT, Sept. 7, 1932, 13. Starving nurse: NYT,Sept. 9, 1932, 42.
People no longer overeating: NYT, Jan. 2, 1932, p. 12.
Farm prices: Manchester, 36–37. Consumer: Morris County, N.J. historic price survey www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1932.htm; 1932–1933 price list, Mooresville, Ind. (www.todaysteacher.com/TheGreatDepressionWebQuest/1932pricelist.htm).
TERA fishing licenses: NYT, Aug. 22, 1932, 17; Aug. 26, 1932, 19.
Health figures: Watkins, Hungry Years, 64.
6. THE PROBLEM WITH LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Wealth ownership from Manchester, 44; poverty from ibid., 32.
Oregon hours: usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/30.htm. Massachusetts minimum wage: Clifford F. Thies, “The First Minimum Wage Laws,” The Cato Journal 10, 3 (Winter 1991): 716. Online at www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj10n3-7.pdf. Child labor: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/. Edgerton quote from “An Industrial Leader Who Leads: A Brief Story of How John E. Edgerton, Through a Natural Sequence of Life and Action, Was Called to Lead the Nation’s Organized Industry,” E5, National Association of Manufacturers archives.
Wages and Edgerton quote from Manchester, 38.
Speed-up: Watkins, Hungry Years, 126–27. Ford quote: ibid., 126.
Stretch-out: ibid., 192–93.
Liberty of contract and background: University of Missouri at Kansas City law school Web site, http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/libertyofk.htm. Child laborers: Kessner, 169.
“Liquidate labor”: ibid.
Young quote from Andrist et al., 159. McGrady quote: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 176. Illinois Relief Commission and Cermak: ibid., 176, 250.
7. RUMBLES ON THE LEFT
The origins of socialism and Communism in the United States have been written about widely. Contributions to my discussion include all three volumes of Schlesinger, principally Crisis of the Old Order, 210–23, and Watkins, Hungry Years, 111–22.
Debs arrest, draft cards: NYT, June 17, 1918, 6. Conviction upheld: NYT, Apr. 1, 1919, 4.
Hardwick and mail bomb plot: NYT, May 1, 1919, 1. Palmer and Roosevelt windows, leaflets: NYT, June 3, 1919, 1. Eight cities: NYT, June 4, 1919, 3.
New laws: NYT, May 3, 1919, 1. Palmer raids: Andrist et al., 30; Watkins, Hungry Years, 114. Wall St. bombing and initial death toll: NYT, Sept. 17, 1920, 1.
Election results: 2003 New York Times Almanac, 108.
8,000 members from Schlesinger, vol. 3, 197; Young quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 176.
Tactics of Unemployed Councils from ibid., 219.
National Hunger March of Unemployed Councils in December 1931 is mentioned in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 219–20, but the account here comes primarily from newspaper sources, especially NYT, Nov. 3, 1931, 3; Dec. 6, 1931, 3; Dec. 7, 1931, 1; Dec. 8, 1931, 1; Dec. 9, 1931, 2; Dec. 10, 1931, 7.
St. Louis protests: NYT, July 12, 1932, 2. Toledo grocery raid: NYT, Sept. 13, 1932, 2. Mob at Associated Charities: NYT, Sept. 9, 1932, 42. Crowd at Cleveland mayor’s office: NYT, Nov. 22, 1932, 9. New York Home Relief Bureau protests: NYT, Dec. 6, 1932, 46; Dec. 7, 1932, 2.
Unemployed Citizens League: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 251. Philadelphia appeals, protests: NYT, Aug. 5, 1932, 2; Aug. 26, 1932, 7.
Marion Stull: NYT, Aug. 23, 1932, 12; Sept. 3, 1932, 28. In Elizabeth, N.J.: NYT, Oct. 1, 1932, 20. In Copper Hill, Tenn.: NYT, Apr. 28, 1932, 41.
George Bratt: NYT, Feb. 13, 1932, 14.
Willard quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 181.
Keller: ibid., 250.
Brooklyn “holdup”: NYT, Nov. 29, 1932, 10.
8. THE GUNS OF DEARBORN
Accounts of the deadly riot at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, on Mar. 7, 1932, are included in many depression-era histories. I rely on reports in the NYT of Mar. 8, 1932, 1; N.Y. Daily News, Mar. 8, 1932, 2; New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 8, 1932, 1; NYT, Mar. 9, 1932, 3. Also mentioned in Manchester, 10–11 and 26; descriptions of the Ford plant contained in Watkins, Hungry Years, 5–8, and the riot, 127–30; McElvaine, The Great Depression, 92–93. Brief description of the riot and the workers’ funeral contained in Dickson and Allen, 52–53.
9. THE BONUS MARCH
Descriptions of the Bonus March by veterans seeking immediate payment of deferred compensation voted them by Congress are also staples of depression histories. The fullest account to date is contained in a book devoted entirely to the Bonus March and the events surrounding it. This is Dickson and Allen’s The Bonus Army: An American Epic, published in 2004, which mentions Hoover’s meeting with Amelia Earhart on 136. Schlesinger, vol. 1, 257–65, also contains an excellent account of the Bonus March. Other book mentions include Manchester, 3–4 and 10–18; Kennedy, 92; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 13–16; Black, 240–42 and 281; McElvaine, The Great Depression, 93–94. See also newspaper accounts in the New York Herald Tribune, July 29, 1932, 1; N.Y. Daily News, July 29, 1932, 1 and 3; NYT, July 29, 1932, 1 ff.
10. ROOSEVELT ONTO THE STAGE
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s personal and political history leading to the presidential campaign of 1932 is well-chronicled in Schlesinger, vol. 1. See Black on Roosevelt’s service to and enthusiasm for Wilson (60–65) and return to Madison Square Garden to nominate Smith after polio (164). See also Leuchtenberg, Burns, Kennedy, Manchester, and Caro on Al Smith. While there are dozens of other sources, the above are my primary references, along with texts of Roosevelt’s campaign speeches available online. Specifically, the probable beginning of the Roosevelt campaign for the nomination is set in January or February 1931 by Frank C. Walker, who attended a meeting referred to in his autobiography edited by Robert H. Ferrell, 58. Walker, 55–56, is also illuminating on the rift between Roosevelt and Al Smith.
11. THE BATTLE IS JOINED
The Democratic convention that nominated Roosevelt is covered in detail in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 296–314; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 7–10; Burns, 134–40; and Black, 230–39. These are my primary sources as to atmosphere and maneuvering. Roosevelt’s acceptance speech: NYT, July 3, 1932, 8.
12. A NEW DIRECTION
Stock market figures: New York Stock Exchange Web site: www.nyse.com/about/history/timeline_trading.htm. Meeting of mayors: NYT, June 2, 1932, 1. Detroit emergency rations: NYT, Apr. 26, 1932, 42. New York relief payments: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 250. Fully half of Chicago’s workers: ibid., 250.
Nationally, only a fourth: ibid., 249.
Creation of Reconstruction Finance Corporation: Kennedy, 84–85. “Millionaire’s dole”: ibid., 85. RFC loans to states and cities: Watkins, Hungry Years, 102. Hoover, Curtis, cabinet pay cut: NYT, July 16, 1932, 1. Savings of $37,500: NYT, July 16, 1932, 1.
Hoover nomination acceptance: NYT, Aug. 12, 1932, 1.
Hoover campaign trip to Iowa from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 432; Manchester, 52–53; Kennedy, 94 (in passing).
Accounts of discontent in the heartland in the months preceding FDR’s inauguration include Watkins, Hungry Years, 339–52; Schlesinger, vol. 1, 266–68; Manchester, 58–60; Kennedy, 196. Farmers’ Holiday Association song quoted in Manchester, 59; also in “Toward the Cooperative Commonwealth: An Introductory History of the Farmer-Labor Movement in Minnesota, 1917–1948,” Ph.D. thesis of Thomas Gerald O’Connell of the Union Graduate School, Feb. 1979 (O’Connell cites the Iowa Union Farmer, Feb. 27, 1932).
“Wild Bill” Langer quoted in Watkins, Hungry Years, 350.
Reactions to Hoover: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 432; Manchester, 52–53.
Hoover’s speech that night: NYT, Oct. 5, 1932, 18. “Hoover smiles”: Des Moines Register, Oct. 5, 1932, 11.
In that final month: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 432, 437; Dickson and Allen, 201.
Part II
Hope on the Rise
1. JOBS FROM THE SKY (AND NOWHERE ELSE)
New York City weather, snow shovelers: NYT, Dec. 8, 1932, 1; NYT, Dec. 11, 1932, 1; NYT, Dec. 18, 1932, 1, 24; Dec. 19, 1932, 1; Dec. 20, 1932, 3.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation loan application by Los Angeles and number it would employ: NYT, Mar. 10, 1933, 10.
72nd Congress lame duck session: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 448–49, 456. Debate on relief: Burns, 146. Sales tax: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 449. Senate Finance Committee: ibid., 4, 457.
Unemployment rate of 24.9 percent is widely cited, including in Watkins, Hungry Years, 44.
“Feed the hungry”: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 448. Landon and Fish quoted in Manchester, 58. Reed quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 268.
Louisiana bank closures and Union Guardian Trust: ibid., 475.
Bank failures and bank closings in February, March 1933: Manchester, 71–74; Kennedy, 131–33; Senate hearings and effect on depositors’ confidence: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 478.
McAdoo quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 5, who cites Time, Mar. 6, 1933.
2. AN AGONY OF WAITING
Hearst quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 467.
Roosevelt cabinet appointments: ibid., 466–72; also Burns, 148–49. Ickes and Progressive background: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 100–1, 421–22; Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 277–80.
Roosevelt cruise and assassination attempt from sources including Schlesinger, vol. 1, 464–65; Black, 263–64; Burns, 147; Kennedy, 116; Phillips, 82. Leona Merrill from her obituary by Kaitlin Keane in Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), Dec. 17, 2005, 52. Zangara execution from WPA Guide to Florida, 379.
Roosevelt’s sense of calm and national anticipation: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 465–66; Kennedy, 116–17.
Hoover clung to his conviction: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 476–77; Black, 264–67. Hoover letter to Reed: ibid., 265–66.
Roosevelt speech preparation: NYT, Mar. 2, 1933, 3.
Spread of bank closings: NYT, Mar. 2, 1933, 8; also see Leuchtenberg, FDR, 38–39.
Roosevelt party to Washington for inauguration: NYT, Mar. 2, 1933, 1; Mar. 3, 1933, 1–3; Mar. 4, 1933, 1, 3.
3. ACTION AT LAST
Inaugural weather, banks closed: NYT, Mar. 4, 1933, 1.
Inauguration day: NYT, Mar. 5, 1933, 1 ff; Washington Post, Mar. 5, 1933, 1 ff.
Atmosphere in presidential limousine from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 2–3; Black, 270. Hoover quote from Cutler, 172. Tea from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 2; Kennedy, 133; Manchester, 75.
Inauguration and speech from NYT, Mar. 5, 1933, 1 ff. Also described in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 1–8. Descriptions of avid listeners: Manchester, 76–77; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 1; Black, 271; Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 299.
If people wanted action now: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 4.
Cash shortages, runners: NYT, Mar. 5, 1933, 6. Golden Gloves: Manchester, 78.
First fireside chat, intro by Robert Trout: Black, 276; transcript of interview by Bob Cockrum with Robert Trout, posted by Cockrum, rmc44@sbcglobal.net, to old.time.radio@oldradio.net, seen at members.aol.com/jeff560/am8.htm.
Will Rogers quote from NYT, Mar. 14, 1933; also Schlesinger, vol. 2, 13. Chat quote from fireside chat posted online at New Deal Network (http://newdeal/feri.org/texts/379.htm); also Black, 276–78.
4. WINDS OF CHANGE
Official Washington itself had changed: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 243; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 14.
Decision to push forward: ibid., 8.
Speakeasies from Andrist et al., 106. Cassidy from Dickson and Allen, 32–33. Chicago gangland murders from Andrist et al., 111.
Hundred Days legislation summarized in Schlesinger, vol. 2, 20–21, among others.
Le Mars and Denison, Iowa, from Schlesinger, vol. 2, 42–43. White Cloud, Mich., from Tom Lewis, “A Godlike Presence: The Impact of Radio on the 1920s and 1930s,” Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, spring 1992, online at www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/lewis.htm.
Lack of jobs, prospects: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 263; Brown, 146.
Lack of relief structure: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 263–65, Leuchtenberg, FDR, 52, among others.
5. THE PASSION OF HARRY HOPKINS
Harry Hopkins is abundantly described in New Deal literature. Schlesinger, vol. 2, 265–66, provides a general description that is incorporated here; my description also relies on photographs of Hopkins.
The fullest descriptions of Hopkins’s background and early life appear in McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 17–34, 35–43, and 45. Also Sherwood, 14–30.
Origins of New York’s Temporary Emergency Relief Administration: Brown, 89–94; Sherwood, 31–32. Hopkins’s appointment: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 45–46; Sherwood, 32.
1.2 million New Yorkers receiving TERA aid: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 46. $20 million additional: Brown, 90. November bond issue: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 47; Sherwood, 33.
Components of TERA: Brown, 92–93.
Hopkins much preferred work: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 55–56; Charles, 31.
80,000 into TERA jobs: NYT, Mar. 13, 1932, sec. II, 1. Hopkins appointed chairman: NYT, Apr. 22, 1932, 21. Report to legislature: NYT, Aug. 1, 1932, 33.
Road construction and other work: NYT, Aug. 1, 1932, 33. Money for artists’ colony: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 48. Bond issue approval: ibid., 47.
Hopkins in Washington: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 51; Brown, 140–41. Letter to Roosevelt: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 264; Brown, 141.
Hopkins and Hodson to Washington: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 51; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 264.
Meeting with Perkins: Perkins, 183–84. Also ibid.; Black, 281; McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 51; J. Hopkins, 161.
Plan for relief, FDR choice of Hopkins as administrator: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 264–65.
Hopkins’s style, Roosevelt’s view of him: J. Hopkins, 161–62; Sherwood, 32; McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 40. Hopkins’s datebook note: Box 51, Harry L. Hopkins Papers, Georgetown University.
Cable to Lehman: J. Hopkins, 162. Straus offer: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 51. Child support: ibid. 52. Pay cut: Black, 282. “Took train to Washington”: Box 51, Hopkins papers, Georgetown U.
6. “MONEY FLIES”
Hopkins started work: J. Hopkins, 162; McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 52; Sherwood, 45.
Hopkins was pleased: Sherwood, 45.
Description of Walker-Johnson Building and quote from Sherwood, 62. Insecticide from Phillips, 265. States and grant total from NYT, May 23, 1933, 21.
“Money Flies” quoted in Watkins, Hungry Years, 170; Sherwood, 44–45.
“I’m not going to last six months”: ibid., 45.
Hopkins’s appointees: Charles, 29–30.
“I don’t want anybody…'to waste…'time”: Sherwood, 49. Staff of 121 and total salary of $22,000 a month: ibid., 48.
RFC transfers: Charles, 28–29.
“In more places than could be believed”: H. Hopkins, 103.
Matching funds and grants: Brown, 148. Family subsistence rising: H. Hopkins, 103.
Boy shot while stealing milk: Charles, 28.
“made to feel his pauperism”: H. Hopkins, 100.
Relief investigator’s job: ibid., 101.
Freedom to spend on beer and cigarettes: ibid., 105.
Civilian Conservation Corps: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 337–41.
Not everyone embraced the CCC: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 338, 339. First enrollee, Henry Rich: USDA Forest Service Web site for George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj/cultural/ccc/index.shtml.
A good overall description of the CCC is contained in Watkins, Hungry Years, 159–69. See also Schlesinger, vol. 2, 338–39.
Black CCC workers and resegregation: http://newdeal.feri.org/aaccc/index.htm. Fechner to Griffith from http://newdeal.feri.aaccc/aaccc04.htm.
World war veterans return to Washington: Dickson and Allen, 212–16; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 15; Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 340. Veterans offered, accepted jobs in CCC, Dickson and Allen, 216.
CCC enrollment: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 338; also Watkins, Hungry Years, 162.
Two-part legislation for National Industrial Recovery (leading to National Industrial Recovery Act): Schlesinger, vol. 2, 98–99; wage/hour figures: ibid., 90; economic planning: ibid., 99.
Public works component: ibid., 99.
Record of the Hundred Days from, among others, ibid., 20–21.
7. THE DESIRE TO WORK
TVA dams from TVA Web site: www.tva.gov/sites.
White House conference, FDR quote: Brown, 152.
Hopkins address to National Conference of Social Work in Detroit, welfare a federal obligation: Brown, 152–54.
Response to teachers out of work: H. Hopkins, 112–14.
Textile workers employed: H. Hopkins, 113–14.
Marksville, Louisiana, archaeology: Lyon, 1–4.
2 million on FERA work relief: H. Hopkins, 114.
Public Works Administration’s slow start: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 109. The PWA projects mentioned are described in many New Deal histories and Web sites, but I have relied primarily on T. H. Watkins’s excellent Ickes biography, Righteous Pilgrim.
Ickes’s appearance: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 1–2. “Honest Harold”: Kennedy, 178. “Old Curmudgeon”: Time, Feb. 11, 1952 (Ickes’s obituary, retrieved online). Attention to fine print: Kennedy, 178.
Contractor hiring, no relief requirement: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 284.
Title I of National Industrial Recovery Act and Hugh Johnson sketch: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 101–6. “Old Ironpants”: Time, Nov. 4, 1940, and Manchester, 51. Role of NRA in job creation: Kennedy, 177–79. Blue Eagle and “We Do Our Part” from Schlesinger, vol. 2, 114; also Kennedy, 183.
NRA a force for stabilization, not expansion: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 109. PWA too slow: Charles, 47.
8. THE BIRTH OF THE CIVIL WORKS ADMINISTRATION
“a stupendous and varied work program.”: H. Hopkins, 115.
Hopkins in Chicago, Kansas City; Williams report from Commons: Sherwood, 51; Charles, 46–47. Federationist report also mentioned: H. Hopkins, 115.
White House lunch and “walk on air”: Sherwood, 35–36; 51–52. Roosevelt, Hopkins quotes: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 391; McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 58.
Hotel Powhatan sessions: Sherwood, 52.
Ickes learned about the raid: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 391–92.
FDR signs order creating Civil Works Administration: Charles, 48.
9. FOUR MILLION JOBS
Hopkins had high ambitions: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 270. Mayors of Worcester and Lowell: Charles, 48–49.
Engineering division, Carmody: Watkins, Hungry Years, 179.
CWA reviewers processed applications: Charles, 51–52.
Workers from FERA; applications in North Carolina, Chicago: Watkins, Hungry Years, 179. Bureau of Printing and Engraving: ibid., 179. Veterans Administration disbursement system: H. Hopkins, 120. More than 800,000:H. Hopkins, 117.
CWA workers in mid-December: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 270. Field reports: Bauman and Coode, 28–31.
Hickok field report from Dickinson, N.D.: Lorena Hickok papers, FDR Library.
Hickok reports from Iowa and Wisconsin: Charles, 49.
There were stories: shoes from Sherwood, 55; Armstrong from Watkins, Hungry Years, 181–82.
Smith quoted: NYT, Dec. 1, 1933, 1.
Hopkins quoted: NYT, Dec. 2, 1933, 1; also in Charles, 49–50.
CWA job types: Charles, 52; see also NYT, Nov. 26, 1933, sec. IV, 1. Employment figures: Sherwood, 57.
10. EMPLOYMENT POLITICS
Bulk of CWA money flowed to largest states: Charles, 50. Costigan quoted: Charles, 54–55.
McAdoo accusations: Charles, 55–56.
Everybody wanted a piece: Charles, 57.
Republican National Committee charges: Sherwood, 55.
Hopkins quoted: Charles, 58, and Sherwood, 45.
Hopkins on cover: Time magazine, Feb. 19, 1934. Hopkins’s fraud investigators: Sherwood, 55. Cases referred, convictions: Charles, 59.
Frank Walker’s background is summarized from the Ferrell-edited Walker autobiography.
Walker’s Montana trip: Sherwood, 53–55.
The use of CWA workers in New York City parks by parks commissioner Robert Moses is vividly described in Caro, 362–63, 370, 370–71.
Winter conditions, 1934: Sherwood, 55. Also Phillips, 270.
“Non-manual and professional” workers: H. Hopkins, 123.
Borglum quoted: Sherwood, 58.
White-collar jobs: Watkins, Hungry Years, 180.
Hopkins quoted: Sherwood, 57.
11. THE JOBS THAT PAID TOO MUCH
Hopkins’s success at job making: Charles, 60; Watkins, Hungry Years, 179–80; Sherwood, 55.
Chelsea, Mass.: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 273.
Hickok to Hopkins: Hickok papers, FDR Library.
CWA wage scale: Charles, 52–53.
As little as 5 cents an hour: ibid., 53. See also Schlesinger, vol. 2, 274; Kennedy, 193–94.
Sketch of Eugene Talmadge drawn from material in Anderson.
Johnstone to Hopkins, Sept. 18, 1933: Gay Shepperson papers, Atlanta History Center.
Van de Vrede from Shepperson papers. Talmadge–White House exchange: Anderson, 136; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 274.
Hopkins on Talmadge: Savannah (Ga.) News, Jan. 7, 1934, 1.
Hopkins federalizing Georgia program, reinstating Van de Vrede: Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Jan. 12, 1934, 1.
CWA hour/wage reductions: Charles, 52–53.
Hickok to Hopkins: Hickok papers, FDR Library.
12. THE BRIEF SHINING LIFE OF THE CWA
$950 million and no more: Sherwood, 56. Lehman quoted: Charles, 61. Letters and telegrams: Sherwood, 56.
Hickok to Hopkins: Hickok papers, FDR Library.
Fear of CWA permanence: Sherwood, 56. Jobs “become a habit”: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 122.
“should be gradually demobilized”: Time, Feb. 19, 1934. Obeying orders: Sherwood, 56. “You know, this is a great job”: Hopkins press conference, Feb. 16, 1934, National Archives and Records Administration, Civil Works Administration papers, Record Group 69 (henceforth NARA, RG 69), Series 737, Box 4 (viewed online at New Deal Network, newdeal/feri.org/texts/787.htm).
Key West: WPA and FERA artwork in the Florida Keys Web site, www.keysarts.com/WPA-Spotlight.htm. Palatka: Florida state parks Web site, www.abfla.com/parks/RavineGardens/ravinegardens.htm. Montana state capitol, Cathedral of Learning: Black, 315. Coit Tower: Florence Loeb Kellog, “Art Becomes Public Works,” Survey Graphic 23, 6 (June 1934):279. Mississippi schools: Hopkins press conference, Mar. 30, 1934, NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 4 (viewed online at New Deal Network, http://newdeal/feri.org/texts/791.htm).
150,000 privies: Kennedy, 176. Hopkins’s quote: Hopkins press conference, Feb. 23, 1934, NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 4 (viewed online at New Deal Network, http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/789.htm).
Demobilization of 720,000: ibid. Salt Lake City earthquake from Deseret (Utah) News, Mar. 12, 1934 (www.seis.utah.edu/NEHRP_HTM/1934hans/n1934ha1.htm). New York City parks: Caro, 370–72. Norman Thomas march: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 277. Continuing work: ibid., 277–78.
Summary of work: Sherwood, 57; Watkins, Hungry Years, 180. New York City parks: Caro, 372.
Hopkins summarized: Hopkins news conference, Mar. 30, 1934.
Part III
The Dawn of the WPA
1. TOWARD A PERMANENT JOBS PROGRAM
FERA resumed role: Charles, 67–68, 94.
Hopkins conversation with Waite: Charles, 97.
Effects of a works program: Hopkins memo to Roosevelt, Aug. 23, 1935, NARA, RG 69, WPA General Subject Series, Central Correspondence Files, WPA and predecessors, Box 1.
Hog and cotton surplus: Kennedy, 204–5; Watkins, Hungry Years, 356–57; Schlesinger, vol. 2, 62–63.
Milo Reno quoted: Kennedy, 205. Mules beaten, pigs slaughtered: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 73.
Wallace quoted: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 63.
“If there were great food surpluses” Federal Surplus Relief Corporation: H. Hopkins, 155–57.
Dust storms, vomiting dirt: Manchester, 99.
Drought zone: www.u-shistory.com/pages/h1583.htm. Clouds seen in Albany, N.Y.: Manchester, 99.
May 1934 dust storm: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 475–76. Heat wave effects in Arizona: Lyle Johnston, Arizona Journal, online at http://azjournal.com/pages/areaguide/HolbDrought.htm. In Utah: Leonard J. Arrington, “Utah’s Great Drought of 1934,” Utah Historical Quarterly 54(1986): 245–63.
FERA wells and irrigation projects from http://historytogo.utah.gov/drought.htm. Food, wool, leather from sheep and cattle: H. Hopkins, 157–58.
Several plans drafted: Charles, 94–95.
2. PROTESTS LEFT AND RIGHT
Sketch of Townsend and beginnings of Townsend Plan: Brinkley, 222–23.
State old-age assistance: Brown, 27. Nettie Burk: NYT, July 4, 1932, 13.
Sketch of Coughlin drawn from Brinkley, chapters entitled “The Radio Priest,” 82–106, and “Roosevelt or Ruin,” 107–23.
Coughlin drifting out of Roosevelt orbit: Brinkley, 133–34.
Huey Long background from Brinkley, 10–11.
Political trajectory of Long covered in Brinkley, 8–71.
Formation of Liberty League: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 486–87.
Liberty League quotes: Why? by Jouett Shouse, Shouse Collection, University of Kentucky libraries, online at www.uky.edu/Libraries/libpage.php?lweb_id=474&llib_id=13.
3. “THIS IS OUR HOUR”
News of Liberty League: NYT, Aug. 23, 1934, 1. Pneumonia: J. Hopkins, 134. Europe trip and FDR note to Hopkins: Sherwood, 63; also J. Hopkins,176.
SS Washington departure: Sherwood, 63. Hopkins on Mussolini: Hopkins papers, Georgetown University, Box 54, Folder 9.
Reaction to public housing and social security in Europe: Sherwood, 64. “In an American way”: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 191. Townsend still unknown: ibid., 40–41. Social security prelude: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 300–4.
Pretty Boy Floyd sketch: www.bugsysclub.com/bugsysclub/content/view/175/121.
Election results; White, Krock, and Hearst quoted: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 507.
Hopkins quoted: Sherwood, 64–65.
Meetings on new work plan: ibid., 65.
Warm Springs described: www.fdrlittlewhitehouse.org/01_history/01_a.htm. View from hill and tossing ball: Sherwood, 65. Talmadge visit from Charles, 96.
Stark story: Charles, 95. Clark story: Sherwood, 65.
4. “WORK MUST BE FOUND…”
Washington weather; Hauptmann; French foreign minister; Vanderbilt marriage: Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1935, 1. Fahnestock: New York Post, Jan. 4, 1935, 1; also Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1935, 1. Perry and Jacobs: NYT, Jan. 4, 1935, 29. Basketball game: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 21.
A protester leaped from the crowd: New York Post, Jan. 4, 1935, 1.
Inside the Capitol: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 2, 3.
State of the Union text: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 2.
Crowd response: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 1–2. Congressional leaders at White House supper: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 1. Nesbitt cooking: Black, 1039; also Schlesinger, vol. 2, 578.
Townsend, Coughlin, Long, and the status of their movements are taken from Brinkley’s detailed chronicle.
National Association of Manufacturers: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 2. Press reaction: NYT, Jan. 5, 1935, 3.
Washington Post editorial: Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1935, 8.
5. A WORD IS BORN
Harry Hopkins had greeted the new year: Hopkins diary, Hopkins papers, Georgetown University (henceforth Hopkins diary).
Hopkins, Ickes two obvious choices: Sherwood, 67; also Schlesinger, vol. 3, 343.
Hopkins most frequently mentioned: Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1935, 1. Ickes quoted: ibid., 2.
Sunday following the Friday speech: Hopkins diary. Roosevelt quote as related by Morgenthau: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 394.165 Ickes visit: Hopkins diary entries for Jan. 6, 8, 1935; also quoted in Charles, 107.
House passage of work relief appropriation: NYT, Jan. 25, 1935, 1.
Hopkins, Ickes testimony: Sherwood, 67.
Account of “boondoggle” origins at N.Y. aldermanic hearings: NYT, Apr. 4, 1935, 1. Hopkins response quoted in Charles, 70–72.
6. THE MACHINERY TAKES SHAPE
Senate passage of works bill: NYT, Apr. 6, 1935, 1. FDR signed on train: NYT, Apr. 9, 1935, 1.
Hopkins’s diary entry: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 344.
Percentage of labor in CWA, FERA budgets vs. PWA: Charles, 123, 137–38, 139.
FDR quoted: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 344.
Ickes’s illusion of control: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 397. Structure of work relief apparatus: Sherwood, 69. “Quite a large round table”: Sherwood, 69.
The third unit: Sherwood, 69.
Having decided on this structure: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 344.
Fireside chat: transcript online at New Deal Network: http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/385.htm.
Executive order: NYT, May 7, 1935, 13.
“Only a brief paragraph”: NYT, May 7, 1935, 13.
Ickes’s dislike of name: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 397n.
The first meeting: Proceedings of the Advisory Committee on Allotments, vol. 1, FDR Library, FDR Official File OF466f, Box 24; see also McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 79–80; Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 398.
Hopkins’s domination of allotment process: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 399; also Sherwood, 69. Hopkins news conference, July 3, 1935: transcript on New Deal Network.
Sponsorship requirement: Charles, 117.
Ickes memo: FDR Library, FDR official files, Ickes to Roosevelt, June 26, 1936.
First billion-dollar allocation: NYT, May 17, 1935, 1.
7. FULL SPEED AHEAD
Schlesinger, vol. 3, 263–90, “The Death of NRA,” covers the events leading up to and including the Supreme Court’s ruling against the NRA. This is the primary source for the summary included here.
Second New Deal: Kennedy, 248n.
Hopkins, Ickes continued feud: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 345–47; Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 399–401. Hopkins diary entry, May 13, 1935: Hopkins papers, Box 51.
WPA administrators: Charles, 129–30. Hopkins quoted: Charles, 129. Staff occupying nine buildings: Charles, 128.
Pace of work: Charles, 128–29. Woodward quoted: Swain, 48.
Puppy episode: Hopkins papers, Box 54.
No way to buy elections: Charles, 175–78.
Instructions to administrators: Charles, 132–33.
Davey and Langer: Frank P. Vazzano, “Harry Hopkins and Martin Davey: Federal Relief and Ohio Politics During the Great Depression,” Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society 96 (1997): 124–39.
National Youth Administration: Charles, 152–53.
25 percent of working women professionals: Cook, 87. Woodward’s frustration, takes over professional projects: Swain, 47–48.
Baker remains over arts: Swain, 104.
Westbrook as advisor: 130; Schlesinger, vol. 3, 352. Harrington recruited as chief engineer: Sherwood, 75.
8. “CAN YOU SPEND MONEY?”
Harry Hopkins’s and Hallie Flanagan’s train trip to Iowa City, Hopkins’s conversation, and Hopkins’s speech are recounted in Flanagan, 8–28.
9. THE DIRT FLIES: PRELIMINARIES
WPA projects approved (and PWA projects blocked): Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 399–400. Hopkins quoted: ibid., 400.
McCarl blocking WPA spending: Jacksonville Journal, Sept. 3, 1935, 1; NYT, Oct. 6, 1935, 3. McCarl profile from Time, Apr. 10, 1939. Florida jobs from Jacksonville Journal, Sept. 3, 1935, 1.
Hassler trip and quote, Oakland projects approved: San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15, 1935, 1.
In New York City: Caro, 451–54. Roosevelt quoted on La Guardia: Kessner, 336–37.
New York City receiving one-seventh of WPA funds: Caro, 453. Treated as forty-ninth state: Kessner, 339. Johnson reluctant appointee: NYT, June 26, 1935, 1.
Dallas and Dealey Plaza from Web site of the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, jfk.org.
Texas highway plans: Mark Ansley, “Alphabet Agencies: FDR’s Brainstorm,” Borderlands, Spring 1994, vol. 12:5, online at www.epcc.edu/nwlibrary/borderlands/12_alphabet_agencies.htm.
Mt. Hood ski lodge: Griffith and Munro. Ft. Myers yacht marina: Ft. Myers (Fla.) News-Press, Nov. 29, 1936, 1. Hutchinson, Kans., golf course: www.pasturegolf.com/archive/wpa_courses.htm. Idaho Falls airport: Falls Airport Historic District Web site: www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/aviation/ida.htm.
William Webb and the University of Kentucky plans and ultimate use of WPA labor described in Lyons, “WPA Archaeology,” 63–122.
Black children: author’s telephone interview with Love Ingram, Sept. 4, 2001. New Straitsville: “World Famous Mine Fire of New Straitsville,” Journey Through the Years: New Straitsville Centennial, 1870–1970, 24–38. Hassler: San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15, 1935, 1; author’s interview with Tom Fleming, Jan. 28, 2001. Lack of airport in New York: Kessner, 432; in Washington, D.C.: Jackson, 47.
Part IV
Folly and Triumph
1. DEATH OF A POPULIST
The account of Huey Long’s assassination is drawn from Brinkley, 249–50; Schlesinger, vol. 3, 339; Manchester, 116.
FDR lunching with Coughlin, Coughlin quote, Roosevelt’s likely reaction to Long’s death: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 341; Manchester, 117; NYT, Sept. 12, 1935, 13.
FDR on Social Security: Schlesinger, vol. 2, 307–9.
Opposition of National Association of Manufacturers, American Medical Association: Schlesinger vol. 2, 311–12; Social Security online at www.ssa.gov/history/1930.htm.
Growing popularity of Townsend Clubs: Kennedy, 225. Signing of Social Security Act and FDR quote: NYT, Aug. 15, 1935, 1. Long filibuster: Perkins, 299.
Social Security collection, payment schedule: Kennedy, 271-73.
2. HOPKINS ASCENDANT
Skilled pay: NYT, Aug. 8, 1935, 1. White-collar cuts from NYT, Aug. 4, 1935, N4.
Meany strike call: NYT, Aug. 8, 1935, 1. Projects shut down: NYT, Aug. 11, 1935, E1. Young professionals to clean sewers: NYT, Sept. 26, 1935, 5.
No home relief: NYT, Aug. 10, 1935, 1. Hopkins quote: NYT, Aug. 11, 1935, E1.
Meany prediction, results: NYT, Aug. 13, 1935, 1.
Striker, non-striker incidents: NYT, Sept. 14, 1935, 1; Oct. 5, 1935, 1.
WPA wage tiers: NYT, July 30, 1935, 13. Iowa shift from NYT, Aug. 11, 1935, p. 14.
Compromise to end strike: NYT, Sept. 21, 1935, 14; Sept. 25, 1935, 1; Sept. 26, 1935, 15.
Mick Frank from author interview with daughter Ethel Weiss. Moses, Johnson, La Guardia name-calling over WPA workers: NYT, Sept. 11, 1935,1.
Resolution: NYT, Sept. 13, 1935, 6.
Hopkins-Ickes feud continues: NYT, Sept. 11, 1935, 1; Schlesinger, vol. 3, 347–49. Cartoon appeared Aug. 6, 1936, viewed online: http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cex08.htm.
Hopkins dominance: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 349.
Hopkins’s ulcer: Hopkins diary; cruise plan from Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 408-9.
Cruise recounted: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 417–18.
Funding logjam broken: NYT, Oct. 23, 1935, 1.
3. HURRICANES AND PIPE DREAMS
The account of Labor Day hurricane is drawn from sources including WPA Guide to Florida, 330; Jerry Wilkinson, www.keyshistory.org; Dickson and Allen, 236.
$200,000 for cleanup, Sholtz, Hopkins quoted: Jacksonville Journal, Sept. 6, 1935, 1. Reports accurate; Florida Highway Dept. equipment moved: Dickson and Allen, 239, 248. Williams to Florida, “act of God”: Dickson and Allen, 243. Hemingway reaction: ibid., 245.
The rise and fall of the Florida Ship Canal is compiled from newspaper reports including the NYT, Jacksonville Journal, and Ocala Evening Star. Corps of Engineers interviews posted online at the Army Corps of Engineers Web site, www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/index.htm. First payday from Ocala Evening Star, Sept. 18, 1935, 1. Vandenberg pipe-dreaming quote from Ocala Evening Star, May 30, 1936, 1. Dragline as plaything from author’s interview with Ray Cunningham, Ocala.
4. A LODGE AT THE TIMBERLINE
The background and history of Timberline Lodge (as well as its later restoration and its collection of art and furnishings) are covered with loving attention in Rachael Griffin and Sarah Munro’s compilation of information for the Friends of Timberline, entitled simply Timberline Lodge. Their material is a major contributor to my accounts of the various stages of the lodge’s development.
Lodge origins: Griffin and Munro, 2–3.
E. J. Griffith background: Oregon Voter, July 20, 1935, 10–13.
Sponsorship and sale of bonds: Griffin and Munro, 3.
Approval and funding breakdown: Portland Sunday Oregonian, Dec. 15, 1935, 1.
The remainder of the chapter describing the beginning of work on Timberline Lodge is drawn from Griffin and Munro, 2–6, and from interviews with Linn Forrest and Albert Altorfer in the archives of Friends of Timberline.
5. A NATION AT WORK
$7 million on system of dams: statement of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith on the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project, July 21, 1953, appendix to Congressional Record, A4510.
WPA signs: San Diego Evening Tribune, Mar. 6, 1936, 1. Moses-Ridder flap: NYT, Mar. 13, 1936, 1. Moses allows smaller signs: New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 15, 1936, sec. 1, 50.
Hopkins quotes: Sherwood, 52. Ernie Pyle column quoted: Sherwood, 61–62.
Colonel McCormick and Chicago Tribune: Kennedy, 404–5.
Tribune editorial: Sherwood, 81. Pictured: Sherwood, 82.
Hastings-McKellar exchange: NYT, Mar. 11, 1936, 10.
New York Sun’s “Today’s Boon-Doggle” from National Archives clip files.
Randall’s Island stadium cost: New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 21, 1935, sec. I, 13. Bridge cost: Caro, 392. Moses controls Triborough Bridge Authority in 1934: Caro, 62. Ceremony: Caro, 441–43; New York Sun, Aug. 20, 1936, 1.
Shoe repair criticism, Robinson’s response: NYT, Mar. 11, 1936, 10.
FDR quoted: NYT, Jan. 19, 1936, 1.
Mt. Airy, N.C., lake: Syracuse N.Y. Post Standard, Sept. 13, 1936, 1. Butte ice rink: Montana Standard, May 15, 1938, 14.
Self-policing: Charles, 136. W-men and Dort quoted: NYT, Oct. 23, 1935, 6. 4 percent of total spending: Oregon Journal, Apr. 7, 1936, 21.
FDR State of the Union transcript: New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1936a.htm.
Background of AAA court case, Supreme Court ruling: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 471–72.
WPA rolls, Hopkins quote: Hopkins news conference, Jan. 9, 1936, New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/workrelief/hop16.htm.
“You can pity six men…”: H. Hopkins, 111.
6. KENTUCKY’S PACKHORSE LIBRARY
Women 22 percent of workforce: Swain, 54–55.
Kentucky library spending: Florence H. Ridgway, Developments in Library Service in Kentucky, A Review (Berea, Ky.: Kentucky Library Association, Berea College Press, 1940), 8.
Bookmobile origin dates to 1926 in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
Role of John C. C. Mayo: Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 95, 1 (winter 1997): 62.
Role of Fullerton, Nofcier: ibid., 65.
The account of Grace Caudill Overbee’s (later Grace Caudill Lucas) life with Taylor Overbee and as a packhorse librarian: author’s telephone interviews with her and her son Richard Overbee, Jan. 3 and 7, 2002.
Packhorse librarians, Eastern Kentucky library distribution figures: NARA, RG 69, Series 743, Box 1, WPA Div. of Information, “WPA Traveling Libraries.”
Extent of WPA traveling library services: Edward A. Chapman, “WPA and Rural Libraries,” Bulletin of the American Library Association 32, 10 (Oct. 1, 1938): 703, online at New Deal Network: http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/216.htm.
7. THE 1936 CAMPAIGN
Veto overturned, $1.1 billion to vets, contrast with Hoover: Dickson and Allen, 253–55.
Hoover call for “holy crusade”: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 545. Landon “the everyday American”: ibid., 601.
Democratic convention, FDR acceptance, crowd reaction: ibid., 585.
WPA stood for: author interview with Juliet Segal, July 14, 2006. “Comfort shovel” from The Morning Herald, Uniontown, Penn., May 21, 1936, 1.
Johnny Mills: author’s interview, Nov. 30, 2002. Republicans running WPA: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 591.
Hopkins quote: NYT, Aug. 21, 1936, 6. Reduced role in campaign: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 587. “Not one person is to be laid off…”: ibid., 590.
Landon move further to right: ibid., 623–24. Social Security “cruel hoax”: ibid., 614. Conservative papers’ treatment of FDR, Chicago Tribune banning FDR news from front page, Hearst front-page editorial: ibid., 633.
Al Smith endorses Landon: ibid., 618. Coughlin: ibid., 627–30; says drought God’s punishment for electing FDR: ibid., 608.
Crowd booing Chicago Tribune press cars: ibid., 633. FDR Chicago, New York quotes: Black, 389.
8. HOPKINS IN LOUISIANA
Hopkins dedicating WPA addition to LSU stadium and Hopkins speech: New Orleans Times-Picayune, Nov. 29, 1936, 1; New Orleans Item-Tribune, Nov. 29, 1936, 1.
Charleston News and Courier, Jan. 14, 1937; Laurel Leader Call, Aug. 29, 1936. From NARA, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.
LSU football results: LSU football Web site: LSUsports.net.
9. AT WORK ON THE TIMBERLINE (HENRY MOAR)
Progress on Timberline Lodge: Griffin and Munro, 1–14. Hopkins visit and comments: Oregon Journal, Sept. 15, 1936, 1; Portland News-Telegram, Sept. 15, 1936, 3; Wechner and Turner interviews, Friends of Timberline archives.
Hoffman Smith plans: interview online in Archives of American Art, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/hoffsm64.htm.
Addition to Timberline budget: Griffin and Munro, 30, 39.
Henry Moar’s role in the construction of Timberline Lodge and the details of his life are from the author’s interview with Moar, Portland, Oct. 24, 2002.
WPA projects in Portland and northwest Oregon: Neil Barker, “Portland’s Works Progress Administration,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 101, 4(2000). Wilson and Wolf Creek highways: Oregon Journal, May 25, 1936, 1.
Status of Summit Meadow camp: Altorfer interview, Friends of Timberline archives.
Various jobs: Griffin and Munro, 6–14.
Camp menu and cost of meals from Altorfer interview.
Progress of construction: Griffin and Munro, 39–40.
Andirons described in Hoffman Smith interview, Archives of American Art.
Visual tricks employed by architects: Linn Forrest interview, Friends of Timberline archives. “Cascadian” described by Griffin and Munro, 5.
Race against deteriorating weather and incidents: Gano, Wechner interviews, Friends of Timberline. Masons using stoves: Griffin and Munro, 8.
Christmas planning and violinist: Altorfer interview, Friends of Timberline archives.
Lodge roofed: Griffin and Munro, 23.
Part V
The Arts Programs
1. THE DILEMMA OF ART AND POLITICS
Federal One potential realized: H. Hopkins, 173–77.
Federal One spending and employees:. “Unemployed Arts,” Fortune, May 1937. “Usefulness doubted”: NYT, Sept. 1, 1936, 20.
Firebrand arts workers and reaction treated comprehensively in Mangione.
Artists’ expectations: Lynch and Barnet quotes from author interviews with the two artists, Lynch on Oct. 22 and Oct. 25, 2002; Barnet on Mar. 6, 2002.
Houseman on Flanagan: Houseman, 174. Cahill sketch from biographical note to Cahill papers, New York Public Library, online at www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/cahill.htm. Sokoloff sketch: Bindas, 3–14. Alsberg sketch: Mangione, 53–58.
Baker belief in decentralization: Mangione, 40–42.
Flanagan/Cahill vs. Baker, Cahill quotes: Cahill interview on line, Archives of American Art, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/cahill60.htm
2. THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT: PRELUDE
WPA circus opening: Bulletin of the Federal Theatre Project 1, 6 (1936): 23.
Honest Bill Newton: www.wpamurals.com/wpapools.htm. Elephant reprieve: N.Y. Daily News, Dec. 2, 1937, 39.
Preexisting units: Flanagan, 59. Gilbert and Sullivan troupe popularity: Flanagan, 79.
Flanagan ambitions: Houseman, 174. Centralizing service functions in N.Y.: Flanagan, 63.
Elmer Rice, N.Y. units set up: Flanagan, 59.
Federal pay problems: Robert Asure interview, Smithsonian Archives of American Art online: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/asure65.htm. “Stupidity, inefficiency”: Flanagan, 61. Theaters reluctant to rent to FTP: Buttitta and Witham, 35.
Ticket prices: NYT, Jan. 6, 1935, 2nd news sec., N1. Biltmore rental: Buttitta and Witham, 35.
Unit-theater pairings: Flanagan, 62; Buttitta and Witham, 35. Late October move-in: Houseman, 182.
Houseman and McClendon and Negro Theatre units: Flanagan, 62–63. Lafayette condition, restoration: Houseman, 182.
Houseman Harlem background: Houseman, 180–84.
Welles, origins of “voodoo” Macbeth: Houseman, 185–86. Witch doctors: Houseman, 190.
Living Newspaper concept: Bentley, 72–73.
Mussolini invasion of Ethiopia: NYT, Oct. 4, 1935, 1. Rejection of selective arms sale ban: Kennedy, 395.
Flanagan assumptions regarding politicians: Asure interview, Smithsonian Archives of American Art. White House reaction to script: Bentley, 212.
Flanagan call to ER, Baker decree regarding State Department approval, Rice quitting: Bentley, 211–15.
Model Tenement shelving: Flanagan, 135–36.
3. THE CURTAIN RISES
Early FTP presentations: Houseman, 186; Flanagan, 69.
March offerings: Flanagan, 69–70.
Murder as “religious ritual,” hot ticket, scalper prices: Buttitta and Witham, 46–47.
Dorothy Sherwood history: transcript of ruling by Court of Appeals of New York re People v. Sherwood, July 8, 1936. Triple-A Plowed Under description, quotes: Meltzer, 34–35. Reactions to Triple-A Plowed Under: Buttitta and Witham, 42–45. Flanagan quote: Flanagan, 184.
4. THE VOODOO MACBETH
The account of the Negro Theatre’s Macbeth is drawn from Houseman’s vivid firsthand account, 189–205; also Buttitta and Witham, 64–65, and Flanagan, 74. Houseman’s recollections form the largest part of the account.
Troupe size: Houseman, 193.
Rumors: Houseman, 190–91. Stencils: Buttitta and Witham, 64. Foliage: Houseman, 200.
Dress rehearsal: Buttitta and Witham, 64.
“not next to Negroes” quoted by Houseman, 198. Scene at Lafayette, furs and jewels, and Flanagan corsage: Buttitta and Witham, 64.
Gellhorn quoted in Houseman, 201.
Theatrical workers employed, projects operating, Flanagan quote: Federal Theatre Bulletin 1, 4 (March 1936): 5–6. Lancaster: Buttitta and Witham, 51; Cotten: ibid., 78–79; Lumet: ibid., 83.
5. SELLING THE THEATER (YOUTH PUBLICIST FRANK GOODMAN)
Bank description: Buttitta and Witham, 7–8. Bank failure: Kennedy, 67–68.
Frank Goodman’s account of his early life and the beginning of his tenure with the Federal Theatre Project: author’s interviews with Goodman, July 1, 2002; Mar. 12, 2003.
William P. Farnsworth: Flanagan, 67.
6. THE ART PROJECT: MURALS AND INTRIGUE
Treasury art programs: Meltzer, 19–20.
Asure quote: interview, Archives of American Art.
Cahill production quotas: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.
New York City time cards: Meltzer, 60; Cahill interview, Archives of American Art, 11.
McMahon: O’Connor, 56.
Pollock start on project and Sande Pollock name change: Naifeh and Smith, 274–76.
Cahill background: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.
American Scene painting and practitioners from www.artcyclopedia.com/history/american-scene.htm.
WPA artists: Meltzer, 63–65. “Gloom pervades”: NYT, June 28, 1936, 22.
Mural spaces: Meltzer, 68–69.
Laning work at Ellis Island, New York Public Library: Meltzer, 70.
Alston work at Harlem Hospital: www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.htm.
Michael Lenson background, entry into FAP supervisory role: Lenson interview by Harlan Phillips Nutley, online at www.wpamurals.com/lenstrans.htm. Details of Essex Mountain mural: Essex Mountain Web site. www.mountainsanitorium.net/default.htm.
Development of art projects including glassblowing in N.J. and Corning reaction: Lenson interview.
Milwaukee handicraft project: Milwaukee Journal, Apr. 5, 1936, 16. New Orleans: Sunday Item-Tribune, Nov. 14, 1937 (National Archives WPA clip files, page illegible). Armenians and Turks in SF: www.masreview.org/4403/mlenson_interview.htm. Beach Chalet: author’s site visit, Jan. 30, 2001.
Graphic artists: Meltzer, 76–80.
7. THE INDEX OF AMERICAN DESIGN (AND COMMUNITY ART CENTERS)
The origins and execution of the Index of American Design are covered in some detail at the pages devoted to it at the Web site of the National Gallery of Art: www.nga.gov/collection/iad/history/overview.shtm.
Cahill approval: ibid.; Meltzer, 81. Harnett, Egyptologist Smith: Meltzer, 83. Delaney quoted: Sam Yates, “Joseph Delaney,” introduction to retrospective exhibit, online at sunsite.utk.edu/delaney/retro.htm.
Researchers and artists in thirty-five states: Meltzer, 82.
Art Project workers as teachers: Meltzer, 84–5. Cahill Chattanooga story: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.
Community art center push: ibid.
Number of art centers and attendees: Meltzer, 85.
Art centers in N.Y.: Meltzer, 87–8; Harlem Hospital WPA Murals Web site, www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.htm. Chicago: www.wpamurals.com/southside.htm.
8. THE MUSIC PROJECT: “REAL MUSIC” FOR AMERICA
The state of American music at the outbreak of the depression from a variety of sources, of which Andrist et al., 136–37, provides an example.
Professional musicians out of work: Bindas, 2–3. Eleven symphony orchestras: Meltzer, 93.
Work for musicians under FERA and CWA: Bindas, 2–3. Hopkins’s appointment of Sokoloff, reaction: ibid., 3–5.
Kiev orchestra: Meltzer, 92. Sale of Sokoloff violin: Bindas, 3.
Sokoloff background: Bindas, 3–5.
Sokoloff quoted: ibid., 5.
Elinor Morgenthau, California state FMP directors quoted: ibid., 5. Sokoloff comparison of swing with funny papers: ibid., 13. Sokoloff “stupid things”: ibid., 5. Pattison quoted: ibid., 13.
Weber persuades WPA to extend application date: ibid., 6.
Sokoloff favoring classical musicians, “no musical ability”: ibid., 5. Weber role and Sokoloff capitulation: ibid., 8.
Advisory committee: ibid., 6. Hopkins’s goal for music: Hopkins, 176. Sokoloff’s compiling audience numbers: Bindas, 9.
Musicians on payroll in 1935: ibid., 8–10.
Increase in musicians in 1936: ibid., 8–10. WPA brass band at Pier 58: NYT, Apr. 26, 1936, sec. 1, 29. Federal Civic Opera of San Diego: Peter Mehren, “San Diego’s Opera Unit of the WPA Federal Music Project,” Journal of San Diego History 18 (summer 1972). Audience of 32 million: NYT,Oct. 11, 1936, sec. 2, 6.
Critics’ dilemma: New York Post, June 11, 1936, sec. I, 18.
Harry Hewes role: Bindas, 11. Sokoloff oversight of radio recording: ibid., 21.
Sokoloff avoids left-wing sentiment: ibid., 11. Band fired: NYT, Jan. 27, 1936, 1. Reinstated: NYT, Jan. 28, 1936, 2.
FMP playing work of American musicians: Bindas, 10.
New works by American composers, “wealth of talent”: NYT, Nov. 29, 1936, sec. 2, 7.
Kentucky Mountain Minstrels: Bindas, 13–14. Tipica orchestras in Texas: Bindas, 98.
Southwestern music: ibid., 97–98. Joint committee on the folk arts: Meltzer, 99.
Music copying service: Hopkins, 176; Meltzer, 91.
Music education: Hopkins, 176; Meltzer, 97.
Largest of the arts projects: Bindas, xiii.
Frank Gullino: New York Herald Tribune, May 19, 1936, 16.
9. THE WRITERS’ PROJECT
Jerre Mangione’s The Dream and the Deal covers the Federal Writers’ Project in detail from the author’s first-person perspective and is the major source for the information and anecdotes contained in this chapter.
Writers’ lobbying for a jobs program: Mangione, 34–38.
Origins of Writers’ Project in previous programs: ibid., 46; Selvaggio, 155.
American guides an idea of Marianne Moore: Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration of the State of California. The WPA Guide to California, New York: Pantheon, 1984 [1939], xvi. Other originators including Kellock: Mangione, 46.
Kellock background: ibid., 46, 63–68.
Evolution of guide concept, scrapping of other work: ibid., 47.
Alsberg respected by writers, preferences for company, and background: ibid., 53–56.
During the first months, disorder reigned: ibid., 53–93.
Baker quote: Baker interview, Archives of American Art: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/bakerj63.htm.
At the California project: Mangione, 137. Roskolenko quoted: ibid., 176. In Chicago: Ibid., 84. In Boston: ibid., 105. Radicalism in New York project office: ibid., 155–90.
Eleanor Roosevelt: Alsberg quoted in ibid., 81.
State directors, interference generally and in Missouri and Nebraska: ibid., 76–77.
Named writers: ibid., 97–152.
Deadline for guide copy, deadline missed: ibid., 92.
From the outside: ibid., 92.
10. AT WORK FOR THE WRITERS’ PROJECT (RESEARCHER THOMAS C. FLEMING)
This material comes entirely from the author’s interview with Thomas C. Fleming, San Francisco, Jan. 28, 2001. Recollection of Harlem riots on page 300 supplemented with NYT reports, Mar. 20, 1935, 1, Mar. 21, 1935, 1.
11. ONE NATION, ONE PLAY
The material in this section comes primarily from Hallie Flanagan’s descriptions in Arena in the chapter entitled “States United: It Can’t Happen Here,” 115–29, and from Buttitta and Witham, 79–92.
Flanagan quote: Flanagan, 116. Project anniversary, film rights: Buttitta and Witham, 79. Lewis expected even-handedness from FTP: Flanagan, 117.
Telegram quoted: ibid., 117.
“free, inquiring, critical spirit”: ibid., 129.
12. AT WORK OFFSTAGE (ANTHONY BUTTITTA AND MILTON MELTZER)
Both Buttitta and Meltzer have written accounts of, or (in Meltzer’s case) touched on, their work for the Federal Theatre Project, both of which are listed in the bibliography. The author also has talked with both men. Tony Buttitta was a neighbor in Greenwich Village for several years before his death in 2004. During this time we spoke often about Buttitta’s background and his role in the project, which he describes in more detail in his book with Witham. Meltzer’s book covers all the WPA arts projects, and my interview with him on Mar. 1, 2002, provided additional details about his background and the circumstances that led to his theater project job.
As soon as he arrived: Buttitta and Witham, 7.
Flanagan was out of town: ibid., 8–10.
Older actors petitioning Flanagan: ibid., 12.
Magazine start in November: Flanagan, 63.
Conversation with Marvin, meeting de Rohan: Buttitta and Witham, 26. Called back: ibid., 32. “Box Score”: Federal Theatre Bulletin 1, 5 (April 1936): 21.
Milton Meltzer background and arrival at FTP: Meltzer, 1–17.
Duration of stays at the FTP: ibid., 151; Buttitta and Witham, 239.
13. THE AMERICAN GUIDES: IDAHO VERSUS WASHINGTON, D.C.
Kellock role: Mangione, 65–66.
Contents of California guide: WPA Guide to California, viii.
The nation seemed determined: Mangione, 360–61.
Alsberg decided on Washington, D.C., as first guide: ibid., 201.
Fisher working against odds: ibid., 73, 203.
Fisher background: Utah History Encyclopedia online, www.media.utah. edu/UHE/f/FISHER,VARDIS.htm. Traffic movement: Mangione, 202. Cronyn duties: ibid., 59; Cronyn quoted: ibid., 203.
Editor to Idaho, Fisher response as described in novel: ibid., 204–5.
January publication: ibid., 206. Pages by Fisher: ibid., 203.
Reviews and Saturday Review quoted in ibid., 207.
14. LAYOFFS AND PROTESTS
Unemployment from 24.9 to below 17 percent: McElvaine, The Great Depression, 297–98. 315–16 Roosevelt July 1936 cuts: ibid., 297. Hopkins rescinding exemption granted arts projects: Flanagan, 188–89. Arts workers laid off: Mangione, 165.
New York protests covered generally in Mangione, 164–66; Buttitta and Witham, 96–99. Also NYT, Dec. 2, 1936, 1. Egri quote: telephone interview by author’s assistant, Mar. 5, 2001.
Writers’ Project stay-in: NYT, Dec. 4, 1936, 4.
Theatre Project shutdown, FBI appearance: NYT, Dec. 8, 1936, 1.
La Guardia and Somervell to Washington: NYT, Dec. 3, 1936, 4. Picket line sign: NYT, Dec. 10, 1936, 5.
Music Project protests: NYT, Dec. 25, 1936, 4.
Hopkins eases layoffs, Somervell quoted: Buttitta and Witham, 98–99.
Inauguration weather from www.weatherwise.org/inaugday.htm.
FDR second inaugural address: New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/texts/92.htm.
Advisors to argue for spending cuts and deficit reduction: Black, 398.
Part VI
The Phantom of Recovery
1. FLOOD ON THE OHIO
Ohio Valley weather: NYT, Jan. 15, 1937, 10. Branham: www.biblebelievers.org/lohio.htm.
Rain drummed down: NYT, Jan. 15, 1937, 10.
Predictions of flood slowing: NYT, Jan. 16, 1937, 19. Increased flooding: NYT, Jan. 18, 1937, 3.
WPA, other disaster responders marshaling: NYT, Jan. 18, 1937.
Jennings and Indiana WPA response: Indiana University’s Lilly Library, “The WPA in Indiana,” virtual exhibit online at www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/wpa/wpa.htm. (The Lilly Library houses the papers of John K. Jennings, who later became Indiana’s WPA administrator.)
Illinois response: Judith Joy, Illinois, November 1977, quoted online at www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1999/oi991202.htm.
1927 Mississippi flood: compiled from Barry. Reybold quoted: NYT, Jan. 26, 1937, 1.
Ohio River flood levels: Bennett Swenson, “Rivers and Floods,” NOAA Monthly Weather Review, Feb. 1937, 71–77: docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/065/mwr-065-02-0071.pdf.
Hunter wired offer of WPA help: Hunter wire to Hopkins, Jan. 25, 1937, National Archives, NARA RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.
Surplus commodities to flood zone: Hunter wire to Hopkins, ibid. Commodities on way: Woodward wire to Kerr, ibid. WPA building boats in street: WPA film Men Against the River, Prelinger Archive, 1937.
Flood crests: NOAA Monthly Weather Review, Feb. 1937, Table 1, 71; NYT, Feb. 2, 1937, 10. Status of flood, evacuations: NYT, Jan. 26, 1937, 1; NYT, Jan. 27, 1937, 1. Jeffersonville/Branham: www.biblebelievers.org/lohio.htm. Postponement of It Can’t Happen Here: Federal Theatre Bulletin2, 4 (undated, 1937), 13. Evacuation of Shawneetown from www.illinoishistory.com/hamradio.htm.
Cairo, Illinois; levee blast at New Madrid; Coast Guard evacuation boats: NYT, Jan. 28, 1937, 1. Evacuation of Cairo: author’s telephone interview with George Pomeroy, June 2005. Population remaining: NYT, Jan. 28, 1937, 1.
Cairo work: NYT, Jan. 28, 1935, p. 1. Pomeroy buying boots for workers, danger from sand boils: author’s interview with Pomeroy (grandson of subject).
New Madrid WPA work, barge pickup: NYT, Feb. 1, 1937.
Workman quote: NYT, Feb. 1, 1937, 2. Selvidge quote: NYT, Feb. 2, 1937,2.
Five bodies recovered: NYT, Feb. 2, 1937, 9. Twenty-four bodies recovered and six still missing; WPA employees, compensation: NYT, Feb. 14, 1937, gen. sec., 32.
Hopkins departs for flood zone: NYT, Feb. 1, 1937, 2.
Tour of flood zone: NYT, Feb. 2, 1937, 9. Feiser quote: Feiser letter to Red Cross chapter chairs, Feb. 13, 1937, WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.
Aftermath of flood, Hopkins quoted: NYT, Feb. 4, 1937, 1. Jennings quote: www.indiana.edu/rulibililly/wpa/wpa.htm.
New Harmony, Ind.: WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.
WPA cleanup work: NYT, Feb. 9, 1937, 2; Feb. 13, 1937, 28. WPA theater and music groups entertaining flood victims: Federal Theatre Bulletin 2, 4 (undated, 1937); Flanagan, 166. Woodward directing sewing room output to flood zone: WPA Files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.
Hugh Johnson quoted: Sherwood, 88.
Evansville Retail Bureau ad: WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.
2. WPA FIGHTS THE “FEROCIOUS FIRE DEMON”
WPA rolls: Charles, 171.
WPA work cited: Boston Globe, Jan. 26, 1936; Manchester Union, Sept. 24, 1936, 8; Baltimore Sun, Oct. 4, 1936, sec. 1, 5; Washington Morning Herald, Apr. 28, 1936, sec. 2, 21; Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Oct. 15, 1936, 18; Seattle Times, Feb. 5, 1938, 5; Manchester Union, Mar. 1, 1937, 1.; www.kiwanisskiclub.com/pages/History.htm.
The account of New Straitsville, Ohio’s colorful history that appears in these pages is drawn primarily from Bogzevitz and Winnenberg. An earlier work of local history, Journey Through the Years: New Straitsville Centennial, 1870–1970, covers the fire under the heading “World Famous Mine Fire of New Straitsville,” 24–38. The author also interviewed by telephone residents Jack Shuttleworth and Ruth McKee about their recollections of the fire, Feb. 2001.
Ruth McKee quote from interview with author.
Geiser report: WPA Files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Mine Fires.
$360,000 granted to fight fire: St. Louis Star-Times, Oct. 26, 1936, 11. Cavanaugh and Laverty: Shuttleworth interviews.
Outhouses replaced: Shuttleworth interviews.
Uncle Sam’s Fire Rescue Station: Shuttleworth interviews.
On October 10, 1936: United Mine Workers Journal, 1939, date and page illegible (from Penn State University archives).
Plummer Hill, Rush and Andrews families: Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 28, 1937, magazine, 5.
The Plummer Hill firewall: ibid.
The smoking hills: St. Louis Star-Times, Oct. 26, 1936, 11.
Newspapers cited: WPA Files, NARA, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.
Cavanaugh pronounced fire “whipped”: Columbus Dispatch, Apr. 9, 1937, 5B.
Work on two remaining coal seams: New York Herald Tribune, Apr. 2, 1938, sec. 2, 1; Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 15, 1939, 9A.
3. THE COURT-PACKING DEBACLE
Hopkins had testified: Charles, 170–71.
Supreme Court history: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 449–52.
FDR response to court’s NRA decision: FDR news conference, May 31, 1935, New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/court/fdr_5_31_35.htm. Analysis of “horse and buggy”: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 285–87; Burns, 222–23.
Makeup of Supreme Court: Kennedy, 326.
Cases pending review and FDR frustration: Kennedy, 330–31.
Court “packing” plan and feasibility: Kennedy, 325–26.
Court reform on White House agenda: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 490–94.
Frankfurter to FDR: Frankfurter letter to Roosevelt, Feb. 7, 1937, newdeal.feri.org/texts/781.htm.
The Nation quote: Feb. 13, 1937.
FDR message to Congress: NYT, Feb. 6, 1937, 1.
FDR speech to Democratic victory dinner: Vital Speeches of the Day: 3, 11 (March 15, 1937): 324.
Fireside chat on “Reorganization of the Judiciary”: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/030937.htm.
Cartoon: Brooklyn Eagle, Feb. 9, 1937. Letters to Congress: Black, 409. Hughes’s letter to Sen. Wheeler, Mar. 22, 1937: Burns, 301–02.
Wheeler opposition: Burns, 301.
For thorough treatments of the court-packing battles and its aftermath see Black, 404–21; Burns, 293–316 (Garner’s defection to Texas from Burns, 307); Kennedy, 325–38; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 231–38.
4. WPA CUTS AND THE “ROOSEVELT RECESSION”
Unemployment rate: Brown, 342–43. WPA fund request: Charles, 170–71.
Hopkins closer to FDR since Howe’s death: Charles, 211.
Roosevelt had looked at declining unemployment: Black, 398. Morgenthau on balanced budget: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 245.
Countervailing views of Hopkins, Henderson, Eccles: ibid., 167.
“More contributions please!”: Charles, 166.
Hopkins had gone after his appropriation: Charles, 161–65. New York arts units strike: NYT, May 29, 1937, 6.
Hopkins to Byrnes quoted: Charles, 162. Hopkins’s salary cut: Sherwood, 90.
Baltimore Sun quoted: Sherwood, 90. Spending breakdown: Charles, 164–65.
Waltman quoted: Sherwood, 91. Barbara Hopkins’s illness and death, Hopkins’s bereavement and own illness: Cook, 475; McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 117–18; Sherwood, 92. Age, date of death, hospital, Hopkins at bedside: NYT, Oct. 8, 1937, 23.
Members of the administration rallied: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 118. Ickes quoted: Sherwood, 93.
Maestri letter: Maestri files, New Orleans Public Library.
Lasser-Hopkins meetings: NYT, Aug. 20, 1937, 8; Aug. 24, 1937, 14. Rolls below 1. 53 million: NYT, Aug. 20, 1937, 8. Workers Alliance founding and Lasser quote: Time, Aug. 10, 1936. Lasser background: www.cgpublishing.com/Author_Bios/david_lasser.htm. Political action fund: Time,Sep. 5, 1938.
“water out of the spout”: quoted in Leuchtenberg, FDR, 244. $2 billion in Social Security collections: ibid., 244.
Economic downturn: ibid., 243–44; Kennedy, 350–53.
5. THE ROOSEVELTS AT TIMBERLINE
“utterly opposed”: quoted in Burns, 317.
Itinerary: Official File 200, Western Trip, Box 35, FDR Library. Remarks at Boone, Iowa, and Clinton, Iowa, Sept. 23, 1937: President’s Speech File, Box 36, FDR Library. Displeasure with Wheeler: Burns, 317.
Bonneville Dam: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 384–85.
FDR remarks at Bonneville, motorcade to Timberline from Official File 200, Western Trip, Box 35, FDR Library. Scene at FDR dedication: described, Griffin and Munro, 11; pictured, ibid., 12.
Work at Timberline: ibid.. 6–14; 30–45.
Forrest interview: Friends of Timberline archives.
FDR dedication: President’s Speech File, Box 36, FDR Library.
Roosevelt party departure for Seattle: NYT, Sept. 29, 1937, 16.
Menu from Griffin and Munro, 12. Hoffman Smith recollection: oral history interview on line, Archives of American Art: www.aa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/hoffsm.htm.
6. DECLINE AND REVIVAL
Remainder of FDR itinerary: Official File 200, Western Trip, Box 35, FDR Library. Recession effects: Kennedy, 350.
Wishes and results of special session: Kennedy, 340.
State of the Union: NYT, Jan. 4, 1938, 16.
Uncertainty, du Pont quote: Kennedy, 351.
Conditions in early 1938: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 249; Black, 432.
Hopkins operation, recuperation: Sherwood, 92–93.
Hopkins’s presidential invitation to Warm Springs: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 119. FDR decision: Manchester, 163.
Spending plan: ibid. Mistake to reduce spending: fireside chat transcript: newdeal.feri.org/texts/390.htm. WPA rolls: Hopkins news conference, Apr. 28, 1938: newdeal.feri.org/texts/807.htm.
Eleanor Roosevelt quoted in Cook, 477. Hopkins radio broadcast: NYT, May 9, 1938, 1.
Passage of wage-and-hours law: NYT, June 15, 1938, 1. Fireside chat: NYT, June 25, 1938, 1.
WPA report: NYT, June 19, 1938, 8.
Hopkins’s cover story: Time, July 18, 1938, cover and 9. Hopkins’s radio address: NYT, May 9, 1938, 1.
WPA as source of controversy: Charles, 195; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 270.
WPA rolls: NYT, Mar. 5, 1941, 23.
7. BUILDING ROADS IN NORTH CAROLINA (JOHNNY MILLS)
WPA road work: Better Roads, Oct. 1936, 42. Johnny Mills’s personal history and his account of doing road work for the WPA in Jackson County, N.C., comes from interviews with Mills and his wife, Shirley, by Michele Glover, Apr. 12, 2002, and by the author and Barbara Nevins Taylor, Nov. 30, 2002. Other WPA work in county from Jackson County Journal, Apr. 8,1937. Rural roads paved in Jackson County from N.C. Dept. of Transportation.
Hopkins quote: Hopkins news conference, Apr. 28, 1938: newdeal.feri.org/texts/807.htm.
8. KENTUCKY ARCHAEOLOGY (JOHN B. ELLIOTT)
Smithsonian and TVA archaeology: Lyon, 30.
Roles of Webb and Funkhouser: ibid., 20–23.
Role of William Haag: ibid., 62.
John B. Elliott, Josephine Mirabella backgrounds, Elliott’s recruitment and entry into WPA archaeology program: author’s telephone interview with Josephine Elliott, Jan. 2, 2002.
Webb’s interest in Green River sites: Lyon, 98.
Cypress Creek layout and work: ibid., 100–1. Woodland characteristics: www.cr.nps.gov/seac/woodland.htm.
Account of Elliotts in Kentucky: interview with Josephine Elliott.
Webb and Haag quoted in Lyon, 100.
9. HURRICANE!
On the morning of Wednesday, September 21: E. S. Allen, 31–36.
Advance and effects of hurricane described: ibid., 31–93; NYT, Sept. 28, 1938, 26; Federal Writers’ Project, New England Hurricane (henceforth FWP), 23.
Personal recollection of Eastern States Exposition: interview and e-mail exchange with Gordon Hyatt, son of exhibitor S. G. Hyatt, Nov. 2005. Ferris wheel wreckage pictured: FWP, 136.
News of disaster reaching outside world: Cherie Burns, 203.
President Roosevelt was still in bed: NYT, Sept. 23, 1938, 19.
WPA bathing pavilion: FWP, 52. WPA flood control dams: FWP, 193.
River rising in East Hartford: E. S. Allen, 100. WPA, CCC workers: NYT, Sept. 23, 1938, 19.
By Thursday night: E. S. Allen, 100–2.
Foley, Sullivan efforts: ibid., 103. Sullivan refugee centers and FMP entertainment: FWP, 121.
Carp caught: FWP, 115. Ware: FWP, 131. Other Massachusetts WPA work: FWP, 139, 142, 147, 164–65, 193. Manchester, N.H., WPA work: FWP, 196.
WPA dams held: FWP, 193.
WPA search for bodies: E. S. Allen, 186.
WPA work in Crescent Beach: ibid., 299.
WPA playrooms: FWP, 121.
Dead in Rhode Island, homes destroyed, property losses: NYT, Sept. 26, 1938, 1.
Death toll: FWP, 218. Hopkins quotes: NYT, Sept. 26, 1938, 8; FWP, 188. Damage and quote: NYT, Nov. 30, 1938, Resort, Travel sect., 1.
Part VII
The WPA Under Attack
1. WAR AMONG THE DEMOCRATS
The growing strength and assertiveness of the Democratic Party’s conservative wing, Roosevelt’s attempted “purge” of conservative Democrats in the 1938 primaries, and voters’ repudiation of Roosevelt at the polls are thoroughly covered among Manchester, 167–71; Kennedy, 339–50; Black, 455–60, 484–86; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 263–74; and Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 630–31. These served as my major sources for the information in this chapter.
“Conservative Manifesto”: Kennedy, 340–41.
FDR June 24, 1938, fireside chat: NYT, June 25, 1938, 1.
But the protests that flooded the White House: Levine and Levine, 257.
“Cotton Ed” Smith quoted: McElvaine, Great Depression, 192–93.
Bailey quoted: Kennedy, 342. Lynching: Kennedy, 342–44; FDR quoted, 343. Entreaties from Eleanor Roosevelt: Cook, 243–47. See also Time, Jan. 24, 1938.
Fireside chat: NYT, June 25, 1938, 1. FDR “feudal economic system”: Sullivan, chap. 2, online at University of North Carolina Press Web site: uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/sullivan_days.htm.
Chicago Tribune series ran from Sept. 2 through Sept. 18, 1938. Clippings from WPA Files, National Archives, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information, page numbers of articles referenced below unclear in reproduction.
“Vampire political machine”: Chicago Tribune, Sept. 2, 1938.
“Green Pastures”: Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, 1938. “Peasant class”: Chicago Tribune, Sept. 4, 1938.
Hunter response: NARA, RG 69, WPA Papers, Records of the Division of Information, news release dated Sept. 20, 1938, for newspapers dated Sept. 21, 1938. See also Time, Oct. 3, 1938.
Williams quoted: NYT, June 28, 1938, 1. Senate committee response: NYT, June 29, 1938, 1.
Hopkins quoted: Time, Sept. 3, 1938. Barkley-Chandler charges: NYT, Aug. 1, 1938, 1. Hopkins’s findings and quote: NYT, Sept. 21, 1938, 30. Farley action: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 269–70.
Pro-FDR results: NYT, Sept. 25, 1938, 1. Anti-FDR results: Kennedy, 348–49.
O’Connor results: Black, 459.
2. THE RISE OF THE RED-BAITERS
While most depression-era histories treat Martin Dies and the rise of the House Un-American Activities Committee, I found two magazine articles to be most helpful in assessing the Dies committee and its early impact. These were by Raymond P. Brandt in the Atlantic Monthly of Feb. 1940 and D. A. Saunders in Public Opinion Quarterly 3, 2 (Apr. 1939).
Martin Dies’s background: Handbook of Texas online, (www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/DD/fdi13.htm). Ascent to committee chair and consolidation of power: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 631–36. Physically described: Flanagan, 340. Mentorship: Black, 484.
“Demagogues Club”: Brandt, 234. History of investigating committees: ibid., 233.
Fish, McCormack hearings: ibid., 233–34.
Yorkville Casino: NYT, Apr. 21, 1938, 1.
Dies quoted: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 632.
Dies offered no source: Saunders, 223–25.
Committee makeup, schedule, rules: ibid., 227; Brandt, 232–37.
Viereck subpoena, arrangement: Washington Post, Aug. 4, 1938, 4.
Various groups described as communistic: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 280. 500 inches in NYT: Saunders, 224.
Ickes and Perkins accused: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 633. Focus on WPA: Saunders, 31.
3. THE “RUNAWAY OPERA”
Characterization of Flanagan: Houseman, 174.
Hopkins quoted: Flanagan, 185. Flanagan on Injunction Granted: ibid., 72. One-Third of a Nation: ibid., 214. Spirochete: ibid., 144.
Complaints about Spirochete: ibid., 144, 251.
Cradle Will Rock: Houseman, 247.
Benjamin: Time, Oct. 3, 1938. Ten thousand on strike: NYT, May 28, 1937, 1. Arts projects protests, Nora Bayes sit-in: Houseman, 249–55; Flanagan on the strike: Flanagan, 202.
Labor troubles: Houseman, 250. Rumors: Flanagan, 202.
Cuts, state projects curtailed: The Nation, July 17, 1937, 67–69. All-night sit-ins: Houseman, 254. Previews, opening set: ibid., 255.
Ban: Flanagan, 202; Houseman, 255.
Flanagan quotes: Flanagan, 202–3.
The description of the events from WPA ban on new productions through presentation of Cradle: Houseman, 268–74.
Front-page news, two-week run: ibid., 276. Mercury Theatre: ibid., 285. Houseman severance: ibid., 280. De Kooning severance: Meltzer, 71.
4. SACCO AND VANZETTI
Washington, D.C., guide described, Hopkins’s remark: Mangione, 209. FDR quoted: ibid., 11.
Review quoted: ibid., 210.
Berger, origins of Cape Cod Pilot: ibid., 212–13.
Four New England guides published: ibid., 216.
Ceremony and quotes: Swain, 125; Mangione, 216; WPA Guide to Massachusetts, 145, 219, 587.
Boston Traveler: Mangione, 217. Sacco and Vanzetti as a touchstone case: among many references, an article by Robert D’Attilio posted at the University of Pennsylvania’s contemporary writing programs Web site (writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.htm) provides a summary of the uproar surrounding the case.
Traveler headline and reaction: Mangione, 217.
Hopkins news conference, Aug. 19, 1937: newdeal.feri.org/texts/806.htm. Reactions quoted: Mangione, 218.
Hettwer notes: Selvaggio, 44–45 and app. D.
Stalinists and Trotskyites: Mangione, 175.
Orrick Johns: ibid., 83.
New York Albany office a dumping ground: ibid., 150–52. Writers reported once a week: ibid., 245. Walton quoted: NYT Book Review, Aug. 29, 1937,2. American Stuff magazine: Mangione, 250–51.
5. IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Thomas on New Deal: NYT, Oct. 15, 1938, 3. Thomas on theater project: NYT, Aug. 10, 1938, 6. Thomas focus on WPA: Saunders, 231.
Practically alone: Flanagan, 335–36.
Huffman testimony: NYT, Aug. 20, 1938, 1. Huffman spying: Buttitta and Witham, 188.
Testimony characterization and quotes: ibid., 189.
Flanagan letter, no reply: Flanagan, 336.
Thomas on Prologue to Glory: ibid., 173.
Created Equal: ibid., 255.
It was little consolation: Saunders, 223–38.
Yet it was not until Dies: ibid., 233.
Dies answer to accusations: Sidney Olsen, Washington Post, Oct. 30, 1938, B-3.
Witness characterizations: Saunders, 236.
Flanagan’s letters unanswered: Buttitta and Witham, 190; Flanagan, 337.
6. HARRY DEPARTS
Back in September, newspaper reports: Sherwood, 102.
Hopkins’s presidential ambitions and FDR’s encouragement: ibid., 94–95.
Support of Gillette’s opponent: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 269–70.
Hopkins’s news conference, Dec. 8, 1938: NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 4, Box 5. Viewed online: newdeal.feri.org/texts/809.htm.
Hopkins quoted: Sherwood, 105.
Resignation letter: NARA, RG 69 WPA files, General Subject Series.
Polls: Sherwood, 104–5. Chicago Daily News quoted: ibid., 107.
Harrington over Williams, Harrington nickname: Time, Jan. 2, 1939. Less polarizing, serving for army pay: Sherwood, 106.
Affection for Hopkins and his beliefs: ibid.
Description of cartoon: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 103; pictured in Charles, opposite 123.
7. CHANGES IN THE WIND
FTP response to Dies: Flanagan, 338.
FWP response and Hopkins quoted in Mangione, 307–8. Woodward to testify and Niles’s insistence: Flanagan, 339. Probable factors: Swain, 129.
Woodward appearance before committee: Swain, 129–30; Flanagan, 339–40.
Description of Flanagan testimony: Flanagan, 340–42.
Flanagan despair for 8,000 employees: ibid., 342.
Starnes “subsided”: ibid. Other examples of committee’s ignorance: Saunders, 237.
Thomas quoted: Flanagan, 345–46.
Alsberg called, testimony: Mangione, 315.
Alsberg testimony: ibid., 317.
Committee report on FTP: Flanagan, 347. Single paragraph: Brandt, 237.
Gallup poll: Mangione, 321. Increased budget: Brandt, 235.
8. CAN ANYBODY SPARE A HOT SCHOOL LUNCH?
More than 5,000 children: Washington Times, Dec. 21, 1938, 20.
Eleanor Roosevelt support of school lunch program: Watkins, Hungry Years, 265.
My reporting about the WPA’s hot school lunch program in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States was gathered primarily from news clippings at NARA, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information, Box 186 (Women’s Hot Lunches). I failed, however, to record references to individual papers, dates, and pages except where these are mentioned in the text. I also used speeches written for delivery by WPA deputy administrator Ellen S. Woodward, “The Lasting Values of the WPA” and “Hot Lunches for a Million School Children,” both from NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 8. These can be viewed online at newdeal.feri.org/works/wpa01.htm and newdeal.feri.org/works/wpa02.htm.
Lunches in New York City schools: NYT, May 18, 1939, 27.
9. THE DEATH OF THE THEATER
Woodrum position and quote: Mangione, 322.
Flanagan optimism, letter to Woodrum: Flanagan, 348.
Paid investigators, Burton: ibid., 348–49.
FTP income: ibid., 338.
Planting evidence about the FWP: Mangione, 323.
Cannon recounted re: FWP: ibid., 324; re: FTP: Flanagan, 350–51.
Relief appropriation bill, no fight for FTP: ibid., 352–53.
Flanagan fights on, Atkinson quote: ibid., 354–55.
Fight in Senate, Bankhead: ibid., 355–61.
House unyielding, FDR signs bill: ibid., 362–63.
Last FTP performances, Pinocchio: ibid., 364–65.
10. A DIFFERENT PLAYING FIELD
Reorganization pursued: Burns, 344–46. Bill passed: NYT, Mar. 23, 1931, 1.
Plan described in FDR message to Congress on “Reorganization Plan No. 1,” Apr. 25, 1939: NYT, Apr. 26, 1939, 1. Replacement of PWA and Carmody over Ickes: Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 587.
Ickes quoted in Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim, 587. Harrington on reorganization: Harrington press conference, Apr. 20, 1939, NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 3, online at New Deal Network: newdeal.feri.org/texts/812.htm.
Harrington view of arts projects: Mangione, 329. State sponsors, Newsom appointment and aim: ibid., 330–33. Kellock quoted in ibid., 327.
Bellevue Hospital anecdote: O’Connor, 63–64.
Statue of Liberty: NYT, Aug. 29, 1937, rotogravure sect., 128; Sept. 4, 1938, sect. 11, 1; Dec. 14, 1938, 29. Aquatic Park from San Francisco News, Jan. 31, 1939. San Antonio River Walk: “Maury Maverick’s San Antonio,” Survey Graphic 28, 7 (July 1939): 421 (newdeal.feri.org/texts/367.htm). Ernie Pyle: Washington News, Dec. 18, 1939, 27.
North Beach history: Kessner, 433. La Guardia insistence: ibid., 432. New York City projects: The WPA Guide to New York City: 560. Groundbreaking: NYT, Sept. 10, 1937, 25. See also La Guardia Airport online fact sheet: www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/airports/html/lg_facts.htm.
Airport construction, features: Kessner, 432–35.
Clifford Ferguson from author’s interview, Jan. 2002.
Materials, figures, and difference between blueprints and actual work: Kessner, 433.
Crowd at dedication: NYT, Oct. 16, 1939, 1.
Jobs for air hostesses: NYT, Oct. 17, 1939, 27. Training school: NYT, Nov. 7, 1939, 2.
First arrival: NYT, Dec. 2, 1939, 1. Named by Board of Estimate: NYT, Nov. 3, 1939, 18. Newark closed to commercial traffic: NYT, May 31, 1940, 17. Busiest in world: NYT, Dec. 1, 1940, Travel and Recreation sec. XX1.
La Guardia quoted: Kessner, 434.
New York World’s Fair: ibid., 435–39. Descriptions of WPA pavilion: photo files online at New Deal Network: Photo Library, Issues and Events, Exhibitions, New York World’s Fair, 1939.
The onset of WWII and the reign of isolationist sentiment are covered in period histories including Burns, 384–422; Kennedy, 381–464; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 197–298.
Potential effect on WPA from Hunter news conference: Aug. 31, 1939, NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 6, online at newdeal.feri.org/texts/814.htm.
Part VIII
WPA: War Preparation Agency
1. NO MILITARY WORK
No military spending: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 270.
Borah responsible: ibid. Vote on Treaty of Versailles: Black, 77. Vote on League of Nations: ibid., 343. Passage of Neutrality Act of 1935: Burns, 253–56. Nye hearings: www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm.
Ludlow amendment: Black, 430; Kennedy, 402–3; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 229–30.
Quarantine speech: transcript in NYT, Oct. 6, 1937, 1.
“most momentous utterance”: Washington Post, Oct. 6, 1937, 1. FDR quoted: Kennedy, 406; Manchester, 175.
Hopkins mission: Sherwood, 100; Manchester, 178.
Arnold flight: www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/Hap_Arnold/AP16.htm. 8,000 planes: Manchester, 178. Needs of military, Hopkins quote: Sherwood, 100.
Aviation research money, 440-mph Heinkel: NYT, Dec. 18, 1938, Resorts/Aviation/Travel sec., 129.
Hopkins San Francisco remarks: San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 21, 1938, 28. WPA funds to make machine tools: Sherwood, 101.
Johnson to FDR correspondence, FDR to Hopkins, basics of training plan: FDR Library.
2. THE PICATINNY ARSENAL
The account of the WPA’s work on the Picatinny Arsenal and the installation’s history and background is taken largely from John W. Rae’s Images of America: Picatinny Arsenal (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 1999).
Early WPA defense requests: NYT, July 11, 1935, 3; July 13, 1935, 4; July 17, 1935, 28; July 20, 1935, 3; Aug. 15, 1935, 6.
3. RACE AND ISOLATIONISM
Axis formed: Burns, 353.
Panay incident: Kennedy, 402; Black, 427–28; Manchester, 173–74.
Fall of Nanking: Kennedy, 401.
Nuremberg Laws: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurlaws.htm. Kristallnacht: Manchester, 178. Heydrich instructions: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Heydrichkristal.htm. Figures: Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich (New York: Paragon House, 1989), 201.
“insidious wiles of foreign influence”: Washington’s farewell address, posted online at the Government Printing Office Web site, www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/farewell/sd106-21.pdf.
Domestic anti-Semites: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 275–77. Coughlin quoted in Manchester, 176. Eight hundred groups: Survey Graphic 28, 2 (Feb. 1939): 113.
Slurs on FDR and ER: Manchester, 164–65.
Lindbergh background, life in Europe, and visit to Germany: PBS American Experience Web site, www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/index.htm.
German service cross to Lindbergh: Black, 467. To Ford: NYT, July 31, 1938, 1.
Lindbergh return to United States: PBS American Experience Web site, www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/fallen/html. Radio speech: NYT, Sept. 16, 1939, 1; Black, 533–34.
Second radio speech: NYT, Oct. 15, 1939, 45.
Fireside chat: FDR Library, online at www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/090339.htm.
Poll results: Kennedy, 427. Reader’s Digest: PBS American Experience Web site, www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/fallen.htm.
Neutrality Act repeal: Black, 537; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 295; Gilbert, 25.
4. HOLD THE JOKES, PLEASE
Aquatic Park nail joke: San Francisco News, Jan. 31, 1939.
Two years on WPA joke: Time, Mar. 20, 1939.
Joke ban: NYT, Mar. 8, 1939, 23.
Network play ban: NYT, July 22, 1940, 22.
Hydrants: Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 4, 1938, 9.
WPA fingerprinting projects: Indianapolis News, Dec. 21, 1937, 6; Indianapolis Star, Feb. 1, 1938, sect. I, 1; New Orleans Item, Mar. 12, 1942,1.
Hopkins’s resistance to fingerprinting: Hopkins news conference, Apr. 28, 1938. Never voted: Harrington obituary, Washington Post, Oct. 1, 1940, 1.
Fingerprint objections: Teachers’ Union, The Nation, Jan. 21, 1939, 103.
Halloran refusal: Philadelphia Record, Mar. 12, 1939, sect. 2, 3.
Merendino: New York Post, Apr. 9, 1940, 14.
5. PINK SLIPS AND PINKOS
Determination to “fix” WPA: Kennedy, 349; NYT, Jan. 15, 1939, 1.
Ban on political activities: NYT, Mar. 10, 1939, 2.
Harrington news conference: Mar. 9, 1939, transcript in NARA, RG 69, Series 373, Box 3, online at New Deal Network: newdeal.feri.org/texts/810.htm.
Hatch Act: NYT, Aug. 3, 1939, 1.
Security wage attributed to Harrington: NYT, July 12, 1939, 1.
Work stoppages: NYT, July 6, 1939, 1.
Effects of new wage scales: NYT, July 6, 1939, 1.
Harrington news conference July 6, 1939: transcript in NARA, RG 69, Series 373, Box 3, posted online at New Deal Network: newdeal.feri.org/texts/813.htm.
Somervell on strikes and strikes ending: NYT, July 8, 1939, 1; July 12, 1939, 1; July 21, 1940, 1.
Loyalty oath: NYT, June 29, 1939, 12. Harrington response: July 6, 1939, news conference.
Workers Alliance to take pledge, Morgan quote: NYT, June 29, 1939, 12. Lasser would resign: NYT, June 20, 1940, 16.
Sixty-six not signing loyalty pledge: NYT, Oct. 26, 1939, 14.
August Henkel: NYT, July 7, 1940, 4; www.damninteresting.com/?p=321; Robert Atkins, “Time Line,” Art Journal 50, 3 (fall 1991): 34; NYT, Apr. 9, 2006, sec. 14, 1, 8.
6. BEFORE THE DELUGE (VINCENT JAMES “JIMMY” BONANNO)
Jimmy Bonanno’s story comes primarily from interviews conducted with him by the author, Jan. 26, 2002, and July 14, 2004. His account of the fire at Hangar 4 at La Guardia Field is supplemented by NYT, Mar. 6, 1940, 1.
7. A “HURRICANE OF EVENTS”
The events leading up to World War II, and the details of the war itself, are widely known and in little dispute. I have relied primarily on Martin Gilbert’s exhaustive The Second World War: A Complete History for the details of the conflict provided here and through the remainder of the book.
Non-aggression pact: Kennedy, 425. Leaflet bombing: Gilbert, 46. Borah quoted in Burns, 408.
Hopkins’s health: McJimsey, Harry Hopkins, 126–28.
Garner, Hull, Farley, FDR’s third-term calculations, onset of war: Burns, 407–20.
Germany’s invasion of Belgium, Netherlands: Gilbert, 61. Churchill replaces Chamberlain: NYT, May 11, 1940, 1.
Churchill speech: online at www.winstonchurchill.org.
FDR to Churchill quoted in Black, 532. “Like matchwood” quoted in Burns, 419. British needs: Black, 551.
FDR speech: NYT, May 17, 1940, 10.
Fireside chat: transcript, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/052640.htm.
Lindbergh quoted in Black, 552. Vandenberg: NYT, May 17, 1940, 15. Telegrams to White House: Levine and Levine, 301, 302.
Destroyers: Black, 551.
Evacuation: Gilbert, 83. Smallest craft: Association of Dunkirk Little Ships Web site, www.adls.org.uk.
Churchill speech, arms to England: Black, 554–55.
German advance across Somme, taking Paris, French surrender: Gilbert, 86–101.
FDR quoted in ibid., 90.
“Hurricane of events” in Burns, 419.
8. RIGID PRIORITIES
Harrington to WPA administrators: NYT, June 7, 1940, 14.
Hunter news conference of Aug. 22, 1940: NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 6, posted online at New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/texts/817.htm.
WPA an obstacle to defense program: NYT, June 6, 1940, 24; June 7, 1940, 22.
Military undermanned with old equipment: Kennedy, 388; Black, 465. Garand rifles: Manchester, 178.
San Francisco Committee: WPA Files, San Francisco Public Library.
Rep. Howard Smith bill: NYT, July 29, 1939, 3.
Harrington and Somervell moving to purge Nazis, Communists: NYT, June 23, 1940, 1.
Charlotte Long: NYT, June 27, 1940, 25.
Purge results: NYT, Aug. 4, 1940, 3. New notices: NYT, July 27, 1940, 25.
Alien Registration Act signed: NYT, June 30, 1940, 5. Registrations from NYT, Dec. 28, 1940, 10.
9. THE THIRD-TERM EQUATION
Republican convention: Kennedy, 449; Black, 560; Burns, 424.
Hopkins stay at White House: Sherwood, 173. Democratic convention and phone in Hopkins’s bathroom: ibid., 176–77.
Barkley quoted in Burns, 427.
Roosevelt demonstration: ibid. Sewer commissioner: Black, 569–70.
Wallace as vice presidential nominee: Burns, 427–30; Black, 570–72. Arthur Schlesinger review of American Dreamer: Los Angeles Times, Mar. 12,2000. “Eastern occultism”: Culver and Hyde quoted by Schlesinger, above; and others.
Joseph Kennedy view of arms to England and English ability to resist Germany: Kennedy, 437, 440, 450–51.
Battle of Britain: Kennedy, 452. German losses: Gilbert, 119. Churchill quoted: ibid., 120. German planes sent: Burns, 438. RAF pilots lost or wounded: ibid., 440.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park dedication speech: The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16002.
Quid pro quo for leases: Black, 578. Viewed as act of war by Walsh, by Chicago Tribune: Burns, 439. America First Committee: NYT, Sept. 25, 1940, 13; Oct. 31, 1940, 3.
Isolationism and anti-Semitic component: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 311–12.
Shift in American opinion: ibid., 299–300. Operation Sea Lion postponed: Gilbert, 125.
10. BREATHING SPACE
Hopkins’s resignation: Sherwood, 179–80. Roosevelt’s letter quoted in ibid., 181. Harrington death accounts: NYT, Oct. 1, 1940, 32; Washington Post, Oct. 1, 1940, 1.
Hunter acting commissioner: NYT, Oct. 12, 1940, 11.
Executive order signed, quoted in NYT, Sept. 24, 1940, 1. Willkie support of draft: Black, 583. Unemployment dropping: ibid., 574. Willkie shifts tactics: Leuchtenberg, FDR, 320–21; Burns, 448–51.
Warmonger: ibid., 443; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 320. Quote about “on the transports”: NYT, Oct. 23, 1940, 1. “April, 1941”: NYT, Oct. 31, 1940, 1.
FDR at draft lottery drawing: NYT, Oct. 30, 1940, 1.
Names of draftees: NYT, Oct. 30, 1940, 1. “Martin, Barton, and Fish”: Sherwood, 189–90. Military orders: NYT, Oct. 31, 1940, 1.
“Say it again—and again…”: recounted in Sherwood, 191. Election results: Burns, 454.
Camp David: “Camp David/A History of the Presidential Retreat” at http://www.infoplease.com/spot/campdavid1.htm. England out of money: Black, 604.
Hitler, FDR “arsenal of democracy” quoted in Burns, 457. FDR address: Black, 607. Transcript of speech online: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.htm. Lend-Lease Act passed: Black, 622.
Supplies: Sherwood, 257–58. Fire hose: Black, 622. Role in Lend-Lease: Sherwood, 267.
11. A FEVER OF PREPARATION
Unemployment: Bureau of Labor Statistics: ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat1.txt. New job creation: Black, 575. Retaining five-day week: Kennedy, 451.
WPA rolls declining: NYT, Mar. 5, 1941, 23. Jimmy Bonanno: author’s interviews. Camp Edwards construction: Boston Sunday Globe, rotogravure sec., Nov. 10, 1940; http://www.mass.gov/guard/Camp_Edwards/history.htm.
WPA enrollment: NYT, Jan. 10, 1941, 10. Hunter testimony: NYT, Feb. 11, 1941, 14. Hospital training: NYT, Jan. 26, 1941, 18.
WPA military construction projects: NARA, RG 69, WPA Papers, Records of the Defense Coordinating Section, Misc. Memoranda, Box 1.
Hunter letter to FDR, FDR refusal to designate WPA a defense agency: FDR Library, WPA Papers, 1941, Box 10.
Hunter May 21, 1941, testimony to House Appropriations Committee: NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, Small Collections, Howard Hunter papers.
FDR declaration of unlimited national emergency: NYT, May 28, 1941, 2 (text).
Hunter June 19, 1941, news conference from NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 6. Transcript online at New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/workrelief/hun05.htm. Arts projects status: Meltzer, 140–41.
Hitler invasion of Soviet Russia: Gilbert, 198–99.
Hopkins as ambassador to Stalin: Sherwood, 323–28.
Hunter Sept. 26, 1941, news conference: NARA, RG 69, Series 737, Box 6. Transcript online at New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/workrelief/hun02.htm.
Women in defense plants: ibid.
America First Committee dissolves: NYT, Dec. 12, 1941, 22.
12. THE LAST HURRAH
Hunter-Hopkins correspondence: NARA, FDR Library, Group 24, Harry Hopkins papers, Howard Hunter folder.
Hunter to Stimson and Knox: NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, 1941, Box 10. Hunter to WPA administrators: FDR Library.
Archaeology shut down: Lyon, 77–78
Hunter to U.S. Conference of Mayors: NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, Small Collections, Howard Hunter speeches.
Somervell return to army: NYT, Nov. 8, 1940, 23. Huie appointed: NYT, Apr. 9, 1941, 20. New York City WPA rolls: NYT, Feb. 14, 1942, 35.
Writers shift to war service: Mangione, 348. Artists shift to war service: McMahon interview; O’Connor, 74–75. Cahill headed all arts projects: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.
Hunter’s departure from WPA, correspondence: NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, 1942, Box 10.
Election results: Kennedy, 782.
WPA employment: NYT, Dec. 5, 1942, 1.
FDR to Fleming to shut down WPA: NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, 1941, Box 10.
Letters to White House on end of WPA: NARA, FDR Library, FDR Papers, Gen. Correspondence, Misc.
WPA signs used for scrap: Federal Works Agency release, Feb. 9, 1943, from WPA NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, WPA Official File.
May 1 WPA status: NYT, May 2, 1943, E9.
EPILOGUE
Closing date from NYT, July 1, 1943, 9.
Statistics from Black, 348; Kennedy 252–53; Leuchtenberg, FDR, 125–28; Watkins, Hungry Years, 263–92; Time, Mar. 8, 1972; “WPA and the War,” Army and Navy Register, May 16, 1942, 26–28.
Updates on subjects: author interviews.
Howard Hunter interned: Memorandum of Major B. W. Davenport, NARA, FDR Library, WPA Papers, Small Collections, Howard Hunter papers.
Harry Hopkins’s last mission: Sherwood, 883–916. Hopkins in New York: ibid., 917–34. Hopkins’s death: NYT, Jan. 30, 1946, 1.
Timberline Lodge: Margery Hoffman Smith interview, Archives of American Art; Griffin and Munro, 12–13.
River Walk opening: the Edwards Aquifer Web site, www.edwardsaquifer.net/sariver.htm.
Florida Ship Canal: NYT, Jan. 18, 1939, 1; May 18, 1939, 1; author’s on-site visit.
New Straitsville: Bogdevitz and Winnenberg; author’s interview with Shuttleworth.
River Walk: San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Web site, www.sachamber. org/visitor/riverwalk_history.php. Timberline: Griffin and Munro, vii, 48–59.
Fate of WPA easel art: Naifeh and Smith, 453; Time, Mar. 6, 1944. Pierre Clerk account: author’s interview, Oct. 29, 2005. Boswell quoted in Time, Mar. 6, 1944; O’Connor, 75.
GSA reclaiming WPA art: Robert Kyle, Maine Antiques Digest, Aug. 2006, online at http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/aug06/wpa0806.htm.
Harlem Hospital murals: Harlem Hospital Web site. Golden Gate Park: author on-site visit. Heather Becker: National New Deal Preservation Association Web site, www.newdeallegacy.org/