American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA : When FDR Put the Nation to Work (65 page)

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. T
HE
T
HIRD
-T
ERM
E
QUATION

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. B
REATHING
S
PACE

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 F
EVER OF
P
REPARATION

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. T
HE
L
AST
H
URRAH

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.

E
PILOGUE

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/

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has been eight years in the making, which gave me the good fortune of being able to talk to actual survivors of the Great Depression and the WPA. By the year 2000 their numbers were small, but to hear from those who were actually there was to give a memorable immediacy to their recollections. Some of their stories appear in these pages; others offered vivid background information. They include Tom Fleming of San Francisco; Jimmy Bonanno and Clifford Ferguson of New York City; Johnny Mills and Early Dietz of Jackson County, North Carolina; Grace Caudill (Overbee) Lucas of Adaville, Kentucky, and her son, Richard Overbee of Milford, Ohio; Henry Moar of Portland, Oregon; John and Josephine Elliott of New Harmony, Indiana; Jack Shuttleworth of New Straitsville, Ohio; Ethel Weiss of New York City and Connie Eisler Smith of Milford, New Jersey; David Cook and Ray Cunningham of Ocala, Florida; and Gordon Hyatt of New York City. Alumni of the WPA arts projects included my late neighbor and friend Anthony Buttitta, Frank Goodman, and Milton Meltzer, all of New York City, who were generous with their time and information, as were Douglas Lynch of Portland, Oregon, Jack Levine of New York City, and Ted Egri of Santa Fe, New Mexico. John Glenn provided vivid memories of his youth during the depression and has been a friend and an advisor.

Some of these people, and many of the specific WPA projects described in
American-Made,
came to my attention by way of local historians and history clubs, whose enthusiasm for the past of their surroundings produced rich troves of material. The Friends of Timberline in Portland, Oregon, and especially Sarah Munro, were most generous, sharing interviews from the files assembled in their long and successful effort to provide the marvelous Timberline Lodge with the record it deserves. The lodge’s curator, Linny Adamson, is the on-site keeper of memories and bringer-to-life of Timberline’s rich history, and I thank her for providing many necessary details. I also am indebted to the New Straitsville (Ohio) Local History Committee, area historian Connie Dunkle, and John Winnenberg of the Sunday Creek (Ohio) Historical Association for bringing their town, and the WPA’s fight against its underground mine fire, to life.

Researchers to whom I owe thanks include F. Kennon Moody, Maria Sliwa, Raina Moore, and Michele Glover; my late friend and writing teacher William Paulk; my sister-in-law Hope Tudanger, who searched files at the Atlanta Historical Society; and my old and good friend Gerry Chambers, who joined me in slogging through countless photographs and files, at both the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, looking for images and information. My cousin Mary Kay McDuffie of Bellaire, Michigan, let me know of WPA projects in her area.

The Internet is an increasingly valuable source of information to both students and researchers of the Roosevelt administration and the New Deal, including the WPA. This owes much to the work of Thomas Thurston, the assembler of the incredible New Deal Network and its first director. (The Network is a project of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.) Dr. Joseph J. Plaud also helps to keep the New Deal flame alive as founder of the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center and Museum in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and the connected New Deal Information Service. Kathy Flynn of the National New Deal Preservation Association, and Heather Becker of its Chicago chapter, have spearheaded efforts to preserve murals and other works of the WPA for future generations.

I thank Gene Morris at the National Archives, whose expertise in the archives’ New Deal materials helped me find the right stuff; the staff in the archives’ still photo repository for their goodwill and courtesy; and the research room staff at the FDR Library for their patient guidance. The National Park Service staff at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia, especially Master Ranger Sylvia Flowers, were generous with contacts and information. Ed McWilliams of the New York Building Trades Council helped me locate members of the carpenters union who had worked for the WPA. Jane Julian at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives provided contacts and information about the WPA’s packhorse librarians. New York Assemblyman Jack McEneny offered valuable guidance on New York’s WPA projects. Portland, Oregon, city archivist Diana Banning steered me to files chronicling WPA road work in Portland and northwestern Oregon. I’m sure there are others in this pantheon of heroes—librarians, archivists, and curators who have pointed me to the correct filing cabinet or corner of the stacks; or simply interested parties whose zest for the subject and the material reaffirmed my own deep belief that this was a story that needed to be told—whom I should thank by name but can’t owing to haste, that crashed hard drive in 2005, or simple human failing. To you I offer apologies, but no less gratitude.

Virtually all works of history stand on the shoulders of previous historians, and among them I am especially grateful to the late Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who listened to my early thoughts about this book and recommended sources, among them Robert Hopkins.

There are some people whose contributions test the ability of words to thank them. My editor at Bantam Books, Ann Harris, has been tireless, patient, and firm. Her notes and suggestions have made this a much better book, and her friendship and good cheer make the world of publishing a better place. My agent, Lynn Nesbit, and her partner, Mort Janklow, have been wise counselors in guiding my career.

Finally, to my wife, Barbara Nevins Taylor, go not only gratitude but my deepest love and admiration. She has been unstinting with advice, support, encouragement, and apt criticism during the long gestation of this book. There is no way I can thank her enough for being on—and by—my side.