American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA : When FDR Put the Nation to Work (63 page)

“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. T
HE
R
OOSEVELTS AT
T
IMBERLINE

“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. D
ECLINE AND
R
EVIVAL

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. B
UILDING
R
OADS IN
N
ORTH
C
AROLINA
(J
OHNNY
M
ILLS)

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. K
ENTUCKY
A
RCHAEOLOGY
(J
OHN
B. E
LLIOTT)

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. H
URRICANE!

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. W
AR
A
MONG THE
D
EMOCRATS

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. T
HE
R
ISE OF THE
R
ED
-B
AITERS

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. T
HE
“R
UNAWAY
O
PERA”

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. S
ACCO AND
V
ANZETTI

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. I
N THE
C
ROSSHAIRS

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. H
ARRY
D
EPARTS

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.