Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1937-03-26

the depression, by giving them
work in place of dole. That work,
useless though it be in many in
stances, has yet given to many
men and women an opportunity to
meet pressing necessities without
the sacrifice of that self-respect so
essential to satisfactory living.
AS such it has met a real need
and scarcely deserves the almost
universal derision with which it
has been greeted. For be it
known many of the government
projects have been far from USE
less. If they have not produced
something Of immediate value they
have solved a present difficulty
and frequently have made possible
future guarantee against the
helplessness of many unqualified
workers and have added something
of very real value to the worlds
possessions. ......
have in mind one of these made
work projects where last week
spent two of the most interesting
hours l can recall.
A visit to the WPA Craft Shop
at 1926 4th st. S., Minneapolis, re-
vealed so much of beautiful, amaz-
ing art work as to challenge belief.
Two floors, airy and commOdiOus,
gave room for the workers, serving
also as exhibition space for the
completed designs. These, in al
most all cases, were made of ma
terial which in a more prosperous
era would have found its way into
a junk pile, and to final extinction
as being utterly useless.
Old and worn silk stockings,
plain flour sacks, gunny sacks
that had contained vegetables and
sugar, bits Of inoleum, strings cut
from outworn dresses and other
garments, spools that were once
filed with thread; bits of wood
apparently fit only for kindling,
these and a hundred other pieces of
scraps and waste were taken by
skilled or semi-skilled, worked and
rehabilitated into marvellous crea-
lions.
Rugs, finer than most people can
buy-inlaid tables, chairs, desks,
hope chests, tapestries, pictures
woven out of cOlOred threads and
beads in bewildering variety met
the visitors charmed gaze and
caused him to wonder how such
things could be. There were ex-
pressive statuettes made from a
single block of wood cut by hand
with mife-cOlOred and painted
in ife-like representation of hu-
mainly as we have learned to find
it in life. There were reprOduc-
tons of Indian art from articles
of that grOup-all from the same
mental material.
In the whole place / found no
machinery more impressive than a |
small buzz saw run by electricity. |
All the rest of the vast array was
made by needles, hammers, hand
saws and jack knives - and paint
brushes. q
The executive staff was more
than courteous and took a very
understandable and pardonable |
pride in showing the many, many |
interesting and valuable articles
redeemed from destruction for use
and feast of artistic pleasure. 1t |
was an indictment of Americas
characteristic wastefulness that
such beauty and usefulness could
come from its prodigious neglect
that called for only a little skill
and work to revamp into art treas
ures.
Turning to the workers in this
craft shop one would naturally
look for a group of highly devel-
Oped artists with the many expen-
sive and complicated implements
of their art at hand and dressed
to the part. But not so, just Ordi-
nary men and women rescued from
LL.As