N E W D E A L N E T W O R K
The Great Depression and the Arts
A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12
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One-Third of a Nation
A Living Newspaper by Arthur Arent
(First produced January 17, 1938)
Act 1, Scene 5 (Appoint a Committee)
CHARACTERS
LITTLE MAN
LOUDSPEAKER
CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE:
- N.P. Willis
Dr. James L. Little
Dr. Alexander Hadden
MAN, Announcer of statistics on disease
MAYOR
DR. JOHN H. GRISCOM, City Inspector, New York
MAYOR'S COMMITTEE OF FOUR
LITTLE MAN (looking toward LOUDSPEAKER): What happened after that?
LOUDSPEAKER: Nothing.
MAN: You mean to say they still went on just talking about it.
LOUDSPEAKER: A Citizens' Committee was formed to investigate conditions. (Lights come up on house, bare and empty.)
LITTLE MAN: Again?
LOUDSPEAKER: It consisted of Mr. N. P. Willis and Doctors James L. Little, and Alexander Hadden. . . .
(As their names are called lights come up on the three men in each of the three cubicles, inspecting the furniture and making notes.)
LITTLE MAN: Well, what did they do?
LOUDSPEAKER: Well, give them a chance, will you? (LITTLE MAN starts up impatiently) Sit down for a minute. You're getting me nervous! (LITTLE MAN sits down. He takes out a package of cigarettes) That's right, have a smoke (LITTLE MAN's fingers tremble as he lights his cigarette) You're not worried about anything, are you?
LITTLE MAN (as though they had kept it a secret from him) Nobody ever told me there was cholera in New York!
LOUDSPEAKER: I guess a lot of other people didn't know about it, either.
LITTLE MAN: I thought it only happened in China.
LOUDSPEAKER: Our brand was just as good as any they had!
LITTLE MAN: Well, at least there isn't any more cholera in New York today, not even in old-law tenements.
LOUDSPEAKER: That's right. No more cholera. But look what we've got instead—in old-law tenements. Report by the New York City Housing Authority. Tuberculosis!
(Light on MAN on two-step, right.)
MAN: From 1919 to 1934 the death rate from tuberculosis was one hundred and twenty-nine per cent higher in old-law tenements.
LOUDSPEAKER: Diptheria!
MAN: The death rate from diptheria was ninety-seven per cent higher in old-law tenements
LOUDSPEAKER: Spinal meningitis!
MAN: The death rate from spinal meningitis was one hundred and nineteen per cent higher in old-law tenements—and the death rate from all causes was ninety-three per cent higher in old-law tenements.
[Blackout on MAN.]
LITTLE MAN: But I live in an old-law tenement! What I want to know is . . .
LOUDSPEAKER: Let's go back to 1850 again. Sssh!
(The lights come up on entire stage. MAYOR enters, right, and crosses to center, from three-step. THREE MEN wait for him on top of three-step.)
LITTLE MAN (pointing to MAYOR): Who's that?
LOUDSPEAKER: That's the mayor.
DR. MADDEN: Mr. Mayor, it is a humiliating fact that no complete examples of sanitary renovation can be found in the City of New York. The "Five Points" is a district still full of perpetual fever nests and the breeding place of epidemic diseases! All told, in New York, not a district, not a street, has been redeemed from its filthiness.
DR. LITTLE: I saw, between Tenth Avenue and the Hudson River, three large manure yards, a number of fat-boiling establishments and slaughter houses. And to these may be added the dirty conditions of the streets, with gutters running with blood and filth. Scattered through the midst of these, surrounding them on all sides, are the crowded and ill-ventilated tenements of the district!
WILLIS: Mr. Mayor, I did not dream that human beings within the reach of human aid could be abandoned to the wretchedness which I saw with my own eyes. And all those horrors of want and abandonment lie almost within sound of your own voice as you pass Broadway.
LITTLE MAN: That's enough!
LOUDSPEAKER: Dr. John H. Griscom, Health Inspector of New York, presents a city-wide report on Housing.
(Enter DR. GRISCOM, left, crosses to center.)
DR. GRISCOM: Mr. Mayor, in the attempt to raise from the depressed and the poor the necessity of living crowded in single rooms, much aid cannot be found in any legal enactment. The remedy lies with the humane and philanthropic capitalists by whom houses might be erected with all the comforts and conveniences of separate rooms, running water and so forth, which would yield a fair interest on their value and make thousands of people happy. These are my findings and suggestions. (Hands imaginary document to MAYOR. A COMMITTEE OF FOUR enter down right on two-step. MAYOR beckons to COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, who crosses to him.)
LOUDSPEAKER: New York's first comprehensive document of housing. (MAYOR takes imaginary document to CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE who goes back to his group. The COMMITTEE discusses the document in a sort of gibberish. Music.)
COMMITTEE: Document—Survey—Housing—Cholera—Document—Survey—Housing—Cholera—
LOUDSPEAKER (spacing the figures between the COMMITTEE words): One month . . . two months . . . three months . . . four months . . . five months .
CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE (crosses to MAYOR): Mr. Mayor your committee do not profess to be judges of the subject. In other words, we do not think it proper at this time to go into such a measure. We recommend that the paper be returned to its author.
(COMMITTEE exits right. As CHAIRMAN exits he tosses paper to MAYOR. MAYOR tosses it to GRISCOM as he is leaving.)
LITTLE MAN: Well, I'll be damned.
[Blackout]
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The Great Depression and the Arts
N E W D E A L N E T W O R K
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