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 2, Scene 5 (Looking Forward)
CHARACTERS
LOUDSPEAKER
LITTLE MAN
LANGDON W. POST, Former Tenement House Commissioner, New York City-Voice
HELEN ALFRED, Secretary and Executive Director, National Public Housing Conference
HON. FIORELLO H. LA GUARDIA, Mayor, New York City
LANDOWNER, 1800-Same as Act One, Scene Three
LANDLORD, 1938-Same as Act Two, Scene Three
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER
TENANTS OF THE HOUSE—Same as Act One, Scene One
(After short musical interlude light picks out the LITTLE MAN, right. He paces, agitated, then crosses stage to center. Black scrim has again been lowered into place.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Hey! (No answer; he continues pacing) Hey! What are you doing?
LITTLE MAN (without stopping): Arithmetic.
LOUDSPEAKER: Arithmetic?
LITTLE MAN: That's right. (He stops; leans forward, intently) I suppose you noticed how they cut that bill down to half of what Senator Wagner originally asked for. [Original appropriation Wagner-Steagall Bill, $1,000,000,000 —Ed.]
LOUDSPEAKER: I noticed it.
LITTLE MAN: Of course, five hundred and twenty-six million is a lot of money.
LOUDSPEAKER: Of course.
LITTLE MAN: I could do a lot of things with five hundred and twenty six million.
LOUDSPEAKER: Sure you could. But where does the arithmetic come in?
LITTLE MAN: Well, I'm taking ten per cent of five hundred and twenty-six million—
LOUDSPEAKER: You mean five hundred million-twenty-six million goes for maintenance—[Wagner-Steagall Act, as passed.—Ed]
LITTLE MAN: All right, five hundred million. Ten per cent of that is fifty million—which is all that any one State can get under the terms of the bill. Right?
LOUDSPEAKER: Right.
LITTLE MAN: Well, I'm taking that fifty million and trying to fit it into the New York City housing problem.
LOUDSPEAKER: But you can't do that.
LITTLE MAN: You're telling me!
LOUDSPEAKER: That fifty million is for the whole State. According to Mayor La Guardia the most New York City can hope to get is thirty million.
LITTLE MAN: As I was saying. I'm taking that thirty million and trying to fit it into the New York City housing problem.
LOUDSPEAKER: That's fine. Before you begin, let me show you what the New York city housing problem really is—in dollars and cents. This is Langdon Post, former Tenement House Commissioner.
VOICE OF POST: A conservative estimate of the cost of removing the slums in New York City alone is about two billion dollars!
LOUDSPEAKER: Two billion dollars! There's your problem in arithmetic, Mr. Buttonkooper. How to make shiny million equal to two billion.
LITTLE MAN (with paper and pencil): That's what I'm working on.
LOUDSPEAKER: Well, what's the answer?
LITTLE MAN: A headache. (He starts pacing again; he stops) Do you realize that the Wagner Bill at the end of four years will have solved less than two per cent of the housing problem in New York City? [Thirty million dollars is one and one-half per cent of two billion dollars.—Ed.] Do you realize that, at that rate it will take us more than two hundred years before every slum in New York has been demolished? [At rate of thirty million dollars in four years it would require two hundred and sixty-five years for the total appropriation to equal two billion dollars.—Ed.] And by that time the ones they're building now will be slums and we'll be back just where we started. (He crosses down; then, intently) Remember, I want to live in one of those new developments! I don't give a damn about my great-great-grandchildren! (Pause. Then, more composed) You know, when I heard all those Senators arguing, I got a funny feeling. I thought maybe I was crazy. Tell me, isn't there anybody else who's taken the trouble to figure this thing out? Doesn't anybody know what the score is?
LOUDSPEAKER: Most of the local housing authorities have studied the matter.
LITTLE MAN: Well, let's have it! What do they say? Let's hear somebody say something.
LOUDSPEAKER: Helen Alfred, Secretary and Executive Director of the National Public Housing Conference.
(Spot on MISS ALFRED, at two-step, right.)
MISS ALFRED: The Wagner-Steagall Housing Act lays a permanent foundation for the too-long-delayed attack on dangerous and unsanitary housing conditions prevalent throughout the country. But in view of the great need for new accommodations, the sum stipulated is pitifully inadequate.
(Light out on MISS ALFRED. Light on LAGUARDIA, left.)
LOUDSPEAKER: The Honorable Fiorello H. La Guardia, Mayor of New York City.
LA GUARDIA: The Wagner-Steagall Housing Bill with its provisions for five hundred million dollars for re-housing the nation is a step in the right direction, but only a step-a drop in the bucket! [Speech made at Conference of Mayors, Washington, D.C. November 17, 1937.] It is therefore my intention to start a building program aside and apart from, and in addition to, the Federal program.... I have therefore requested the Board of Estimate to be prepared to act upon a resolution appropriating funds to take care of interest charges and amortization of capital investments for the construction of low-rent houses.... Remember, slums cannot be wished away, nor even legislated away. The answer is building!
(Lights out on LA GUARDIA.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Well, there you are. Feel any better?
LITTLE MAN: No. But at least I know that if I'm crazy, I'm in pretty good company! According to all those fellows we're not much better off than we were before....
LOUDSPEAKER: Less than two per cent better, according to your arithmetic.
LITTLE MAN: Well, what are we going to do about it? (Excitedly) Are we going to take it lying down like mice? Or, are we men? (Starts taking off his coat.)
LOUDSPEAKER: What are you going to do now?
LITTLE MAN: I'm going to find the guy who's responsible for these slum conditions! I'll tell him something all right, all right!
LOUDSPEAKER: Do you know who it is?
LITTLE MAN: Certainly I know who it is! What do you think I came to see this show for! (Goes to wings, right, and leads out to center, LANDOWNER, 1800—Act One, Scene Three) There you are! (Pointing to tenement) Do you see that? Look at it! You started all this when you began to speculate in land!
LANDOWNER: All I did was sit. Remember?
LITTLE MAN: Yeah, I remember. And while you sat the town grew up around you. Land values went up, and because people had to have a place to live in, this is the result!
LANDOWNER: Well, what are you going to do about it?
LITTLE MAN (taken aback): Huh?
LANDOWNER (belligerently): I said, what are you going to do about it? Do you think you can take the land away from my descendants and make it public property? Do you?
LITTLE MAN (doubtfully): No—o
LANDOWNER: That's all I wanted to know! Good-bye.
(He crosses off, right, leaving a bewildered LITTLE MAN, center.)
LOUDSPEAKER: You certainly told him something, all right, all right.
LITTLE MAN (sheepishly): He was too quick for me.... But there's another guy I'm going to get my hooks into and he won't get away so fast! (Crosses to wings, left, shouting) Hey, come on out here! (He emerges, bringing on the LANDLORD of Act Two, Scene Three) You're to blame for that! You and the high rents you collect every month! Do you know the percentage of income used for rent is higher here than in any other country on the face of the earth?
LANDLORD: Well, what are you going to do about it?
LITTLE MAN: I'll tell you what were going to do! We're going to march right up to Albany and get some emergency rent laws passed! That'll take care of you all right!
LANDLORD (calmly): Is that all?
LITTLE MAN (a bit shaken by his calm): Well—er—isn't it enough?
LANDLORD: I don't think so . . . As I recall, you fellows marched up to Albany in 1920, 1924 and 1926. In each case emergency rent laws were passed. (Suddenly) Are you paying any less for your apartment today than you did then?
LITTLE MAN: No.
LANDOWNER: That's all I wanted to know! Good-bye. (He crosses off.)
LOUDSPEAKER: You certainly got your hooks into him all right.
LITTLE MAN: Let's not talk about it.
LOUDSPEAKER: Of course those emergency rent laws did prevent rents from going still higher.
LITTLE MAN (explosively): Sure they did!
LOUDSPEAKER: Well, why didn't you tell him that!
LITTLE MAN: He—er—he was too quick for me.
LOUDSPEAKER: I see. Well, what next?
LITTLE MAN: Let's see now. There was the Landowner—and the Landlord—and—er— I guess that's all.
LOUDSPEAKER: Isn't there something you've forgotten, Mr. Buttonkooper?
LITTLE MAN: What is it?
LOUDSPEAKER: How about the thing that's made these slum conditions possible for the last hundred and fifty years? The thing that makes people like you and everybody else sit back and say, "Well, this is the way it always has been and this is the way it's always going to be!"
LITTLE MAN: What thing is that?
LOUDSPEAKER: It's called "inertia."
LITTLE MAN: Inertia? (He looks puzzled.)
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER (rising from seat in audience): Don't look so surprised, Angus. That's just what it is—inertia! (Light picks her up as she comes down aisle and up on stage, left. Stands facing LITTLE MAN) You know about these conditions and so do I and so does everybody else that lives in 'em—but we don't do anything about it!
LITTLE MAN: By golly, that's right. According to what we've seen here tonight people have been going around for a hundred years or more—taking notes, making surveys—but nobody's ever done anything!
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: That's it. What good are all those surveys and speeches to us when we've got to live in a place almost as bad as that twenty-four hours a day! . . . What good are all those new laws that nobody obeys when maybe those kids are going to turn out to be crooks or murderers!
LITTLE MAN: Sure! And what good are all those housing bills that take care of less than two per cent of the trouble? What good are they when we still have this? (Points to tenement.)
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Look at it—and don't forget that isn't only New York. It's Philadelphia and Chicago and Boston and St. Louis! According to a man named Roosevelt, it's one-third of a nation! [Second Inaugural Address, Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1937.] One-third of a nation is just like that in 1938!
LITTLE MAN (pause): Well, what are we going to do about it?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: I don't know yet, but it seems to me . . . (Suddenly) Angus, how much did you say that Wagner Bill was for?
LITTLE MAN: Five hundred and twenty-six million.
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Five hundred and twenty-six million-for four years! Why was that bill cut down from a billion dollars, Angus?
LOUDSPEAKER: Because they're trying to balance the budget.
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Balance the budget? What with? Human lives? Misery? Disease?
(A whistle is heard as)
LOUDSPEAKER: FLASH [News flashes of events that have occurred are used—calamities that are traceable to bad housing. The three "flashes" incorporated into the present script were used early in the run of the New York City production.—Ed.] New York, February 24th. The cracking walls in three buildings at Avenue C and 12th Street caused all the tenants to flee for their lives. A few minutes after they had abandoned their homes and possessions, two of the buildings collapsed. (Uneasy pause.)
LOUDSPEAKER: FLASH, New York, March 9th. Thirty men, women and children were forced to flee for their lives when the walls in another old-law tenement at 82 St. Marks Place began to crack. This is the second case of the kind in the last two weeks. (Uneasy pause.)
LOUDSPEAKER: FLASH, New York, March 12th. This afternoon at 843 St. Nicholas Avenue, Manhattan, a fire broke out in a fire-escapeless three-story tenement. Leaping from 1 second-floor window, a woman was impaled on a spiked fence. A three-year-old child was asphyxiated. Mayor La Guardia visited the scene and promised a thorough investigation.
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Say, Mister, how much was the appropriation for the Army and Navy?
LOUDSPEAKER: The appropriation for the Army and Navy for the last four years was three billion, one hundred and twenty-five million dollars.
LITTLE MAN: Three billion, one hundred and twenty-five million dollars. Why—why—that's more than enough money to clean out every slum in New York! (Pacing excitedly) Well, what are we going to do?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER (interrupting): You know what we're going to do—you and me? We're going to holler. And we're going to keep on hollering until they admit in Washington it's just as important to keep a man alive as it is to kill him!
LITTLE MAN: Will that do any good?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Sure it will. If we do it loud enough!
LITTLE MAN: You think they'll hear us?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: They'll hear us all right if we all do it together—you and me and LaGuardia and Senator Wagner and the Housing Authorities and the Tenant Leagues and everybody who lives in a place like that! (Pointing to tenement, TENANTS start to fill the tenement as lights come up on it.)
LITTLE MAN (excitedly): All right, all right, when do we begin?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Right now.
LITTLE MAN: Now?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: Now! (Shouting) We want a decent place to live in! I want a place that's clean and fit for a man and woman and kids! Can you hear me—you in Washington or Albany or wherever you are! Give me a decent place to live in! Give me a home! A home!
LITTLE MAN: Do you think they'll hear us?
MRS. BUTTONKOOPER: And if we don't make them hear us you're going to have just what you've always had—slums—disease—crime—juvenile delinquency . . . and...
A VOICE: Fire!
(TENANTS have begun their activities as in Act One, Scene One. Smoke starts to appear and begins to rise. Suddenly the fire sirens are heard. Pandemonium as fire scene is re-enacted. The entire scene builds to a crescendo, topped by flames, smoke, and the MAN cowering on the fire escape. Music.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Ladies and gentlemen, this might be Boston, New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia—but just let's call it, "one-third of a nation!"
Curtain
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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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