The Nation: WPA in Reverse

As a piquant expression of the work ethic in action. Richard Nixon might consider the labors of a Milwaukee group called Sweat Associates. Some 40 unemployed Milwaukeeans banded together last month on the principle that, as one of them said, "there is work to be done and people to do it." On its first project, the associates turned up unbidden at a South Side lot that had become a community dumping ground. They cleared off the garbage and erected a children's playground there, then sent the city a bill for $670.50 for their labors.

The city, which had estimated it would cost $12,500 to construct a park by normal means, refused to pay; the department of public works, in a spasm of bureaucratic anger, announced that Sweat would be billed for the cost of restoring "said site to its former condition"—meaning, presumably, the cost of re-depositing the garbage there. While that matter awaited a decision by Milwaukee's common council, the associates undertook other projects—planting wheat in another vacant South Side lot (a bill was sent to the Department of Agriculture for subsidy payments of $294), establishing an informal bus service for the aged, and inspecting slum housing.

Despite the quixotic methods of Sweat, there is something quite revelatory about this WPA in reverse. It is one small demonstration that there are plenty of unemployed who do indeed want to work—especially on direct, sensible projects that would benefit communities neglected by uncaring bureaucracies.