Uncovering Nevada's Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State

8: Depression and New Deal

Nevada’s New Deal Buildings Nevada did not feel the full effects of the Great Depression until 1931, when a devastating drought, coupled with a downturn in mineral production, began to cause hardships . Federal assistance was meager and slow to arrive. The Nevada legislature took matters into its own hands by passing a more lenient divorce law and the Wide-open Gambling Law to help spur the economy. When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in March 1933, he instituted an alphabet -soup list of federal relief agencies to assist states with their relief efforts. General relief, or welfare, was provided through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration , but Roosevelt believed that the unemployed needed to work in order to bolster their pride and self-respect. The majority of the federal relief programs that functioned in Nevada were work projects. The Civilian Conservation Corps (ccc), the Civil Works Administration (cwa), the Emergency Work Relief Program (ewrp), the Works Progress Administration (wpa), and the Public Works Administration (pwa) all employed Nevada workers. The fruits of their labors can be found in almost all Nevada communities. Other New Deal agencies that operated in Nevada during the Depression were the Rural Electrification Administration, bringing electricity to rural communities and ranches; the Resettlement Administration, which sought to put unemployed urban dwellers onto farms and ranches; the Home Owners Loan Corporation; and the Federal Housing Authority. —Mella Rothwell Harmon Depression and New Deal 8 1 1 9 d e p r e s s i o n a n d n e w d e a l | 1 2 1 Paul Hutchinson on Nevada Gambling in The Christian Century Nevada’s sin solutions of legalized gambling, tolerated prostitution, prizefighting, and quickie divorces and marriages helped it through the boom-and-bust cycles of its base economies of mining and agriculture. In 1930 Reno’s mayor, E. E. Roberts, summed up Nevada’s legislative attitude: You cannot legislate morals into people, any more than you can legislate love into the hearts of some professed Christians. You can’t stop gambling, so let’s put it in the open. Divorce is A popular wpa project was the Nevada Fly–proof Privy Program, which offered sanitary outhouses to rural towns and ranches in Nevada. The concrete floors and seat risers eliminated the vermin problem, and screened vents provided welcome air circulation . Photo by Mella Rothwell Harmon; courtesy of Mella Rothwell Harmon private collection (Facing page) The Public Works Administration (pwa) employed labor from the relief rolls, but the projects were larger than those of the Works Progress Administration (wpa). In Nevada the pwa built the Las Vegas Grammar School in Las Vegas (top), the Materials Research Laboratory in Carson City (center), and the Supreme Court building in Carson City (bottom). Top photo by Dorothy Wright, courtesy of the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office; center photo by Ronald M. James; bottom photo courtesy the Nevada State Library and Archives 1 2 2 | u n c o v e r i n g n e v a d a ’ s p a s t the only solution when marriages are unhappy. And if I had my way in this prohibition year, I as mayor of Reno would place a barrel of whisky on every corner, with a dipper, and a sign saying: “Help yourself, but don’t be a hog.” Someone else said, “If you can’t do it at home, go to Nevada.” Although Nevada’s sin solutions were lucrative, many roundly criticized them. Paul Hutchinson, in a series of articles in The Christian Century, called Nevada a prostitute state, employing the dictionary definition of prostitution as “openly devoted to lewdness , especially for gain.” In spite of the national moral outrage expressed against it, the Nevada legislature continued to legalize vice for the economic good of the state. —Mella Rothwell Harmon Nevada—a Prostitute State by Paul Hutchinson The Standard dictionary defines the adjective “prostitute” as “1. Openly devoted to lewdness, especially for gain. 2. Surrendered to base or unworthy purposes.”Webster’s definition is “Openly lewd; devoted to base purposes; infamous ; mercenary.” Nevada is a prostitute state. Her citizens will, of course, resent such a designation. One finds them, in conversation, rather bristlingly defensive of their state’s “good name.” But if language has any meaning, the definition fits Nevada as exactly as a definition can be required to...