Bob Seely -- Township 

 Road Commissioner 



He Uses WPA Labor Effectively to Build Better 



Hoads and Bridges in Maniiattan Townsliip 



JFTER talking to Bob Seely, 

 , j JtMr road commissioner in Man- 

 ^ ^ ^ hattan township, Will coun- 

 ty, you learn that not all WPA men rake 

 leaves and lean on shovels. You dis- 

 cover that with proper supervision, WPA 

 employees can do much useful work. On 

 driving over the township to inspect the 

 seven new concrete bridges, 11 miles of 

 beautiful new gravel road, 37 rock and 

 concrete catch basins, more than 100 

 stone and concrete erosion control check 

 dams, extensive ditching and repairs to 

 drain off water and eliminate bad spots 

 on an additional 23 miles of roads, and 

 at least two major drainage projects, all 

 accomplished with WPA labor, your 

 doubts vanish. The thought comes to 

 you that there are WPA loafers and 

 WPA workers, that WPA workmen from 

 rural communities are far superior for 

 road work than the average you find on 

 WPA rolls in the cities, that perhaps the 

 men themselves are not so much to blame 

 for the general air of shiftlessness sur- 

 rounding many WPA projects as a poor 

 choice of projects or incompetent fore- 

 men who may be politicians put there by 

 the local political machine, or both. 



Seely's experience may shed some light 

 on what goes on in WPA. It is especial- 

 ly timely in view of the recent fight in 

 Congress over WPA appropriations. 



"I'm just completing my fourth year 

 as road commissioner," Bob said. "When 

 I was elected, we got an application in 

 early for a WPA project. Ours was one 



ONE OF SEVEN NEW BRIDGES 

 "The rock came iree from the state prison." 



of the first approved. I was called down 

 to Johet by the area supervisor, told they 

 would send me 70 men from Joliet. I 

 said, 'nothing doing, I'll take men from 

 our rural townships or none at all.' I 

 know our home boys. They're used to 

 work. I didn't want any loafers and 

 agitators from the city. We were spend- 

 ing the township's money on equipment 

 and supplies and it was up to me to get 

 results. Finally they gave me the 25 

 men I asked for, all men from the rural 

 townships of Manhattan, Wilton, Flor- 

 ence and Jackson. I couldn't have picked 

 25 men who could do any more work. 

 Nearly all of them had farm experience. 



"But we had an understanding before 

 we went to work. I told the men that 

 I was responsible to the township for the 

 work that was to be done, that they had 

 to do the work the way I wanted it or 

 get off the job. I've never had any 

 trouble, never an argument. No doubt 

 there are a lot of good workmen on 

 WPA in the cities. But there are agita- 

 tors and communists too. And too often 

 the project foremen are afraid of their 

 men. 



"I know we got more work done with 

 our 25 men than we would have with 70 

 from Joliet. I made it a point never to 

 take on a man who couldn't provide his 

 own transportation. If a man wants to 

 work he'll find a way to get there. We 

 have never allowed our men to have fires 

 and we work when the temperature is 

 down around zero, too. When you have 



NEW ROCK ROAD MANHATTAN TWP. 

 "11 miles of new road like this" 



BOB SEELY 

 "Now its taking the water" 



a fire, the men are around it most of the 

 time. They seem to get cold quicker. 

 If a man is furnished transportation, al- 

 lowed to have a fire, and lunch when- 

 ever he wants to, you can't get much work 

 out of him. I'm with our men practically 

 every day when we have a project under 

 way. 



"We generally work in one gang, but 

 we string the men out. If they're kept 

 apart so they have to holler at each other, 

 they won't talk much." 



In Manhattan township, WPA work- 

 ers get $48.00 for 14 days or 107 hours 

 work in a month. This leaves them about 

 12 additional work days in the month 

 when they are privileged to work out by 

 the day. Seely says that most of the men 

 get additional work to do because they 

 are good workmen. 



Asked whether WPA is preventing 

 farmers from getting hired help at fair 

 'wages, he said, "I don't think so around 

 here. I know of only two cases where 

 our men refused steady jobs. One man 

 who has a family was offered $45 a 

 month, a house, garden, milk, chickens, 



DELANY'S CORNER ON RTE. 44 

 "We deepened the road ditches, opened 

 up the tile, cleaned out the drainage 

 ditch." 





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