California Industrial Scenes

John Langley Howard

John Langley Howard's mural, his first attempt at fresco, was perhaps the most controversial in the Tower after Wight's now-erased work above the west windows. Across a series of scenes depicting various forms of mining — along with their human and environmental destruction, particularly the immensely devastating practice of hydraulic mining Howard lays bare the economic ills of the time, shows the contrast between the haves and have-nots, depicts the failure of progress to raise everyone's prospects, and underscores the power of united workers. 

On the left, one of the most notorious sections of the work shows a gathering of unemployed workers. Not only is one of them clearly holding Marxist literature advocating industrial action, provocative enough by itself, but the group is racially diverse, with black, white and Hispanic men marching together. This was a radical notion in 1934 in America, where segregation was legal in many states, de facto in all of them, and lynching a still frequent occurrence. In the center, we see an enormous, ultra- modern dam and hydroelectric plant (the Pardee Dam), with a modern railroad trestle crossing the river. While a streamline locomotive speeds along the tracks, a tiny hobo walks head down just ahead. 

In the foreground downstream from the dam we see an impoverished family and their broken-down Model T Ford in a makeshift camp. Two of them are panning or rocking for gold, while another does laundry in the river and an older woman is sawing through a log by hand none of them can afford access to the electric power in the wires running past them, nor by the look of their emaciated dog, do they have enough to eat. Just behind them are a set of small figures - a well-fed and well-dressed man, his fur-clad wife and their purebred dog and their chauffeur, staring in amusement at the poor family. The car in which the wealthy family has arrived is a yellow 1934 Chrysler Airflow, a radical streamline design that cost $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the model - over two years' wages for the best-paid artists working here.