Primitive Arts, 1940 A.D.

Five years ago a chunky, stoop-shouldered Texan named Raymond Huff, superintendent of schools in Clayton, N. Mex. (pop. 3,171), stood musing at a window of the town's dilapidated high school. Clayton was a dispiriting sight. Along its dusty, sun-baked main street lounged sullen, idle men. Out of sight, but probably up to no good, were Clayton's tattered small fry, some of them without enough clothes to go to school. Raymond Huff squared his shoulders and went to WPA and NYA with a scheme. He got WPA to agree to help him build school buildings, NYA to finance student projects.

Raymond Huff proceeded to make WPA history, putting up school buildings at less than contract cost. Using 300 laborers and only four skilled tradesmen (a supervisor, electrician, plumber, concrete finisher), he built an $800,000 (architect's estimate) plant--new high school, gymnasium, agricultural building and remodeled junior high--for $550,000. His students carved, pegged, built all the furniture, tanned leather for office chairs, wove rawhide for classroom chairs, hammered hinges, lamps and other hardware from scrap iron, wove mohair rugs and draperies.

Last fall Superintendent Huff dedicated his new school, complete with WPA oil paintings. New Mexico's Governor John E. Miles exclaimed: "I sometimes think this man Raymond Huff uses elastic dollars, he makes them go so far." This summer Superintendent Huff began to build a stadium, which, when it is finished next month, will have a football field, cinder track, lighted tennis courts, roller and ice skating rinks, barbecue pits. He also started construction of a new cafeteria, put his students to work last fortnight making dishes for it from Clayton clay.

Meanwhile, the fame of Clayton's revival of primitive arts spread far & wide. By last week, tourists had swamped Superintendent Huff and his students with orders for hand-carved furniture, pottery, rugs. Beaming happily on the industrious town, Raymond Huff said: "I'm thinking about the day when boys and girls from our school can marry and build their own homes just as we have built this school."

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