FLW vs. the FBI

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Mon Dec 23, 2013 7:33 pm

I just happened to stumble across this article on the web. The title really does not encapsulate the wide swath of history covered in this article.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/03/ ... yd-wright/

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 9:42 am

The article was an interesting read.

I located a letter to Wright regarding the FHA's disapproval of flat roofs in relation to then-planned faculty housing at Florida Southern College. The letter, contained within the archives of the college, is linked here: http://archives.flsouthern.edu/cdm/sing ... ers/id/220

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 12:14 pm

I believe this was posted here before.

I dismiss any writer on Wright who uses "Many Masks" as a source, and misuses the word 'bemused.'

RA · Post by RA » Tue Dec 24, 2013 3:13 pm

Wright might have been bemused or amused or both. Not exactly clear what the writers intent was. Also, the writers use of "noisome" will not go over well on this site with many of the chatters. However, after all it is Counterpunch.

RonMcCrea · Post by **RonMcCrea** » Wed Dec 25, 2013 5:35 pm

I got the Wright FBI file back in 1988. Of course it is heavily "redacted," or blacked out. Most of it is concerned with the federal court case in Madison involving draft resistance by Taliesin apprentices during World War II, and whether Wright swayed the young men.

A second theme is his affiliation with "subversive" civil liberties groups and pacifism. There are suspicions about his praise of the Soviet Union after a visit there, and his showing of Russian films at Taliesin. The deportation of Olgivanna was sought by Wright's second wife, and apparently Phil La Follette thought it was a good idea temporarily, to take the heat off Wright.
But he refused to go along with it.

I don't think you have to posit a right-wing conspiracy led by Hoover to explain why he didn't get federal building jobs and why the FHA wouldn't finance homes of his design in Kalamazoo and other locations, including developments with round lots. Simple stupidity and the conventional bureaucratic mind of the time is explanation enough.

These notes are from memory. I gave my copy of the file to Marcus Weston, who had not seen it.

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:29 pm

RonMcCrea wrote:the conventional bureaucratic mind of the time is explanation enough.

Ron,
Are you implying that this has improved over time?

RonMcCrea · Post by **RonMcCrea** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 2:35 pm

No. But I don't restrict that to government. I told a group of bankers last year that Wright disliked two kinds of people -- contractors, because they told him that his projects couldn't be built; and bankers, because they told him that his projects wouldn't be built.