Arthurdale. Many locals and homesteaders alike wanted Arthurdale to be a place for whites only, but Mrs. Roosevelt disagreed. Despite her feelings, she deferred to local project sponsors. After losing a community vote on the issue, Roosevelt recommended the creation of other communities for the excluded black and Jewish miners. The experience motivated Roosevelt to become much more outspoken on the issue of racial discrimination. In many New Deal agencies and projects, the power of local administrators was hard to overcome. Though legislation was federal, it took local powers-that-be to implement it. Arthurdale was not unique in the nature of locals' racial attitudes. In 1938, Franklin Roosevelt delivered the only high school commencement address of his presidency at Arthurdale. Eleanor Roosevelt continually visited the area, attending graduations, dances, and other gatherings, but always monitored the progress of construction as well. When the community failed to attract industry, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for General Electric to open an operation there. Although General Electric did not stay for long, several other industries such as vacuum cleaner, faucet, and tractor manufacturing as well as military supply industries tried to set up shop in Arthurdale, with only the Sterling Faucet company having a long-term presence. Additionally, most families found it impossible to cultivate sufficient crops to feed themselves, and many remained dependent on the relief system. The Subsistence Homesteads Division, set up in August 1933, was already dissolved in May 1935 and absorbed into the Resettlement Administration, indicating a shift of government priorities from subsistence homesteads to suburban "greenbelt cities". Decline and cancellation By the late 1930s, Arthurdale had lost support in much of Washington, and even though Eleanor Roosevelt had championed the project, she could not dissuade Congress and the president's cabinet from abandoning it. Roosevelt herself was "deeply disillusioned" by a visit to the community in 1940, in which she observed that the community had become increasingly dependent on government and lacking in independent initiative. As the United States transferred to a war economy, Arthurdale and the ideas it stood for became less relevant. In 1941, Arthurdale was returned to private ownership and property was sold to the homesteaders and speculators at a loss. It continued to receive subsidies and be overseen by a manager from the Federal Government until 1947. For a variety of reasons, the Arthurdale experiment is identified as a failure. However, Roosevelt personally considered the project a success, later