Evening star., 1936-04-27

The Star published last week in good
faith a rather indignant letter from
the local housing director. At least
it was signed by J. Reilly Stanton,
who is the director He challenged
what he said was the inaccuracies
about the F. H. A. appearing in this
column.
The same Indignation was expressed
in exactly the same 500 words In q
letter received by the largest Brooklyn
newspaper the same day, but this was
signed by Thomas G. Grace, director
of F. H. A., State of New York.
Such a phenomenal duplication OF
word and thought might have been a
miracle, but the next day the third
exact duplicate arrived in the ofice Of
the largest Syracuse paper, signed by
Roy S. Smith, director Albany dis.
trict, F. H. A. And then along came
letter No. 4 to st. Louis newspaper
None of the four gave credit for
authorship to any one except himself.
Nor did any Of them suggest that the
plagiarism was a form letter from
national headquarters here, which was
to be disguised by the directors as q
personal letter and sent to a local
editor.
Figures and Facts.
The first two paragraphs of the
letter will give you complete and
fair understanding of its impartiality:
Dear Mr.. Name of EDITOR:
II would like TO point out several
inaccuracies in a recent column pub
lished in The Star by Paul Mallon of
Washington.
Il. Mr.. Mallon says that the aggre-
gate of mortgages accepted for in
surance by the Federal Housing Ad-
ministration was only 10 per cent of
the total Of all mortgages made during
1885, and that, in other words. the
private mortgage market stimulated
itself nine times as much as the Gov
ernment stimulated it. He apparently
does not know that Of the $1.7o0, ,o00.-
600 total urban home mortgages made
during 1888, according to the Federal
Home Loan Bank Boards estimate,
loans by the Home Owners Loan Corp
Government funds) aggregated 48
per cent, leaving less than 5000, 600 900
handled by private lending institutions
and individuals, of which s170,000, 900
would be approximately 20 per cent,
although the mortgage phase of the
Federal Housing Administration opera
tions was active only during the last
nine months Of the year"
Original Figures Accurate.
The simple facts are that the origi-
nal figures were accurate. They were
taken from F. II. AS own annual
report. In that report the F. H. A.
placed great stress upon the fact that
1t had made commitments for Sl70,-
600, 900 Of mortgages in 1885. but it
neglected to mention that hidden in
a table at the back of the report was
the disclosure that 1t had received in
come from only ss5,oo0.000 of new
mortgage appraisals. In other words.
1t made only $95 ,OO0, 900 of new mort
cages that year, an amount which is
101. per cent of the total privately
financed. The rest were commitments.
Thus. the $95 5,000,000 figure Is
the real one, the $4,000, 900 the
odllyhoo one. The r. II. A. is not
in business to make commitments,
but mortgages, and uiH be Judged
on that basis.
The remaining paragraphs of the
letter are in the same vein.
Publicity men will recognize the ad-
vantages of the disguised local letter.
to-the-editor propaganda method.
If press agents want to correct pub
lished mistakes they generally go to
the author of the mistake, or they
issue a general public statement set
ting forth the true facts. However,
these courses require q denier to as
sumo responsibility publicly for what
he says. An opportunity exists for the
facts to be checked. The denial will
not be made unless justified.
In the new method, however, such
cumbersome procedure is avoided.
Furthermore no one will ever find ou.
that you are pulling the wool on q
national scale unless you happen to
get caught.
Wider Possibilities Exist.
Wider possibilities exist in this new
field Of miseducation of the public
mind. Effective variations of the same
method could be used with A. A. A..
w. P. A. H. o. L. c., c. c. c. and, in
fact, every agency of Government
which employs local agents out In the
field. provided that these agents are
physically able to sign their names to
whatever form propaganda letters are
drawn up at headquarters In Wash.
ington.
Federal spending is becoming more
and more complicated in view Of econ
omy campaign requirements.
For example, the Navy wants two
new battleships. The British are going
to lay two new keels after the first of
the year. Unless we watch them, We
Will be outdistanced in that type of
ship, which the admirals say is the
backbone" Of the Navy.
Admiral Standley said, upon return
ing from London, that $4,000 600
would be 'eeded to commence con-
struction on the vessels. The President.
q few days later, said there was not a
chance Of getting the money out Of
Congress "a polite way of saying it
did not fit in with his economy cam
paign position).
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