The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-12-06

most confused questions in This diversity of attack also has confused the public, and for pur- poses of clarification, it should be noted that there have been three different approaches to the hous- ing problem:
 1. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) inaugu- rated under Hoover to handle mortgages on homes already constructed which the banks considered poor risks.
 ?. The Federal Housing Ad- ministratiOn (FaA) inaugurated by Roosevelt to finance the building of new houses and re- pairs on old ones.
 3. The Housing Division of the Public Works Administration also inaugurated by Roosevelt to erect large scale apartments or community centers as an ef- fort at slum clearance. These are intended for the lower in- come groups. More recently this work has been taken over by the newly created Housing Author ity under the Wagner Act.
 The Presidents message to Con- gress dealth only with No. ?, namely the FILA, for the financ- ing of private home construction with government aid.
 Jimmy MOffett
 The Federal Housing Adminis- tration was established by Con- gress in 1894 and had the misfor- tune to be placed in charge of James A. Moffett, who probably did as much to retard housing as anyone-with the possible excep- ton of the building and loan asso- citations.
 Jimmy Moftett contributed $l2,0OO to the Roosevelt cam paign and early leaped aboard the Roosevelt bandwag0n. He deserved reward--and got it. though at the expense of the taxpayer.
 Son of a wealthy oil man, Jimmy grew up among the differ cnt Standard oil companies, now is vice president of Standard oil of California. Jimmy's troubles seemed to follow him wherever he went, First he joined the NRA, resigning @ $100,000 a year job as vice president of Standard oil of New Jersey after Q quarrel with Walter Teagle, president.
 Roosevelt next made him housing administrator, and he promptly fell in love with Mrs. Adeline Kim "Tugboat Annie" Moran, whose former husband once controlled the tugboat bus- mess of New York harbor.
 Just about the time Jimmy di- vorced his first wife to marry Mrs. Moran, the first Mrs. Moffett was killed in a fall from the window of her New York apartment.
 Then Jiinmy's daughter, Ade- laide, married David "Winkie" Brooks, nephew of Lady Astor, at rather an early age, and shortly thereafter her husband was killed in a fall from a New York hotel window.
 Then Jimmy and "Tugboat Annie" were divorced, later re- married, and then divorced again. Hard on Housing
 All of this was something of a setback to the Federal Housing Administration of which Moffett was the boss. But the, President, always lenient where human be- ings are concerned, let Jimmy stay on until September, 1885, when he resigned and was replaced by Stewart Mcdonald, one of his as- sistants.
 MT. Mcdonald, former St. Louis police commissioner, had married into the Moon Motor Car family. Eventually both his marriage and Moon Motors broke up (though the two smash ups were not nec- essarily related) and Mir. McDon- aid came to Washington where he appeared in riding brooches at sWank cocktail parties.
 MT. McDonald was regarded as Q better Housing Adminis- trator than Jimmy Moffett. It Is quite possible that the housing fault was neither Jimmy's nor McDonald's, for 1t Is hard to persuade the public to build houses. This point will be taken up in subsequent articles.
 But be that as 1t may, the &C., complishments of neither was anything to write home about. Housing Promotion
 Jimmy Moffett devoted most of his efforts to ballyhoo. This was not entirely a bad idea, since fl was necessary to show the man irl the street how he could now bor. row money from his own bank tc