Evening star., 1954-04-19
By Robert J. Lewis
Reol Estate Editor of The SioF


.Rsol Estate Editor of The Sior
The Federal HDusing Admins
tration-for years well liked by
Congress and the, public-has
just undergone what must have
been an acutely painful week of
shame and embarrassment.
One of the amazing parts of
the whole Scandal-ridden Situa-
tion most certainly is that up
to now no one has stood up in
any way to defend this hitherto
highly respected agency.
In some quarters, indeed, the
prospect of finding out what has
gone on within FILA in recent
years is looked forward to with
an interest entirely unrelated
to whether the forthcoming in
vestigations will turn up any
official skulduggery. Many peo-
pie just want to know what
FHA has been doing so long be-
hind it's own version of the Iron
Curtain.
In the past, FILA has thrown
around many of its operations
a cloak of secrecy that, in the
opinion of dozens of newspaper
men in Washington and through
out the Nation, made inevitable
such a set of circumstances as
turned up this week, when not
only the administration itself
but two congressional commit
tees fought for the privilege of
pulling the curtain aside.
Didn't Trust Newspapers.
Certain longtime FdA officials
who set policy never seemed to
trust newspapers or the public.
Their attitude, expressed more
than once to seekers after facts,
was summed up this way: "Our
responsibility is to the builder
and the lender, not to the gen.
eral public"
When the brickbats came
hurtling towards the agency
early this week in the form OF
broad charges it had been in
volved in illegal or unethical"
actions, no one seemed to be
more surprised than FILA Of
f1cials themselves.
One example of the slight re-
gard which FILA seemed to have
for public opinion centers on the
administration of home modern
ization and repair loans. &
Though the agency frightened
up it's rules drastically twice dur
ing the latter part of last year,
it never made public announce
ment that it had done so. Even
public information officials of the
affiliated Housing and Home FL
nance Agency were surprised
many weeks later to hear by
chance of the action.
1t was for this move that
Housing Administrator Albert
M. Cole in January praised the
recently-ousted FILA Commis-
sioner, Guy T. o. Hollyday. for
1.-The straightforward way in
which you have gone after this
problem"
When accusations were made
last Monday by Housing Admin
istrator Cole that serious ir-
regularities and abuses" were in
volved in the home-repair pro-
gram, only a relatively few per-
sons anywhere in the country
knew that Mr.. Hollyday and
FILA already had begun to at
tack the problem.
Big Profits Attacked.
BY far the more spectacular
charges brought against FILA in
volved big profits made by many
builders under the rental housing
program.
Here, too, FILA had always
maintained as much silence as
possible. And here, also, FILA
officials seemed unable to offer
any extenuating explanation
after the charges were hurled
against them.
Actually, this particular pro-
gram that ended several years
ago was meant by Congress to
supply generous financing in
order to provide rental apart
ments quickly for home-hungry
veterans after World War II
ended.
Members of Congress have
known for years that this pro-
gram meant big profits to many
builders. Even after many facts
of these profits had been estab-
lished, Congress provided hun
dreds of millions of dollars in
additional loans authorized on
the same terms so that more
projects could be built. Actually
$500, 100000 additional was pro-
vided by Congress against the
advice of Government housing
officials.
1t is only natural, under the
circumstances, that the rank and
file of FILA employees should feel
that they have been asked to
shoulder a larger share of blame
than they deserve. For involved
in the profits builders made in
the rental housing program was
not only Congress intention to
make financing easy, but the
relative efficiency of different