Whose Fault?

Sniffing scandals of mismanagement that may outsmell those of Army-camp construction (TIME, Sept. 15), the Senate Defense Investigating Committee last week went after the defense housing program. No sooner had the first witness opened his mouth than one of Washington's smoldering feuds--Federal Works Administrator John Carmody v. Defense Housing Coordinator Charles Palmer--burst into flame. Witness Carmody put his finger on Witness-to-be Palmer as Housing Mismanager No. 1.

The Senators knew they would find plenty wrong. From facts his investigators had dug up, Committee Counsel Hugh Fulton wanted to know why:

> Of 91,873 housing units for which $361,542,000 has been allocated, only 23,283 were available for occupancy by mid-September.

>Of these 23,283 available, only about one-third were occupied.

> At Weymouth, Mass., after Federal Works Agency paid $45,450 for 21.9 acres last April, four selectmen turned thumbs down on the defense housing project, left the Government stuck with the land. Whose fault?

>The old Army game, extravagant equipment rentals (paid for by the Government), is being played all over again: a Washington, D.C. contractor rented a $4,200 tractor for $3,907.42 and a truck valued at $425 for $414.34; a Chicago contractor paid $1,023 rent on a $1,400 truck; a New Jersey contractor rented a 1927 dump truck valued at $1,000 for $960.

No one man is responsible for defense housing. The setup:

Mr. Palmer, former Georgia real-estate man and Atlanta Housing Authority chairman, was appointed Defense Housing Coordinator by President Roosevelt early this year (TIME, Jan. 20). He determines housing needs in defense areas, then certifies the need to the President. F.D.R. stamps his O.K. on Palmer's findings, sends them to Carmody, in charge of actual construction. Carmody, in turn, assigns each job to one of nine semi-independent agencies.

By Sept. 12 Carmody had allocated funds for 91,873 units in projects as follows: Public Buildings Administration, 148 projects; U.S. Housing Authority, 105; FWA Division of Defense Housing, 61; FWA Mutual Ownership Division, 10; Farm Security Administration, 6; Alley Dwelling Authority,* 2; Navy, 8; War Department, 1 ; TVA, 1.

This nine-way confusion was worse confounded when all nine agencies turned up in OPM's priorities division, each demanding copper, zinc, iron and steel. Certifier Palmer and Allocator Carmody also yelled contradictory advice in OPM's ear. Month ago, Palmer once more got the Presidential nod, was given certifying power over all defense housing priorities. Carmody, who sees no need for Palmer's job, would gladly take it over. Last July he told a House committee that the Coordinator's title was spelled "d-i-c-t-a-t-o-r." Last week he said more.

There was the Fore River case. This spring, he said, Palmer notified him that 1,050 housing units were needed immediately in the Boston area for workers in Bethlehem's Quincy shipyards. With no time to build, FWA had to purchase from USHA for $4,856,203 an 873-unit slum clearance project 8.7 miles from the shipyards. Carmody told Palmer at the time it was a "preposterous" idea. Result up to Aug. 26: 400 units were occupied, only 225 by shipyard workers.

At Palmer's "very great insistence, insistence even to the point of irritation," Carmody completed a 750-unit dormitory for single men in San Diego. By Sept. 19 only 44 units housed occupants while an FWA survey same day revealed 1,000 rooms for single men available in that city.

Meanwhile another housing mess appeared last week, involving OPM Associate Director Sidney Hillman. P. J. Currier, president of Detroit's Currier Lumber Co., month ago underbid competitors by $431,000 for an FWA contract to build 300 defense homes at Wayne, Mich. But he has not got the contract, he charges, because Hillman has virtually granted the A.F. of L. building trades unions a closed shop. Currier has a contract with the C.I.O. United Construction Workers. If he gets the job, A.F. of L. unions have threatened a Michigan-wide general walkout. FWA has asked OPM, Justice and Labor Departments for advice. When Feudist Palmer takes the stand later this week, it will probably be Carmody's turn to blush. One man who will neither take the stand nor blush: F.D.R., whose failure to delegate complete responsibility to any one man is responsible for this and many another defense mess.

*A Washington, D.C. slum clearance project.

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