99 Takings

When Home Owners Loan Corp. was organized in June 1933 with $3,000,000,000 to lend, many a citizen asked himself: Would the U. S. Government ever foreclose an HOLC mortgage and take over a U. S. home? By last week the Government had quietly foreclosed 99 mortgages, had quietly marched in and taken possession of 99 homes. Only ten foreclosures were caused by the owners' willful failure to pay. The rest resulted from abandonment or death. Highest number of foreclosures (32) was in the Cincinnati district (Ohio and West Virginia), lowest (1) in the New York district (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut).

To date HOLC has taken mortgages on some 800,000 homes. Last week HOLChairman John H. Fahey reported that 30% were a few weeks behind in payment, 16% were 90 days behind. Fortnight ago he declared that out of 400,000 loans studied, only eleven were likely to show a loss to the Government. Cried Ohio's Representative Sweeney: "If the Government loses on only eleven out of 400,000 loans, then Mr. Fahey is a wizard."

Already a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy, Officer of the Order of the Golden Sheaf of China, Chairman Fahey holds down the uneasy title of world's biggest mortgagee with notable efficiency. HOLC has dismissed 236 lawyers for incompetence. Chairman Fahey's ideal of a business interview is reported to be 4 1/2 min. for business, 30 sec. for greetings and farewells. People lucky enough to get inside his crowded office in the Post Office Building find a distinguished old gentleman with a snowy Vandyke beard, twinkling eyes, rippling humor. New Hampshire-born and educated, he has, in his 62 years, published the Boston Traveler, superintended the Associated Press's New England division, conducted a Boston investment house, operated a shipyard in Florida, helped found the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

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