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men, that if they would get the money and spend the money to renovate this declining area, they would make money. They pointed out how much money they lost on it even then. Old buildings were running down. The cost of maintenance was even then rising, although it wasn't anything like it is now. I pointed out that if they would put them in reasonable, sanitary and safe order, they could rent them to a higher class of tenants for better purposes and that they could get better rents. That has been the case. The terrific rebuilding of the old part of New York City - the old loft building area - as time has shown, has continued to make money. Otherwise those buildings would have gone down. They have made more money than they made before.

Norris was the most difficult to handle. He was young, handsome, politically well connected, a registered Democrat. He went to Tammany Hall people here and there and they started to call us off. He went to them to get them to call us off. He went to Mr. Charles F. Murphy and Surrogate James A. Foley, who were, after all, only the central office people. He also went to the district leaders. They began calling up Smith, saying, “This'll hurt us. Fred better be careful.”

I'll never forget Smith calling me up one Sunday and saying, “What've you done to me?”