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general disposition to think that good new housing that would rent for reasonable prices was a desirable thing to build up the city. I know that Jesse Jones, personally and through sources that he had access to, put a lot of money into a New York housing project that was socially inspired. He did it because it was going to make money. But he knew just how a city would grow. He was a very capable man.
His selection for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by Hoover was an admirable one. It gave great relief to the minds of all sorts of people, financial, business and others, who had been afraid it would be doctrinaire in its management.
I had never met Jesse Jones personally until I came to Washington and he was in charge of the RFC, but almost immediately I recognized him as a man who knew what he was talking about. In our New England conference, when I was still in New York, on the prevention of unemployment a number of plans had been produced and studied which were plans for the revival of particular depressed industries in particular factories. The problem always was that you couldn't get any money to do this. The idea was good to manufacture to a known and measured market, but you had to get capital to start it.
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