The Daily Express

Happy Am
Preacher
Denies
RFC Assistance

By ALICE DUNNIGAN

WASHINGTON, March 21, (ANP)--Elder Solomon Lightfoot Michaux, Washington's "Happy Am I" minister, denied that he ever received special help from George E. Allen, former Reconstruction Finance Corporation head, in securing an RFC loan.

Elder Michaux, who is pastor of the Radio Church of God, is one of many persons under fire by a senate banking subcommittee for securing RFC loans through "influence and favoritism."

The noted minister will have to answer the committee on how he secured a $3,500,000 loan from the RFC, a government agency designed to help businesses finance new projects, to build a giant housing project known as Mayfair Mansions.

It is being said that Allen, a former district commissioner, used his influence to help Elder Michaux.

Allen rendered invaluable service in aiding him set up the housing project, Elder Michaux said, but he received no pay and asked none. The minister said likewise, he himself, was serving as president of the housing corporation without pay.

Here is how Elder Michaux described his acquaintance and relations with Allen, often dubbed a "White House jester" and an honorary deacon of Michaux' church.

The "Happy Am I" minister first met Allen while he was a district commissioner. In those days Allen used to take special interest in cases of persons who could not be handled by social workers. Because of his aid, Allen was elected an honorary deacon of his church.

When housing conditions for Negroes became critical, Elder Michaux went to Allen for help. In 1942 when the Mayfair Gardens, Inc., was first organized, Allen came in as a member of the Board of directors. It was first started with a loan of $2,478,000 from the Irving Trust company of New York under a Federal Housing administration guarantee.

The trust company foreclosed its mortgage on the 594-unit apartment when prices skyrocketed above original estimates and the firm could not keep up payments.

MAYFAIR MANSIONS project was reorganized in 1944 and completed in 1946. According to reports, the Defense Housing corporation, then a subsidiary of RFC, loaned an additional $100,000 against a second mortgage on the property, and an additional $500,000 after the construction was completed.

All in all, total loans through the RFC are said to total $3,524,000 for Mayfair Mansions.

Elder Michaux said that he and friends did the organizing. He said Allen served on the board of directors for a while, then withdrew from all official capacities with the firm. He then acted only as counsel for members of the board.

Another loan, it is reported, was being sought by Elder Michaux to enlarge the project. He and Albert I. Cassell, Washington architect, are said to have organized Mayfair Extensions, Inc., which borrowed $325,000 from RFC to build a shopping center at the development.

Cassell said they had made plans to add 513 garden type units, 203 apartments and 33 hotel rooms over the big shopping centers. For this they wanted to borrow $13,000,000 but had not been able to do so.