Fearing socialism, even conservative magazines backed federal housing programs

Evidence

The editors even risked the wrath of the building and real estate lobbies by endorsing a limited program of public construction. If the government acted prudently to strengthen the housing market, they argued, the result would be the best defense against socialism, not a defeat for free enterprise. That conclusion followed “from candid reflection on what an incompetent housing industry can do for the reputation of U.S. business,” the editors declared. “A house is the most urgent, most valued, and most studied demand of an American family; failure by capitalism to satisfy this essential want will do more to undermine free institutions than ten thousand Union Square orators.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 119