THE POWER TRUST WANTS A SHOWDOWN
McMillin, Miles
The Power Trust Wants A Showdown By MILES McMILLIN THE Progressive has frequently warned during the course of the past several months that the fat cats of the power trust have crawled back to...
...In that region, where rates are the highest in the country and where the giant New England Power Company dominates both old political parties, an organization called "Freemen, Inc.," has been formed to fight the utility...
...The idea is to get local Chambers to endorse this recommendation and then go to Congress and insist it represents the views of the business men of the nation...
...Opposition to public power development along with the river projects is especially strong in the power trust citadel of New England, according to Labor...
...This stooge outfit is storming Washington with demands that either all references to power be stricken from the $57,000,000 flood control program proposed for the Connecticut River basin or the project be abandoned entirely...
...city of Rockford, pointed out in a letter to the Chicago Sun that the bill fails to provide for the consideration customarily given to municipalities and called for "effective action against the passage of such inimical legislation...
...The present policy also calls for funds for-the construction of transmission lines to carry the power where it is needed...
...Startling developments, recently coming to light, indicate that the whole power policy of the Federal Government is in serious danger...
...cause...
...Labor, the militant publication of the Railroad Brotherhoods, recently called attention to the powerful offensive the power trust has launched in Washington to put through its program to wreck the present policy and return the private utilities to their old positions of power and privilege...
...Directing the frontal attack is the United States Chamber of Commerce, which is trying to line up its membership throughout the country back of the program...
...The Power Trust Wants A Showdown By MILES McMILLIN THE Progressive has frequently warned during the course of the past several months that the fat cats of the power trust have crawled back to thoir old perches in the national capitol and are yowling louder than ever...
...Mayor Bloom, a life-long Progressive who has given distinguished service to the...
...It is understojjd^i^ Senators Robert M. La FoJ^tte^i^'^Sconsin Progressive, and Lister Hill, SJaSarna Democrat, will take the lead on the people's side...
...A concerted drive is underway to change the present policy of developing and distributing cheap power where it is developed as part of a flood control or irrigation project...
...In calling attention to the defects in the House-passed bill, the American Power Association declared: "These restrictions should be opposed by every means at our command because they set a policy which from the experience of other Federal power projects would permit utilities to control the power generated at the dam and prevent widespread beneficial use at the lowest possible rates...
...The battle is certain to break ffut-akgfnvTn Congress...
...Let Your Senator Know "The Chamber has submitted a 'referendum' . . . which brazenly demands that Government stop developing power, or, if it is developed as part of flood control, irrigation, and reclamation, that it be turned over to private interests permitting them to reap immense profits...
...The dangerous threat embodied in this bill was recently cited by Mayor C. H. Bloom of Rockford, 111...
...First Round To Utilities That the utility lobby has alreajjg--geQren' an alarming victory canbe_asa»-SyThe fact that the new rivers and haSfjjgg'oiu has passed the House without providing for any of these...
...If you are opposed to the situation which prevailed in the Tennessee Valley prior to the days of the TV A, when private plants bought power from the Government and sold it at scandalous rates within sight of the generators, write your Senator now urging him to vote against any policy that departs from that now in use at TVA and other Federal developments...
...The cornerstone of the present Government policy is the granting of a preferential status to cooperatives, municipalities, and other public agencies in the sale and distribution of the power generated by the river_ developments...
...The question has again arisen in Washington whether this power, paid for by the people, shall be distributed by public agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority or whether it will be turned over to private companies for another orgy of profit taking...
...A veritable army of lobbyists, out to destroy the nation's water power policy, has descended on Washington," Labor declared...
...The bill, known as HR 3961, authorizes several new flood control and irrigation developments, but it fails utterly even to authorize the sale of the power that will be generated by the dams necessary to the projects...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 27
