ELECTRIC POWER FOR THE FARM
Thompson, Carl. D.
Electric Power for the Farm Under Co-operative Ownership at Granite Falls, Minn., Cost for Complete Service is Under $50 a Year BY CARL D. THOMPSON (Secretary, Public Ownership League of...
...And, we are told, there are over 1,500,000 additional horsepower of hydro-electric energy that can be developed on or adjacent to these projects...
...A fourth method for getting power on the farm at cost is the Ontario system...
...Farm Organization Plan AND HERE it may be suggested that in case the farmers find that a municipal servic$ is not available for any reason, the farm organizations can easily build their own power plant...
...Elsewhere it costs farmers from...
...power or superpower organization to.co-operate with cities, states and districts throughout the country for the development of a great, nationwide power system, to be operated on the principles of service at cost as here set forth...
...Uncle Sam also owns and operates Muscles Shoals, another great power project—one of the greatest—650,000 horsepower of capacity...
...The farmer should investigate this possibility...
...secondly, upon low rates of interest on the capital...
...A third method for getting power at cost is by the organization of rural power districts...
...This enables the farmer to get started at a relatively small cost...
...Moreover, as "an aid to agriculture" the Hydro Electric Power Commission, as this provincial organization is called, advances one-half the cost of installing the service...
...The Ontario system is being promoted by progressive forces in California, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota and other states...
...2) Co-operative Public Ownership...
...Every farmer wants it—is eager to get it...
...The Ontario System...
...Must Keep Down the Cost WHAT IS needed is electric power for the farm at cost, and the cost kept down to the minimum...
...This includes lighting of farm buildings, pumping, washing, ironing, churning, milking, vacuum cleaning and cooking, providing, however, that with this service the cooking range cannot be used at the same time that the motors are used...
...and it is almost certain to involve a hard battle with the private power interests in the courts...
...He has more burdens to bear And is as bad off as ever...
...Every farmer knows what a won-I derful thing electricity is and how immensely it would help on the farm...
...And it is the purpose of this article to point it out...
...The Diesel engine has now been so far perfected, that it can be installed in any small plant and produce current at rates as low and, in many cases, even lower than that of the big private power companies...
...This is the method used by the farmers at Granite Falls, Minnesota...
...Such a course strictly adhered to will reduce the cost of electric current to one-half, one-third and even one-fifth of what it is costing today...
...At Boulder Canyon, on the Colorado River in the southwest, is another great power project—greater even than Muscle Shoals, which the government engineers, the cities and states of the southwest and three presidential administrations have approved for government development...
...This is the method used by the Nebraska farmers near Wahoo...
...One or the other of these methods can be adopted by the farmers anywhere...
...Measures Before Congress MEASURES are now pending in Congress for the development of all these great federal government projects...
...Electric Power for the Farm Under Co-operative Ownership at Granite Falls, Minn., Cost for Complete Service is Under $50 a Year BY CARL D. THOMPSON (Secretary, Public Ownership League of America) ELECTRIC power at cost will revolutionize conditions on the farm and restore American agriculture to its proper place in social progress and prosperity...
...Or, if they do, the cost absorbs all the advantages and so adds to the farmer's burden rather than relieves it If a farmer must pay $600 to $1,000 cash in advance to get his farm equipped for service and doesn't own the equipment at that...
...And this is what we mean by "service at cost...
...Scores of municipal plants are already serving rural lines in this way and scores of other cities, notably those of western Washington, are fighting earnestly in their state legislatures to get the right to do so...
...There are five ways that this can be done, and is actually being done in the United States and Canada...
...But the trouble is that electric service as it is now organized and conducted, costs so much, as a rule, that most farmers cannot afford it...
...Where for any reason it is impossible to get a municipal plant to extend its service into the country, the farmers can organize a power company of their own, build transmission lines up to the city limits of a city owning a plant, buy the current at wholesale rates and distribute it over their own lines...
...This is sufficient to operate silo filling, saws, small threshing machines, ensilage cutters, etc...
...Muscle Shoals, Boulder Canyon, Reclamation Projects...
...This requires a special act of the legislature permitting the formation of ps**rer districts similar to road districts, drainage and irrigation districts, with which we are already familiar...
...The Public Ownership League, without any charge, will be glad to put any farmer or farm organization in touch with the proper technical and engineering authorities to enable them to successfully install such a service if it seems advisable...
...Here, then are the five different methods bjr which power at cost may be secured by and for the farmer...
...Uncle Sam owns and operates 19 hydro-electric power plants in connection with the reclamation projects in western states...
...For 22 cents a day, or $82.42 a year, an Ontario farmer can get current for "light farm service," as it is called...
...If, however, the farmer can secure electric power with little or no initial cost, such cost being paid off gradually out of earnings, and if rates for the current are kept down to 3 or 4 cents a kilowatt hour, then indeed would the farmer be able to use this modern wonderworker, and it would be a life-saver to him and to the agriculture of the country...
...This averages about $16 a year, and, in the 20 years allowed for the payments, will amount to $320, which, of course, is a very low original cost...
...This is for the current alone...
...Full Service Under $50 THE Granite Falls farmers have power service sufficient for lighting, pumping water, churning, separating, sawing wood, washing, cooking, milking, grinding feed, cutting ensilage, etc., at a cost of from 7 to 14 cents a day, or from $25 to $50 a year...
...The Nebraska law under which the Wahoo District is operating, has been taken into court repeatedly and last April was declared unconstitutional on a technicality by the supreme court of that state...
...The farmer living near a municipally owned power plant or system can often secure service at cost from that source...
...They buy current from the municipal plant at Granite Falls at 3 cents a kilowatt and have found the average total cost to them for power for the last nine years is only 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour...
...Five Ways to Get Power THE FIVE WAYS to get power at cost are as follows: (1) Municipal Service...
...This "District Method" requires state legislation which is hard to get...
...The Wahoo District method meets that difficulty...
...Electric power at cost will revolutionize conditions on the farm and restore American agriculture to its proper place in social progress and prosperity...
...They have what is known as "The Stony Run Light and Power Company...
...15 to 25 cents...
...A fifth method for getting power to the farmer at cost is through the United States Government power projects...
...For details regarding any one of these methods, for copies of bills and data as to the achievements and the tremendous possibilities in this field, our readers are referred to the Public Ownership League of America, 127 North t>earborn St., Chicago...
...These plants furnish power to cities, towns, villages and rural communities at cost—as low as 2 and 3 cents a kilowatt hour...
...There is also a measure pending providing for a great federal * Guy E. Tripp, Chairman, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., in his "Superpower as an Aid to Progress," and Gray Silver, *of the American Farm Bureau, are authorities for this astounding statement...
...and if on top of that he must pay from 15 to 26 cents a kilowatt hour for the current, it makes the cost of the service so high that it absorbs all the advantages...
...There the farmers get sufficient current for "heavy farm service" for a little Jess than 20c a day, or $72 a year...
...3) Rural Power Districts...
...The rates charged are very low...
...The property of the district may then be bonded to raise the necessary funds to build the power system and the bonded indebtedness paid off gradually in taxes or out of earnings...
...and most important of all, the gradual amortization or paying off of the capital account out of earnings or otherwise...
...Just such a way has been found...
...C5ce "pub]jc Ownership," by Carl D. Thompson, 450 pp., $3.20 postpaid, may be ordered from Public Ownership League, Chicago...
...Power is bought from a near-by municipal plant at the low rates allowed by such plants...
...Cash payment has the advantage of eliminating capital charges from the beginning, but not all the farmers have the ready cash to spare...
...For ˆ8 cents a day or $204 a year, the Ontario farmer can get "heavy farm service," which, includes all of the above and additional power up to 10 horsepower demand...
...To do these things it is necessary to get one very vital and important fact thoroughly understood, viz., that four-fifths of the cost of producing electric current by water power, and nearly as large a proportion by steam is due to capital charges.* Low cost electricity therefore depends first of all upon a low capital account with no watered stock, or overcapitalization...
...However, the Nebraska farmers will revise the law until an act is found that will stand up in the courts...
...A lighter service costs only 5 to 7 cents a day, or $17 to $25 a year...
...Power at Low Cost rrlHE GREAT advantage of this method is that it enables the farmer to get his power service with a very little initial cost and spread out the payments over a series of years...
...The League is promoting the "publk-power-at-cost" movement and is anxious to co-operate with any and every agency, individual and organization working to that end...
...The Granite Falls method calls for a cash invest-* ment in advance of from $250 to $600...
...There are great possibilities of service at cost in that field...
...There are 2,58] municipally owned light and power plants in the United States, so it is likely that any farmer or farm group will find a municipal plant somewhere within reach...
...But if retained and operated on the principle of Service at cost, there will be another enormous source of power for the farms on the southeast...
...The original cost is provided for out of taxes...
...The cost of the current is covered by the rates charged for the service...
...And farmers and farm organizations in other states, municipalities and organizations such as the Public Ownership League, will co-operate in whipping a law into shape that will put the district plan upon a practical legal and working basis...
...Persistent efforts are~being made to get the government to turn this project over to private companies...
...4) State Ownership...
...In that Canadian province, there are 386 cities and 151 rural communities working together in a great co-operative, public ownership scheme for the manufacture and distribution of electric power at cost It is the greatest power system in the world and the rates are the lowest in the world...
...5) Federal Power Systems...
Vol. 18 • August 1926 • No. 8
