PHIL LA FOLLETTE SCORES GOV. KOHLER'S REGIME FOR FAILURE OF M. O. PROGRAM
Phil La Follette Scores Gov. Kohier s Regime for Failure of M. O. Program DECLARES CLAN WOULD PROTECT MUNICIPALITIES Urges M. O. Development in Talk Today at North field NORTHFIELD,...
...Today twelve corporations, representing ten billions of dollars, control 65 per cent of the electrical energy produced in the United States...
...The ultimate decision rests with the people themselves...
...It presented a clean-cut division between the agricultural, industrial, business and commercial interests of Wisconsin on one side, and the power trust on the other...
...Different from nearly every her business, 80 per cent of the cost interest and dividends that must be lid for the use of the money tied up the physical investment of buildmachinery and equipment...
...Kohier s Regime for Failure of M. O. Program DECLARES CLAN WOULD PROTECT MUNICIPALITIES Urges M. O. Development in Talk Today at North field NORTHFIELD, Wis.—Declaring that federal injunction...
...In some parts of Ontario a resident can get 1,330 kilowats for his home at a cost of only $12.77...
...The residents of New York state, just across the river, get their current made from the same source of power, but controlled by the power trust, and they must pay from 8 to 7 cents per kilowat hour...
...The private secretary of he present governor fought so openly nd bitterly against this program in we 1929 session of the legislature that he speaker of the assembly felt it necessary to call public attention to his activities...
...It Is for them to decide who shall control Wisconsin'* future...
...To restore effective control to Wisconsin and enable its people to protect themselves from the exorbitant charges and vicious practices of this power trust, the Progressive-minded men and women of Wisconsin propose to give to the state and the municipalities and districts of Wisconsin the same powers now granted to those private corporations...
...Fire applied to water produced steam...
...State Regulation Twenty-five years ago, the first Progressive administration in Wisconsin inaugurated regulation of public utilities...
...Progressives' Program The Progressives of Wisconsin, supported by every disinterested group in the state, have been fighting for years to give Progressive Wisconsin what Conservative Ontario has had for years...
...Waupun and scores of other cities are demonstrating what can be done for the public benefit when this great source of energy is developed and controlled in the public interest instead of for the benefit of absentee holding companies...
...In every u'tance where public competition has en fairly and practically tried has produced belter service at cheap* tea...
...The record of every member of the senate and assembly will be taken to the people...
...Cut Power Costs public can obtain money at from per cent cheaper than private companies...
...would be a valuable/factor in educating the...
...vast and natural resources are conserved, developed and controlled in the public interest, Wisconsin can supply cheap and abundant sources of power which can out-rival any industrial state of the Ea3t...
...The final outcome must be decided by the people of Wisconsin...
...Follette contended that publicowned utilities should be offered the same opportunities and advantages to extend their trade territories now given privately owned utilities...
...It has done this as one of the lowest rates for the consumer in the United States...
...There is no more important or vital issue before the people of Wisconsin today than this great question...
...Ontario residents get electricity on one side of the river, made from the great Niagara Falls...
...The private secretary of the present governor fought so openly and bitterly against tills program in the 1929 session that the speaker of the assembly felt it necessary to call public attention to his activities...
...People now living will see the day when the work of the farm, factory, office and fireside will be commenced and ended by the turn of a switch...
...This Power Trust, bent on gaining absolute mastery of the energy of the present and future, has stopped at almost nothing...
...Tills the fact that 80 per cent of the of producing electricity is fixed harges...
...The important item is not the reduction in rates...
...The sworn testimony before the Federal Trade commission at Washington discloses the sinister and subversive practices of this monopoly...
...Owen Young, of General Electric Co., states that the "chief cost of water power evelopmentment is the cost of money...
...It was endowed with an abundant supply of water powers...
...Regulation did not fail Federal injunctions strangled it Its dummy still sits in the chair, but it is only a skeleton Wisconsin's power program will again give it life and authority...
...It lasted until the power trust and monopoly system secured the aid of the federal courts in depriving the states of control of their own problems...
...It has over-charged the public, watered its capitalizations, demanded returns upon swollen valuations, dumped its money into the political life of the state and nation, and even sought to contaminate the schools...
...This energy transported man and his productions across the seven seas, hauled millions of tons of freight from one corner of the country to another, and transformed every aspect of our life...
...This energy exists in almost unlimited supplies...
...That plant has produced and returned to the city treasury profits of more than $300,000...
...He cited the instance of the Kaukauna municipally-owned plant, rendering sen-ice at the lowest rate in the state, which was denied permission to extend its trade territory by the state railroad commission...
...It was defeated in the slate senate by the Stalwarts with the aid of the present administration...
...The city of Kaukauna purchased its plant in 1915 for $50,000...
...It is that cheaper power makes it possible for the housewife, the farmer, the business man and manufacturer to use power for every purpose...
...Is the power trust, with its paid lobbyists, its hiring of speakers, the attempted corruption of our school system, its buying of newspapers, and boodling of the political life of our states, to control and dominate Wisconsin, or is this God-given resource to be conserved and developed for this and future generations...
...The enactment of this program will mean more to the present wealth and future prosperity of Wisconsin than all the precious metals and oil in any state in the country...
...In Wisconsin, Kaukauna, Two Rivers, Manitowoc...
...This difference alone pay for tne entire cost of any ower plant in twenty years...
...have strangled state regulation of public utilities, Phil La Follette, Progressive candidate for governor, proposed in a speech here this morning "to give to the state and the several municipalities and districts of Wisconsin the same powers now granted to the private corporations...
...The province of Ontario, under a Conservative, government, has developed its vast power resources through public capital and public control...
...Slaps Kohier Actions Responsibility for the defeat of the League of Municipalities" power program, sponsored at the last session of the legislature by Progressives, was placed by La Follette at the doorsteps of the Kohier administration...
...La Follette's speech here, in Tart follows: Four generations ago, man began to discover means of harnessing forces to nature to do laborious work...
...It is ideally located for the cheap transportation of fuel by the waters of the lakes and the Mississippi for sites for steam manufacture of electricity...
...They get their current at from l's to 2 cents per kilowat hour...
...The Progressiveness of Wisconsin, in keeping with the traditions of democracy, again go to the people...
...representatives of labor, capital, industry and business, a total of 89 individuals appearing for the general public of Wisconsin...
...It has never invested another cent in the plant...
...It was defeated in the state senate by the stalwarts with the aid of the present administration...
...This constructive program passed the assembly by overwhelming majorities," La Follette said...
...Again this there appeared only the lobbyists of the power trust...
...We are within sight of the time when all the labor of every home can done with this energy...
...The present administration marches in its own uniform on the power issue...
...In the 1927 and 1929 sessions of the legislature, Progressives presented a definite and specific legislative program to restore to the state effective control of power, to grant to the cities, towns and villages authority already given the private corporations...
...Public Competition But of even greater importance to he state are reductions in rates that ways follow fair competition...
...Ayr, Nebr.]V-The Progressive should be in every J«rm home, for it...
...the American Society, of Equity and the American Farm Bureau federation...
...Production of power differs from early every other industry and business in one essential particular...
...In its 1930 platform, It frankly opposes this program for Wisconsin's future and aligns itself openly with the power trust...
...This co»structlve program passed the assembly by overwhelming majorities...
...The average consumption in Wisconsin per family is 29 kilowat hours per month...
...In the 1929 session, there appeared in favor of this program the League of Municipalities representing 205 cities, villages and towns of the state...
...State Water Powers "Wisconsin has no coal or oil...
...the heart of Instill Springfield vate power ful, and has one of the lowest rates in Illinois...
...Mr...
...Upon electrical energy, its development, use and control, depends the future or Wisconsin's industrial, agricultural, ana commercial life...
...If Kaukauna is given the same rights granted the private power trust companies, it can furnish power to the surrounding farmers, at the same low rate, and make enough from its plant to relieve the city of local taxes...
...This gigantic monopoly is fighting for control of our future...
...If the...
...generation that l* growing up.—-L Blumenthat...
...Today, we are moving from the age of steam into that of electricity...
...The Progressives of Wisconsin are fighting to keep it for this and future generations...
...The establishment of this policy gave the pubic immediate and effective relief...
...This saving alone could produce a net reduction to the electric consumers of Wisconsin if $5,000,000 per year...
Vol. 1 • August 1930 • No. 36
