"INACTIONARIES" AND REACTIONARIES
McMillin, Miles
Public Power News "Inactionaries" And Reactionaries By MILES McMILLIN SEVERAL years ago, at a national convention of the United States Chamber of Commerce, a resolution was introduced condemning...
...As the pinch gets tighter, the prejudices of even the most conservative governments begin to loosen...
...Crump, whose conservatism will be vouched for by anyone acquainted with his political career, has watched public ownership in Memphis knock one third of the city's expenses off,the backs of the taxpayers...
...There are signs, however, that progressives are waking up...
...First, of course, is that the old prejudices are crumbling before the urgent need of additional sources of revenue...
...This is a dangerous attitude...
...They have openly and brazenly launched a drive to return Bonneville, Grand Coalee, and TVA to private ownership...
...But this particular year, something happened that rudely interrupted the flow of the view-with-alarm resolutions...
...Today the power trust is harder at work than ever...
...McAlister Coleman, who recently returned from a tour of this region, is urging similar meetings in other sections of the country...
...After a stormy debate, the Knoxville heretics were crushed under an overwhelming vote...
...Taxation in all the levels of government has come dangerously close to the saturation point while new and greater demands are being made on government...
...Why is it that the conservative-nainded people, who once looked with horror on the "socialistic" doctrine of public ownership, seem to be taking over the public power movement?' There is no simple answer to this question, but a good guess would be that there are two principal factors involved...
...After years of watching its neighboring province of Ontario enjoy low utility rates and still reap, substantial revenues from public operation, the Quebec Legislature voted overwhelmingly to expropriate the Montreal Light, Heat, and Power system, one of the largest utility monopolies in Canada...
...I want to add my "hear, hear" to his suggestion...
...Public Power News "Inactionaries" And Reactionaries By MILES McMILLIN SEVERAL years ago, at a national convention of the United States Chamber of Commerce, a resolution was introduced condemning the public ownership of utilities...
...The danger today comes not so much from the reactionaries as from the inactionaries...
...The delegation from Knoxville, Tenn., whose credentials, to be sure, had been duly certified and whose members had never manifested the slightest inclination toward "socialism," rose to protest...
...The upshot of it all was that they walked out of the convention to begin a trend which today has become more noticeable than ever in the public ownership movement...
...Conservative business men, once they have seen what public ownership means in practical dollars and cents savings, are among its most enthusiastic advocates...
...Another development in this trend was the recent action of the ultra-conservative Quebec Legislature...
...This was rather forcibly illustrated by recent developments in Memphis, Tenn., where Boss Ed Crump holds sway...
...Entranced with schemes for reforming the world, they seem to have become bored with the issue...
...The second factor is the general apathy existing among many progressives and liberals toward the question of public ownership...
...It was a routine affair, introduced each year and passed without so much as a grunt of protest from any delegate, although many of them came from cities where utilities were publicly owned...
...In the Pacific Northwest a meeting has been called to organize the fight against the power trust drive...
...Their general attitude is that public ownership is taken for granted, that work to advance the movement is unnecessary...
...It is the old question of inaction inviting reaction...
...See editorial, Page 12...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 18
