THE POWER LOBBY PUTS ONE OVER

McMillin, Miles

Public Power News The Power Lobby Puts One Over By MILES McMILLIN THE POWER trust's return to positions of power and influence in Washington has not been more compellingly demonstrated in late...

...The editorial assumed that Crump, now an enthusiastic supporter of public ownership, was once a power trust politician...
...Unless the Senate is able to show greater resistance to power lobby pressure than the House, a long step toward bringing the people back under the heel of the power trust will have been taken...
...2. Power now being developed and distributed by public plants shall be sold at rates at least as high as those charged by private companies...
...When TVA came along, and was ready to supply Memphis with power, an election to decide the issue was called...
...He was then approached and informed of the reports being circulated and advised to "ease up" on utility legislation...
...I was in Memphis then...
...Apology To Crump A few weeks ago an editorial published in The Progressive (which I wrote) did a disservice to Boss Ed Crump of Memphis, Tenn...
...Fortunately, the Federal Government got onto the trail of these men and several of them have been and now are in the penitentiary...
...Jerry Voorhis, California Democrat, called attention to the impregnable monopoly the private utilities would receive under the first provision and the license to dictate rates under the second provision...
...If anything in the world is a gift of God," Voorhis declared, "it is the power resulting from falling water...
...They are: 1. Hereafter, when money is spent on an irrigation project and the development of power is incident thereto, the power shall not be sold in a market where any private utility is already doing business...
...Public Power News The Power Lobby Puts One Over By MILES McMILLIN THE POWER trust's return to positions of power and influence in Washington has not been more compellingly demonstrated in late months than by its recent victory in the House of Representatives—a vie-' tory which strikes a serious blow at the nation's power policy and endangers the development of a realistic, progressive pro- gram of public power...
...A doctrine that it cannot be sold in a market pre-exempted by a private utility is not going to pass unchallenged as far as I am concerned...
...Attempts to pass this legislation, he said, were defeated by the use of wholesale bribery in the legislators, "I was here (Jefferson City) four years as governor," Park declared, "and during those four years, as well as through many other years, the legislature has been dominated by the utilities, controlled by bribery...
...Crump used every ounce of his power as a boss to put it over by a 17 to 1 vote...
...Guy B. Park of that state...
...Hugh Russell Fraser, well-known authority on Tennessee history and a man whose knowledge of such things I don't care to challenge, has written the following correction note, which I am glad to submit as my retraction: "The fact is, Ed Crump has always been anti-power trust...
...Lashing out at the proposals, Rep...
...For 25 years they have conducted their fight with the use of money, with the use of influence, and with the use of money to buy newspaper advertising in every town which proposed to put in its own electric plant...
...You can aamn Edward Hull Crump all you please, but give him credit for the one great thing a new and modern South will remember him for long after he is dead and gone—his relentless, consistent, and implacable opposition to the power trust...
...Never once in his long political career has he played ball with the power trust...
...Unable to break down his opposition to them, Park charged, the utilities trumped up a morals charge against him and circulated it widely...
...I say to you that the reputation of these companies is not such as to justify any sympathy on your part...
...The heavily-financed power lobby induced the House Appropriations Committee to write into the Interior Department's appropriation bill two of the most brazen special privilege pieces of legislation ever given consideration in the national capital...
...The amendment supported by Park was acted upon favorably and will now become the law of Missouri...
...Twenty-five years ago the power trust—operating behind the scenes—ousted him from office as Mayor of Memphis...
...Park told his informant to tell the person who "sent you here to go to hell...
...And bitterly so...
...The utilities, which have enjoyed the privilege of obtaining a franchise to operate in Missouri cities by a simple majority vote, have successfully blocked the measure for 15 years...
...Victory After 15 Years Some sensational disclosures on how the power trust uses its ancient weapons of bribery and blackmail to wreck public ownership recently were laid before the constitutional convention of the state of Missouri by former Gov...
...Appearing in behalf of a constitutional amendment to permit smaller municipalities to issue bonds to acquire utilities by a majority vote, Park told of the shocking tactics used during his administration by power trust executives to prevent passage of legislation similar to the amendment...

Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 21


 
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