PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND THE GOP
McMillin, Miles
Public Power News Public Ownership And The GOP By MILES McMILLIN AT its recent 10th anniversary convention the Progressive Party of Wisconsin adopted a statement of principles in which is...
...Nau that the public ownership issue does cross party lines...
...When the United States Supreme Court recently handed down its far-reaching decision in the Hope Gas Company case, in which the "prudent investment" yardstick of determining utility valuation was established, the Commission arrogantly announced that it would have little or no effect in the regulation of utilities in Wisconsin...
...Nau believes that the attaching of any political label to the movement is "to burden it unduly...
...Progressives quite often find it difficult to understand why the public power movement isn't equally so realistic...
...The Republican party in Wisconsin has a record of uncompromising opposition to any and all measures enabling the development of the rural electrification program in this state...
...In Wisconsin, Progressives have learned from long years of experience that it is useless to attempt any distinction between power trust and GOP leadership...
...Nau would take issue with the statement that precious little penetration in depth has been achieved...
...Public Power News Public Ownership And The GOP By MILES McMILLIN AT its recent 10th anniversary convention the Progressive Party of Wisconsin adopted a statement of principles in which is included a forthright plank on public ownership and regulation of utilities...
...I will agree with Mr...
...We believe in the encouragement and fostering of public ownership at the municipal level as the best means of providing utility services at low rates and providing municipalities with the additional revenues they will need in the difficult postwar years...
...Pointing out that many Republicans throughout the nation are friendly to public ownership, Mr...
...REA Is Popular Now The city of Madison, not long ago, held a referendum on utility acquisition...
...The Wisconsin Public Service Commission, for example, is dominated by GOP appointees...
...The GOP line has been crossed, it is true, but I don't think that Mr...
...We favor the expansion of the REA program as soon as materials are available and will oppose any further efforts to curtail its vital functions...
...Of course, many of these politicians, observing the wide popularity of REA, are now stumbling all over themselves in an effort to ingratiate themselves with the thousands of farmers who have come to know what REA means in terms of relief from back breaking drudgery...
...George Aiken of Vermont...
...Supporters for the proposal were drawn from all walks of life and political persuasions except local Republicans...
...I know of several Republicans throughout the length and breadth of the nation who have stood for public ownership, among them the late Sen...
...Utility executives in this state, almost without exception, are known to be actively engaged in GOP politics or sympathetically inclined that way...
...Carlton Nau Raises A Point A point, critically but fairly presented, has been raised in connection with the plank's reference to the power trust's "Republican political front" by Carlton Nau, editor of Public Power, a publication devoted to telling the story of public ownership and what it is doing...
...It pledges the Party to the following program: "We favor strict regulation of those public utilities which operate under private ownership and deplore the subserviency of 'the Republican-dominated Public Service Commission to the power trust...
...The leadership of the opposition was made up almost entirely of prominent GOP leaders...
...We oppose the power trust drive to wreck the Tennessee Valley Authority and other great Federal hydro-electric projects...
...Republican politicians will invariably be found on the side of the utilities whenever an issue between the utilities and the public arises...
...We pledge an uncompromising fight against the power trust and its Republican political front in their efforts to smash the public power movement and the rural electrical program in this state...
...Charles McNary of Oregon and Sen...
...To the utilities, public ownership is indeed a political question...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 23
