COMMITTEE FINDS POLITICS IN REA
McMillin, Miles
Public Power News Committee Finds Politics In REA By MILES McMILLIN WHETHER or not the hunger strike recently launched by Chester Lake, former employe of the Rural Electrification Administration,...
...Disorganization and dissension resulted and Slattery was left in a position of being an administrator in name only...
...One of the most disrupting influences, the committee found, was the formation of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a voluntary association of REA co-ops...
...Referring to the campaign to remove Slattery, the committee declared that pressure was brought to bear on the White House "to get rid of the administrator without resorting to removal for cause and upon hearing...
...Numerous citations of the Tennessee Valley Authority as the model independent Federal agency are found in the report...
...Public Power News Committee Finds Politics In REA By MILES McMILLIN WHETHER or not the hunger strike recently launched by Chester Lake, former employe of the Rural Electrification Administration, as a protest against "political domination" of that agency's affairs can produce any immediate results is most unlikely...
...When the change came, the report continues, REA Administrator Harry Slattery was deprived of all authority over personnel...
...Hearings have been going on for the past six months...
...Slattery's opposition to the Association plan to sell insurance and supplies—with profits going to the promoters—was found to be the basis of the Association's campaign to have him ousted...
...These efforts, the Senate report declared, are looked upon by the investigating committee with "unqualified disapproval...
...TVA," the committee asserts, "was created as an independent agency and seems to have preserved the record of administration that has won the universal praise of the American people...
...Contrasting the record of REA before it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture five years ago, the report declares that where harmony and excellent morale existed before there is now "disintegration and demoralization...
...George Aiken, Vermont Republican, and Sen...
...Henrik Shipstead, Minnesota Republican...
...There was more than a legitimate and ethical connection between some of the engineers and other personnel employed by the REA," in the selection of equipment, the report concluded...
...It caustically calls attention to the fact that Slattery's incompetence was "suddenly discovered" after he had opposed the Association insurance scheme...
...The first report of the committee, recently released, leaves no doubt that its members were convinced by the evidence that the Department of Agriculture has had a disrupting political influence on the agency...
...Guy Gillette, Iowa Democrat...
...The report specifically recommends that the REA be taken out of the Department and be reestablished as an independent body...
...There has been no report of the reaction of Department of Agriculture officials or the officials of the National Association to the Senate Committee's findings...
...The report leaves no doubt that the committee is unconvinced that Slattery was handling REA affairs incompetently as some witnesses charged...
...However, E. J. Stoneman, president of the Association, is said to be rounding up Congressional support in opposition to the proposal to make REA an independent agency...
...The committee is composed of Sen...
...A bill will be introduced into Congress by one of the committee members for that purpose...
...But that he has clear enough grounds for his complaint there can be no doubt if the findings of the special committee named by the Senate to investigate REA are accur ate and unbiased...
...These efforts failed, the report states, but "there is direct evidence that he was offered subsequently another position to go to Europe to study rural electrification at his present salary if he would resign...
...The committee expresses an interesting opinion concerning the charges that Robert Craig, former deputy administrator who is said to be the originator of the Association idea, used his influence to obtain orders for certain private manufacturers of electrical equipment...
...Ellison Smith, South Carolina Democrat...
...It was largely because of the Association's efforts to obtain Slattery's removal that the investigation was launched...
...The conclusions of the committee were made after hearing a tremendous amount of testimony on tangled REA affairs...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 29
