THE POWER TRUST'S HUNGRY GRAB
McMillin, Miles
Public Power News The Power Trusts Hungry Grab By MILES McMILLIN PUBLIC POWER forces had better get on their toes and start squawking their heads off about the proposed flood control legislation...
...Public Power News The Power Trusts Hungry Grab By MILES McMILLIN PUBLIC POWER forces had better get on their toes and start squawking their heads off about the proposed flood control legislation recently reported out by the Senate Commerce Committee...
...Some Data From EEI Moreover, REA has been a considerable factor in the 47 per cent overall increase in the number of electric customers in the United States in the past decade and has contributed inestimably to the Food For Victory program...
...The co-ops may find themselves at the mercy of the private utilities in those areas where it is proposed that the new projects be developed...
...La Follette declared, "Obviously, the object of this amendment is to cripple, and, if possible, to destroy the public power movement in America...
...The proposal, which will be submitted to REA officials for consideration and transmission to Congress, is based on a nationwide survey conducted by the co-ops themselves and the 1940 census showing that nearly three times the number of rural dwellings need electric service as have been electrified by the REA program...
...The power trust water boys will raise an awful stink about the new proposal, of course...
...In writing in the prohibition against transmission lines, the power trust has attacked the power program at its most vital spot...
...According to its provisions, the Government will be prohibited from building transmission lines to distribute the power produced by the new dams...
...The most recent reports show that while only 60 millions of the money loaned for REA developments have come due, more than 77 millions have already been paid back...
...The grant would build enough lines to electrify 80 per cent of the farm homes in the United States and would provide 380,000 man years of work...
...Robert M. La Follette, Jr., seems to be the only public official in Washington interested in fighting this hungry grab on the part of the power trust...
...Commenting on the amendment which prohibits the construction or acquisition of Government transmission lines, Sen...
...Without transmission lines, of course, it will be impossible to distribute power to cooperatives and other consumers...
...Bob La Follette's Warning Sen...
...The object of the restriction is to make the power trust the sole beneficiary of the billions that will be spent on flood control and irrigation and reclamation projects...
...The second greatest is in the South Atlantic states, also in the TVA area...
...REA Has Bold Plans Speaking of REA, that organization is looking forward to some very ambitious and commendable postwar plans...
...The power will be turned over to private utilities at their own price for distribution to consumers...
...Their arguments will again be sheer rhetoric, for REA's record will stand by itself...
...Incidentally the percentage increase of electric customers in this country in the years from 1933-1943, as shown in the reports of the Edison Electric Institute, the private utility united front, tells a very interesting story...
...It is obvious from Bob La Follette's warning that the public power movement has a very vital stake in this legislation, which is now on the Senate calendar...
...The legislation, which authorizes almost a billion dollars worth of flood control projects, is full of power trust jokers and strikes a shattering blow at the nation's power program...
...The executive committee of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a voluntary organization of REA co-ops, is planning to ask Congress for a 700 million dollar grant for the Federal agency to be used in a vast construction program...
...The greatest increase is shown in the South Central states, the area most affected by TVA...
...The least increase is in the New England' states, where the private utilities have such a powerful hold the area has come to be known as the "power trust citadel...
...REA especially should be concerned...
...Thus the people who will be paying the costs will realize none of the benefits of the cheap power that could be distributed by the Government...
...The Middle Atlantic states, another power trust stronghold, have only a slightly better record...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 38
