A SUNDAY WITH THE UTILITIES

...If I contribute to a campaign that will help keep my light bill up I want to know how much I'm contributing...

...Since I am one of those who pays tribute every month to one of "our sponsors" I decided to hear out the "brief message...

...Well, it turned out that the rider of the plug-ugly was only kidding and that he meant he was going to dissect it and let all us listeners know how our utility dollar was being spent...

...We hope he didn't mean too little different...

...This is propaganda and it is a legitimate expense which is usually called "advertising" or "coat of operation" and figured in on the rate base and passed along to the consumer...

...He sort of gave us the double cross by coming out for the St...

...I will soon be making other contributions to the fight against public power, contributing not only through the money paid for kilowatt hours of electricity but through my expenditures for light bulbs and other electric appliances...

...WE aren't doing bad with President Truman either...

...Somebody announced that Nelson Eddy was going to sing, and before I could get up and turn it off a "brief message from our sponsor" gave me pause...

...Then there's the Columbia Valley Authority...

...I'm a stickler that way...

...And don't forget Sen...

...man who tells me how lucky I am to have that privilege under "business managed utilities," but there are various other ways in which I am privileged to contribute...

...this for that and that for this, and finally this great enormous slice goes into taxes which were exclusively responsible for re-raising Old Glory over Corregidor and which bought the bombs that wrecked Hitler's chalet at Berchtesgaden...

...Like anyone else who appreciates good singing I don't want to encourage any project that will bring Mr...

...He said, "I am going to tear up my utility bill...

...There's a disturbing rumor, too, that Secretary of Interior Ickes is becoming disgustingly open-minded about the question of independent authorities and has stopped playing our game of insisting that all these projects be tied up to his department...

...It will soon go to the Senate Agriculture Committee where, chances are, it won't even be given a hearing...

...Of course I don't know what my exact contribution to his lobby is either, but I do know that it is one of the biggest and champagne-buyingest gangs we've ever had down there since the days of old Sam Insull and the National Electric Light Association...

...After all some of our*own boys are letting us down on the St...

...I waited patiently for some explanation of what part of my utility dollar pays Mrr Eddy's salary and the salaries of the other guest artists, orchestra, announcers, and all the other people who go to make up one of these big national network radio programs...

...Anyway his speech was music to our ears...

...But we're picking up steam...

...It would seem that the Wall Street people who decide how my dollar should be spent will stop at nothing...

...Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan...

...Unless the people out in the sticks kick up a hell of a ruckus, MVA is as dead as the Atlantic Charter, so far as this session of Congress is concerned...

...But I was dissuaded by the thought that the note might be interpreted as meaning I was lured to the program by Mr...

...Two committees, the Senate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation and the Senate Commerce Committee, have kicked it out with a loud and emphatic no...

...It betrays an attitude not at all like the ads I have been reading in which it is plainly stated that the utilities have no desire other than to serve me with utmost efficiency, complete candor, noble humility, and in wretched poverty...

...You can't trust these New Dealers...

...He said, "The procedure in each valley may have to be a little different...

...Eddy, in his oatmeal-filled-mouth way, protested emphatically, warning him that he oughta not do it...

...They're hot for CVA and most of their Congressmen have the ridiculous notion they should go along with the voters...

...Charles E. Wilson, president of General Electric with whom our boys used to have agreements about holding back fluorescent lighting because it didn't burn enough electricity, has recently come forth with an important statement...

...But the President did do us a good turn when he spoke at the dedication of the newest dam in the TVA system, the Kentucky Dam, a few weeks ago...

...He wants "unified action by electric power companies, machinery manufacturers, and electrical manufacturers" to put over our program...

...That doesn't look too good from the standpoint of us contributors to the utility campaign chests...

...It's getting so you can't even depend on the Republicans anymore...

...He refused to come out for the TVA system of decentralized administration for other river developments...

...Eddy to sing anywhere in public...

...SO I kept my peace, turned the radio off and gat down to brood about my utility dollar and how it was being used...

...One of these is mentioned above—the big advertising spreads in national publications...

...It means that he still isn't convinced that the TVA policy is the best...

...IHOPE nobody gets the notion that I'm being carried away by the great work we're doing and forgetting about Nelson Eddy and how much I'm paying him...

...But none was forthcoming...

...Another—and one of the most interesting right now—is the big powerful lobby we have established in Washington to see to it that no more of those communistic experiments like the Tennessee Valley Authority get underway in this country...

...Lawrence Seaway head on the way he did, but then that was to be expected...

...And are we getting results...

...Eddy's singing...

...Naturally I was vexed at this failure to give a full report on how my dollar is being spent...

...We've got Congress backed right down in the storm cellar our boys have been living in for the past decade...

...The announcer who read it began very dramatically—just as the radio script writer learned from rule 37 in the book of "How To Catch and Hold The Interest of The Boobs Who Listen to The Plug Uglies...

...this teensy-weensy one for profits...

...Especially on the Missouri Valley Authority proposal...

...With a combination like that we ought to be able to buy up radio time, newspapers, legislatures, professors, and text book companies like never before...

...The details of administration and control may have to be different...

...Our sponsor" was the power companies of America...

...Not only do I contribute to Nelson Eddy and the...

...If the Government goes ahead and develops other valleys with political control in Washington and with the various functions, such as flood control, navigation, irrigation, and power generation and distribution all divided up, the thing will go to pot and we'll have our hands on it in no time...

...THE dissection proceeded generally along these lines: This big chunk here goes for wages...

...Lawrence business, including the titular head of the Republican Party, Tom Dewey...

...My first reaction was to sit down and write a sharp note on the back of my next utility bill to the local manager of the Wall Street owned utility telling him that I was withholding payment until I had a complete report on just how much I am paying Nelson Eddy and that man of evasion who failed to give me the report that was my due...

...Now I happen to know that the costs of this program and the full page ads which the private utilities are cramming into every publication they see or hear about (Apparently The Progressive has not been called to their attention as yet) are paid for by me...

...Those people out there in the Northwest have watched Grand Coulee and Bonneville producing and selling cheap power and have allowed themselves to be influenced by a selfish desire to save money on their light bills...