Norris Dam as a construction job will be a little below the average cost, yet its wages have run from 5 to 20 per cent above average. The WPA may be cutting prevailing wages, but the TVA is bettering them. The accident rate is phenomenally low. Labor throughout the region has been won to the TVA and will fight for its continuance. The Valley has been convinced, with the exceptions noted above.
Planning is by democratic consent rather than by dictatorial blueprint.
To balance resources against population, figure a possible living standard, and appoint every man to his post, is not an excessively difficult job on the drawing-board. I have done it myself on occasion. But to get men, particularly Americans, and particularly the native stock of the Tennessee mountains, to go to their posts is something else again. The connection is remote. Blueprints are necessary.