Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-07-20
Monday, July 20, 1925.
"And no man to himself can live
He cannot take unless he give"
PINcHOT WOULD START.
SOMETHING

The Governor Of Pennsylvania evil
IDENTIFY is trying to start something.
He adopts the slogan: Giant Power"
VS.. Super Power. 1t sounds well.
He would have us believe that 1t
would take from the powerful and
give to the weak. OF course that
ought to make it popular so long as
the weak do not ask themselves how,
in this old world of ours, this may
be done. If they seek examples OIL
its being done they will search long
and with little reward. If they &C
cept as fact Governor Pinchots
charge, that already the big user is
being favored at the expense OF the
little one, they may wonder why
this is 50 in view Of all the regula-
tory boards of public utilities now IN
existence; they may ask what as
surance the Governor Of Pennsyl-
vania can possibly have that he can
establish better regulation, human
agencies being what they are.
If they look up his regulatory abil-
tiles as Governor Of Pennsylvania
they will be confronted by the an
thracite monopoly in that State,
which right now has it's grip on the
threats Of the fuel users of the coun-
try, or that portion Of them equipped
for burning anthracite. The hard
coal users of the land are paying
tribute today to hard coal monopoly
Of Pennsylvania. Has that situation
agitated the mind Of Governor Pin
chot Of that State? If so we have
seen no evidence Of 1t.
If the reply be that the owners
and producers Of anthracite are but
transacting business after business
fashion, what reason is there to sup
pose that an electrical super-power
would do otherwise than conduct its
affairs on business basis. This IS
not saying that such methods would
be altogether equitable. Surely the
coal monopoly's methods do not seem
equitable. That is accused Of seek
ing to dispose of a surplus to ad-
vantage, Of forcing the consumer to
use inferior grades Of coal, and there
Is a suspicion abroad that it Is in no
hurry to come to an understanding
with the miners, who, In the hard
coal industry constitute another
monopoly. The bystander, II looking
for any evidence that anybody, from
the State of Pennsylvania to the dis
tributor of anthracite. shows any in
dication Of poverty, has made no re-
port of such evidence. If Governor
Pinchot Of Pennsylvania were not SO
busy regulating the affairs of the
whole country he might find time to
devote attention to affairs in Penn
sylvania which appear in need of
regulating. The condition there is
SO menacing that the Federal Gov
ernment Is considering the necessity
Of interfering.
Yet when there Is in his own State
q condition of affairs so bad as to
convince some Of those distrustful
Of Government ownership that such
may be necessary in that particular
instance. Governor Pinchot, who tells
US that he does not favor Govern
ment ownership of electric super
power, Is calling the publics atten-
ton away from the coal situation in
his own State and trying to fix it on
the somewhat nebulous conception Of
the American people about to be
electrocuted by the wires of electric
superpower, which under another
name and in pursuance Of the ad-
vice to be given by Governor Pin
chot-for a consideration we assume
is to become a tractable elephant
toiling for the down -trodden mass
es under the name Giant Power"
This, Notwithstanding it is fairly
conceivable that the development of
electrical possibilities will need bet
ter regulation than is now provided.
Nor is it impossible that Governor
Pinchot may be able to give valuable
advice. By all means let's have 1t,
but it is entirely conceivable under
all the conditions obtaining that 1t
will be wise for us, the people. to
scrutinize that advice very carefully.
1t also will be well for us not to be
fc al
prehension in some little degree to
bear in mind that once upon a time
the country became apprehensive
over he railroad power in this coun-
try. and not without some cause for
apprehension. There was not then
in existence regulatory facilities,
such as now exist with respect to
electrical development. and yet the
railroads could not under all such
favorable conditions dominate the
American people. Look at the rail-
roads now.
Wise regulation is always in order,
but there never is q moment when
ehere IL not very important need Of
making sure that a regulation is wise
before applying 1t. We do not think
that In this instance there Is any
warrant for implicit confidence in the
Judgment Of Governor Pinchot re-
spsctins the wisdom Of what he pro-
poses as an issue. political and 9TH
erwiss.