The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-04-16
By labor RESEARCH ASSN,

BY LABOR RESEARCH ASSN.
=. Some SO volumes Of evidence and exhibits,
containing 1928 pages are boiled down to reads
able proportions in The Public Pays. Here we
find the gist Of the evidence gathered over three
years by the Federal Trade Commissions inveS-
tigation Of power companies. 1t is certainly all
that a worker needs for illustrating the workS
ings of capitalism in the field OF power
The book consists chiefly of quotations selects
ed by one who even the power companies prob
ably admit is an unbiased student" And u
shows with evidence that is concrete overS
whelnling, and some OF 1t at one time, "confids
entail" that the power capitalists have been do
ing all that capitalists normally do They have
been buying for cash-or its equivalent-college
and university professors of every grade, text
books and textbook writer's and publishers, news
papers and magazines, preachers, university
presidents and DEANS Scientists" lecturers, woo
mems club leaders, radio announcers, state
legislators, judges, Congressman Senators, and
every variety of capitalist politician, fraternal
organizations, company unions, kindergartens
and nursery schools, mayors and governors. Thus
the Morgans, Sloans, Mitchels, insults, Dohers |
tvs, COUGHS, Swopes and Youngs have made /
public opinion
In other words the capitalists have been OPP
Grating their state just as Marx said they did.
Here is simply gold mine of factual evidence
to prove the point.
One Of the originators and sponsors Of the
idea of educating" the public by all the meth
DDS exposed in this book was Samuel insult, the
power lord Of the west. 1t is we'll to remember,
especially in an election year, that Mr.. insult
in 1926 contributed $125,0o0 to the Illinois sens
atorial candidacy of Republican Frank L. Smith.
While Senate candidate, Smith was also chair.
man of the Illinois Commerce Commission.
which was the public body that regulated" the
insult utilities. And to play safe lest Smith
should lose, insult also contributed $4,000 out
of the $4,000 received by the rival candidate,
the Democrat George E. Brennan
CongressrI en- as we'll as Senators were con-
trolled by the power and electric interests In
some places they did not even trouble to sub
sidize outside candidates They simply BOUGHT
elections for people on their own payroll For
example. Rev. Charles A. Eaton, particularly
vicious Red batter, elected TO Congress from ,
the fourth New Jersey District He happened
to be the manager Of the Industrial Relations
Department of a General Electric plant
In the last chapter, Gruening summarizes
some Of the evidence on holding companies pad
ded assets, phoney stock operations, and the
rigging of the public regulating" commissions
by the power companies. He totals some of the
"write-up" or water initiation for a few OF these
companies. For six companies, connected with
Cn6. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. EleCGrlC hOno and snare
Co., the total '.wrte-up" was $34i 1871 GOO; and
Gruening declares that ''the total utility infla-
ton may be conservatively estimated at two
billion dollars. At per cent this type Of ir-
f'ation would levy an annual charge of $780,
100000 upon the nations LIGHT and power con-
stllners," that is, upon the working class, And
workers in New York City. who are charged a
minimum rate of 81 a month for having an
electric meter in their tenement rooms, are pay
inc part of this outright capitalist robbery.
caruenins asserts his desire for adequate. ef-
fective regula ton =. otherwise the graver alter
nstive of public ownership is inevitable" He
rather hopes that industry will reform itself"
and not play the hog any longer that It will
be satisfied with "a fair return" on "co -itaI I
honestly invested" In other words, capitalist
minded Gruening wants the power capitalists
ito set their house in order" But this is some
thing the caoitahsts are incapable Of doing
There is little about the handling Of '"the la
Dor problem" in this book The power COM
panies are notorious for their company unions
and their use Of spies and gunner against work.
ers trying to organize. a quotation from an
other recent book, More They Told Barron will
illustrate the typical power company attitude
GEORGE Sheldon director of the North American
Co., told Barron
I'VE have had the biseest strikes In the
country and fourht them through. There Is
today not a union man in employ either
In the Milwaukee Street Railway, the st. Louis
Street Railway. at Detroit, or in our virginis
coal mines ! Many were killed. de-
clared at Milwaukee that we had sl5,oOo,ooo Of
prouerty there and we would lose every dollar
Of it before we would permit labor agitators
to control the property"