The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-06-28

other businesses, the power business
drifted into fewer and fewer hands.
The cry OF Power Trust" began to
be heard, family at first, then
louder and louder.
Regulation, municipal and state,
was found necessary, for the power
business, for efficiency, must be a
monopoly. And where there is mono
poly there must be either public
ownership or some degree of public
control. Power companies themselves
agree to this-but the degree and
manner OF control Is still bitter and
continual battle.
insult, the "Informer'
It was over the National Electric
Light association that the battle
ragged most fiercely. This was, it an
nounced, "a voluntary organization
OF companies engaged in, and in
dividuals affiliated with or interested
In the electric light and power in
dustry; organized to advance the art
and science of the production, dis
tribution and use of electrical energy
tor light, heat, and power for public
service"
That sounded all right, but the N.
E. l.. A. was soon hub-deep in other
activities.
Samuel insult founded the first
public-utility information committee
IN Illinois in 1919, and his idea of
informing" the public on his indus
try was promptly turned by the N. E.
L. A. into what Editor and Publisher
later was to call lone of the greatest
propaganda machines in the history
OF the country" BY 1921 it had al
lied itself with the Joint Committee"
representing the gas, street railway
and other utility organizations, and
the machine was complete.
Local committees, state committees,
speeches before schools, churches,
commercial, social, and civic clubs,
were organized. Printed literature
favorable to the utilities was dis
tributed in millions of copies.
School Textbooks
Textbooks for school and college
were influenced; professors we'll paid
for Surveys"
Speakers were subsidized, and a
general campaign carried on to sell"
the American people on privately
owned and managed utilities with as
little public regulation as possible.
Public ownership organizat O n S
fought back, propaganda for prop
uganda. The senate and federal trade
commission investigated. insult ana
his power empire" crashed to earth,
discredited.
Suddenly the N. E. L. A. decided to
dissolve, form a new organization,
repudiate all its former propaganda
works and the insult influence. Only
little more than a month ago it
did so, and it is now being liquidated.
It's successor, the Edison Electric
Institute. gives as its purposes the
usual detectives of trade associa-
tions-advancement of methods and
practices, and also making available
factual information, data, and sta
tistics" on the power industry.
Guilty" Says Norris
Business practices imposed on
members include regular indepen-
dent audits, reasonable" charges by
finance or management companies
for services, and that all publicly
disseminated informa tion shall
clearly indicate the source"
More than IS per cent of the N. E.
L. A. membership joined the new or
ganization. George B. Cortelyou of
New YorkS Consolidated Gas Co. is
president,
Senator Norris, persistent foe of
the Power Trust" declares this re
formation" is simply a confession of
guilt of all the charges of propaganda
and lobbying made against the N. E.
L. A. and remains skeptical of any
real change in the organization. AS
the new institute has only been in
existence few months, it is too early