Evening star., 1934-09-27

ing from farm to farm every years.
a damper on the incentive to maintain
and improve land which calls for seri-
Gus thought.
think most Of you have had op-
portunities to study the main features
Of the T. v. A. program. You know
that the +. v. A. Is developing uni
fed control Of the water resources Of
the valley. You know this control Is
intended to prevent floods and to make
water transportation possible. You
known, too, that we plan to generate
electric power as by-product at the
sites Of these flood-control and navi-
cation dams. We need that power to
meet the expanded needs Of our ma
tional economy and to bring electricity
to the farm world. Less than IL per
cent of our farms have ever expert
enced the benefits of electric power.
Rural electriflcation Is an almost vir-
gin field, and one which must be de-
veloped In order that the farmer may
have the facilities electricity has al
ready brought the city dweller. You
know that the development of this
electric power is to be q sort of yard
stick with which to determine whether
the rates charged in other parts of
the country are fair and as low as
they reasonably can be. You know
we are demonstrating that reduction
Of rates encourages people to buy more
electrical equipment - refrigerators,
stoves, water heaters, washing ma
chimes, water pumps for farms and
more than 200 others articles which
require electric current.
Appliances Lower Cost.
And, Of course, you know that the
more appliances installed the more
current is consumed and hence the
lower unit cost Of electricity. I say
you know this, but I'm afraid there
are quite a number Of you who still
believe we have too much generating
capacity as it is. How can we have
too much electricity when our national
domestic consumption is only about
one-third of what it is In Ontario?
Why, read the other day in the New
York journal Of Commerce where a
representative of one Of the big elec-
tric manufacturing companies said
that If only 1000, 900 more electric
stoves were sold to the housewives Of
America there would be no surplus Of
electric power! Think Of that Only
100000 more stoves! Does this look
as though we had more power than
We know what to do with? Not to me.
it doesn't.
I say you know about these things.
but I'm not entirely certain that you
all realize that these are only parts
of the Tennessee Valley Authority
program, that the fundamental pur-
pose OF the T. V. A. Is to provide
basis for national coordination. All
these activities are subordinate to the
creation of a procedure which may
confidently be applied to the whole
country.
That plan must also include re-
forestation where our timber re-
sources have disappeared, new and
better uses of our mineral wealth, q
system of coordination between agri-
culture and industry SO we won't have
any more of those misunderstanding
which have developed in the past be-
tween these two major branches of our
national life. and a broad scheme for
the promotion OF social and economic
well-being among all the people-not
only of the valley, but Of the whole
United States. AS a matter of fact,
the promotion Of well-being is the
whole purpose of the New Deal. The
rest is method
But first We must work out those
methods before the President can call
his survey. and his testing of that
survey. complete and proceed to apply
the lessons learned.
Land Preservation.
I purposely left out Of the list Of
T. w. A. activities those with which
! personally am most Intimately as
sociated. My particular attention goes
to plant food and to all the other ways
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