The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1934-12-31
THE TENNESSEE VALLEY
AUTHORITY
BY Frederic j. Haskin

BY Frederic ]. Haskin
Washington, D. c., Dec. 81. - Thu
Happy Valley, that Utopia described
in Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, ha!
long stood for perfection in the loca.
ton and organization Of commun'
ity, but 1t also has been regarded as 9
literary Pigment. The Tennessee Val.
ley Authority not only Is making The
fictional idea of the Eighteenth Cen.
fury essayist come alive, it has wiree
its Happy Valley for sound, for pow
er, and for light.
Since the time Of George Washing.
ton the 8O-mile cascade Of the Ten.
nessee river, and the tumbling streams
of the wide basin it drains, have at.
tracted the attention Of engineers, and
the federal government on several oc.
casions has undertaken to realize Its
potentialities for power and improved
navigation. During the World War
the great cataract of Muscle Shoals
was partially harnessed through the
erection of Wilson dam, capable Of
developing SOC, 900 horsepower at high
water. Facilities for the mechanical
fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. USE
full In the manufacture OF fertilizers
to stimulate creation and also OF ex-
plosives to destroy, were provided.
But the Muscle Shoals development
was but spot in a wilderness. It was
not until the administration Of Pres
ident Franklin Roosevelt that the idea
of carrying the development to logical
lengths was given form. Every dream
which had ever been dreamed about
the valley was consolidated into one
vast illusion, and then that illusion
was crystallized into reality by act
of congress and an initial purse OF
$50, 900.
On May Is. 1893, President Roose-
welt approved the Tennessee Valley
Authority act, and there began
chapter in American government un-
paralleled by anything that had gone
before. A vast natural basin to which
seven states are tributary was taken
in charge as a sculptor grasps his
clay, and the work Of making new
world began. Not only did this or
ganization set about changing ply
steal topography by creating huge
lakes where no lakes had been before
altering watercourses, moving noun
tains, changing the very nature Of
the soil, razing forests and planting
new ones, but it set about the re-
making Of an entire civilization. Il
a new contour could be given the
land, new sense of life could be Civ.
en- the people inhabiting it. The story
of the Tennessee valley. and the Ten.
nessee Valley Authority is story Of
Creation, q Twentieth Century Book
of Genesis.
Organization Is Unique
The directing head of the Tennes-
see Valley Authority is board OF
directors, three in number, and the
enabling act departed from all pre-
vious political legislation in that It
provided method of selection OF
these individuals as Utopian as the
scheme itself. Given ability and prob
ity, the only bar to appointment by
the president to one of these high
positions is political influence. After
the first staggered terms expire, ap-
pointments run for nine years, thus
overlapping two presidential admin
istrations. The bar to political power
as a lever to obtain official connec-
ton with the IVA extends right down
the line to the lowliest employe. An
office boy, desiring Job with the
organization, would be disqualified
automatically, were he recommended
by q United States senator, or, in
deed, by the president himself. pro-
vided that recommendation were
based on political grounds. Were
nothing else concerning the IVA re-
this alone would mark
the undertaking as unique. And It
Is not merely policy; 1t IS specific
ally stated in the law. Here, then,