The Washington times., 1934-10-06
POWER TRUST
LEADS WAR ON
NEW DEAL
Bitter Struggle Seen in Clash
Of plain People With
'Moneyed Interests
By EARL GOODWIN

Away down deep in the heart
Of the opposition to the New Deal
is that intangible monstrosity la
beled by cartoonists and headline
writer's as the Power Trust"
This is the statement of one Of
the experienced Democratic poll
ticians now in Washington, lend
ing a hand whenever called upon.
He declines to be named in an
interview, but sitting in the office
of George E. Allen, Commissioner
of the District of Columbia and
an experienced Democratic poll
tician himself, this gentleman
made this statement:
For the first time i'm history,
you can say that this political
struggle which will start with
the election in November is a
class struggle between the
mOneyed interests and the plain
folks.
REAL STRUGGLE SEEN
eve used to think we had
such a struggle when Bryan
was a perpetual candidate, but
today we can make use of the
wOrn-Out phrases describing the
interests versus the PEOPLE and
for the first time it will not be
demagOgic."
The Power Trust" against
whom the Norrises and the
PinchotS have been fitting for a
lifetime, is the great structure
built in Wall Street and La
Sale Street. It's walls are the
holding companies which own
the various electric light COM
panies and power distributing
plants.
The opponents of the Power
Trust" have a fundamental phi
losophy that these huge combi-
nations of money invested in
power have a malevolent effect
upon government. Hence the
cry of the Liberals and Progress
slves to tear down the trust"
and sell power directly to the
people from such vast pools Of
power as are planned by the
Tennessee Valley Authority and
in connection with the diverted
waters of the st. Lawrence sea-
way.
G. o. p. Accused
Out of such situations comes
the cry that the New York Re-
publican party has been sold,
lock, stock and barrel, to the
Power Trust" w. Kingsland
Macy. deposed State Republican
chairman of the Empire State,
was always in the field against
the power trust; it was
naturally charged that his op-
ponentS within the party were
owned by the same trust.
But getting down to the case in
point: There is danger ahead for
this so-called trust, if the words
OF Frank P. Walsh carry prophecy.
Mr.. Walsh, close friend of Presi-
dent Roosevelt. is the chairman of
the New York State Power Author
ity, a public regulatory body that
keeps the Power Trust" within
bounds. Mr.. Walsh, old trust
batter, is quoted as saying that
the next Congress will have from
the President a broad program of
power legislation.
Holding Companies Hit
Lower rates may be included,
but what the ardent crusader
type of New Dealer wants to see
is a complete abolition of hold
ing companies, whose directors
have to manipulate electric light
rates to pay dividends on vast
shoals of inflated stock. There is
the nub Of the question.
These holding companies are
all up to their neckS in the banks,
and bankers are interested in
holding companies.
Out of such antipathies to the
power of finance came the orig.
inal Republican party, a youthful
in opposition to the re-
of the day when power
meant slaves. It is a long cry
from the enslavement Of humans
to the enslavement of natural re.
sources, but some of the present
day crusaders see an analogy.