The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-10-10

of the company, the farmers, who want
electricity and are willing to pay for
it. band themselves together in little
cooperative group, go to the company
officials and offer to buy power to be
delivered at the nearest point on the
company lines.
Here's One Difficulty.
The farmers themselves will build
lines to their farms. To finance the
construction they will borrow the
money from the REA, who, theoretical
ly, investigates the group from every
angle to make sure that the loan Is
a sound one.
There is nothing very complicated
about this" says Mr.. Cooke. ''It is not
like launching a great new power
project involving millions. This whole
operation will not exceed $4,000"
All, but only part of the story has
been told. The REA plans for these
cooperative groups suggest that the
farmers shall buy power from the COM
pany at wholesale rates, to be fixed
by negotiation or by the states pub
lie service commission. This does not
"set" very we'll with many of the util-
ity companies who have farm GUS
toners.
Why not? is the natural question,
glancing at the case only specifically.
These farmers who are cooperating
have paid for the installation of the
line; are they not entitled to some
sort of extra consideration for what
they have done?
1t so happens that the other farmers
who are already receiving current
from the same power company at re-
tail rates will, in effect, have paid for
their lines, too. Why shouldn't they
get wholesale rates? Actually, they
have not, or have paid only in part.
Here is the way it works, although
this must be taken as a hypothetical
case, for all power companies do not
have the same agreements with their
farm customers.
Who Pays for the Line?
Let us say that the cost of line
built out to farm is $500. The farm
er, supplied for the sake of example
by a middle western utility company
which has been outstanding for it's
rural Identification work, is given so
months in which to pay for the cost of
the line. He pays" for it by guaran-
teeing to use a monthly minimum of
electricity equal in cost to one-eightieth
of the cost of the line, which in this
case would be $40, until the so months
are up.
If he actually uses less than $40
worth of Juice" during a month, his
bill is $40 just the same. But he is en-
titled to all of the benefits every month
that $40 worth of electricity will bring
to him, so he might just as well use it
up. It's like going to a metropolitan
theater restaurant where there is a
minimum charge of $3.50 a head; you
can eat just a sandwich if you want to,
but your bin is $3.50 just the same;
If you're hungry, you might as well eat
a full dinner, for it isn't going to cost
you any more. And farmers today are
really hungry for the benefits of cleo
trio power to ease their daily tasks.
IF you take away my electricity,
you can just take the farm, too" is the
way Farmer Gus Swanson, of Fountain
county, Indiana, puts it.
Actually, a farmer buying power
from utility company on such an
agreement is paying for the cost of
his line only If he fails to use $40
worth of electricity each month. If his
bill is $40, he gets back dollar for
dollar in electric power.
But If such a customer has cousin
or a friend over in the next county
who is a member of one of the REA
cooperative groups and is getting pow
er at a lower rate, power company
officials Would have about as much
chance explaining the reason for that
to him as they would have of making
him under stand the Einstein theory.
He would insist that he was paying for