Evening star., 1936-09-08
|. VA. TALKS DUE
At POWER PAR[EY
Foreign Delegates to Hear
Arguments Against Fed
eraI Projects.
BY CHARLES r. SPEARE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
,rnpvrfeht 1919

,copyrisht. 1850
NEW YORK, September s.-The
foreign delegates to the World Power
Conference, in session in Washington
this week. will have opportunity to
read the arguments Of the attorneys
for the 10 private companies that are
again challenging the T. v. A. In its
program of invading their territory In
Tennessee, Alabama and Texas.
Among the representatives Of the
power industry abroad are men from
Sweden, Germany, Italy, Japan. Great
Britain. Canada and Denmark, where
the movement toward both national
and municipal ownership and opera
ton Of electric power companies has
gained great momentum in recent
years.
The Importance Of electric power
in national life, as well as in that OF
individual communities. has become
so much recognized that this year the
conference has adopted as its theme
"the important problems Of the rela-
tionS Of power resources, their develop
ment and use to the social and eco
nomic interests of the nation" For
merly. it gave most emphasis to purely
technical questions associated with the
power industry.
Marks New Chapter.
raised by the T. v. A and the public
utility holding company act, passed
last year, make a new chapter in the
history Of electric power development
throughout the world.
Few Of the foreign delegates to the
conference have hao to deal with the
problems which they present both to
the corporations affected and to the
authorities who must pass upon them.
From their experience at home, these
leaders in the field of electric and gas
production and distribution have seen
the advantage to the consumer of
control Of an essential commodity by
a non-profit-making agency. None of
them. however, has come up against
the large-scale operations in which
private or publicly financed companies
are concerned. and whose conclusion
involves bitter legal fight which can
only end before the United States
Supreme Court.
OF the many subjects selected for
discussion at the conference, those
dealing with the organization of pri-
vate electric and gas utilities, their
regulation by public bodies and the
manner in which they are set up
financed and operated, are likely to
command most attention, as they are
at the center of the controversy that
is going on in the United States.
The battle between the power in
terests here. the T. v. A. and the
champions of the holding company act
revolves around these elements of cap.
italization, rates and management.
Constitutionality Is Issue.
The newest suit of the 10 private
utility corporations raising the issue
of the constitutionality of the T. v. A
emphasizes the contention that the
Government Is using P. w. A. fund.
to create municipality owned electric
plants, and, through them, to establish
''yardstick" for measuring the rea
sonable cost OF electricity. Quotinl
Newton D. Baker, chief counsel fol-
the utilities. lin this way the Fedora
administration Is seeking to supplan
or supplement State regulation o.
intrastate electricity rates on tn,
theory that regulation by State bodie!
has been ineffective"
A suit of this character, originally
started in Alabama, has now beer
moved into Tennessee on the hom.
ground Of the T. v. A. The first cast
is to be dismissed at the instance Of
the complainants. The present argu.
ment is planned to be made before the
Federal court of the eastern Tennessee
district. Eventually the suit will bt
debated and settled before the nint
men who voted an 8-to-l opinion las
February upholding the right of tn,
Federal Government to sell power
However, the court will be asked t.
determine the legality of a differen
set of circumstances than those OF
which its decision was based las
Winter.
tcopyright. 1861