Montana labor news., 1936-11-05
President Sticks by
iva as Utilities Try
10 Limit lis Scope
By Federated Press

Roosevelt refused to give any COM
fort to the executives of the private
utility companies with whom he met
here recently in order to work out a
new agreement for the transmission
of power generated in the Tonnes
see Vally under the IVA.
Despite the shroud of secrecy COW
ering the conference, it was learned
that utility executives were sharply
confined to discussing e agree
ments which expire November /.
Their efforts to secure commitments
from government officials as to the
future of IVA were baked and no
promises have been made, so far as
can be learned, that IVA will relax
its program to promote cheap power
rates.
AS the two day conference broke
up the private utility executives and
federal power experts were still at
loggerheads with the government
holding the whip hand. In spite of
optimistic %utterances from the Wall
Street Journal and the Journal of
Commerce, utility executives r
viewing their position as desperate
and consider that upon the outcome
of present negotiations depends the
life of private utility interests in
large sections of the country.
The precise purpose of the confer
ence was to work out a temporary
extension of an agreement between
the IVA and the Commonwealth
and Southern Public Utilities group
under which the IVA agreed to
wholesale power to the holding COM
pany's subsidiaries, Commonwealth
and Southern coded certain territory
to the IVA for its experiments, and
both parties agreed not to poach on
the others territory.
At the conference Commonwealth
and Southern representatives strove
to secure something more than a
temporary extension of the agree
ment. They sought a new agreement
under which IVA would give a con-
crete definition of its future policy
and enter a contract binding itself
not to sell power beyond a certain
limited area.
This assurance representatives of
the government would not give and
upon that point the conference hung
fire.
Motivating the power boys is the
growing dependence of the private
utilities in the Tennessee Valley
upon the iva enterprises for pow
er. At the time of the first agree
ment in 1894, IVA had only one
customer, the Alabama Power Co..
and was forced to find an outlet for
the power generated at Muscle
Shoals.
Since, then, however, construction
of the Norris dam and drying
stream beds caused by the drouth
have placed more and more utilities
in the area at the mercy of IVA.
Indicating the growing reliance of
private utilities on IVA is the fact
that in the II months ended June 80,
1886, the Muscle Shoals plant in
creased its production 231 per cent
over the preceding year and from
the sale of this power crossed for the
U. S. treasury 81, 1000, an in
crease of 100 per cent.
In order to go on their own the
private utilities would have to estab-
fish their own plants, at a large
financial outlay that at present they
cannot afford, and compete with the
cheap power of IVA.
Demanded by the utilities at the
conference was an agreement from
l. WI W oCll dl1 Ito POWCl OQbDQt W
them. Failing in that they seek to
sell out their holdings in the IVA
to the government.
If those two proposals are unac-
ceptable they want the IVA to pool
its power output with that of the
private companies and enter into di-
rect competition only to the extent
of selling to the few municipal
plants within the IVA area.
Finally, failing in all that, the util-
tiles propose that IVA buy out one
or two private power companies
operating in metropolitan centers in
the IVA area and agree not to at
to extend its operations be-
yond this point.
IVA officials, it is understood, are
to consent to any of these
proposals p%refering to keep their
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