Evening star., 1936-06-05
POWER PROGRAM
Of P.W.A. UPHELD
|ND|STR|CT COURT
Justice Wheat DismisseS
Injunction Suit Against
Ten Projects.
STATUTES AFFECTING
LEGALITY AFFIRMED
Suit Involved ALLEGATIONS Total
ing $2,444, 900 in Four
States.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Chief Justice Alfred A. Wheat in
District Supreme Court today upheld
the constitutionality of the Public
Works Administrators s200,000,000
power program in dismissing an in
junction suit against 10 municipal
electric projects in four States.
Wheat ruled on three major legal
questions in his lengthy opinion.
He held that the plaintiffs, the Ala
bama Power Co., the Texas Utilities
Co.. the Oklahoma Utilities Co. and
the Iowa Light &, Power Co. had
right to bring suit to question the
validity of the power projects.
Statutes Held Constitutional.
He ruled, however, that the two
statutes under which the projects are
being carried. out, the national in
dustrial recovery act and the emer-
tutional. in SO far as they affect the
issues presented in the power case.
The portion Of N. I. R. A. under
which the P. W. A. program was in
stituted was not affected by the Su-
preme Court ruling. which invalidated
N. R. A., another creation Of the re-
covery act
He also held that the power prof.
ects were authorized by the terms Of
these two statutes.
The United States Court of Appeals
for the District recently held the Re
settlement Administration, created un-
der the 1885 emergency relief act, un-
constitutional.
Wheat held that the Court of
Appeals ruling did not apply in this
case.
Dean Acheson, attorney for the
utilities companies, said he would ap-
peal the case Immediately to the Court
Of Appeals. Government attorneys said
they would not oppose continuation of
temporary injunctions now in force.
pending a final decision by higher
tribunals
Another case challenging the con-
stitutionality of the P. W. A. power
program already is before the Supreme
Court on an appeal by the Duke Power
w. 41OIA1 q S4lAQlL NOQAL AuAlllS up
holding grant to the Buzzards Roost
power project in South Carolina.
Involved S2,444,0OO.
The suit ruled on today involved P.
w. A. ALLEGATIONS totaling s2,444,000
to 10 cities in Alabama. Texas. Okla
homa and Iowa. The four utility firms
which now furnish electricity to these
communities sought to prevent con-
struction of competing municipal pow
er plants with P. w. A. funds.
Plaintiffs contended the projects
would destroy S3.619,OOO worth of in
veStmentS made by them. Hearings
lasted more than three weeks. during
which Secretary of Interior Ickes ap-
peared as the chief Government wit
ness.
The power companies were repre-
sented by Newton D. Baker, Secretary
of War under President Wilson, and
Acheson, Undersecretary of the Treas
ury in the early days of the New
Deal. Jerome Frank, P. w. A. counsel,
and Alexander Holtzoff and John w.
Scott, special assistants to the At
torney General, presented the Gov
ernment's case.
Utility company attorneys con-
tended that P W. A. was unconsti-
tutional, because the 1885 emergency
relief act under which it was estab-
lished invaded States rights and dele
gated almost unlimited powers to
the President.
They also argued that the power
developments were not useful prof.
ects," since they would merely du-
plicate existing electric plants.