Henderson daily dispatch., 1937-02-09

at once-and that the letters exchang-
ed between Cooke and President
Roosevelt were very largely false
fronts issued for public consumption
and to save each others faces and
feelings. Information already reaching
here from Washington by grapevine"
channels also indicates that Cookies
injection of himself into North Caro-
lima affairs last week, in personally
calling upon the House committee on
public utilities to table the Fenner-
Acknowledgment bill which would
have required electric membership
cooperatives to obtain a permit from
the utilities commission before build
ing electric lines, fastened Mr..
Cookies quite unexpected exit from
the Federal REA.
It is no secret either here or in
Washington that Cooke was making
himself increasingly irritating, if not
actually obnoxious to the State adj
ministrations in several other states
BESIDES North Carolina by his insis-
ltence that the Federal REA did not
need to pay any attention to State
laws and was hence entirely outside
the jurisdiction of State governments
and by trying to dictate to State rural
identification agencies as to what
they could or could not do. Here in
North Carolina, for instance Cooke
or his assistants, openly advised pros
pective membership cooperatives to
disregard State laws and the State
Rural Electrification Authority and
to deal only with him and the REA
in Washington. The Johnston county
cooperative followed his advice, with
the result that it Is still tied up in
litigation and farmers with electric
lines running in front of their homes
are not able to make connections and
get electric service. The Caldwell
County Cooperative also has followed
Cookies advice and disregarded both
the NCREA and the State laws, with
the result that the Duke Power Com
pany is now reported as already build
ing lines in Caldwell county within
the territory the cooperative planned
to serve.
If the Johnston County and Cald-
well County cooperatives had followed
the advice of the NCREA and first
obtained certificates of convenience
and necessity from the State Utilities
Commission, as the NCREA advised
them to do. these certificates would
have prevented either the Carolina
Power and Light Company. or the
Duke Power Company from going in
to these counties. But when they fol-
lowed Mr.. Cookies advice and refused
to apply for or get certificate the
door was left open for the private
power companies to go into court and
get an injunction as soon as either
cooperative attempted to set pole
or string a single wire on line
paralleling a power company line
This was what happened in Johnston
county and what will happen in
Caldwell county as soon as the CO
operative tries ito build any lines
parallel to any Duke Power Company
line, it is generally agreed.
The only thing the Fenner-Aber-
nethy-Ward bill would have done was
| to include county membership cor
porations under the law which re-
quires all other companies to obtain
a certificate of necessity and conven-
| fence before going into any new and
unserved territory to build rural cleo
tric lines. But Mr.. Cooke seems tc
have regarded the bill as persona
clan at him and called Chairman
Rd.ert House of the House commit
| tee long distance from Washington