Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-11-28
BILLION IS STAKE
IN UTILITY FIGHT
Boost to Business by That
Amount Is Sought by
Roosevelt.
BY WILLIAM NJ. PINKERTON.
Associated Press STAFF Writer.

the Nations stake in efforts Of Presi-
dent Roosevelt and utility leaders to
find basis of cooperation.
Both sides agree that new construc-
ton, running to ten figures in cost,
would be set in motion If the utilities
felt free to make needed requirements
IN their plants and to expand with the
country's growing need for electricity.
This, economists say, would create
thousands OF jobs in the heavy indus
tries"-steel, cement, brick and lum-
ber-as we'll as in the building trades.
Utilities spokesman call it "a vast, I'M
tapped reservoir of jobs, outrivaling the
programs of P. w. A. and w. P. A."
Strong personalities in Government
and busineSs-key men in the FIVE
year running fight over the admins
tratlon's power policies-are meeting
these days in the quiet of the White
House to survey chances of a truce,
Meanwhile. constitutional lawyers
are preparing to speak in the Marble
Hall of the Supreme Court the final
arguments in some of the bitterest
administration-utility disputes of the
past.
BY spring, the court may have ruled:
on the legality of the Tennessee VAL
ley Authority, on the Governments
right to lend P. w. A. money in aid
ing cities to build their own power
plants, on the theory of power rate
making favored by the President. and
on aspects of the Public Utilities Hold
ing Co. law.
Waged on Two Fronts.
The battle between the adminstra-
tlon and the utilities has been waged
on two major fronts: Congress and the
courts. Some in Congress believe a new
sklrmlsh will develop if the Presidents
proposal for seven regional planning
boards comes up.
Such boards. their opponents con-
tend, might build new network of
power dams across the country at Gov
eminent expense. Supporters of the
proposal, arguing the Nation must
plan ahead for development and use
OF its waterways. reply that only such
projects would be built as Congress
approves.
The issues were drawn long before
Franklin D. Roosevelt became Presi-
dent, After the war, scattered de-
'mands arose from public figures for
cheaper power, stricter Government
control of the monopoly in electricity,
and even public ownership
In Chicago Bull Moose" lawyer
named Harold l.. Ickes fought the In
sui utility interests on the issue of
municipal ownership of power plants
LAS public works administrator, he is
now major power adviser of the ad-
mlnlstration) In Seattle, j. D. Ross.
q Canadian born engineer, guided the
clty-owned light and power system
against private competition. (This
man Is now administrator of the power
produced at Bonneville DAMP
Sought to Strengthen Rule.
Frank R. NcNinch, a North Caro-
lima Democrat who supported Hoover
In 1928, became member of the Fed
eral Power Commission and sought
gradually to strengthen its control over
water power. (Although he is on leave
from the Craftsmanship of the COM
mission now, Mr.. McNinch is a major
administration adviser on utilities.)
Mr. Roosevelt ran for Governor of
New York in 1929 on platform call
ing for public development of water
power on the ST. Lawrence River. At
the same TIME, incidentally, another
New York Slater, Floyd L. Carlisle,
was helping to build up the worlds
largest power generating system
through formation of the Morgan
Bonbright combines.
Even earlier, gray-haired Senator
George w. Norris Cater father of the
Tennessee Valley Authority fought to
get through Congress an act authoriz-
ing an extensive investigation of
utilities.
The long utility inquiry of the Fed
eral Trade Commission resulting from
MIR. Norris victory prepared the argu-
ments later used by administration
leaders against the private power in
dustry.
The commission studied the prac-
tees OF every large utility system. It
probed into power propaganda" the
vriting-up of property values on which
rates were based. stock manipulation
and State regulation of utilities.
Authority Created.
Three months after Mr.. Roosevelt |
became President, in 1888 Congress
created the Tennessee Valley Authority |
to utilize idle dams built for war
time manufacture of munition mate
rails and to build other dams for |
flood control, navigation and power
development.
T. " A. supporters called it yard
stick" against which the work of the !
private utilities might be measured.
Utilities spokesman charged, however,
that this 'yardstick" was subsidized |
by the Government: that the water
power dams were uneconomic; that |
Government competition threatened to
ruin investments of thousands of peo-
pie in utility stocks.
One of the leaders in this attack
was Wendell Willkie, an India ma born
lawyer who supported Mr. Roosevelt
in 1882. His Commonwealth Il
Southern system controlled the major
utilities which were faced with T. v. A.
competition.
Mr.. 1ckes, the newly appointed pub
lie works administrator, was search
ing the country for feasible public
construction jobs with which to try
out the theory of printing the pump
OF industry. He found one field of
activity In the building Of city-owned