Evening star., 1938-10-23


Bonneville last summer, declared for de-
Capitalization Of industry, for the widest
possible distribution Of Bonneville power.
James D. Ross, superintendent of Seattle's
municipal power system for IS years, was
appointed Bonneville administrator and
hopes to become the one-man head of a
Columbia Valley Authority eventually to
control Bonneville, Grand Coulee and some
Is Columbia and Snake River dams
which are Roosevelt projects for the future
Administrator Ross is carrying out the
decentralization idea with q vengeance
The Bonneville Act and the rate schedule
proposed by Ross and adopted by the Fed
eral Power Commission discourages loca-
ton OF industries In Columbia Gorge ada
cent to the dam. Peoples utility districts.
municipalities and co-operatives are to be
given prior consideration in requests for
power The switchboard rate is only slight
ly lower than the postage stamp" rate
throughout the vast area into which trans
mission lines are being built with P. w.
A. and W. P. A. funds. Industrialists and
the vocal Portland Chamber Of Commerce
contend that the wholesale rate for power
announced by Ross as the lowest on the
North American Continent" is considerably
higher than that which was expected from
the estimates of Army engineers who built
Bonneville
They contend that Ross "kilowatt-year"
method of selling electricity provides no
safeguard to industries against labor or
market stoppages of production, and in any
event is merely going backward to a method
tried by private utilities and discarded as
unWorkable. Ross says the kilowatt-year
will stimulate the use of electricity in the
home and plant to the point where vast
savings will result, where living will be
easier, happier, cheaper 1t is fact
that no single manufacturing firm has vet
contracted for power from Bonneville. al
though two generators are in operation and
two additional generators are in the con-
struction stage
Navigation Controversy.
Bonneville's other phase. navigation
likewise has aroused controversy This
dam, 14o miles inland from the Pacific
Ocean, has the highest sealock in the world.
The true test of the dream long fostered by
residents OF Eastern Oregon, Eastern
Washington and Idaho, that of tall ocean,
going vessels steaming $50 miles up the
Columbia and Snake Rivers to gather cargo
for the ports of the world, will not come
until the Government deepens the channel
from Vancouver, Wash, to Bonneville, and
builds projected dams at Umatilla and
beyond
But the extensive barge and river boat
commerce which was freely predicted as
an immediate result Of opening the sea-
lock has not developed as expected.
The storm of criticism aroused by fears
tnat Bonneville and other dams would
destroy the Columbia Rivers $4,000 ooo-
a-year salmon fishing industry has been
allayed. Salmon passed the barrier at
Bonneville with ease and in great numbers
this fall, the first real test since compile
tion OF the structure.
1t is fairly well evident to Northwest
residents by now that Bonneville. Grand
Coulee and other hydroelectric plants will
not attract, at least for many years to
come, huge plants employing thousands of
workers.
AS time goes on and solution is found
Tor the three primary disadvantages to
industrial expansion in the Northwest
lack OF interested capital, inequalities In
transportation and lack of population for
markets-lt may be expected that plants
will be established near the dams or on
tidewater to develop large deposits of chro-
mite, manganese, tungsten molybdenum.
slllcos aluminium clay and phosphates, to
convert forest products into rayon, paper
and cellulose products and to utilize the
waste materials of agriculture mines and
forests
None OF these projects, depending as they
must on cheap power will be mass employ
ment industries.
Administrator Ross of Bonneville is frank
on the score of employment He wrote re-
Gently in the Public Utilities Fortnieht,v
Magazine: Invention and discovery are
going on so fast that the old conditions
OF employment will never come back"
On the Receiving Line.
The Northwest's experience with the
Roosevelt administration has been. prin.
cipally. on the physical side It has re-
ceived vast millions of dollars for
dams, work relief, Civilian Conservation
Corps, rivers and harbors, schools. high
ways, airports, dwellings, resettlement crop
control, education Of youth, even a palat,al
lodge on snowclad Mount Hood for skiers
These are valued.
There is, however, a large and vocal seq
ment of Northwest opinion which holds the
New Deal directly responsible for MANY
months of stagnation in lumber shipping
and other industries caused by labor dis
putes.
Few sections of the United States have
suffered more than the Northwest from
labor strife since the days Of the Blue Earle
than Western Oregon and WASHINGTON:
and these areas are near the national TOP
in unemployment and relief today.
Unionization, never very widespread in
Northwest crafts before the Roosevelt ad-
ministration, made rapid strides under the
N. I. r. A. and the Wagner Act.
The first great test of union strength was
in the 1894 longshoremen's and maritime
workers strike, during which Harry Bridges
of San Francisco skyrocketed to power,
This long tie-up cost industry and the pub.
lie in general, as well as the shipowners
millions Of dollars. Riots, beatings, sab
otage and killings occurred Yet strong
public sentiment favored the cause Of the
efrikarS Meet y,oopIo h>1;nvod <hn,>