Evening star., 1938-11-25

mlCUee 1IlVeSIl- #3$#:$aS
tgating the T. v. 1
A., dealt some n,u;, ,.ur.n,.
fortnight blows.
He put before Congress and incl
dentally the whole country an issue
of fair and square dealing which the
arbitrary minded here who have
:. been riding high, wide and hand
some with governmental authority
will not find it easy to answer.
If the country wants public own
ership, all right, says Mr.. Willkie,
let the country have it, but let some
body set fair price for the private
properties and buy the securities at
a fair value.
If there's doubt as to who should
fix the value, let the Securities and
Exchange COMMISSIONS New Deal
creation-fix the value and Mr..
Willkie says he will abide by it.
But if the American people want
private enterprise to run the utilities
subject to rigid regulation, then let
the private utilities have a square
deal.
MdHQdLc 1OT ftcdSOH.
The utility controversy is COM
plex affair but nevertheless its issues
can be reduced to simple form. If
the returns from the last elections
mean what so many people say they
mean, they represent mandate to
the New Deal to cease being arbi-
trary about some of its policies and
adopt a reasonable attitude toward
those who may disagree with their
economic concepts.
The New Deal while right and
= justified in its protest against finan-
cial wizardry and manipulation by
holding companies, is far from right
in sabotaging private utility proper
ties by a scheme of subsidizing mu-
inequalities with grants from the
P. w. A. These are outright gifts
OF As per cent of the money with
which to build competing plants.
The ostensible excuse is to bring
lower electric light rates, and one
man-Mr. Ickes-is to decide when
rates are low enough to abandon the
competitive threat. Anybody can
force the rates for electric light be-
low the point where private COM
panies can compete if he has the
right to introduce subsidy for Is
per cent of the electric light plants
cost and if hardly any taxes have
to be paid. There isn't business
In the United States which could
compete with the Government when
the bulk Of the taxes are cancelled
and when the Government fur
nishes much Of the capital free.
Dries Up Progress.
The American people do not like
many OF the things the utility COM
panies have done, but this does not
mean the public will countenance
new wrong in the form of subsidized
competition. Today the abuses of
the utility problem growing out of
bad financing are supposed to be
corrected by the securities and ex-
change law. Holding companies are
now permissible or forbidden, ac-
cording to the dictates of the S. E. c.
Rates are regulated by State COM
missions. What then remains for
the private utilities to do? They can
expand and meet the growing power
needs OF the country, but they must
have funds with which to do it. In
vestors cannot be compelled to take
risks by putting their money in
utility properties which are threat
ened with extinction by the power
policy Of the New Deal.
Meanwhile, the heavy goods in
dustries wait for the deadlock to be
broken. Millions of persons now on
relief rolls wait for jobs to open
through the industries affected by
the lack of utility spending. The
amounts that could be spent have
been estimated officially to run to
$4,000, 100000. The funds are avail
able and will be invested the mo-
ment the New Deal removes the
biggest barrier ever erectd against
a private industry in America
Government competition.
Mr.. Willkie has laid his case before
the American people, asking only a
square deal. The utilities have be-
come football of politics and many
people have been prevented from
understanding the problem because
OF a smokescreen of misrepresenta-
ton raised by those New Dealers
who want State socialism and Gov
eminent ownership.
Might Prevent Reaction.
II the New Deal isn't anxious to
provide more and more grievances
so that by 1910 the reaction against
extremes will not be even more pro-
nounced than it was in the elections
OF this year, the utility problem
offers an opportunity for that SEN
sible liberalism about which much
is said, but little is done hereabouts.
Mr.. Willkie has asked for a fair deal.
He has issued the challenge again
and again, but this time he has put
his case so clearly that the whole
country can understand it.
The administration has a chance
to play square with the millions of
unemployed who want jobs and not
w. P. A. or political pap. The utility
problem is related to unemployment.
There are plenty of ways to settle
1t, but there has to be will to settle.
And that may involve adjustments
OF view in the public interest. Maybe
the new Congress will take the ball
away from Mr.. Ickes and the little
group of public ownership advocates
and really give the recovery move
ment real push forward by settling
once and for all the controversy
which has ragged now for more than
five years at an economic loss to the
country of many billions of dollars
(Copyright. 1889