Evening star., 1939-02-12

Announcement that the Tennessee
Valley Authority and the Commonwealth
& Southern Corp. have entered into an
agreement for the sale of the Tennessee
Electric Power Co., Commonwealth &
Southern operating subsidiary. to the
Authority and an undesignated number
of local agencies, means tina. peace, at
last, has come to the utility industry in
the Tennessee Valley.
1t may mean more than this. Observers
have read into this development indica-
tions that the Roosevelt administra-
ton and the private utility industry, long
at odds, may end feud disruptive alike
to the industry and the Governments
efforts to stimulate business recovery.
AS that may be, the agreement between
the Authority and Commonwealth g.
Southern Corp is major step toward a
permanent settlement Of the utility
question.
BY this agreement, Commonwealth &
Southern will sell all its electrical prop
critics in Tennessee. Probably, after fur
ther negotiations that are now under
way, it will likewise dispose of its other
holdings, in North Alabama and Missis-
sippi, in the sphere of T. V. A. operations.
Thus, after an adverse decision by the
United States Supreme Court on its suit
challenging the legality of the Authori-
tvs power enterprises, Commonwealth g.
Southern is withdrawing from the valley,
leaving that region-a region OF great
natural resources and potential wealth.
to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Compromise on Price.
The property Commonwealth & South
ern is surrendering represents one OF the
more profitable and valued principalities
of its utility empire in the South. Hap
PLY, though. the price agreed on, $78,-
1000, means there will be no conflsca-
ton of legitimate investments, and, In
fair way, represents compromise
between the figure asked by Wendell L..
Willkie, president of Commonwealth &
Southern, and the lower one offered by
David Eli Lilienthal, T. V. A. director.
The Tennessee Electric Power Co.
system, sprawling across a greater part
of Tennessee, stretches roughly along an
eastern boundary line extending from
the Kentucky border southwark, just
west of Knoxville across the State and
for a short distance into Georgia. 1t
goes westward across the remainder OF
East Tennessee, all of Middle and to
the Tennessee River in West Tennessee.
1t serves few towns across the river
in West Tennessee.
The company has generating system
of five hydroelectric plants and three
steam plants One of its hydroelectrlc
| developments is the Hales Bar Dam, IL
miles downstream from Chattanooga, on
the Tennessee River Others are on
lesser rivers or tributaries, where they
can be operated, to some extent, for
flood control purposes.
Its transmission system of more than
1900 miles of high-tension lines, COM
pairing with LOO miles the Authority is
now operating, stretches into 81 OF the
95 counties of Tennessee and into 4
counties of North Georgia Operating
in a territory of 24,040 square miles, the
utility serves 136,500 customers in 456
communities. The principal cities 1T
serves are Chattanooga, its headquarters,
| and Nashville
With a peak generating capacity OF
100000 kilowatts, compared to the pres
ent T. v. A. peak capacity Of 100000, the
companys electricity sales In 1887 totaled
776 $4,000 kilowatt hours. In that same
year. The latest tor which complete