Evening star., 1940-06-04
Star Staff Photo.

ing program to take lOW-cOSt elec-
tricity to the Nations farmsteads?
The farm families, yes; but you and
I, as we'll. For each fundamental
improvement in the lot of one
branch of our national family
spreads its benefits through the
whole economic and social fabric
of America.
During the first five years of
operation, concluded last month,
r. E. A. lent s27o,000, 900, for the
construction Of rural power lines
to serve 100000 farm families and
other rural users. A relatively small
amount of this money has been
made available for financing farm
wiring and plumbing and for the
construction of generating plants in
places and in situations where elec-
tricity could not be purchased
wholesale at rates which would per-
NIT the rural electric systems to
provide loW-cost service to their
consumer-members and pay out as
the law requires.
Sum Lent as Investment.
Two hundred seventy million
dollars is a tremendous sum of
money, but it has been lent strictly
as an investment. The law under
which the Rural Electrification Ad-
ministration operates requires that
all this money be returned to the
treasury with interest, within 20
/ to Is years.
The American people. through
| their Government, have made this
investment in the people and the
prospects of Americas most basic
neutrality-suspicious.. 1t is sound
investment. The cash will be re-
paid by the farm families who use
electric service. And these families
will also pay the small interest
charge on that cash. But the re-
turn Of actual value to you and me
as taxpayers will exceed a hun
dred-fold the money returned to
| the treasury. No economist can
compute the value to the Nation
OF the new vitality, the new stand
ard Of health and of living, the new
impetus to better farm production
or the whole new outlook on life in
a democratic United States that is
the fundamental product of the
rural electrification program.
Money is the lifeblood and action
is the creed Of this dynamic effort
to speed the electrification of rural
America. But the Job could not have
been done as it has been done
without the enlistment of new at
titudes and new principles of man
agement.
The new attitudes and the new
principles are those of co-opera-
ton.
Cooperation is the idea and the
method that has made possible most
OF the rural electrification stimu-
lated by the r. E. A.
And cooperative principles OF
management - principles designed
solely for the purpose of providing
service, unhampered by the demand
Tor profits-these principles are the
operating device for building and
maintaining the new rural electric
systems.
Nearly 80 per cent of all r, E. A.
loans have been made to co-opera-
tive organiza tions of progressive
1arm people. Their functioning is
simple, democratic and well-adapted
both to the temper and the interests
OF the farmer and to the Job of pro-
vldlng electric service in rural areas
This Is how the cooperative grows
and works in the field of rural elec-
trification.
Steps to Obtain Loan.
A group Of farmers who want
service meet and organize as a cor
poration. They apply to r. E. A. for
a loan. The amount of the loan
| depends upon the amount of line
that must be built, the engineering
and related problems that must be
met in building comprehensive serv-
Ice Tor the area to be served, and the
number OF farms that will use the
service. After thorough investiga-
tlon OF the economic, agricultural
and engineering factors that will
af1ect the financial and service sue
cess OF the co-operative-and pro-
vldlng, OF course, that the investiga-
ton proves the feasibility of the
INTENDED construction, r. E. A.
grants the loan.
All farmers who are to take service
Join the cooperative. Each pays q
nominal membership fee into the
treasury of the cooperative and this
money is used to onset the expenses
OF organization and initial develop
ment. Each member has an equal
vote and voice In the management
of the cooperative, and this, I sub
NIT, Is a pattern for true democracy
in action.
The cooperative employs a man.
ager and other competent personnel
to handle specialized tasks Of opera
ton and management. These en-
ployes. responsible to a board of
directors elected by and from the
membership, run the business as any
other sound business Is run-always
with this exception, however; that
their responsibility is to the men,
bers, the folks whom they serve
rather than to stockholders. Their
entire effort is directed toward the
maintenance and improvement OF
service >. service job, undiluted
by demand for profit.
The farmer members response
bility to his cooperative is simple
His sole obligation Is to pay his bills
for current, to use. his electricity
wisely and abundantly for tho I'm.