The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-29

electrical, aviation, machine tools, automotive and many other vital crafts. It present i63,204 stu- dents arc receiving shop school ing. while another HOOPS arc working on construction projects and i307B in clerical and pro- fossIonnl projects.
 To keep in close touch with the needs of the industry, IVA ad- ministrator, Aubrey Williams has an advisory council made up of the operating heads of c number of the biggest plants In tho coun- try.
 POWER FOR ALUMINIUM
 If It does not rain bucketsful in the Tennessee Valley immedi. atoly, tho governments famous IVA project is going to face such a serious shortage of power that q battleship may be moved Into Mobile to pump i30,000 additional kllowatts of current Into the IVA system,
 This emergency Is the result not merely of the drouth, but of faulty planning by the Alumi- mum Corporation of America.
 What happened Is this. The Tennessee Valley Authority has estimated its power needs on the basis of the worst drouth In the past GO years. And while this years drouth will be bad, 1t will not disturb the contracts which IVA has signed with ii3 muni- cipaiities and cooperatives in tho Southeast. They have contracted for power and they will get 1t.
 HOWEVER, tho Aluminium Corporation refused Co contract for power. Instead, Alcoa buys power from the IVA on . day to-day basis, and any day that Che Tennessee Valley Authority wishes, it could cut tho power off.
 HOWEVER tho Aluminium Corporation knows all too well that tho U. s. government, need- ing aluminium more than any. thing else In the defense pro- gram, Is not going to cut off It's nose to spite It's face.
 More than 6 year ago, able IVA Director David Lilienthal asked Alcoa to sign a definite power contract so that IVA could build Q new plant to supply It's needs. But Alcoa refused. And today 1t Is using the tremendous total of l50,000 kilowatts Of IVA power every day.
 Result Is that the IVA directors are making e frantic scramble to find more upower, while certain Defense chiefs want legislation rushed through Congress giving them the right to issue priorities over power and decide whether the Aluminium Corporation or the municipalities and cooperatives of the Tennessee Valley should lose their power firfst.
 TEA-KETTLES AND SHIPS
 Probably neither will lose out For the IVA is now engaged in e painstaking research for more power. It has used all the old "tea kettles", as 1t calls them, or steam plants once belonging to Wendell Willkie's Commonwealth and Southern, and is charging the high rate of 12 mills per kilowatt for certain users,
 The IVA has also surveyed the possibility of using the French liner Normandie ct Mobile. It could generate plenty of power, but the ship has a French power cycle which does not correspond with the IVA cycle. The airplane carrier Lexington, however, would be perfectly practicable, and once was use at Tacoma, Wash, to provide municipal power.
 Other possibilities are for municipalities to cut down on power on Sundays, of for the Duke Power company Co send some of its current over the Al- leghanies into the Tennessee Valley.
 Meanwhile some of the cynics are wondering what would have happened if the President hadn't been far-sighted enough to set up the Tennessee Valley Authority years ago.
 MERRY-G0-ROUND
 Carl E. Robbins, president of the Commodity Credit Corpora ton, is exiting tom this Job