Evening star., 1942-03-05
War Board Accused
:0f Permitting Waste
"copper" by R. {. A.
House Subcommittee
: AssoiIs Nelson and
Production Associates
6y the Associated Press.

q 11oooC SoAi1AAAeVSS eONoJ Va
RECKLESS disregard" for con-
servation of war-needed copper
in allowing construction of Rural
Electrification Administration
transmission lines in Texas and
Arkansas.
Chairman Donald M. Nelson was
not spared in the report, which the
House Military Affairs Committee
submitted to Congress. It charged
w. P. B. Power Chief J. A. Krug had
indicated to the committee, he (Mr
Krug) was mot amenable to Con-
greSS." 1t said also that the commit.
tee members were mot favorably
impressed" with w. P. B. Chief
Counsel John Lord O'Brian's atti-
tude toward constructing the lines
'allegedly duplicating private IA
CilitieS.
The report was based on hearings
by subcommittee headed by Rep
reSentative Faddis, Democrat, of
Pennsylvania. one member of which,
Representative Fitzgerald, Demo-
crat. of Connecticut, asserted in a
minority report the subcommittee
was subjected to a lot of wild and
careless statements by the power
trust which the majority report
readily accepted as correct"
A third report, embracing the in
dependent views" of Representatives
Sparkman of Alabama and Brooks
of Louisiana, Democrats, criticized
the subcommittee for not calling
Mr.. Nelson. This report was signed
also by Representatives Thomason
of Texas, Harter of Ohio, Merritt of
New York, Costello of California and
Davis of Tennessee, all Democrats.
Mr.. Nelson, the majority asserted,
issued an order granting priorities
to an r. E. A. subsidiary in Arkansas
in the face Of adverse criticism of
its application, by both the Arkansas
Department of Public Utilities and
the Priorities Committee of the
Army and Navy Munitions Board.
This committee can hardly con-
ceive of Mr.. Nelson's having made
his order of January q (approving
the prioritiesl with full knowledge
of the facts" the majority report
said. I'VE can understand, however,
he may have issued the order as a
routine matter. on the advice of Mr..
Krug. chief of his Power Division"
The subcommittee held hearings
on construction by the R. E. AS
Ark-La Electric Cooperative of
line to transmit power from Okla
homa's Pensacola Dam to the De-
fense Plant Corps big aluminium
plant under construction at Lake
Catherine. near Hot Springs, Ark.
The other phase of the hearings
dealt with construction by the
Brazos Electric Transmission Co.
operative and the Farmers Electric
Generating Corp. of a line from
Texas Possum Kingdom Dam, west
of Fort Worth. to Garland, Tex,
site OF two defense plants, and an
other from Garland to a proposed
generating plant at Gilmer, Tex.
National Survey Urged.
The majority report, approved by
II members of the full committee,
charged all three operations dupli-
Gated existing private facilities, and
urged cancellation of the recently
started Arkansas line, which it said
would waste over three-quarters of
a million pounds OF copper" charges
disputed in the other reports.
The Texas lines. the one to Gar
land from the dam virtually COM
pleted, entail, the majority charged,
a wastage of "close to 100000
pounds of copper and vast amounts
of other critical materials and gen.
Grating and manumacturing equip
ment."
The report recommended a Ma
tion-wide survey and investigation
OF all proposed power projects,
public and private, and declared:
IF there Is no other way to curb
the conduct of the Rural Electrical
tlon Administration and its wastage
of copper at this time than to re-
peatedly bring it to the attention of
the public until it is aroused to the
point of demanding a cessation of
its acts, then this committee will
do just that and feel that it is serv-
ing this Nation at a time of sore
need"
The majority called attention to
what 1t charged was violation by
the Texas co-operatives of a defense
order hating construction on all
utility projects not 40 per cent COM
plete on December s..
1t charged that Army engineers
under Maj. L. o. Vogelsang reported
as late as January II that work was
proceeding on the two Texas lines,
neither of which was 40 per cent
complete on that date.
Mr.. OBrian, the majority con-
tinued, testified that this report by
the Army engineers was called to
Mr.. Nelson's attention January 81 by
the War Department, with request
for an investigation.
However, the majority continued
the Texas co-operatives were asked
by the W. P. B. to present data and
they claimed more than 40 per cent
completion.
Construction Of the Texas lines
later was halted temporarily. but on
February II the w. P. B. compliance
section permitted resumption of the
line from Possum Kingdom Dam tc
Garland.
The Sparkman-Brooks report ex-
pressed belief "Mr. Nelson should
have been called by the sucbommit-
tee and given a full opportunity tc
explain this matter"
This report, like Mr.. Fitzgerald's
asserted: mo representative of the
Rural Identification Administration
or the Arkla R. E. A. Cooperative
appears to have been called as wit.
ness and no representative of the
Federal Power Commission or OF.
f1cials from the city of Garland
Tex. all vitally concerned with the
building of the projects under con-
sideration, appear to have been giver
an opportunity to testify"