The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-01-14

was no interruption OF service in Brevard
during the month of December!
So the big questions that are in our
mind and in the minds of practically ev-
cry REA member in this county is, what
really causes these Interruptions and can't
they be remedied? Are the spans too far
apart? Is there too much sagging? Are
the right-of-ways cleared? Is there ade-
quate cooperation in switching power ser
vice on at Ell<in or over towards Ashe and
Lenoir? Does the lineman need additional
assistance? Were these lines properly
constructed in the beginning for these
mountains? Etc.
All of us agree that electricity is man.
kinds greatest servant, but we all want
the best possible service. Frequent inter-
ruptions are expensive to business firms
and farmers. They are willing to pay and
do not care anything about running the
coop, but they want service at reasonable
rates. They want the billing to be devoid
of human error as much as possible. They
want expenses held down to a minimum.
And they want to receive vital informal
ton.
But the expensive bulletin, which was
issued without the approval of at least
some of the directors, if not ALL DID NOT
CONTAIN THAT INFORMATION! 1t was
a scornful attempt of Mr. Messick's to de-
ceive and to bolster up his own standing
To us the personal references were ex-
tremely amusing. We worked to help es-
tablish the REA for the benefit of our
farmers. We gave cooperation for it's ex-
tension on the towns because our power
facilities at time were not adequate for
future growth and the outlook for their
development was dark
We did not do this for special award
or favor but the truth is, that in soliciting
our cooperation in the beginning MIR. Mes
sick voluntarily stated that it would be
necessary for the coop to get great deal
Of information regularly to it's members
and that it would use the columns of our
papers for this purpose because they are
inexpensive. He declared that he was a
great believer in advertising, that it would
pay the coop and SO on. Well, of course
that was good news to us, but we had no
intentions or thoughts of getting rich off
of that advertising
Following up this voluntary commit
ment of his, Mr. Messick agreed in the
office in West Jefferson without any high
pressure selling whatever that the COOP
would run vital information in an agreed
size space in The Post and The News
every week. The first week passed, and
no copy came in. In reply to a call, he
stated that he had not had time to prepare
said copy, but would start it right away
Weeks passed and he finally stated that
he would have to get the approval of the
directors. He did not say that in the be-
ginning and later he stated that the di-
rectors had decided not to follow the plan
In the bulletin he states that during
July, 1912, the office at Lenior received
telephone call soliciting the cooperative
for a full page advertisement, again we
very patiently explained that we had no
funds whatsoever to pay for such unneces-
sary advertisement . to our surprise the
advertisement appeared in the Skyland
Post and we were promptly billed for it
as we'll as for the one that appeared in
the Allegheny News -" Our only reply
to that charge is that the ad was not
full page, it was less than a half of page
size. It was published June H. and not in
July. 1t was boosting the sale of war bonds
which the government had asked us to get
firms to do And if the advertisement was
not properly authorized, we have never
run ads that were properly authorized
and our local merchants KNOW our policy
of integrity along those lines because they
advertise with lis reonlarlv We NAV not