The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-07-13
RIVER TRAFFIC
BENEFITS TOLD
lin OMAHA MEET
Official of Chattanooga,
Tenn, Tells of Increased
Business Opportunities
Brought by IVA; Electric
Service Extended.
By MAX COFFEY
In Omaha World Herald

| Benefits of river transportation
were emphasized Saturday by s. R
Finley, general superintendent of the
Chattanooga (Tenn) Power Board, in
a speech at the conference held at
the Fontenelle Hotel by the Regional
Committee for MVA.
| Mr.. Finley said traffic on the Ten
nessee River has increased nearly six
times since development of the rivers
valley was begun.
| There soon will be nine-foot chan
mel from Knoxville, Tenn, to the
mouth of the Tennessee River. he
said, and "the use of this channel for
transportation of freight by water has
been increasing by leaps and bounds"
Chattanooga now receives a large
amount of grain, petroleum products,
sand and gravel and other bulk prod
ucts by water, and when materials
and equipment are available for ex-
pansion of barge lines after the war,
q great deal more freight traffic will
move in and out of Chattanooga by
barges."
Mr. Finley pointed out that the
larger steel barges hold up to three
thousands tons of freight "as much
as rs railroad boxcars-and a tow
boat can push couple of dozen of
them.
81 can say frankly that you won't
find our railroads promoting the use
of river transportation" Mr. Finley
declared. What they really object
to is the complete development of the
Mississippi river and it's tributaries as
a waterways transportation system,
for they know that this is a method
of transportation that can be used
without t h e permission O Wall
Street.
Mr.. Finley heads public power
system which purchases electrical
energy from IVA. Chattanooga voted
in 1885 to buy the private power sys-
tenn after "a heated campaign which
nearly wrecked the hithertofore peace
full composure of the community" and
resulted in "split families, broken
business partnership, disrupted church
and neighborhoods.
Power Savings Told
In 1889 Chattanooga and 81 other
and electric co-opera-
tives acquired the entire property of
the Tennessee Electric Power Com
pany, except the street-car systems
for IS million dollars Chattanooga |
share was $10,S50,000.
The purchase price, Mr. Finley said,
permitted the power company to pay
off in full all its bondholders and pre-
ferred stockholders and 'left a good |
many million dollars for the common |
stock, which was of rather doubtful |
value"
In the six years of public operation, |
electricity users haye saved over Is
tricity,D based on the average rates
in 1888, last year of private operation,
Mr.. Finley said.
Each year, he said the public-owned |
power company has paid as tax equiv
ilents the amounts the private com
)any paid in taxes, and in 1914 it paid
he city 40 per cent more than the
private company pdlu Ill 1896.
Service Extended
In addition, Mr.. Finley said, the city
las had an annual cash saving of
more than so thousand dollars for
such city uses as street, school and
public building lighting, although the
,ity pays the same rate as any other
customer.
In the past six years, electric serv
ce in Chattanooga has been extended
o nine thousand new customers.
One of the first acts under public
ownership was to take the company
,ut of the electric appliance business
ind encourage sale of appliances by
private dealers.
In 1888, Mr. Finley said, the private
)ower company and other dealers sold
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