The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-10-05


IVA engages in only one bushes
: operation, namely, the generation {
electric current and the sale of tha
current wholesale.
On the matter of government col
porations competing with private bus
ness, | would like to quote from a
address by S. R. Finley, general 81
perintendent of the Electric Powe
Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee
Quote;
almost solely as a result of tn,
low rates for electricity and likewis
on account of the assured availabilit,
of large volume of water, nation
ally-known corporation has purchased
land in Chattanooga and after the wa
will establish large nylon plant, EN-
ploying approximately eight hundred
people, initially, with plans to expand
this to over three thousand later
It's not hard to see that three thou
sand additional jobs in our city at the
liberal wage scale which the Dupont
corporation pays will be of great bene
! fit
'The privately-owned power com
pany previously sold electrical appli
ances in competition with local deal
ers and did pretty good job of it. Our
board Immediately discontinued this
practice when we purchased the com
pany and began an energetic sales
promotion program to encourage the
sale of electrical appliances by private
dealers. In the first two years follow.
ing the purchase of the system by our
board, and the Inauguration of the
low rates which we placed into eff
feet, the sale of electrical appliances
by private dealers in Chattanooga was
phenomenal, greatly exceeding those
being previously made by the private
power company and those dealers who
had previously sold these. Many new
dealers went into the business and
those already in greatly expanded
their sales program. Compared to
1888, year in which the power com
pany and dealers sold approximately
a million dollars worth of appliances,
in 1871 the dealers by themselves sold
over three million dollars worth Our
board services electrical appliances
with repairs.
Each year our publicly-owned sys-
tenn has paid as tax equivalents
amounts representing taxes formerly
paid upon the private company's prop
erty which we acquired and in 1914
our power board readjusted our prin-
ciple of tax payments so as to in
clude payments at the going rate, upon
rs percent of the net additions and ex-
tensions made to the property. AS
result of this, for 1914 the city of
received 40 percent more
in ad valorem taxes from our board
than it did from the privately-owned
in 1888. Liwekise, the city
has annually had a cash saving of
over so thousand dollars in its cost
of electricity for such city uses as
street lighting, school lighting, public
building lighting, etc." End quote.
Congress authorized the construc-
ton of Fort Peck dam in Montana
about II years ago. The IVA Act was
passed by Congress in 1888. Authori-
cation and construction Of the two
large dams on the Columbia river was
at later date.
Fort Peck dam was constructed by
the Corps of Army Engineers and
was completed early in 1889. A $4,000
1iloWatf hour oanorator boa 49,. a.,
stalled and power has been sold to
,wo private utility companies operat-
ng in Montana and North Dakota.
Plans originally contemplated the in
'tallation of generators of 105, 900 |
xilowatt hour capacity and orders
lave been received, according to an
Alp dispatch, of September 10, 1916,
or the installation of a new power
init Immediately; this will raise the
lilowatt hour capacity to $4,000.
No water from Fort Peck dam has
'een used for irrigation to date and
10 power for any purpose has been
delivered to farmers to date. In con-
rast to this, according to testimony
PRESENTED to the senate commerce
the IVA marketed g.
0O,00O,OOO kilowatt hours of current
n that area last year. The Bonnie
lille Power administration, during the
anne period, marketed nine million
.ilowatt hours at an average cost Of
wo and one-third mills.
According to the Sloan report, there
re $4,000 acres of land in the Vel
owstone river valley that could be
irrigated if power was available at low
nough cost. The Bureau of Reclama-
ion has been operating in Montana
Or about forty-three years and to date
as not generated one kilowatt hour
f electrical current in the state.
hese statements are not offered as
riticisms of either agency mentioned,
ut are statements of the facts as
ley are in and indicate why we I
trmers believe we should have a re- t
lonal authority following the pattern q
iva established in our region.
It might be pointed out also that Z
he Army Engineers constructed and ]
re operating Bonneville dam and '
over plant on the Columbia river. q
he Bureau of Reclamation construct I
the dam and power plant which c
ley operate at Grand Coulee. Yet =.
lere is an insistent demand from the
eople and many of the men employed
government bureaus and agencies
II Columbia Valley Authority to CO.
'dinate and give direction to the
ork of the many government agen-
es operating in that region. Il