Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-07-18

THROUGH THE EFFORTS of ]. c.
L (Kid) Nichols, a million farm
homes have been ightened-not
only through better lighting but also
through a tightening of work in
general. Nichols halls from Wyo-
ming ranch, a Chicago industrial
business office and a Washington,
D. c., office from which is directed
the REA co-operatives he has or
gained, and which now provide
electricity for nearly a million farm
and ranch homes.
His friends, among whom I claim
a place, know ]. c. Nichols as
kid" name that is legacy Of
his boyhood years in a northwest
lumber camp. I have known Nj
chols for many years. have known
him as a successful industrialist,
producing from number of south
ern state mills a line of specially
lumber. I have known him as
western rancher, with the latch
string of his commodious ranch
home, some 30 miles from Cody,
Wyo., always on the outside to be
pulled whenever opportunity offers
by any of his thousands of friends.
I have known him as a hunter of
big game ranging from the Arctic
ocean to Panama on this continent,
and over a considerable portion of
Africa. The trophies that adorn his
Wyoming home, his Chicago office
and the quarters of the Adventur-
ers' club in Chicago pay tribute to
| his proves.
had not known, until a recent
visit with him, of his interest
in the farm and ranch families
of all America, and especially
those of the central, southern
and mountain states. or of his
activities in their behalf. Even
though space was available,
which it is not, I could not tell
the details of the story covering
those activities. but I remem-
Der how it started.
OBTAINED FEDERAL LOAN
Nichols wanted electricity for his
ranch home in Wyoming, as did
others of his widely spaced neigh
bors. Twenty miles of mountains
lay between Nichols home and the
nearest source of supply the Cody
dam in the Yellowstone river.
An investigation disclosed that
100 miles of wire could carry juice
to 104 ranch homes scattered
among the valleys of the northern
Wyoming mountains. The electric
light and power companies could
not afford to string 100 miles of
wire up and down and over, the
mountains for the amount of juice
that could be sold to the lO4 homes.
Nichols looked up the law that
established REA. He found that
under prescribed conditions an or
gained group could secure from
RFC through REA a government
provided all of the 1O4 ranchers
would sign up as members of CO.
operative. He secured the sigma
lures. The line was built. The 104
ranchers have light and power sup
piled from the electric company at
Cody. The loan has been repaid,
and everybody is happy.
That, experience put Nichols
into the business of organizing
cO-ops for supplying electricity
to farm and ranch homes. He
does not follow that business as
vocation, but as an avocation.
His pay is in the pleasure he
gets from seeing electric light
and power available on the
farm and in the farm home.
Today Nichols prob bly,
knows the occupants of more
farm and ranch homes than
any other one man in the ma
ton. Thousands of them class
him as their friend. His farmer
co-ops have paid out. The gov
eminent has received, or is re-
ceiving, its money back plus in
tereSt.
Today Nichols looks after the CO.
ops he has organized. He spends |
more time in Washington than at |
either his Wyoming home or his
Chicago office. In fact, he told me
he had turned his lumber manu-
featuring business over to his en-
ployees, and that they were doing a
better job than he ever did.
California Weather Lore
WHEN THE FASTENER goes
to California he should forget the
weather lore by which he has regu-
lated his eastern activities. 1t is
meaningless on the west coast. The
sun setting clear at night is not a
guarantee of clear skies tomorrow.
Blue sky, sufficient to make a sailor
a pair of pants, does not mean it
will stop raining, once it has
started. 1t may be pouring again in
few minutes. When it starts rain
ing before 7, there is no assurance
it will stop before II.
WHAT does your town, county or
state government do for you that it
did not do 20 years ago? Whatever
it may be, is it essential or could