Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1947-06-27

Ourtime fighting the big is
sues, such as the Taft Hartley
and Van AIKEN bills. The ar
ticle below which / reviewed
this week for the JOURNAL
is a matter which / feel will
be of great interest to JOUR.
NAL readers.
Clayton RuSch
Take a look at your latest
bill for electricity. The rate
probably could go lower, so
that you could use more juice
for the same cost per month.
The profits of private power
companies in 1946 rose to
$685., 100000 after taxes, more
than 20P6 over 1914, and
probably will be bigger in
1947.
Rates for electricity have
gone up as much as other
prices because of: 1.-The COM
petition of public power, now
one-fifth of the total national
capacity; and, 2-the embar-
RAISING fact that, at present
rates, the private companies
are getting such big profits
as to make a cry of poverty
pretty hard to sell.
Despite high and rising
profits, your electricity bill
isn't likely to come down in
the near future. In fact, If the
present private power blitz
in Congress succeeds, it's like
ly to go up.
US. electric power produc-
tion and consumption have
been above wartime peaks
for the last seven months and
will go higher as materials
for more installations become
available to meet banked up
demand. Average annual
household use has jumped in
10 years from 735 to 1895
XVIII and could 60 to 5000,
the average In Washington
State, where thanks to public
power, rates are lower than
in IVA.
Allowing for all additional
power plants, private and
public, now bull d in g or
planned, and for maximum
output by the three firms
equipped to manufacture
generators, supply of power
will fall short of demand
will fall short of demand un-
unless we have a depression.
YOU PAY!
The men of little faith ap-
pear to be planning on de-
preston. They are the man
ayers of the National Associa-
tion of Electric Companies
who pay $4,000 year out
of your light bills to Purcell
Smith to lobby against con-
tinued public power develop
ment.
They want to get rid of the
embarrassing comparison of
public and private rates per
kilowatt hours. This is the only
logical explanation for the
current blitz. Having slowed
down building of new public
power plants at a time when
construction of both buildings
and generators should be
stepped up, these men who
are afraid of tomorrow, who
believe full employment is
neither possible nor desirable,
are perfectly willing to buy
public power at the damsite
and distribute it to consumers
at prices that will make COM
Portable profits on a volume
smaller than full production
and employment would re-
quire,
MEANING
This is the meaning of the
House cut of 47To in Interior
Dept. appropriations, in the
proposal to kill the Depart
ment's supervisory Power Di-
vision outright. Thruout the
budget requests were handled
so as to cut deepest on power
substations and distribution
lines, on the theory that the
consumers should "come and
get it,"
Guess who finagled these
cuts? The private utilities, of
course. The peoples power re.
sources, developed at public
expense, are to be merchan-
dised to consumers for private
profits.
If the Senate concurs and
the blitz goes through, this
means an intensified spread
ing throughout the west and
ultimately throughout the en-
tire nation, brown.out of