The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1950-04-21
By JEROME c.. LOCKE

Greeks wheeled gigantic wooden horse the Troy
and presented it to the Trojan defenders AS the
ing Trojans pushed the horse thru the city platoon
heavily armed Greek soldiers debarked from inside
held the until the army entry captured
the city late when Troy thereafter
lived under the slogan that has been embazoned the
of history that today
we'll not to forget the ancient slogan.
For half century past private companies have been
electric that is running
They have gradually built private monopoly
financially profitable and politically powerful AS great
factor Montana future development this
DAMS reservoirs houses and transmission lines
something which have call get highly excited
Generally the reservoirs small and have little
storage capacity to materially regulate stream flow This
means that dams low and do not develop than
small fraction of the head fall that might have utl
lied In some such Canyon Ferry excellent sites have
been ruined by these low and inefficient dams Much of the
ngy inefficient The same is true OF transmission lines as
CARDS both capacity and structural pattern On the whole the
existing private system has been sufficient de-
mands IN the past but now has neither the capacity ec
basic engineering backbone properly the needs
of the future
Nor there all past any pronounced effort
the part of private ownership to develop
system that would be adequate for the future Power rates
remained high years prior the REA
small communities helpless their
efforts hydroeecrc lights Rural residents
to pay for installation
title of these the Thereafter they paid
for current at the fixed rate AS result
ous little rural service into being
When REA entered the field the private companies
did become active They started out to sign the
densey populated and to build transmission
the business and keep the REA from get
ting real foot hold in Montana. In competition with the
Vgane Coop REA the TownsendToson the power
tried to build competing parallel transmission
line.
The foregoing of the things that occurred locally
On the national level private accurate
to the Private Power Trushave waged and finally lost
long and bitter battle to development of public
y owned They have repeatedly sought to amend the
laws that such where developed would by mandatory
provision be turned to them at the busbar Again beat
they marshaed their political forces stop construction
of government owned transmission lines Temporarily
spots they have had in all these obstructive
tactics On the whole the current is running the other
and the Big Boys good deal of what looks like hand
ing the wall.
However, another has just their sleeve
couple of they would discuss such
thing they want to build the transmission and enter
into contracts with the REAs to whee their power AS
nice juicy bait toward wheeling
Power Co. has cut the sales rates by
the SIS mills XIV hr that Bureau of Reclamation
charging This is nice cushy concession the part
ANA Power Company BUT
Most of the REA members patrons will probably exer
their matter to the extent of realizing that
he long price of will be determined Just
Kings namely who that and who the
lines that must be used to transport said
will be used Not farmers would pull down their
fences simply because neghbor had promised
his stock off the doubt whether of them
will fall for the Power Companys sweet plea You
10 Besides good deal of is from the
cut in rates-t should have been
ears