Evening star., 1954-12-18
By Joseph A. Fox


sion has moved back into the
Dixon Yates fight with an ob-
lique reminder to foes of the
power project that a stalemate
might be bad medicine for the
civilian consumers in the Ten
nessee Valley country II
Holding his first news confer
ence in three months. Atomic
Energy Commission Chairman
Lewis L. Strauss late yesterday
told newsmen that in event of
a power shortage in the Valley
because of lack of new facilities.
atomic installations would get
first call on the available supply,
at the expense of "other users"
The chairman's statement was
made during a questioning pc
riod, after he had sketched
through a lengthy statement-il-
lustrated with wall. chartS-eX-
planning the controversial ar
rangement, under which the COM
mission has contracted with the
Dixon-Yates syndicate for power
to be used in the Memphis area
by the Tennessee Valley Author
ity, as replacement for IVA pow
er going to atomic plants.
Expresses His Regrets.
While defending every aspect
of the controversial contract. Mr..
/ Strauss said:
Il can say I regret that this
contract is not being negotiated
| directly between the iva and
the companies"
/ He added that the Acc would
not have initiated the contract
except at the request of the
Bureau Of the Budget" and would
not "have completed the con-
tract except on orders from the
President"
The chairmen said Gen. EiSen-
hover did not require any advice
about the contract and that lit
was clear enough for him to use
his own judgment"
Issue Before S. E. C.
! The news conference came AS
the Securities and Exchange
Commission prepared to hear a
representative of the Atomic En-
ergy Commission at its inquiry
into the financial structure of the
Mississippi Valley Generating
Co., the Dixon-Yates operating
affiliate.
The A. E. c. chairman brushed
aside with a laugh a reporters
suggestion in calling the confer
ence he was raising a "bunber-
shoot" against the possibility of
a storm in Congress, where Dem
ocratS are threatening dire
troubles for the power contract.
He had wanted to hold such a
conference in September, he ex-
planned, but was advised against
it. Even this week the former
banker admiral continued, a
friend argued against the pub
licity plan, but Chairman Strauss
decided it was never too late to
do the right thing"
So yesterdays well-attended
meeting was the result.
Recalls 1853 Meeting.
At the outset. the chairman
said he wanted to take up the
contract story in narrative order,
and he went back to the we'll
publicized meeting at the Budget
Bureau last December, when the
then Budget Director, Joseph M.
Dodge, asked if it would be
feasible" to get private power
to assume some of the TWAS
atomic load"
AS preliminary negotiations
| got under way in the utility field.
President Eisenhower disclosed
his intention to halt the ex-
pansion of IVA, to which new
facilities had been denied. More
negotiations-then Middle South
Utilities, headed by Eugene H.
Dixon, and the Southern Com
pany. of which Eugene A. Yates
is board chairman. got together
on the plan to form Mississippi
Valley Generating.
F., MVG is to build a SLOT million
steam plant at West Memphis,
Ark, to shoot power in the IVA
grid, and the projected corpor-
atoms application for approval
under the Holding Company Act
~