DooorJ\
SMALL QUARTERS of BEEF
and ■
LARGE SIDES of VEAL
for your L0CKSB5
NEW LOCKERS ARE NOW
AVAILABLE
PRIVATE POWER LOBBY
SEEKS ELIMINATION OF' COM
PETITION OFFERED BY
ELECTRIC CO-OPS
~ill the two-million Jtaerican farms which
today still are without electric light
and power remain dark in the future?
The answer to this question depends on the
final result of a vital struggle being
wared both on the home grounds of rural
electric co-ops and in Congress between
those who believe in the right of all
people to have electric power and those
who place their profit-hunger above that
basic right.
leading the attack on the program to give
power to all people are the private power
companies of America who failed to elec
trify rural America for 50 years—and who
were finally driven to serve some more of
the neglected rural areas only by cooper
ative 'competition financed by Federal
loans. These companies tried in the past
session of Congress to eliminate any fur
ther authorisation of'government loans to
rural electric co-ops, and sought to slip
through bills which would*injure the pro
gram as it already exists.
In spite of the fact that competition from
electric cooperatives, public power dis
tricts and public utility districts organ
ized td serve farmers from RSA-financed
po7/er lines drove the private power com
panies into an expanded effort to build
more lines in jural areas, the co-ops
overtook the private companies in serving
a larger number of farms during the first
part of this year. This young, new com
. '** •" Oontinued in next column
PRIVATE POWER LOMllES Cent,
petition fresn the co-ops, who. have found
new wa^-s of doing the job cheaper and
better, has made the private companies
see the profits they could"have had by
serving rural areas sooner.' That is one
reason for their attack now.
The utility trust’s effort is primarily
aimed at selling the American’public and
the Congress on a ficticious idea that ~
rural electric .co-ops represent "govern
ment interference" with private business.
The power companies can sell this idea in
many influential places because of a wide
spread lack of sound information regarding
the manner in which rural electric co-ops
are organized and operate in relation to
the government.
Eor instance, the loans made to'oo-op3 by
REA are not in any sense a gift. They are
paid back to the government over a 35
year neriod with interest. Nor are REA
loans provided to co-ops in a ltirnp sum.
VThen a co-op is first organized, member
ship fees paid by individual members pays
for an engineering .study which is the
basic plan for’serving their farms with
electric power. This study is sent'to
REA along with the loan application. Only
after REA approves the study and the ap
plication is any loan granted to the Co-op.
Succeeding loans are granted on a siroilar
sound and orderly basis. Yet the private
power trust has been able to convince
otherwise well-informed business and gov
ernment leaders that REA loans are "gifts."
During and since the war an increasing
backlog of loan applications has piled up
and REA lacks the loan authorizations to
handle them. Meantime farmers’ demands"
for rural electric power are increasing.
Larger authorizations for loarls can enable
co-ops to serve these fanners, cut only
Congress can authorize the necessary loans.
To date, the loudest trumpeting in the
ear of Congress has been that of the hard
driving private power lobby.
Efforts of farmers acquaint their Congress
men and their associates in nearby com
munities uith the true fact's about the'
rural electrification should pay off with
large dividends. There is no vfcic© more
: powerful in the nation today than the one
which comes from the grass roots of
.America.
Note: The above information was prepared
by tho National Rural Electric Coopera
tive Association of which the Matanuska
Electric Association is a member.
We have newspapers to think for'us, pro
fessionals to play games for us, movies
to make love for us, advertisements to
choose goods for us--about all we are
allowed to do for ourselves is to work
and shell out the price.