The people's voice. [volume], June 04, 1954, Page Page Two, Image 2

About The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
Scarcity, High Costs, Will Be
Fruits of Ike's Power Policy
♦
The Federal power program, which broke the bottleneck of
scarce and costly electric power during the Roosevelt and Tru
man Administrations, is in the process of liquidation by the Re
publicans, according to the ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, publica
tion of the CIO Department of Education and Research.
"If the Eisenhower Administra-*
tion is successful in dismantling the
federal power program" the depart
ment warns in the ECONOMIC OUT
LOOK, "the American people will
be confronted with an inadequate
supply of high-cost electric power."
A blueprint for getting the gov
ernment out of the power business
and giving it to private enterprise
was outlined by former President
Hoover in April 1953, the OUTLOOK
recalls.
The blueprint has been followed
pretty closely, the
maintains. The first session of the
83rd Congress killed a TVA steam
plant, refused to authorize new
hydro dams, and slowed down work
cn dams under construction. The
Department ofllhe Interior has re
versed past policies, moving to give
away the best dam sites and to
negotiate long-term sales contracts
OUTLOOK
.
with private industry over the pro
tests of REA co-operatives.
"The consequences of the Eisen
howed-Hoover policy, if permitted to
go on, will be both economic and
warns, i
j
political," the OUTLOOK
"They include:
1. "Restoration of overwhelming
control over electric power resources
to the private monopoly companies
which have always sought high prof
its from a scarcity of power, refusing
to expand until customers are lined
up and waiting for energy. This will
handicap economic development and
increase the difficulty of maintain
ing an expanding economy.
2. "A freeze on the development of
the great electro-process industries,
which produce such defense-vital ma
terials as titanium, aluminum, mag
nesium and phosphate fertilizer need
ed to conserve our basic soil re
sources.
3. "Increased cost of extracting
and using lower grade metal ores, in
cluding iron. (It will take 70 to 80
kilowatt hours of electricity to ex
tract and concentrate a ton of I.ake
Superior low-grade ore, according to
the President's Materials Policy Com
mission.)
4. "An end to great regional de
velopments like the Bonneville area
in Oregon and the Tennessee Valley
—which are already grinding to a
stop—because the basic, revenue-pro
viding power sites are being given
away to private corporations.
5. "Increasing electric rates for
homes and farms, a consequent
freeze in electric power use, a slow
er growth in the appliance indus
tries and a loss in living standards."
The OUTLOOK says the Republi
cans and the private power companies
are trying to confuse the entire issue
with cries of "creeping socialism."
TIDELANDS OIL—The oil corporations grabbed over $300
billion worth of oil and other resources off the coasts of four
states, as a result of the Eisenhower administration's giving
away federal rights to the tidelands. Revenues from these lands
could have gone to aid our ailing school system.
PUBLIC POWER—The $560 million Hells Canyon project
in Idaho was dropped. Private companies will provide half the
power, at higher cost, without flood control. Power from exist
ing dams is being turned over to private companies and plans
are afoot to sell all government projects to private companies.
"This is thievery by legislation," said Senator Morse of Oregon.
ATOMIC ENERGY—-The GOP Congress is considering an
Atomic Energy Commission plan to turn over ownership and
development of atomic energy facilities to private corporations.
At stake are $10 billion in public funds already invested, plus
the entire future of an industry that may become the largest in
THE GIVE AWAY
the country.
PUBLIC INDUSTRIES--—Already up for sale are the govern
ment's $550 million synthetic rubber industry, a $75 million
experimental oil plant, and "minor" projects.
PUBLIC LANDS—Several bills have been introduced by thp
GOP which would hand over 458 million acres of federally
owned lands, containing an estimated one trillion dollars worth
of lumber, minerals, grazing acreage, coal and oil shale re
sources to private interests,
TAX MONEY—Tax reductions in the billions (permitting
^apid write-offs on plants) have been given to companies to
build new plants, mainly in non-union areas. The "old" plants in
unionized areas are the first to close in a recession. In addition,
the excess profits tax has been eliminated, and reduced taxes
on dividends will shortly go into effect.
"Socialism isn't the issue," it in
sists. 'Neither is it any other ism..'
"The issue before the* American
people is clear and simple: Are we
going to have an adequate and grow
ing supply of electric power at the
lowest possible cost?
"The practical result of the Re
publican policy is likewise clear:
If the Eisenhower Administration
is successful in dismantling the
federal government's power pro
gram that was built up over- the
past 25 years, the American people
will be confronted with an inade
^gljg CaRVOR Had IdallO
_ _ # .
0 V 3 l Ifl ? 5 I
quate supply of high-cost electric
power."
. WASHINGTON, D. C. — Idaho
p ower company as recent as early in
1951 "clearly endorsed" and sought
to buy power from the proposed fed
eral dam before it "had a change of
life," Michael W. Straus, former U.
i g. reclamation commission, said here
j recently.
He made his statement while testi
fying at the power commission hear
ings on Idaho Power company's ap
plication to build three dams in Hells
Canyon region of the Snake River |
between Idaho and Oregon.
Straus sought to show that the
company approved the federal project
early in 1951—then suddenly decided j
to build dams itself,—LSW REGIS
STER.
■
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DEMAND THE UNION LABEL !
-ter.
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WE PLANNED A BIG
CAM HERE TO PROVIDE INv
FOR EXPANDING -*• ' AN
POWER NEEDS
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vf BUT NOW OUR
JAvd little dam £
J WILL BLOCK
\ YOUR PLANS
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Economic Outlook, CIO.
I960.?
I
1955
1950
1945
1930
1935
1940
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Electric Rates
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" RIG
RATE STRUCTURES
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'YARDSTICK"
HYDRO-ELECTRIC
PLANTS BUILT
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' STOP
NEW DAMS
AN P
PLANTS
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J POWER
RATE STRUCTURES
AND
BOOK-KEEPING
DEBUNKED
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'M PUBLIC POWER
TO
PRIVATE
companies
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BUILD
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POWER
MONOPOLY
BROKEN
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Economic Outlook, CIO.
Labor's Interest in Hells Canyon Ignored
WASHINGTON, D. C.—
Federal Power Commission
out of the hearing record on
the broad interests labor and
of a high federal dam versus
the Snake River.
FPC hearing examiner William J.
Costello has ordered struck from the
record the economic exhibits Presi
dent Evan W. Weston of the Wash
ington State Federation of Labor
tried to insert, showing how increas
ing joblessness in the Pacific North
west accentuates labor's interest in
the issue.
Costello previously similary up
held power company lawyers' ef
to strike from the record
testimony by other witnesses show
ing the irrigation and other bene
fits that would flow from a high
forts
federal dam at Hells Canyon.
Costello has tried to keep the hear
ings confined to the narrow issue of
the firm's application—production
of power from its proposed series of
Bensonized" Dairy Prices
Tumble Wisconsin
farm InCOHie
u
Due largely to a sharp decline
in prices received for dairy prod
ucts, the buying power of the
farmer's dollar took a big tumble
in Wisconsin during April, and hit
its lowest level since October of
1941.
The purchasing power of the
farm dollar, the ratio of prices
paid by farmers to prices received,
during April was more than five
per cent below a year earlier, ac
cording to the Federal-State Crop
Reporting Service for Wisconsin.
As a whole, Wisconsin farm prod
uct prices were seven per cent be
low the same month in 1953, while
prices paid by farmers had dropped
less than two per cent.
The preliminary estimate of
prices received for milk by Wis
consin farmers in April shows an
average of $3.05 a hundred pounds
for milk for all uses, which is 25
cents below the March average and
42 cents under the same month a
year earlier.—FARMERS UNION
HERALD.
In colonial days in Boston, a candi
date for governor of Massachusetts,
had. to be a "Christian worth 1,000
pounds."
(LNS)—The Idaho Power Co. and
officials are succeeding in knocking
Hells Canyon testimony showing
other groups have in the issue
three low private utility dams on
i three low-head, comparatively low
j power output dams,
I
WANT FULL STUDY
The opponents of the application,
headed by the National Hells Canyon
Association of which Weston is di
rector and eight Washington state
public utility districts, want all as
pects to be considered.
Weston tried to insert economic
charts showing labor's interest in
low-cost public
record but the exhibits were strick
en on
power into the
technicalities.
The charts showed Pacific North
worse than
west unemployment is
the nation's as a whole, and seasonal
joblessness there is much worse each
year when logging drops in the win
One chart showed that total un
employment in the Pacific North
west rose 41 per cent-from 137,000
to 193,900—from February 1953 to
February 1954. * |
Idaho's joblessness jumped most,
80 per cent; Washington state's, 37
j per cent; Oregon's, 31 per cent. By
February 1954 Washington had 85,- i
700 jobless, Oregon had 72,000 out |
of work, and Idaho had 36,200 in
the same predicament.
!
Other tables showed that Pacific .
JOBLESSNESS GROWS
Northwest joblessness has been grow- :
ing with the decline of the lumber
industry there; that most of the
booming population of the area is
going into industries depending on
plenty of low-cost power-chemicals
and allied products, aircraft, atomic
energy, and metals, and industries
serving or dependent on these.
THE TAKE AWAY
FIVE MILLION JOBS—The Republican "recession" has al
ready cost five million workers their jobs. The administration
says there is nothing to worry about. Big Business wants a
limited depression. It aims to use it as a weapon to weaken
unions, cut wages, eliminate small business competitors.
HOUSING—The low-cost federal housing program has been
killed. The administration asked for only 35,000 new apart
ments, and Congress may eliminate even that. The original
inadequate program called for 175,000 units. Rent control is
ended. Even those who can afford the down payment on a house
find mortgage interest rates upped,
HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE—The federal gov
trnment now spends more money on tombstones than on heart
disease research. Medical research and hospital construction
wtre cut to the bone. Federal aid to education was blocked com- •
pletely.
SOCIAL SECURITY STEAL—Bills are in the hopper to rob
the $18 billion social security fund, end federal supervision of
Unemployment Insurance, and carry out a U. S. Chamber of
Commerce plan to turn Social Security into a "dole,
LABOR AND PROTECTIVE LAWS—Labor Department
funds have been slashed brutally, hitting at enforcement of min
imum wage, child labor laws, and safety laws. An FEPC to
prevent discrimination in hiring Negro and minority workers
was buried by Ike.
FARMERS STANDARDS—Price supports for farmers are
being cut by the Republicans at a time when farmers
ready in a serious depression. Rural Electric Co-operatives
threatened with loss of their rights to public power. The Soil
Conservation Service has been crippled by budget cuts._March
Conservation Service has been crippled by budcret cuts —
MARCH OF LABOR.
' *
f
are al
are
%
Weston said "Labor's primary in
terest (in the power question) is in
the steady growth of employment
and payrolls in the Pacific North
west."
Asked if the Pacific Northwest
provide enough jobs
the
j economy can
if the small dams are built on
Snake River, between Idaho and
Oregon, by a private power firm,
he answered "No." To meet some
of the problem* facing labor and
industry . . , abundant low cost
power is required."
Weston testified that serious un
employment in the area is due to
population growing faster than for
the nation as a whole, and that in
dustry has not been growing fast
enough to provide new jobs.
INDUSTRY MUST EXPAND
"Not only must Pacific Northwest
industry expand, but it must expand
j faster than industry in the United
I States a s a whole. In my judgment,
this requires abundant new supplies
of \°^ C ° st P ower -"
Asked what remedy he proposes
for a ' e * Ion , so h ^ vll >' dependent
u P on th « Product (lumber) m de
chmng demand. . Weston said :
. The <^n should develop other
>n<l^tnes which have more promising
* rovvtl ! P^pects. The Pacific North
w< f- ^wever is handicapped in its
industrial ,development by an un
favorable freight rate picture In the
" ears s,Dce , 1 u fre, * ht ,ates > nt °
eastern markets have-gone up about
70 per cent making it very difficult
for western products to compete . . .
"Even though the Pacific North
west is at a disadvantage on freight
rates the region has a very great
advantage over other parts of the
country . . . our substantial hydro
electric potential . . . we must en
courage and stimulate industries
which require abundant low-cost
power . .