Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Mr. WEADOсk. Pardon me. I am not going to have to say that that was a P. W. A. proposition.

Mr. BIDDLE. Can you say yes or no?

Mr. WEADOCK. I say no, and I will explain why.

Mr. BIDDLE. Now explain.

Mr. WEADOCK. These cases, on P. W. A. were in existence throughout the country, and many had reached the court of appeals, and most of them were in the district courts. Some of those cases were confronted with the inability to have Mr. Ickes as a witness or to testify. In order to get service, those cases, quite a few of them, were transferred to Washington.

At the time the cases in Washington were before the district court, my recollection serves me that there were probably 10 companies involved. The first one to institute, or take advantage of the District of Columbia, was the little company out in Hominy, Okla.

As time went on, the companies who were parties to those suits, which had been consolidated by the court, were forced to sell out because of the aid of the P. W. A. loan and grant, and the remaining cases which were ultimately appealed to the United States Supreme Court, involved mostly towns in Alabama.

Is that the answer?

Mr. BIDDLE. Decatur and Hartzell were involved in this suit, were they not?

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes, sir; by consolidation.

Mr. BIDDLE. I don't care how, but they were involved and they were towns who had gotten allotments from P. W. A. in order to get T. V. A. electricity, were they not?

Mr. WEADOCK. Well, I presume that that was the purpose.

Mr. BIDDLE. Many other of these suits involved T. V. A. in that sense, did they not?

Mr. WEADOCK. I think that that is so; yes.

Mr. BIDDLE. Most of them?

Mr. WEADOCK. Most in that area.

Mr. BIDDLE. In that area?

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes.

Acting Chairman SCHWARTZ. And if any suit anywhere had developed that the P. W. A. was unconstitutional, that in turn would have affected these units down in the Tennessee Valley?

Mr. WEADOCK. Exactly.

Acting Chairman SCHWARTZ. And that in turn would have affected the T. V. A.?

Mr. WEADOCK. Exactly.

Mr. BIDDLE. Have you got Baker's and Beck's opinion?

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes, sir.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED BY THE EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE

Mr. BIDDLE. Would you say that the articles with respect to T. V. A. fairly represent the viewpoint of the bulletin, or the institute? Mr. WEADOCK. In that, I would say this, Mr. Biddle; those articles were printed in the bulletin, and we do not have any set-up of publicity people to do our writing, and what we do, if we see a speech which is delivered in a convention or at a meeting

Acting Chairman SCHWARTZ. Just for the record, what is "The Bulletin?"

Mr. BIDDLE. The Edison Electric Institute Bulletin, is whatMr. WEADOCK. It is our monthly publication, distributed to members, and open to public subscription. The copy that Mr. Biddle has

Mr. BIDDLE. These are copies of the bulletin, are they not? You can look at these.

Mr. WEADOCK. I will just have one here as a sample.

Mr. BIDDLE. There is a sample number.

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes.

Mr. BIDDLE. Would you just glance briefly at these and see if those are copies of your bulletin?

Mr. WEADOCK. Do you say that they are?

Mr. BIDDLE. Just glance at them. I don't want to get in any that isn't yours.

Representative WOLVERTON. What is the purpose of that, Mr. Biddle? Is it the purpose to show that these bulletins were published by the Edison Institute?

Mr. BIDDLE. Yes. The purpose is to have him identify his bulletins, and then put them in.

Representative WOLVERTON. Why not identify them as having been published by that organization; but did your question infer that they approved of everything that was in there?

Mr. BIDDLE. My question was only to identify the bulletins.

Representative WOLVERTON. That ought to be very easy to do. Mr. BIDDLE. Yes.

Mr. WEADOCK. Those are correct copies of our bulletin; and these, however, are not.

Mr. BIDDLE. Would you say the articles published in the bulletin express the point of view of the Edison Electric Institute, generally speaking?

Representative WOLVERTON. What articles do you refer to?

Mr. BIDDLE. The articles in the bulletin that I have just shown. him.

Representative WOLVERTON. Written by individuals, or articles. that were written by officers of the Edison, or resolutions that were passed by the Edison

Mr. BIDDLE. I think with one exception they were all written by officers of the Edison.

Mr. WEADOCK. That is not so. The copies that you have asked for, I think, there is a list there, and these are marked on the outside, I think that you can find officers of the Institute have delivered upon different occasions, speeches, I know that I have, and they are in there. Mr. Kellogg has, also. We did not confine our publication of speeches to our own people.

Mr. BIDDLE. Most of this material was written by Mr. Willkie, wasn't it?

Mr. WEADOCK. No, sir.

Mr. BIDDLE. Most of the T. V. A. articles?

Mr. WEADOCK. Well, as I don't know how many he has thereMr. BIDDLE. We are interested only in T. V. A. I am not interested in other articles.

Mr. WEADOCK. As far as I know, if Mr. Willkie made a speech that we thought was a pretty good speech, we ran it in the bulletin.

Mr. BIDDLE. You ran in the bulletin speeches and articles that expressed the general point of view of the Edison Electric Institute, didn't you? You didn't run articles that expressed other points of

view?

Mr. WEADOCK. The Edison Electric Institute has no distinct and separate point of view. If you want to know whether I am in favor of T. V. A. or opposed, I could answer, but I couldn't answer for the board.

Representative WOLVERTON. That is what I am getting at. It seems to me that the question that Mr. Biddle inferred, that by the publication of those articles in that magazine that it necessarily bound the Edison Institute, and I just wanted to make certain that that was the case.

Mr. BIDDLE. Let us ask the witness-it doesn't represent the Edison, you have no point of view, is that the answer?

Mr. WEADOCK. We have a very definite point of view, but I don't suppose that that is involved here.

Mr. BIDDLE. I thought that you said that you had no point of

view.

Mr. WEADOCK. By way of partisanship, we have no point of view. We are operating this bulletin as a guide, and as a trade magazine of the industry, involving all of the questions of the industry, technical, commercial, Government action, and so forth.

Mr. BIDDLE. You wouldn't publish articles that you didn't think gave a fair and honest p esentation of the facts, would you? Mr. WEADOCK. No, sir.

Mr. BIDDLE. Therefore these articles from your point of view do give a fair and honest presentation of the facts?

Mr. WEADOCK. But don't get the impression that because an article is printed in the bulletin that we are bound by what is in the article. Mr. BIDDLE. Certainly not.

Mr. WEADOCK. That is what I want to say.

Mr. BIDDLE. Certainly not. I showed Mr. Kellogg yesterdayActing Chairman SCHWARTZ. Are you going to refer to particular articles?

Mr. BIDDLE. I thought that I would offer these in evidence, because a great many were written by Mr. Willkie, and I would prefer to ask him as the author about them, rather than ask Mr. Weadock. Acting Chairman SCHWARTZ. If this record gets printed, do we want to reproduce all of these magazines?

Mr. BIDDLE. I don't think it is going to be printed. I hope not. (Whereupon the bulletins above referred to were received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 475.")

Mr. BIDDLE. Would you look at page 112 of the bulletin entitled "The Case for Private Ownership," from which Mr. Kellogg has already testified, and read the very brief paragraphs on page 112 entitled "TVA Rates"? On page 112.

Mr. WEADOCK. I think that we have extra copies of this, and I would be very glad to let the committee have it [reading]:

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY RATES

Question. Rates of the Tennessee Valley Authority are only half as much as the rates of privately owned electric utilities.

Answer. the Tennessee Valley Authority rates are political rates made without reference to cost. All the people of the United States are paying a large part of the bill of electric customers in a few Tennessee Valley Authority communities. And the authority for that statement is Mr. Willkie, in a speech delivered, "Who Pays the Bill?"

It is a case of the many being taxed for the benefit of a few.

The Tennessee Valley Authority fails to pay expenses. In 1935 the deficit on account of interest made up by the Treasury Department out of general funds amounted to 11⁄2 cents per kilowatt-hour sold.

The authority for that statement is Mr. William M. Carpenter, "Hidden Costs at Muscle Shoals," published in our bulletin.

If these rates were imposed on the whole United States, with no United States Treasury to fall back upon, all electric utilities, municipal and privately owned, would soon be bankrupt.

Mr. BIDDLE. Is that the material which is termed in your foreword of this pamphlet, an accurate presentation of the subject, which was used and sent to college debating societies so that they would have a fair view of it?

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes, sir.

Mr. BIDDLE. I think that that is all.

Mr. WEADOCK. Now, just one minute, if I may, Mr. Chairman. I would like, in view of Mr. Biddle's reference to this, to make a short explanation of what this really is. I think that you all have copies. We were requested by the National University Extension Course on Debate Material, which is an association which conducts annual debates throughout the high schools of the country, to furnish material for that debate upon our side of the question; as against that, the request was made in April, and we finally complied with it in September, hesitating in the meantime to do so. This book represents a part of our presentation.

Senator FRAZIER. Where did you say the request came from? Mr. WEADOCK. From the National University Extension Committee on Debate Material.

The T. V. A. was requested to supply material, and did do so, and after the T. V. A. had supplied its material, we supplied ours.

Representative WOLVERTON. Why did you say you hesitated? Mr. WEADOCK. Because under our purposes, we felt that it was not our duty to go into a school with information, we have been scrupulous to avoid any such action, and when the authorities requested it, I submitted the matter to the board of trustees, for their approval, before we did it.

Representative WOLVERTON. Well, I don't know why any apology should be made or hesitancy in granting a request of that kind. You still have the right to advance different viewpoints in this country. Mr. WEADOCK. I would hope so.

Representative JENKINS. In that connection, did you ever see what the T. V. A. sent out in response to that same request?

Mr. WEADOCK. Yes, sir; and I wouldn't say it was accurate or factual at all.

Representative JENKINS. Have you got a copy of that?

Mr. WEADOCK. I have somewhere, but not here.

Mr. BIDDLE. What was the date of it and we will try to get it.

Mr. WEADOCK. It runs over a period; you see these exhibits that I have given you gentlemen constitute our presentation.

Mr. BIDDLE. All right.

Mr. WEADOCK. Now, if the committee would desire, I would be very glad to furnish the rules of the debate, and our written request to participate.

Representative JENKINS. I think that that ought to be produced, but will we get, who is going to furnish us now with what the T. V. A. produced in response to the same request. Will you do that, Mr. Counsel?

Mr. BIDDLE. We have a complete-not only summary-but all of the press releases of the T. V. A., available at anytime, particularly in the yardstick question.

Representative JENKINS. I want to know with reference to this thing, you brought out this debate, and you inferred that it wasn't exactly proper on their part.

Mr. BIDDLE. We thought when we called the T. V. A. witnesses we would confront them with their releases in the same way, and produce them in evidence.

Representative JENKINS. Be sure that you do.

Representative WOLVERTON. I don't take from what you say, Mr. Biddle, that there is any impropriety in their having done so, as indicated by Mr. Jenkins?

Mr. BIDDLE. That is a matter of judgment, and I would defer to the committee in that.

Mr. WEADOCK. If that is involved, I would be very glad to go into this, because I feel that there can be no conscientious objection to what was done.

Mr. BIDDLE. It didn't seem to me that the statement in the bulletin

Representative WOLVERTON. I don't think that we need to have the judgment of the committee. I thought that we could express our opinions in America.

Mr. BIDDLE. I think that the question is whether that is a fair factual expression of the facts, rather than a point of view which might be termed propaganda, and which the witness doesn't think is unfair propaganda, and that is a matter for the considered judgment of the committee, I should think.

Representative WOLVERTON. That is the value of what they have given as facts, that is for the judgment of the committee, but I would hate to see the committee put in a position that it was deciding whether this constituted a right to express a viewpoint.

Mr. BIDDLE. Certainly not. I think that this institute should express its viewpoint always, under any circumstances, if done on a factual, fair basis.

Representative WOLVERTON. Well, Mr. Jenkins' remarks indicated that you were offering it for that purpose, and I thought it was doing you an injustice to let the record stand on that.

Mr. BIDDLE. I am very glad that you corrected that, and I appreciate that, and of course the institute ought to express its opinions under all circumstances, but I think it is interesting to know what the opinions are, and how they are based.

Representative JENKINS. Everybody knows that this wasn't brought here to help this man's testimony, it was brought here to confute him, rather than to assist him in any way.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »