Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 30, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 April 1935 — Page 9

Second Section

IT.VA.~A SOCIAL TEST TUBE I wicc *" “^\(f o^my^^^^TT *^ OO<:A j ' £ _. ;wi o<> -*>/| wMttit® M V \ ,j> coat 1/ //y y) S3 || _ \ni & 7 v y(/\ \ .jMbUL t / \ ■'ll rtSr*-*r> CO'* }/ ? J 1 \ /, t- / , a B. A .. oopppk V y l T pper, Left to Right—Arthur E. Morgan, chairman of the hoard of r_ 'J V ~' s V _ r y //" V,, >a (he Tennessee Valley Authority; David E. Lilienthal, director of TVA; i O** vq /r\ r T T a v. / % Harcourt A. Morgan, another director of TVA; Norris Dam as it will C° r\ 1 L O' /v J 9 ? / !?*[ t B. -r-fv /O rs appear when completed, and Wheeler Dam as it will appear when the fa £*\ | ( / TT % \ - (O J • (\ / Sr 1 Center. Insert—This is a view of Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, , f ll J Lower and Background—This map. showing the area of the TVA <0 r * * |/ / Cos t TpN \ ~%, and giving the physical operations of the section, outline to The Times c ! av, J \ \ - reader the territory covered by Mr. Tow ell in his tour.

BY TALCOTT POWELL Editor of The Times 'T'HE Tennessee Valley Authority is the test tube of the New Deal. Its huffe proving - ground embraces the whole watershed of the Tennessee River—-10,000 square miles wherein live 2.000,000 people. Parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia are included. Here for nearly two years a vast social experiment has been taking shape. The Roosevelt Administration has there placed the present economic order under a microscope, is taking it apart and by the scientific method attempting to rebuild it.

The goal is to discover how the Republic may arrive at a permanent economy of abundance. The TVA’s approach to this objective is through a readjustment of agriculture and industry, bringing them into companionship. Enlightened and liberal capitalism is the underlying philosophy. Labor must get more, says TV A. capital must take less if our particular type f economy is to survive. Little Is generally known about the real purpose of TVA although there has been no secrecy on the part of its management. There are three reasons for this. First, the project is so vast that to comprehend it one must give it days of study covering hundreds of miles on the ground. Such an investigation costs time and money which few have been willing to spend. Second, the war-time Muscle 6hoals power and munitions plant was made an integral part of TVA. For years this government enterprise hpd been before the public as a public power project. Because of this people believe that the TVA fs merely a combination yardstick and bull-whip to use on privatelyoperated utilities. Third, the TVA has made no effort to sell itself to the country. Its directors prefer to wan until their experiment has demonstrated more results, although, as this series of articles will show, such results are already taking very tangible form. Unlike some of the other NewDeal agencies, the TVA has no highpowered press agents. It has an efficient information service which swings Into operation only when it receives a request for its services. m m m ENEMIES Os the TVA are fond of comparing the project with the collectivized farms of Communistic Russia or the corporative state of Fascist Italy. TVA executives point out that the only similarity among the three is that all involve broad-gauge, regional planning. Stalin and Mussolini both rely on force and coercion if* success. The TVA has no spe-

Fnil Leased Wire Sei rice of the CnSted Pr*-** Atmoeimlon

rial dictatorial powers, yet to succeed it must have the co-operation of the 2.000.000 residents of the Tennessee Valley. It is getting this only through skilled persuasion and example. The TV A is spending $4,000,000 a month of which $1,200,000 meets a pay roll of 13.445 persons. An idea of the extent of the project may be gained from the fact that TV A cars have covered 4.000.000 miles in the last eight months at a cast of 4 86 cents a mile. It is one New Deal experiment which, although it is a test tube, is expected to show profits. This, the experts point out, is logical since the TVA should make money if it is to point the way to private enterprise to do the same thing under the changed economic order it seeks to bring about. By far the greatest slice of TVA's $48,000,000 a year is going to the construction of the gigantic Norris, Wheeler and Pickwick dams on the Tennessee River. Another dam is being discussed for Paducah, Ky\, and still others are proposed. They are necessary to bring the vast forces of the river under control and turn them from their present destruction to useful purposes. The dams will eliminate millions of dollars of average expenditure in the lower Mississippi Valley for levees and jetties. They will flood out the shoals and make navigation possible, thus bringing transportation to a tremendous area lacking railroad facilities although rich in natural resources which now can not be tapped. The principle railroads in the Tennessee Valley run north and south. The river through most of its course runs east and west, furnishing a natural and cheap outlet for the mineral resources in the east and the agricultural products m the south and west. Eighty per cent of the products of the Valley are non-perishable and thus readily adaptable to water transportation. Flood control and transportation do not require high dams. The directors of the TVA saw. however, that by raising the dams they could develop cheap power instead of letting the rivers' energies go to waste.

The Indianapolis Times

By selling this power they would accomplish a threefold objective. They would advance the economy of abundance bv putting electricity within easy reach of both industry and agriculture. They would put TVA eventually on a sound business basis and make it self-supporting by the sale of power. By their experience they w’ould learn the precise cost of the manufacture and distribution of power, thus furnishing for the rest of the nation the now-famous “yardstick” whereby the fairness of rates charged by private utilities might be checked. * a ALREADY private power companies in the circle of states around the TVA have slashed their rates by $16,000,000 annually. This sum is a fair deduction to make from the $48,000,000 annual cost of TVA. By next year the effects of 1 the dams on floods will be felt with a savings to taxpayers of many millions. Another permanent profit to the nation is in the rehabilitation of soil. The Tennessee Valley has a very heavy rainfall—from 50 to 60 inches a year. Tl#s was once the region's greatest asset, but through ignorant and selfish farming and j forestry it has become a serious liability. A million acres of formerly rich land in the Valley have become desert waste due to water erosion. The topsoil is gone. The fields are gullied until they look like Verdun in 1918. They will neither support life nor pay taxes. TVA is scientifically restoring this great acreage to the people. National defense is still another lasting investment TVA reoresents. The Valley contains unusual facilities for the manufacture of munitions and other army supplies. At the same time its natural defenses make invasion extremely difficult except from the air. Grant and Buell learned this during the Civil War. Because of the campaigns of that conflict every inch of the ground has been studied by military authorities under actual wartime conditions and nearly every conceivable tactical problem has been scrutinized. With its power, transportation and resources the Tennesse; Valley would be a veritable citadel in times of national emergency. Three men comprise the board of directors of the vast plan that is TVA. No one has yet levelled the characterization “brain truster” at them. In their numerous collisions with intrenched privilege and special interest they have proved themselves hard-headed bargainers. Dr. Arthur Ernest Morgan. 57, is chairman of the board. President of Antioch College, he is now on indefinite leave from that job. His background is far from academic. For most of his life he has been a construction engineer. He knows

INDIA NAPOLI S, MONDAY, APRIL 15,1935

from practical experience what it is to meet a-?pay roll or make an investment pay. One of his largest accomplishments was the construction of the Dayton (O.) flood control system. “There are two mystics in the Roosevelt Administration.” said a friend of his—not a member of the TVA organization. “One is the Secretary of Agriculture, the other Arthur Morgan, but Morgan is a strange contradiction. He is a practical mystic.” His practical bent was w-ell illustrated by his tilt w’ith the cement industry which submitted bids on six and one half million barrels for the dams. Dr. Morgan believed the bids w-ere too high and, moreover, not competitive. He calmly prepared to manufacture his own cement, showed the cement industry how TVA could do it and save money. The cement barons complained bitterly, but gave him a decent price. tt n a ARMY engineers, who surveyed the Norris damsite, thought TVA would have to build a special railroad to bring supplies into the job. Instead Dr. Morgan built a highway, which will provide a short cut into Knoxville after the dam is finished. The railroad would have been useless. He saved fron\ two to three hundred thousand dollars. Sand and gravel were his chief material problem. He explored the surrounding hills and discovered a huge deposit of suitable stone in a mountain immediately overlooking the damsite at Norris. Stone crushers were installed and TVA is now' making better sand and gravel than it could buy at enormous savings. An extremely modest man. Dr. Morgan has the faith to move mountains. In fact, he is doing just that at Norris—pulverizing a mountain

NOT JUST TVA—THE PEOPLE

'J 'HE Indianapolis Times has published columns and columns of information and news about the Tennessee Valley Authority. Measured from end to end, these articles and stories would amount to many, many ya rds. Today, on this page. The Times presents the first of anew series of articles on the vast project under way in the Southland. And of everything we have printed about this great social ideal, none, we believe, has been more important than this series of stories. Xo perusal of official records would satisfy Talcott. Powell, editor ol The Times,

and pouring it in the form of concrete into the river valley. And he is building the $30,000,000 Norris dam at five million under original estimates. He is not only a sincere liberal but he will fight like a tiger for his views. He w'as determined to conduct TVA witnout any taint of political privilege and-patronage. The personnel division operates on a strictly civil service and merit system basis. One hears many stories —some probably apocryphal—but all illustrating this point. It is said that during the early months of TVA, any applicant bearing a letter from a Congressman or politician was barred from a job. Since nearly every one presented such a letter as a routine matter some difficulty was at first experienced in building the organization. Later this policy was changed and now a letter from a public office holder carries as much, and no more, weight than a recommendation from any reputable private citizen. Every employe, from pick-and-shovel man to executive, is investigated minutely and is literally handpicked. The personnel department has scouts out on the road seeking promising men and women. It was the activities of one of these that led the Ohio Chamber of Commerce to make the erroneous charge that TVA was trying to steal Ohio industries. It is reliably reported in Washington that Pastmaster-General Farley. Roosevelt patronage chief, found this feature of TVA extremely distasteful. He is supposed to have called Chairman Morgan on the carpet. Mr. Farley found Dr. Morgan the toughest gentleman he had run into in some time . In fact, he was unable to change TVA’s job policy one iota.

He went to see for himself. And what he saw, he is passing on to Times readers. Down there in the mountainous Tennessee country where folks have the delightful Southern custom of shooting first and asking the questions later, Talcott Powell gained “entree.” He not only obtained the chance to look into those homes of the people affected by the TVA, but he slept in those very hones. He found out u'hat those people think about TVA and how they express themselves about it. Talcott Powell tells you not about TVA, the power project, but about TVA, the social rehabilitation dmL ~ . * . X.

On 'the personal side the chairman varies between aloofness ar.d approachability. If he is working on a problem he is simply unaware of anything else. He is a Quaker who disapproves of little individual peccadilloes, has none himself. Liquor is a delicate subject among those of his subordinates who have wet tendencies. If one smokes in his presence the interview is likely to be short, but this is said to be due to a sinus infection which is irritated by tobacco. a tt tt HE lives with his wife and four children in one of. the better class workmen's homes at Norris Dam. commuting by automobile the 50 *miles daily to and from his Knoxville office. Dr. Morgan’s salary is SIO,OOO a year, like that of the other two directors. This is top in the TVA. Labor receives from 45 cents to sl.lO an hour—from two to four times the prevailing wage in the area's private industry. Dr. Harcourt A. Morgan. 62, who is no relation of the chairman, is the second director. He was president of the Univesity of Tennessee and for 40 years has been preaching the necessity for conserving our natural resources and bringing agriculture and industry into a co-op-erative instead of hostile relationship. He has some very definite theories about the causes of depression. Let him explain them: “We are still fundamentally an agricultural people,” he said. “Our roots are literally in the soil. Think of a tree wuth a splendid root system. sturdy trunk from which grows a well balanced top. The roots and trunk are agriculture, the branches industry. “What has happened in recent years? Industry has taken the right of way. The roots and trunk have shrunk while the branches

Second Section

Entered as Second-Cl*e Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Upper, Left to Right—Arthur E. Morgan, chairman of the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority; David E. Lilienthal. director of TVA: Hareourt A. Morgan, another director of TVA; Norris Dam as it will appear when completed, and Wheeler Dam as it will appear when the job is done. Center. Insert—This is a view of Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, which will be part of the TVA enterprise. Lower and Background—This map. showing the area of the TVA and giving the physical operations of the section, outline to The Times reader the territory covered by Mr. Powell in his tour.

have grown. Now the whole tree may blow down. To keep the various branches from breaking off we have been propping them with sticks—NßA, RFC and all that, These props are extremely important. but they are temporary. “We must make up our minds to develop that root system and that trunk so that the branches may receive natural support. That is what is meant by the companionship of agriculture and industry.” Although Dr. Morgan is in his sixties he constantly speaks of what TVA is going to mean 50 years or a century from now. He believes devoutly that capitalism is eminently worth saving, that it can be saved, but only by long-distance, unselfish planning. He is truly socially minded. He will be dead before the TVA’s ultimate possibilities are realized, but one gathers that if he ever thinks about that at all he doesn’t give a whoop. He is too preoccupied with bringing those million acres back into production, developing soil foods and bringing about a sensible distribution of employment. One can not help contrasting Harcourt Morgan with other successful men in middle life. He Is no armchair executive. He is constantly dashing about the Valley by car and plane addressing farmers, supervising his conservation enterprises. Where many another man might be thinking about accumulating an estate for his heirs Dr. Morgan, with youthful enthusiasm, assumes more and more outside responsibility. a u u IT is difficult to realize that he is past 60. His philosophical approach to life is that of a crusading youngster leavened with the practical experience of maturity. His career, his estate and his monument is the Tennessee Valley. David Eli Lilienthal at 36 is the youngster of the directorate. Lawyer and former Wisconsin public service commissioner, his special responsibility is power. His experience has taught him all the tricks of the power game. He knows how to get right down on the floor and gouge eyes with the power interests and, on the other hand, he can go mto the rarified atmosphere of a Federal court and overwhelm these same interests with legalistic discussion. Since the TVA has been viewed largely as a power project Director Lilienthal has been a focal point of attack. He understands fully that TVA is not primarily power, but one hazards a guess that he was willing to have it so regarded until the plan as a whole could be organized and well launched. He and the other directors were aware that the general idea of reconstructing a whole national economy would meet with plenty of opposition from intrenched privilege so let the power companies make a noise for a while. In otter words,

it begins to look as though TVA had played the power interests for suckers by quietly allowing them to act as a smoke screen. Director Lilienthal is willing to be judged by the enemies he has made —and they are numerous. The mention of his name usually sends a private utility operator into the emotional stratosphere. “Dave” Lilienthal likes that. One hears nothing in the TVA about currency inflation, control of Wall Street and all of the other temporary nostrums on the politicians’ medicine shelf. An investigator feels that these TVA people consider such matters of only transitory importance. They are wrestling with the vast, underlying forces of nature itself and attempting, as did the American pioneers, to bend them to the advantage of mankind. I asked Director Lilienthal about that. His answer was quick: “Greenbackism and all such things are merely from the vocal cords. The TVA is something that you can actually see and feel and understand, if you take the trouble.” So the Tennessee Valley Authority is hammering out anew- economic and social pattern for America. There is a timelessness about the point of view of those directing its destinies. They are planting forests from wh'ch the great-grand-children of the present generation will profit. They are investigating the weather records of a thousand years ago through the study of logs dug from ancient Indian mounds. BUB YET there are no “isms” in th TVA philosophy. Not once did I hear in two weeks the words Socialism, Communism or Fascism mentioned without contempt. “We can w-ork out our troubles in this country without that European boloney,” a steel worker on Wheeler Dam told me, and his remark was typical. At the same time there is no patience with the tory type of mind which wants to keep things as they are or have been—the status quo. “Status quo," said an engineering assistant, who was covered with mud from the chest down as he waded out of a ditch. “Status quo? Hell! It doesn’t exist and never has. People kid themselves. Everything is always changing whether we like jt or not. Us engineers know that. Go tell that damn river over there please to observe the status quo so we won't have a flood. Status quo! Nerts!” He strode off to attend to a levee which was to keep the rising Clinch River out of a $50,000 tree nursery the TVA had started. Lack of sleep had made him irritable. He had beer, fighting the river for 36 hours. But his remark, too, was typical of TVA. TOMORROW: TVA and the materials with which it works. iCogjmbt. 193 xi mr-‘~p* XacUlln * ooll •