Show electricity for a million farms M y IZ W A R R A f r 18 1 X 4 N awl X g aa Z 1 M j I IZI PP M C 4 0 M 1 ai ge R N rr rw N I 1 shown in the inset is morris L cooke director of the new rural electrification authority and around him are illustrated some of the tasks REA hopes electricity will soon be doing on a million more farms mothering chicks tightening lightening household work and filling silos by WILLIAM C UTLEY liht light for a million ELECTRIC farm homes A whole new set of hired bands who never get tired and who work for very little wages for each of these farms emancipation from backbreaking tasks for a million farmers wives these are the ambitions of tile the newly formed rural electrification authority which lias has been created by tile the federal government to extend to farms throughout the nation the benefits which are being enjoyed by only out of them today put but the ambitions of they are realized will have consequences reaching far beyond their own limits for bringing electric power to a million farms will create thousands of jobs in city factories manufacturers of light bulbs washing machines refrigerators irons radios and other appliances will have to keep their factories humm humming ing to keep pace with tile the demands of mrs airs farmer and mr farmer will want motors milking machines cretin cream separators and zaber other electrical hired hands before either of these demands can be satis satisfied ried lines will have to be built and wiring completed farmers will be able to buy these appliances for the government has extended the electric llone home and farm authority to a national scope the has bas enabled farmers in the tennessee vallet valle to buy appliances on easy payments financed by the reconstruction st finance corporation the government under this scheme arranges for manufacturers to sell standard quality equipment to consumers at low prices the purchaser has to make a cash down payment but the E remits the remainder lem tema inder of tile the cost to the dealer in cash appliances may be purchased from recognized dealers in any communities where tile the power company operates cooperates co by reducing in prices for current what char charges as remain after the down payment are spread out over three or four our years and are added each month to the customers bills for electricity the pay merits ments are turned over to the as they are made for jobs the rural electrification authority under the direction of morris L cooke has been assigned eipl to us in the next nest year or two even a vast sum like that would not go very far if it were used in constructing lines to farms which are now a comparatively long bonx way from the he lines of any power company or municipal plant but there are some som e farms in america today which are without electricity in its com comparan palan to electrify farms farm the hie according to director dir cetor cooke will attempt to bang bring service only to those in areas where no new generating plants will be necessary where lines can ile be built economically from a source of power which already Is working the REA however hoever will not even investigate vesti gate the he applications of farms where eliere there Is service in the he immediate neighborhood it will be interested in projects where new sectional lines can be built to electrify whole farm areas but tit where a mere efte extension asfun of an already existing line Is asked bj carmet amei wh alvs close to lt it such cases as these it will leave tor for the local power company to develop As an example of a case that is eligible to get REA help hell take that of a group of nel neighboring gh boring farmers who want electric service there Is a plant in n a city a few miles away but the power company has refused to build lines out to them for the very good reason that the potential business does not seem to warrant it power companies despite the feelings of cranks and unreasoning people are not in business for their health feeling that this Is a fair attitude of the company the farmers who want electricity and are willing to pay for it band themselves together in a little co operatis group go to the company officials anil and offer to buy power to bp be delivered at the nearest point on the company lines heres one difficulty the farmers themselves will viii build lines to their farms to finance the construction they will borrow the money from the REA who theoretically investigates the group from every an anle angle le to make sure that the loan is a sound one there Is nothing very complicated about this says mr cooke it is not like launching a great new power project involving millions this whole oper operation atlon will not exceed 11 ah but only part of the th story has been told the REA plans for these operative cooperative co groups suggest that tant the farmers shall buy power from the company at wholesale rates to be fixed by negotiation or by the states public service commission this does not set very well with many of the util ity companies who have farm customers why not is the natural question glancing at tile the case only these farmers fa who are arc operating cooperating co have paid for the installation of the line are they not entitled to sonic some sort of extra consideration for what they have done it so happens that the other farmers who are already receiving current curren from the same power company com piny at retail rates will nill in effect have paid fo their lines too wily why they get wholesale rates actually th they ey have not or have paid only in part here is the way it noi arks ks although this must be taken as a hypothetical case for till all power companies do not have tile the same agreements with their farm customers who pays for the line let us say that the cost of a line built out to a farm is the farm er supplied for the sake of example by a middle western utility company which has been outstanding for its rural electrification work Is given SO 80 months iu in which to pay for the cost or of the line ile he pays for it by guaranteeing to use tise a monthly minimum of electricity equal in cost to tonne one eig eightieth liti ettl of the cost of the line which in this case would be 10 until the SO months are up if lie he actually uses less than IIO 10 worth or of juice during a month his bill Is 10 just the same but lie he Is entitled to all of the benefits every that 10 1 0 worth of electricity will bring to him so he e might just as well use rt it up its like going t to 0 a metropolitan theater restaurant where there Is a minimum charge of a head you can eat just a sandwich if you want to but your bill is just the same it if youre hungry 7 you might as well eat a full dinner for it going to cost you any more and farmers today are really hungry for tile the benefits of electric power to ease their daily tasks if you take away my electricity you can just take the farm too is the way farmer gus swanson of fountain county indiana puts it actually a farmer buying power from a utility COMP company aIly on such an agreement Is paying for the cost of his line only if he falls to use 10 worth of electricity each month if his bill Is 10 lie 0 gets bets back dollar for dollar in electric power but if such a customer has a cousin or a friend over in the next county who is a member of one of the REA HEA operative cooperative co groups and Is getting power at a lower rate power company officials would have about as much chance explaining the reason for that to h him im as they would have of mahln making him under stand the einstein theory he would insist that he was paying for his line as surely as his cousin only in a different way the women want it this then is one of the obstacles that confront the REA ambitions they are ambitions however that are worth struggling ling to attain ask any farmers wife the worker in the city puts in 40 hours of labor every eek she works gt 64 hours if she has a large family she probably works longer than that if she has a small baby she works even longer lie he gets paid she it if she electricity to assist her she has to do everything the hard way the tiring way that puts purs lines in her face ion long before she should have them yet huse housework work all she has to fo do about 20 per cent of f her time Is taken up lip with actual farm work eighty nine out of a hundred farm wives manage the lien hen houses sixty sisty six out of a hundred make butter do you think their lives be healep if they only had vacuum cl cleaners washing machines electric froneus ironers iro fro ners and the possession usually dearest to the heart of tin an elect electrified rl fled farm elec electric trIe refrigerators in the state of wisconsin it has been found that the farmer spends an aver age as or of 2 ia a year on his passenger automobile in a census of more than half the farms of the country five years ago it was found that on the farms counted there were vere ser ger autor per farm farin that would indicate that the farma Is able to pay for modern comforts if lie he wants them badly eri enough ough it mui mu i be remembered that these were passenger ger cars not farm trucks the REA wonders why if there are cars on C forms farms it cant put electricity on a large share of them it has been said that the average farm income Is a year bur the REA KEA will of necessity not ile be looking to electrify the average farm but the one that hat Is above average for it ks 13 tile the above farm ns as a rule that Is located near power service a 6 western newspaper er julo |