The Fort Peck Press

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP ISSUE IN CAMPAIGN

Questions Aspirants for Congress Should Be Asked to Answer.

WASHINGTON.—The federal government's broadening ventures into fields of public ownership and operation appear to be developing an issue with which voters can deal at the polls in November, according to word that is filtering into the National capital.

There are throughout the country several dozen of these experiments, the greatest of which, of course, is the Tennessee Valley Authority. That agency, wholly government owned and operated, is developing and distributing electric power on a gigantic scale. It is rapidly driving out all private enterprise having to do with or built up around the power business.

Further than that the TVA lately announced the organization of a subsidized corporation which will sell electric household equipment to whomsoever will buy. Sales of washing machines, irons, vacuum cleaners, and other such equipment are being made on the installment plan, much to the chagrin of local dealers handling such merchandise.

Vast Sums Expended.

The federal government is backing a hundred million dollars or more in bonds of the TVA and it is paying the governing board and its personnel. The dams in the Tennessee river were built at government expense. Public Works Administration funds are being expended in a score or more localities in the construction of dams and hydro-electric plants. Public Works officials in Washington repeatedly have called attention to the vast supply of electric power to be developed from these government plants and all of it will be sold in direct competition with the products of private industry.

In addition to the utility phases in which Public Works Administration money has been spent—money borrowed by the federal government—funds are being used in the building of whole towns, such as Reedsville, West Virginia, and in numerous other experiments of a government ownership character. Most of these, obviously, are in competition with some or several lines of private industry, and they are being carried on with funds provided from the federal treasury.

Definite Statements Sought.

With all of these circumstances confronting them, according to the word reaching Washington, an increasing number of voters are reported to be asking the candidates in their areas how they stand. Some of these candidates, who are seeking re-election, have let it be known at their offices here that they do not see how they can avoid definite statements very much longer as to whether they are for or against government ownership.

Two questions are reported to be agitating the voters who have become interested in the fight against government ownership. One of them is whether, under government ownership, there can be operation without that particular function becoming a political football. The other question concerns taxes. The voters are said to be inquiring what the total cost will be if the government continues to acquire or construct government owned and operated economic units. The information is that people are becoming concerned over the mounting tax burdens of federal and state and local governments and have fears as to the future.

Fear Revenue Loss.

Several members of congress lately have received letters from officials in their respective states indicating alarm over the reduction in revenue of local governments if the federal government continues to expand its ownership of what was heretofore private business. The state authorities, as well as the county and municipal officials, foresee sharp curtailment in the receipts upon which they depend for payment of their running expenses and the necessary improvements, such as highways and the like. In one instance, the state official asked point blank what would happen to the state or local treasuries if the federal government took over the railroads. He added a paragraph to the effect that if the expansion of government ownership continues "there will be nothing left for us to tax except farm lands now being blown away by hot winds."

Among the groups who are mustering strength in opposition to government ownership of the railroads, the word is being sent out to every one who will listen that the railroads are paying approximately $280,000,000 in taxes to the federal, state and county treasuries. They are pointing out that this revenue will be lost if the government decides to buy the railroads and operate them under public ownership.

In some instances, it has been shown, that the taxes paid by the railroads in a local community amount to as much as forty per cent of the entire revenue received by that local government's treasury. If, in addition there should be a publicly owned power plant or street railway or storage warehouse taken off of the local tax rolls by federal government purchase, it becomes obvious that the local taxpayers would be called upon to raise approximately twice as much as heretofore.