IN THE preceding articles I have tried to set the TVA upon the wider base of planned resources for human livelihood, and to enumerate the specific activities upon which the Authority is now engaged--activities which arise automatically when the control of a great watershed is undertaken. In this article let us inquire into the personnel, their point of view, their methods, and their success in overcoming opposition. How is the TVA progressing psychologically? What are the chances, from the human and the institutional points of view, of achieving its admittedly admirable objectives? Dams, locks, and generators can be built, and under such an engineer as Dr. A. E. Morgan superlatively well built, so long as Congress provides the money. This program, as we saw in the last article, is going briskly forward. What of human engineering; how are the people of the Valley going to live with their dams?
The total staff of the TVA now includes some 13,000 persons. About 5,000 are building engineering works. In their ranks are many highly skilled workers. About 4,000 are clearing reservoirs, most of them local farmers, unskilled in mechanical trades. Upward of 4,000 are salaried workers, technical or clerical. Here we find engineers, foresters, experts in the control of erosion, ecologists, geologists, physicists, chemists, agronomists, medical and sanitation experts, architects, statisticians, economists, sociologists, educational experts. We find a young woman whose duty it is to pacify the few rugged individualists who announce noisily that they would rather drown beneath the swelling reservoir than leave their cabins, and who will not sell at any price. The Liberty League should erect a monument to them, for they are as courageous as they are cracked. This young woman has a talent for absorbing their protestations and ultimately bringing them around.
The technical staff is not large considering the area involved--almost as large as England--and the mammoth task of reestablishing the economy of a whole region. This staff, however, is only the front line. Behind it is a much more numerous army made up of local organizations--county agents, Extension Service teachers from the land-grant colleges, school boards, farmers' cooperatives, the Red Cross, highway authorities, to name a few; and the staffs of other federal agencies--the Forest Service, the triple A, the triple C, the Resettlement Administration, the Bureau of Mines, the Reclamation Service (the greatest designers of dams in the world, with Boulder Dam as their outstanding achievement), Geological Survey, War Department, army engineers, and so on. The cooperation is genuine. There seems to be something about the boldness and vigor of the whole enterprise which fires the imagination and enlists the support of all who come in contact with it.
Let me give you a concrete example of the kind of project with which the TVA has to cope. To protect the shores of the Norris reservoir from silting, pollution, mosquitoes, and real-estate operators, a quarter-mile strip surrounding the 775 miles of shore line has been purchased, to a total of 117,000 acres. It is to be known as Norris Forest. People who have their farms in this area must be provided for. This demands a Removal Section in cooperation with the Resettlement Administration and the Extension Service of the University of Tennessee. Its biggest job is to protect the migrants from the realtors. Then airplanes must go aloft and take mosaic photographs of the whole region for a basic land-use map, to be checked by field surveys. The 117,000 acres will be divided into ten functional areas, and for each area expert technical study and planning is required.
- Settlement areas, where farms will be continued, the farmers to receive dependable cash income from forest work.
- Crop lands, where agriculture is advisable under proper tillage methods.
- Grazing lands, for lease under strict controls against overgrazing.
- Permanent-yield forest (76,000 acres) for lumber production to perpetuity. Cutting is never to exceed annual growth. The lumber will produce revenue.
- Tree-nursery area, including experimental work on erosion-control vegetation and forest crops which feed men and animals--black walnuts, Japanese chestnuts, persimmons, mulberries, pecans, and many others. incidentally this is one of the most interesting experiments in the Valley, partly because of the exceptional competence of the scientist who has it in charge.
- Game areas, for restricted hunting, for protected breeding of wild fowl, and for a sanctuary where no trespassing is permitted.
- A wilderness area, for solitude. No improvements of any kind to be permitted. Thoreau would find peace here.
- A primeval area, where the remnants of the virgin forest are to be protected.
- A study area (6,000 acres), a laboratory for ecologists. No hunting permitted.
- Recreation areas for campers, hikers, Boy Scouts, leased camp sites, and the rest. No hot-dog stands.
All this is but one part of one reservoir. When private airplanes are foolproof and cheap, I think I shall apply for a summer camp on the shores of Lake Norris. I know that its superb natural beauty can never be spoiled under this program but only enhanced.
Almost the first question which I asked upon arrival was the strength of the opposition. What vested interests are fighting the TVA? The answer was surprising. There little organized opposition in the Valley. New York, pulling the strings to its puppets in Tennessee; registers the very considerable opposition of the power companies and of certain bankers and business men. But the mass of the people are for it--farmers, workers, mechanics. Main Street is for it, the small business men. Professional and middle-class people generally are for it. Some politicians are disgruntled because their wards find no jobs at the TVA without first undergoing an exhaustive test by the personnel division as to technical competence. Nothing is more discouraging to a politician's second cousin. The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce blows hot and cold. At a recent meeting two resolutions were passed--one deploring the TVA on high moral grounds as a violator of sound American institutions, and the other demanding that all contracts for TVA supplies be let to Chattanooga business men. Thus the chamber roundly denounced the devil and in the same breath solicited his sulphur-and-brimstone business.
By and large, the Valley has been won over. When the Supreme Court's decision was handed down, people burst into spontaneous parades and celebrations. This is due in no small measure to the substantial cash disbursements which the construction of mighty engineering works entails. In greater part it is due to a friendly and diplomatic attitude. All three directors share this attitude, and all are responsible for it, but the initial credit probably goes to Dr. H. A. Morgan, who has lived in the Valley for forty years, studying its soil and learning to understand its people.
The TVA did not appear over the mountains, an alien swarm of bureaucrats, flourishing blueprints, prepared to tell the people of the Valley what to do, and like it. No The temper of the Authority has been to ask the people: What do you want? How can we help you get it? This is your Valley; you live in it. Perhaps we can show you some ways of doing things whereby you can live better. We shall be glad to try. And the Valley, after the inevitable period of shock at anything new, was disarmed by this frankness and humility. Tentative cooperation turned into enthusiastic cooperation.
This basic assumption that the people of the Valley come first touched every member of the staff with whom I talked. All are interested in the men and women about them, especially in the hill people with their strong characters and original points of view. Stories run in relays from office to office and from mouth to mouth For instance:
TVA CENSUS TAKER: Have you any children?
OLD FARMER: No, stranger, but I've got a darn fine hog.
TVA EROSION MAN: Perhaps we can show you a little something about scientific agriculture.
GEORGIA CRACKER: Well sir, I've run through three farms, and pretty well used up this one. You can't tell me nothing about farming.
ONE OLD-TIMER TO ANOTHER: I tell you this TVA juice is cleaner than private-company juice. It's made with running water and not with dirty coal.
Whenever possible, the TVA works through local groups which are already organized and functioning. If none exist, the TVA starts them. The technique has now reached almost Machiavellian proportions. To obtain rural electric-power lines, farmers must first form a local cooperative. When approached, a given county may be on the defensive. So the TVA agents call a meeting and simply tell the story of what rural electrification means, what it costs, and what its benefits are. Then they pack their charts and prepare to leave, remarking as they take their hats that this particular county is a difficult one to service. The meeting, they point out, was called to get the general news before the farmers. Some day, perhaps, if all goes well, a line might be arranged. But hardly now. No indeed, not now. From defensive the audience turns to offensive. Why not now? What's the matter with this county? Why can't we have what other counties have? Mister, where are those blanks? We'll have a full list of names for you tomorrow, no, tonight; and we'll sign up that 662 kilowatts per mile. What do you mean, we can't have TVA power now? And the cooperative is enthusiastically launched under its own steam, with full local responsibility.
The TVA act directs that surplus power shall be sold first to public groups--cities, towns, rural cooperatives--and if any remains, to private power companies and industries. In 1935 plenty did remain, and $500,000 of current was sold to private companies. The outlet to municipalities has been slow, owing to the desperate legal battle being waged by the power interests. It takes from three to seven years, thousands of dollars, and an interregnum of thoroughly bad service for the citizens of any community in this Republic to provide themselves with electric power. Mr. Lilienthal tells the typical story of Florence, Alabama. First, the citizens by almost unanimous ballot, in an election provided by state law, voted to set up their own distribution system and to buy current wholesale from the TVA. Second, the franchise with the Alabama Power Company expired. Third, the company refused to sell its distribution lines to the city except at an outrageous figure, and finally refused even to discuss the matter of sale. Fourth, the service was grossly unsatisfactory; the Florence hospital was unable to install a sterilizer because the lines were so overloaded. Fifth, the profits of the company have been spectacular; the gross income in a single year exceeds the appraised value of the whole investment. Sixth, every effort of the citizens to move in the direction of the TVA has been blocked by litigation, injunctions, court decrees; and every penny of the cost of this litigation to the company is paid by the citizens in their electric bills.
When the way is at last opened, when the period of impudence, effrontery, and sabotage is over, the TVA proceeds to close cooperation with the local town or city. Uniform accounting systems are installed. Power profits are not commingled with tax receipts. A considerate policy is adopted toward the customer. The customer is always right; he is entitled to good service--a welcome change from the attitude still held by some municipal systems that the customer is a dog of a taxpayer. Equipment and facilities are modern. Incoming lines are installed in duplicate, so that if one fails in a storm, the other can be switched in. In brief, the intention is to give the town all the benefits and services which a private company can give plus a few additional benefits, without the holding-company milking-machine attachment. Rates must fall, and a real yardstick appears. TVA charges are already beginning to rock the rate structure of the region. The power companies will charge that the cost accounting is unfair; that too much capital cost goes to flood control and navigation and not enough to power. This is a nice point; the row promises to be tremendous; but we must not forget that the dams are not being built primarily for power.
When Henry Ford dumped his cars on a nation, there were no roads to carry them, but presently paved highways appeared. Cheap power descends on the backwoods, and presently appear motors, pumps, refrigerators, radios, toasters, ranges, and washing machines. As energy is the basis of any civilization, this is not so magical as at first it seems. Certainly in the Valley lower rates have greatly stimulated power consumption; equipment sales have increased more rapidly than in any other region. One of the local private companies received the annual blue ribbon from the Edison Institute for the largest jump in business of any American utility. When the TVA current first came in, local companies complained bitterly that there already was a surplus of generating capacity. Now an actual shortage is on the horizon. The dams, we may rest assured, are going to be used.
