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ACT I, SCENE FOURTEEN (Municipal Ownership)
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CHARACTERS
- LOUDSPEAKER
MEN Stage left
WOMEN Stage left
MEN Stage right
WOMEN Stage right
MAYOR CLARK W. H. BANGS, of Huntington, Indiana
SECRETARY to Mayor Bangs
CARL D. THOMPSON, Secretary of Public Ownership League of America
MAN, Federal Trade Commission Spokesman
BERNARD F. WEADOCK, Managing Director, Edison Electric Institute
JOHN E. RANKIN, Democratic Representative from Mississippi
A SECOND CONGRESSMAN
A THIRD CONGRESSMAN
(Map of the United States is projected.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Two thousand five hundred and eighty-one municipalities in the United States and Canada with municipally owned power plants claim successful advantages over private ownership. [Public Ownership League of America Bulletin No. 40, pp. 1-2.] Some striking examples... Cleveland, Ohio. [Ibid., p. 3.]
(Lights come up, left of center and right of center. WOMAN enters, left, walks to center.)
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, per kilowatt hour, fifteen cents.
(MAN enters, right, walks to center. As other MEN and WOMEN appear they make a wedge-shaped line across stage, working from center to left and center to right.)
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership per kilowatt hour, three cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Seattle, Washington...
MAN [left]: Private ownership, twenty cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, five cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Springfield, Illinois...
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, eleven cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, six cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada . .
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, twenty cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, three cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: London, Ontario, Canada
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, nine cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, one and a half cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: January 1st, 1935.... Two hours and forty-five minutes after Mayor Clark Bangs takes office as Chief Executive of Huntington, Indiana, the first power from Huntington's municipally owned plant (used since 1885 to light streets, alleys and public buildings) flows into a Huntington citizen's home. This service came one hour and ten minutes ahead of an injunction obtained by the Insull interests. The mayor defies the injunction and goes to jail. [Public Ownership, Vol. XVII, No. 6.]
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(The lights come up on the MAYOR, who is in small set jail piece. He is talking through the bars to his SECRETARY, who is standing right of jail.)
SECRETARY: Mr. Mayor, you can't stay here.
MAYOR BANGS: I'll rot here if I have to.
SECRETARY: Fifteen hundred dollars will get you out, and at least a dozen people called up today to put it up.
MAYOR BANGS: Tell them to mind their own business. I'll stay here and I'll run the city from here.... The Corporation Counsel tells me the treasurer has been enjoined from paying any bills for the city's power plant.
SECRETARY: That's right.
MAYOR BANGS: Call a mass meeting in my name and announce for me that I want the citizens of this community to contribute the money to pay the workers.
SECRETARY: Yes, sir!
MAYOR BANGS: Wait a minute. Tell them I'll stay in jail for the rest of my life if it'll beat Insull and give Huntington fair electric rates. (MAYOR exits, set piece is removed. General lighting comes up covering entire stage.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Pasadena, California...
(Following additional MEN and WOMEN join left and right first set, already in line.)
MAN [left]: Private ownership, fifteen cents. (Light comes up on MAN, right.)
WOMAN [right]: Municipal ownership, five cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Jamestown, New York...
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, ten cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, five cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada...
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, seven cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal ownership, one cent.
LOUDSPEAKER: Carl D. Thompson, Secretary of the Public Ownership League of America, says: [Public Ownership League of America Bulletin No. 40, pp. 1-2.]
(THOMPSON enters and comes down in front of line of people.)
CARL THOMPSON: Municipal plants invariably reduce rates. The greatest advantage of all lies in the fact that a municipal plant always pays off its capital account — private companies do not.
LOUDSPEAKER: The Federal Trade Commission found (MAN enters and comes up to right of THOMPSON.)...
MAN (Federal Trade Commission spokesman): ... that private utilities' capital accounts had watered stocks to the amount of nine hundred and twenty-five million dollars. [Findings of Federal Trade Commission, by Bernard F. Weadock, Edison Electric Institute publication, S. 14.]
LOUDSPEAKER: Bernard F. Weadock, managing director of the Edison Electric Institute, wishes to answer that...
(WEADOCK enters, comes up center.)
WEADOCK: ... Inaccurate, undependable, unreliable, false theories, innuendoes, insinuations, distorted facts, and academic theories. [Findings of Federal Trade Commission, by Bernard F. Weadock, Edison Electric Institute publication, S. 14.]
LOUDSPEAKER: Lincoln, Nebraska...
(Following additional MEN and WOMEN join line right and left, completing the wedge.)
WOMAN [left]: Private ownership, twelve cents.
WOMAN [right]: Municipal ownership, five cents.
LOUDSPEAKER: Toronto...
MAN [left]: Private, eight cents.
MAN [right]: Municipal, one and seven-tenths cents.
(The V-shaped wedge of MEN and WOMEN moves forward and the others on the stage move to right and left to permit the newcomers to dominate the scene.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Bulletin — January 21st, 1937: A power bloc consisting of one hundred and sixty members of the House of Representatives is formed in Congress. Representative John E. Rankin, Democrat, Mississippi...
(RANKIN enters from left with two CONGRESSMEN — comes left center in front of line. Projection dissolves into a picture of the United States capitol dome.)
RANKIN: We have formed a bloc in the House of Representatives to save for the American people, now and for all time to come, the hydro-electric power of the nation. [New York Times, January 23, 1937, p. 24, col. 5.]
SECOND CONGRESSMAN: We are opposed to pooling public facilities with private power interests. [Ibid.]
THIRD CONGRESSMAN: We are opposed to selling public power wholesale to private power companies. [Ibid.]
RANKIN: We favor the municipalities owning their own distribution systems. [Ibid.]
(Lights slowly dim out during the following dialogue.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Cleveland...
WOMAN [left]: Private, fifteen cents...
MAN [right]: Municipal, three...
LOUDSPEAKER: Seattle...
MAN [left]: Private, twenty...
MAN [right]: Municipal, six.
LOUDSPEAKER: Winnipeg...
WOMAN [left]: Private, twenty...
MAN [right]: Municipal, three...
LOUDSPEAKER: Pasadena... (Stage is dark. Front traveler curtains close. Scrim comes down.)
Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources