Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources
ACT II, SCENE FIVE (1934: Coffin Award)
CHARACTERS
- CONSUMER
LOUDSPEAKER
WENDELL E. WILLKIE, President, Commonwealth and Southern Corporation
REPORTERS
FRANK W. SMITH, Edison Electric Institute
UTILITIES EXECUTIVE
(Enter CONSUMER from right. He carries a traveling bag, and crosses very briskly.)
LOUDSPEAKER: Hello! What are you doing in this part of the country?
CONSUMER: Oh, I just came down to find out a few things about this TVA business. (Puts down his bag) Is it true that the TVA sells electricity for three cents a kilowatt hour?
LOUDSPEAKER: Well, not exactly. They sell it wholesale to municipal plants on condition that these plants retail it for three cents. [Pamphlet, U. S. Government Printing Office, "TVA Electricity Rates — A Statement of Facts."]
CONSUMER: And they won't let 'em charge any more?
LOUDSPEAKER: They won't let 'em charge any more!
CONSUMER (a rhapsodic smile on his face): Three cents! (There is a pause) How about the companies around here? They doing anything about it?
LOUDSPEAKER: They've cut rates till some of them are almost as low as the Government's.
CONSUMER: Then they must be losing money!
LOUDSPEAKER: Maybe they are. Let's ask Wendell L. Willkie, President of the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation.
|
(Light comes up on WILLKIE and two REPORTERS. The latter are taking notes.)
WILLKIE: If the policy now pursued by the TVA is not reversed by its superiors in Washington — or not restrained by the Courts — the destruction of the utilities in that area is inevitable.... No more cruel jest could be practiced on the security holders than to be propagandizing the country with the statement that they — the TVA — have helped the power companies in that area! [New York World-Telegram, August 28, 1936.]
LOUDSPEAKER: Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 5th, 1935...
(Lights come up on FRANK W. SMITH, center. The projection is a cartoon representation of a medal) Frank W. Smith, Chairman of the Prize Awards Committee of the Edison Electric Institute.
SMITH: For accomplishing one of the most remarkable increases in residential, commercial and industrial power sales in the history of this great industry, the Charles Coffin award for outstanding accomplishments during the year 1934 is hereby awarded to the Tennessee Electric Power Company. [Fred Pasley's Article No. 4, Daily News, August 23, 1936.]
LOUDSPEAKER: The Tennessee Electric Power Company is owned by the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation. The President of the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation is Wendell L. Willkie.
(WILLKIE and SMITH make low bows to each other. Blackout on everything except front spot on CONSUMER. Front curtain closes back of him.)
CONSUMER: I don't get this. I don't get this at all.
LOUDSPEAKER: What's on your mind now?
CONSUMER: If the electric companies down here are showing the biggest increases in their history, what are they complaining about?
LOUDSPEAKER: They claim the Government has no right to go into the power business.
CONSUMER: Even if it does the company good and their stocks go up?
LOUDSPEAKER: Even if it does the comp— (Light comes up on UTILITIES EXECUTIVE, right.)
EXECUTIVE (interrupting): That's not the point! We object because it's interfering with private initiative, competing with private industry — and it's not the American way! Furthermore, it's unconstitutional...
Blackout
Introduction | Essay | Script | Lessons | Resources