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1936 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Public ownership of electric power

Cheaper electricity and rural electrification by the 'yardstick' method

pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A AgricultureEnergy & Power similar solutions · similar reasoning

Solution

Continue TVA-style rate yardsticks and the Rural Electrification Administration's loans to bring cheap power to homes and farms.

Rationale

Yardstick competition had already lowered rates; electricity should reach the farm as it reaches the city.

Statements (2)

1936-06-25 · Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (platform) · conventionparty_platform ✓ verified

We will continue to promote plans for rural electrification and for cheap power by means of the yardstick method.

Source: 1936 Democratic Party Platform (1936-06-23)

1936-10-31 · Madison Square Garden, New York · generalcandidate_direct ✓ verified

Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America, for better and cheaper transportation, for low interest rates, for sounder home financing, for better banking, for the regulation of security issues, for reciprocal trade among nations, for the wiping out of slums.

Source: Address at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1936-10-31)

Follow-through

kept

REA lending continued and expanded; Bonneville and Grand Coulee came on line under public marketing; TVA survived its court test (1939) and the President sought further TVA funds in 1940.

Mechanisms

Date	Type	Name	Effect	Consistent?	Source
1936-05-20	statute	Rural Electrification Act operations (1936-) charted on: Cash receipts from farm marketings · Index of prices received by farmers (1910–14=100)	Cooperative-based rural power lines. Rayburn stated in 1959 that ninety percent of farm homes in the U.S. were electrified, compared to three percent in the early 1930s.	yes	Rural Electrification Act - Wikipedia
1940-01-15	message	Message on the Tennessee Valley Authority charted on: Cash receipts from farm marketings · Index of prices received by farmers (1910–14=100)	Continued support for the yardstick system.	yes	Message to Congress on the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Assessments

kept Wikipedia contributors — Rural Electrification Act - Wikipedia

Farm electrification rose from about 10 percent in 1935 to a quarter of farms by 1940.

Other positions on this issue

The next federal hydro-electric development will be on the Columbia River — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 specific_pledge
Public development of hydro-electric power on the St. Lawrence model, with national control of interstate transmission — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 specific_pledge
Federal regulation of interstate power; opposition to government operation of the power business — Herbert Hoover, 1932 specific_pledge

1936-fdr-cheap-power-rural-electrification · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed