Ik pilot Covers
joswick County
THE STATE PORT PILOT
Sixteen no. 40
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
Most of The New*
* \
All The Time
Southport, N. C., Wednesday, December 7, 1949
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
91.50 PER YEMI
[EA Has Remarkable History In North Carolina
?,?l Electrification Ad
-,r,s an agency of the
fj .rtmoni of Agriculture.
rs?**i ? Ma^
Executive Order of the
, under authority of the
v Belief Appropriation
<5 The Rural Electrifi
' 0f 1936 gave REA per
' ta!U< and authorized a
I tending program. In 1944
imj prosram was extend
Ljgress indefinitely. Con
Luallv makes available
t:,n; of funds REA may
,? headed by an Adminis
wjo is appointed by the
for a 10-year term. His
? is confirmed by the
m his official actions
sponsible to the Secre
' A?riculture. The present
rater. Claude R. Wick
Indiana, took office in
empowered to make
qualified borrowers, with
:i to nonprofit and co
J organizations and to
jfljies. Loans are made to
a f^ cost of constructing
fms and other electric
to serve persons in
S who are without cen
?Jn electric service. The
jar 2 percent interest and
lid over a maximum of
:tself operates no rural
facilities, and no grants
dies are involved in its
Its loans are repaid
te operating revenues of
owned, locally-managed
A part of each individual
fs monthly electric bill
pay off the Government
R?A serves principally as
to the local systems,
functions are to lend
ud give technical advice
isel where needed in the
:on and operation of the
s facilities.
electrification had ad
try slowly in the United
the 53- year period
when the first central
system went into ser
fs 1935, when REA was
A few fanners were con
ic central station power
In World War I. The early
i saw a short-lived spurt
i the progress made in
i engineering was reflect
i small increase in the
of farms served. However,
19 percent of all farms
United States were re
central station electric
by 1935. Few power lines
t built beyond the im
vicinities of cities and
s and farm organiza
Ming at the slow rate of
increased their demands
p, eminent action in the
rural electrification. The
*as the establishment of
?ift an action program de
trimarily to make electric
available to those farm
*ho were without electri
# its establishment, REA
P53'-!)' stimulated the ex
1 if service into rural areas.
Jfr 1, 1949, a total of
- additional farms had
wanected to central power
?? all agencies, public and
1 More than half of the
'wnnected to central station
1935 ? about 57 percent
Brunswick REA Sub-Station
Located below Brunswick on Highway 130, this sub-station was erected by the Brunswick Elec
tric Membership Corporation as a part of its program to meet the power needs of REA members in
the counties of Bladen, Robeson, Columbus and Brunswick. (Photo by Baldwin-Gillespie Studios)
i ?received electric service from
REA -financed systems. The re- j
| mainder were on lines of other j
| suppliers, many of which were '
i stimulated to greater activity in |
j the rural field by the REA pro- j
! gram.
REA estimated as of June 30,
1949, that 4,582,016 farms, or 78.2
percent of the Nation's total,
were electrified. About 1,275,000 j
I of the Nation's farms, more than
1 21 percent, still were unelectri
I fied. In addition, there were hun
j dreds of thousands of unelectri
fied rural nonfarm dwellings,
; crossroads business, schools,
churches and other rural estab
lishments.
Many of these unelectrified
farms are situated in isolated
areas, or in areas of relatively
low farm income. Consequently,
the most difficult part of rural
electrification job remains to be
?completed. However, the REA
program has succeeded in estab
lishing a pattern which eventually
! can provide virtually every un
served farm in the iountry with
electric service.
As of Aug. 31, 1949, REA had
approved 11,867,949,858 in loans
| to 1,054 borrowers. They ingjude
! 965 cooperatives, 41 public power
j districts, 23 other public bodies, .
! and 25 commercial power com
i panies. At that time, REA had on
? file or in process in the field,
| additional loan applications total
ing 5424,111,000 for new system
construction and various line im
provements. Most of these appli
cations are for expansion of exist
ing systems financed by REA.
Some 968 of these REA borrow
ers had rural electric facilities
in operation. Their facilities in
cluded. 870,951 miles of line ser
ving more than 2,871,701 farms
and other rural consumers in
about 2,500 counties of 46 states, I
Alaska, and the Virgin Islands. \
! Additional lines are being built
'more rapidly now than ever be
'fore.
| Of all the loans thus far ap
proved by REA, over 85 percent
have been for electric distribution
facilities, to borrowers who buy
their power at wholesale rather
than generate it themselves. REA
makes generation and transmission
loans only when borrowers are un
able to purchase an adequate
supply of power or cannot buy
its at reasonable wholesale rates.
Only about 13 percent of the
REA loans have been for con
struction of generating plants and j
transmission lines. About one per- I
cent of the loans have been made
to power system operators for
relending to their consumers to
finance installation of wiring,
plumbing and electrical equip
ment and appliances.
Membership in rural electric co
operatives is not confined to
farmers. It is open to all people
in a rural area who can be
reached ana who want electric
service. More than three-fourths
of all consumers on REA-financed
Continued cm Page Three
REA Membership
Meeting Is Held
At Ash School
Chairman Of Rural Electric
Authority Looks Forward
To Extension Of Tele
phone Service To Rural
Areas
BISHOP SUMMARIZES
WORK OF TEN YEARS
Congressman Praises Mem
bership Of Cooperative
For Its Great Demon
stration Of Grass
Roots Democracy
"Let there be light!"
North Carolina will not be con
tent until every farm home has
the opportunity of electric ser
vice.
This was the central thought
advanced Friday at the tenth an
niversary meeting of the Bruns
wick ElectMc 'Membership Cor
poration by Gwyn B. Price, chair
man of the North Carolina Rural
|
Electric Authority, and Repre
sentative F. Ertel Carlyle of Lum
berton before an REA audience
which packed the- auditorium bf
Waccamaw Higii Schol in Bruns
wick County.
Both speakers wept beyond this
vision of the future. Price de
clared he looked forward to the
extension of rural telephone ser
vice on a scale comparable to
that attained ty rural electrifica
tion, and Cariyle looked ahead
to the day when television would
enable farm fami'ies to learn
better ways of doing things by
watching the great experts de
REA Members Hear Report
While Manager E. D. Bishop, President J. L. Robinson, directors and members listen attentively,
Attorney R. B. Mallard of Tabor City reads a report at the annual meeting of the Brunswick Electric
Membership Corporation. Shown on either side of Mallard (standing) are the merchandise prizes
which were given away as attendance awards. The meeting was held at Waccamaw High School in
Brunswick County. (Photo by Baldwin-Glllesple Studios)
monstrate.
The meeting opened about 1:45
o'clock Friday afternoon.
R. B. Mallard of Tabor City,
legal counsel to the Brunswick
cooperative, read the minutes of
the 1948 annual meeting which
were approved as read. The re
ports of J. L. Robinson, president,
and W. M. Hewett, treasurer,
were then read and accepted as
information.
E. D. Bishop, who has been
manager of the cooperative since
its formation in 1939, gave a
Five Angles Of Approach To REA Program
w. ./
This bit of trick photography provided Manager E. D. Bishop of ,
the Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation an opportunity to j
list "My five angles of approach to the REA program." These are:
"1. Firm in the belief that the REA program is one of the greatest
opportunities ever offered to rural America. 2. Electric service to
the farm home encourages the use of modern conveniences and
brightens the outlook for the farm youth. 3. Electric power to the
farm promotes the use of labor-saving devices and lends increase
to the farm income. 4. Increased productivity of the farm area, re
sulting from electric service to home and farm, provides additional
farrm income to be shared by the dealers and merchants of the vill
ages, towns and cities in our area. 5. Turiling one's back upon those
who, for selfish purposes, might seek to undermine our cooperative's
structure and jeepardize its success."
summary of progress during the
10 years of operation and de
clared "our job is not done until
the last rural home in our opera
ting area shall have been served."
Price and Carlyle echoed this
sentiment later in the program.
Citing the 17 to 20 per cent of
unserved homes as an objective,
Representative Carlyle asserted
that a "good-sized task still re
mains." He then added: "You will
readily recognize that this is a
more difficult job than the one
which existed previously. For, al
ready you have gone through
rich territory, and now you have
to develop ways and means to
go into the leaner territory where
there are less members per
mile."
Both speakers struck a note of
ferver, almost pulpit-like in tone,
in emphasizing their enthusiasm
for giving rural North Carolina
the conveniences long enjoyed by
urban areas.
The REA chairman, speaking
first, reviewed the North Carolina
record, pointing out that the State
had moved from a few thousand
electrified homes in 1935 to 228,
000 at the present time. The pre
sent figure is nearly 80 per cent
of the total of 287,000 farm units
in the State. By reason of this
achievement, North Carolina
ranks second only to Texas in
the percentage of homes now
served by electric lines.
Price envisioned a follow
through on a four-point program
for North Carolina:
1. Good roads: "The food we
eat is no better than the soil
out of which it grows and from
farm-to-market roads will come
better products for better living."
2. Public schools: "Let's go for
ward with this program in the
interest of the future citizens of
the State."
3. Completion of rural electri
fication.
4. Rural telephone service: "You
may have a good road, a good
school and electric cervice, but
if you don't have a telephone,
you are still isolated."
The REA authority made it
clear that he loked forward to
the extension of telephone service
on a scale comparable to the pro
gress already made In rural
electrification.
"We're in about the same con
dition today with respect to tele
phone service that we were In
11 or 12 years ago in rural
electric service," he said. He em
phasized that the public utility
companies would be given an op
portunity to supply the need for
rural telephones, but said thj
machinery had been set up tor
telephone cooperatives.
On a show of hands, approxi
mately 80 per cent of the Bruns
wick REA membership indicated
that they would welcome tele
phone service.
Price sounded a call for diver
sification in farming in relating
an account of his visit to a farm
home in the mountains where an
electric line was being cut-in for
the first time. There he found
milk cows, beef cattle, sheep,
brood sows, cabbage, other farm
produce, and burley tobacco. This
was the kind of farm, the REA
chairman asserted, which would
always keep electricity. Depen
dence on one or two crops could
work otherwise, Price inferred.
Characterizing the REA record
as "a remarkable achievement,
unparalleled by any other activity
in the public utility field," Re
presentative Carlyle lauded the
farm people for their cooperative
movement. "This is grass-roots
democracy," he said. "You have
demonstrated conclusively that
here at home you have the skill,
the initiative, and the known-how
to develop and run successfully
one of the most complicated
things in modern life ? electricity."
He eloquently defined democracy:
"Basically democracy means the
right to work for freedom. It
means the opportunity to do
things yourself without harming
your neighbor. The highest form
(Continued on Page 2)
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