Rural Electrification Quotes
At the time, millions of Americans had no access to electrical power, especially in the rural areas. FDR and the New Deal changed that for millions of Americans with the Rural Electrification initiatives. Private electric utility corporations wanted the monopoly but did not want to sever everyone. The cost to electrify a densely populated area is much less on a per capita bases than for a rural area where it might take 25 miles of wire to serve 5 families as opposed to a city where the same 25 miles of wire might serve 5000 or even more families. The only solution of for the densely populated area to pay a little more and subsidize the rural areas home and farm electricity and require the utility corporations to serve everyone. That is essentially what happens today, and the subsidy not only comes from higher rates but also the general tax revenue of the Federal Government and many states. Before the New Deal, under Hoover there was no federal attempt to solve this problem. FDR’s administration, however come up with a number of ways, many of which are still in use today.
Bergland was Director of the National Rural Electric Cooperatives at the time of the statement.
The great poet lived in a rural area in upper New York State where the electrical company would not provide service for plain residences—only for industrial uses where they would obtain large volume use. At the time there was no public service requirement to provide electricity to private homes but the dairy farm lobby had obtained a requirement for electrification of farms.
