The 



\ 



Need for Rural 

 Electrification 



By REA 



FKW American farmers today have 

 any electric power and light service. 

 Fewer than one in nine have serv- 

 ice from central electric generating sta- 

 tions. For years it has been rather wide- 

 ly assumed that since the great major- 

 ity of our farmers did not have this 

 service, and all the conveniences and 

 cpmforts of living and the economies 

 of farm operation that go with it, it was 

 not possible for the farmers to have these 

 things. Often this was not true. Certainly 

 as to a great many farmers it is not 

 true today. 



The number of farmers who have au- 

 tomobiles and telephones would suggest 

 strongly the feasibility of their having 

 electricity, even if there were no other 

 evidence whatever. There is of course 

 a great deal of other evidence. But con- 

 sidering these indicators alone, it is 

 highly significrnt that in the Mississippi 

 V^alley region, as shown by a recent 

 Government survey, seven farms have 

 automobiles for each farm that has elec- 

 tricity. Four have telephones for each 

 one that has electric service. Power and 

 light should be at least as generally used 

 as the automobile and the telephone. 



Present restriction of rural electric 

 service, by shutting out the electric 

 pump, likewise denies to most farmers 

 household and farm water systems and 

 the sanitation and living comforts that 

 go with them. 



National Surveys disclose that of the 

 thirty million persons in this country de- 

 pendent on agriculture for their living: 

 7.*5 per cent must carry water from 

 wells or other sources of supply; 

 77 per cent have to get along with 



outdo<ir toilets ; 

 9.3 per cent have neither bathtub nor 



shower; 

 7fi per cent are dependent upon 

 kerosene or gasoline lamps; ap- 

 parently about 10 per cent either 

 depend on candles or are entire- 

 ly without light; 

 3.3 per cent heat their homes par- 

 tially or entirely with fireplaces; 

 54 per cent heat their homes par- 

 tially or entirely with stoves; 

 48 per cent have to do their laundry 



work out of doors. 

 Congress decided that the farmers 

 of the country can and should have elec- 

 tricity and the benefits that go with it. 

 In the Work Relief Program recently 

 adopted it gave the broadest possible 



iiuthority for the work of electrifying 

 farms and allocated $100,000,000 for this 

 purpose. 



President Roosevelt has recognized 

 the urgent need and the opportunity for 

 farm electrification in his statement that 

 "Electricity can relieve the drudgery of 

 the hou.sewife and lift the great burden 

 off the shoulders of the hard working 

 farmer." He gave similar recognition 

 in his executive order creating the Rural 

 Electrification Administration — REA. 



These, very briefly, are some of the 

 reasons why REA exists. 



In some of the richer farming country 

 the private power and light companies 

 are now able and willing to provide elec- 



to extend lines and the territory in which 

 no one is now able to do so, there are 

 huge areas where rural electrification 

 is feasible but has not been undertaken. 



These great areas present virgin fields 

 for electric power and light, to serve 

 farms which heretofore have been denied 

 this boon. 



REA, with the cooperation of many 

 other agencies and the help of the farm- 

 ers themselves, can bring electricity to 

 a great many of these potential electri- 

 fication areas, if not all of them. 



Naturally REA cannot bring or eco- 

 nomically help others to bring electricity 

 to a single isolated farm. It will be nec- 

 essary for you and your neighbors, just 

 as many of them as is possible, to get to- 

 gether and arrange for electric service as 

 a community of people. In that way 

 projects can be proposed of sufficient 

 size to be economically feasible. 



The cooperation of fairly large groups 

 is indispensable becau.se there are certain 

 expenses growing out of the establish- 

 ment and operation of a power and light 



l'h>,)u !■> <'.iiiit.*\ I'lil'li'- S.-i\!.. *'■>. of N.i, niui'-i!- 



Electricity on Every Farm Can Be Made a Reality If Farmers Will Work Toqether Throu9h Or- 

 ganization for Parity Prices and an Income to Pay the Bill. . ■ , ■ : 



trie service without aid from the Gov- 

 ernment. 



At the other extreme there is, of 

 course, farming country which is too 

 thinly settled^ with the productive value 

 of the land too low, to support the cost 

 of erecting lines, until new inventions 

 and reduced costs may make it possible 

 to provide service. 



But in between the territory in which 

 the utility companies have been willing 



line which would be very burdensome if 

 they were not shared. One of these ex- 

 penses is the interest on the investment 

 — the cost of building the line. Another 

 expense is the amount of money over 

 and above this interest charge which is 

 needed to pay off the investment over a 

 period of years. Still another is the cost 

 of operating the line. Then, too, there 

 is the cost of upkeep or maintenance. 

 (Continued on page 18) 



OCTOBER, 1935 



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