Mr. PARRISH. Well, we will say the Governor basically is the president of the State of Tennessee. I am the president of one of the best labor districts in the State of Alabama. We may not have the biggest name and title, but I believe we have the biggest president.

In reference to the Hoover Commission, I would like to state that the adoption-which I cannot conceive of of the proposals of the Hoover Commission and its task force would take us back at least a half century in our resources conservation and development policy and practice. Under them we would wash down the drain about all of the principles for water resources and power development in the public and national interest that have been hammered out and forged and put into use bit by bit from the days of Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot down through the great water resources and power developments that began in the 1930's.

I am thinking, of course, of the principles of the inseparable unity of resources, of the tried and essential multipurpose attack on resource conservation and development, of sustained yields from resources, of fullest returns and greatest good to the greatest number from development, of widest distribution of benefits, of best contributions to the national economy and security. I am thinking, too, of the well-demonstrated benefits of the production and sale of power at lowest costof the added production, security, and well-being, and the new opportunities for investment, for business, and for labor that have followed out of low-cost energy.

It had seemed to me-as it must have seemed to most of the people of the country-that these principles-so well applied and demonstrated in TVA-were now firmly established in our law and custom. I still believe that they are and that they cannot be torn down. But a very serious raid upon them is now in progress, spearheaded by the Hoover Commission and its task force, and this raid must be quickly and decisively turned back.

It can readily be seen from the Commission reports who would profit and who would suffer if those recommendations were to go into effect. The main purpose is, obviously, to hamstring the Federal effort in multiple-purpose water and power development-particularly the production of basic, low-cost power supply and delivery at wholesale, through the Federal dams and powerplants and the primary connecting transmission lines between plants and between plants and load centers. It would gain that end by separating the mutually supporting uses of water for navigation, power, irrigation, flood control, and other purposes-increasing costs and decreasing feasibility of development by making the several uses stand alone. It would saddle Federal power operations with costs that are foreign to such operations-with the higher interest rates and taxes that apply to private utilities engaged in power production and distribution-including retail as well as wholesale operations. It would raise the Federal wholesale rates to the point where they could no longer well serve the national needs for low-cost power in great volume and in advance of year-toyear estimates of load growth. It would break up the beneficial "yardstick" effects of this kind of power development. It would disregard the productive effects of that kind of power in the economythe additions to income and output, and the consequent effects on business opportunity, employment, and general income.

70818-56-pt. 5- -6

The task force makes much of the need of State and local governments for revenue and of the taxes paid through (not by) the private utilities, but it disregards the larger effects of low-cost power in corporate and individual income and in property values, and the reflection of the great expansion in public revenues.

The Commission and task force attack the hydraulically and electrically integrated Federal power systems even more directly. They would have non-Federal agencies develop the power at multiplepurpose dams, or have them come and get it at the bus bar, at greater expense to all down to the ultimate consumer. They would bar the construction of steam plants and of transmission lines by the Federal systems, and lose the advantages of diversity in production and load, of firming power, of integrated operation.

The attack on Federal power is paralleled by another on inland navigation; water-user charges would be applied-disregarding the principle of over 160 years' standing and disregarding the national interest in waterways and their use.

These proposals of the Commission and task force are for negative and destructive actions that apply to Federal resource development in the country at large, and very notably in the TVA area. In addition, the TVA comes in for very special attention. The task force seeks the dismemberment of TVA. It would transfer part of its power facilities to the Atomic Energy Commission, and its nonpower activities to other agencies. And all of this would be done in disregard of the great benefits that have accrued to the Nation and the region as a result of its unified management of a series of closely interdependent resources development activities.

These are only a part of the unfavorable effects that would be felt. if the Hoover Commission and its special-interest task force were to prevail. It is to be hoped that these hearings will bring out the facts and dangers in full, for the information and guidance of the people of this region and the country, and that of the Congress. The House Committee on Government Operations, its Special Subcommittee on Water Resources and Power, and Chairman Robert Jones of Alabama, are to be commended for affording this opportunity, and others like it, for the people concerned to be heard on the devastating and reactionary proposals before us.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just a part of the way I feel in connection with TVA and what it has done, not just especially for us here in the district, because I was born and raised here and I have worked on Wheeler Dam, and I worked on the Colbert steam plant. I am a carpenter by trade and I know what it means. It means work; but you feel that you are working for a cause that will benefit everybody concerned.

The people in the other districts think all we are after is to develop our valley and our district and our TVA. We do not own TVA. The Government owns TVA and all of its subsidiaries. What we are after is to work and make TVA work, and to set up an example and a working example of what it can do and what it will do if properly applied. We of labor have worked and we feel that we have as much a part in TVA and all of its operations as anybody else, because we have worked with our hands and we have shaped it and molded it and made it what it is. Of course, you have to have the money to do it with, but you also have to have some muscle power.

If there are any questions I can answer or any further information in connection with labor that I can furnish and what it has done with TVA, and what TVA has done for us, or the way the two work together, I will be glad to do so.

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much, William. That was a splendid

statement.

Mr. Reuss?

Mr. REUSS. You interested me by your last statement. What is the position of organized labor on the TVA?

Mr. PARRISH. TVA and organized labor have always worked together. In every TVA installation they have done so. In particular, take as an example the Colbert steam plant. They had a TVA labor committee appointed off the job, which was set up there. If anything came up, for instance, we will say, that labor had done or wanted to do, then it was properly apportioned in membership and it was taken before management and something was worked out there. It was not just a case of my telling you that I am going to do so-and-so, whether you like it or not.

It is just like you and your committee. You are down here to find out the facts. That is what that committee was for. They got together and worked it out to the best mutual interest of everybody concerned. I don't remember any one-sided thing that was ever done. Mr. REUSS. What unions represent the workers of the Tennessee Valley Authority?

Mr. PARRISH. Well, what we call the building crafts-the building and construction trades. In other words, its carpenters are not any craft that is connected with actual construction. Carpenters, painters, steamfitters, and ironworkers, and just about anything. In other words, if you were going to build yourself a building personally then any craft you had in connection with building your building is also connected with TVA. In addition, of course, you have the officeworkers, and all those who worked in the office and management, doing the work for them.

Mr. REUSS. What about the workers in the power installations?

Mr. PARRISH. They are all-most of them come under the operating engineers. We have operating engineers, portable hoisting, in other words, caterpillars and cranes and construction machinery. Then we have the stationary engineers, who operate the powerplants and steam generating turbines, and so on.

Mr. REUSS. What about white collar employees?

Mr. PARRISH. They have their own organization. The office employees.

Mr. REUSS. Is that affiliated with the Federation of Labor?

Mr. PARRISH. Yes, sir. Actually, my position as president of the Tri-Cities Central Labor Union takes in all of the AFL locals in the tricities district, and takes in the white collar workers and ladies garment workers, and all of the building and construction crafts, and the railroads, and anything that is AFL in here. Of course, in the future there will be the telephone workers and the steel workers, and everything else.

Mr. REUSS. Thank you.

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. Do you have the right to strike? Have you ever had a strike against TVA?

Mr. PARRISH. What do you mean by that?

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. Those who are organized. Have they ever struck against TVA?

Mr. PARRISH. I do not know. Not to my knowledge. They have had some walkouts over disputes that were more or less among crafts, but not to my knowledge. I do not know of any.

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. What is the going rate of pay for a carpenter on TVA?

Mr. PARRISH. At the present time it is $2.55 an hour.

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. Do you happen to know whether that rate of pay is more or less than that which is paid to people working for private power companies in this area?

Mr. PARRISH. I cannot answer your question other than on what we call the outside. In other words, working out of the local union it is $2.55 on house construction and maintenance and stuff that would possibly come under that category. But on the actual construction on the outside it is $2.6212. The way that the TVA wage scale is set up is there is a wage conference called each year, and all of the crafts go to Knoxville and work it out, and everybody settles it. They settle on a wage scale for the coming year. It is renegotiated each year. It is not just a demand we make as carpenters and tell the TVA, "You are going to pay me so-and-so." This wage scale is negotiated and, whether or not it is above or below our scale here, that is what is paid.

If you will go to another district-and just as an example, we will

say their scale is $3 outside, well, TVA only pays $2.55 for their work. That is a negotiated scale all over the Tennessee Valley watershed area. That is Tennessee Valley-wide and it is not just one district.

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. Thank you.

Mr. JONES. Are there any further questions?

(No response.)

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much, Mr. Parrish. We are glad to have had you.

The committee will now stand adjourned until 9: 30 in the morning. (Whereupon, at 4:20 p. m. the hearing was adjourned until 9:30 a. m. the following day, Wednesday, November 2, 1955.)

COMMISSION ON ORGANIZATION OF THE EXECUTIVE

BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT

(Water Resources and Power Report)

Part 5-Muscle Shoals, Ala.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1955

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER RESOURCES AND POWER
OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS,
Muscle Shoals, Ala.

The special subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, in the Chemical Engineering Building, Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals, Ala., at 9:30 a. m., Hon. Robert E. Jones, Jr. (chairman of the special subcommittee), presiding.

Members present: Representatives Robert E. Jones, Jr., Martha W. Griffiths, Henry S. Reuss, and Glenard P. Lipscomb.

Also present: William C. Wise, staff director; William L. Sturdevant, professional staff member; Robert Morris and Orville S. Poland, general counsel, Committee on Government Operations.

Mr. JONES. The subcommittee will come to order.

Our first witness will be former Governor Keen Johnson, who is from Louisville, Ky., and a vice president of Reynolds Metals Co. Mr. Johnson.

STATEMENT OF KEEN JOHNSON, LOUISVILLE, KY., VICE PRESIDENT OF REYNOLDS METALS CO., APPEARING ON BEHALF OF OHIO VALLEY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Lovely lady and members of the committee, my name is Keen Johnson. My residence is Louisville, Ky., and I am vice president of Reynolds Metals Co., which has its principal office at Richmond, Va. I appear before your subcommittee today on behalf of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association, a nonprofit corporation of the State of Ohio which is devoted to the improvement and development of water resources in the Ohio River Basin for navigation, flood control, and water supply. The association is broadly representative of industry, waterway operators, civic groups and private citizens throughout the valley who support its work and program.

In recent years the Ohio Valley has witnessed a greatly accelerated economic growth. During the past 5 years alone over $8 billion worth of new plant construction has been announced for the Ohio Valley-$212 billion is for additions to existing plants in the valley and $52 billion is for completely new plants and industries which