UTILITY COMPANIES

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1935, Page 7

UTILITY COMPANIES

ROOSEVELT “DEATH SENTENCE” ASTOUNDING COUNTER MOVE AVALANCHE OF TELEGRAMS Wnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyrights (Received 9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, July 16. The Lobbying Investigation Committee of the Senate today had as its principal witness the manager of a telegraph company in the small town of Warren, Pennsylvania, who told an astounding story. The witness stated that the representative of a utility holding company sent an avalanche of telegrams to members of Congress from that district urging them to vote against “the death sentence” feature of President Roosevelt’s Utility Bill. According to the manager, the utility company’s representative wrote the text of the messages and then, using a city directory, affixed names from it to 1300 messages and paid for their transmission to Washington. Apparently none of the persons whose names were used were consulted as to whether they wanted to protest against the legislation. Members of Congress became sceptical when so many of the protestors’ names were found to start with the letter B. An' investgation revealed their origin. As a climax to his evidence, the witness said the original copies of the messages had been burnt, although the company’s rule was that such records should be kept a year before they were destroyed. He said one of his subordinates had ordered the messages to be burnt at the suggestion of the utility company’s representative.