Power Monopoly Its Make-Up nd Its Menace Bj) Gifford Pinchot Millard, Pa. 1928 Power Monopoly Its Make-Up and Its Menace B Gifford Pin chot Milford, Pa. 1928 INDEX PAGES The Power Monopoly, Its Make-up and Its Menace 1- 16 Appendix A 17-120 Alphabetical list 4,362 companies 19-112 Alphabetical list 41 big holding companies 112 Alphabetical list 125 small holding companies 113 Alphabetical list 31 investment companies 116 Alphabetical list 85 independent companies 118 Appendix B 121-256 Alphabetical identification of 41 companies 123 Byllesby group 190 Doherty group 194 General Electric group 124 Insull group 145 Joint Control group 202 Mellon group 182 Morgan group 167 Unidentified group 234 Am. Gas & Elec. Co. 125 Am. Lt. & Traction Co. 219 Am. Pr. & Lt. Co. 128 Am. Public UtIlities Co. 211 Am. Water Wks. & Elec. Co. 183 Associated Gas & Elec. Co. 235 Brooklyn Edison Co. 232 Buffalo Niagara & Eastern Pr. Corp. 241 Cities Service Co. 194 Columbia Gas & Elec. Corp. 187 Commonwealth Edison Co. 145 Commonwealth Lt. & Pr. Co. 147 Commonwealth Pr. Corp. 203 PAGES Cons. Gas Co. of New York 216 Cons. Gas Elec. Lt. & Pr. Co. of Baltimore 213 Detroit Edison Co. 131 Edison Elec. Ilium. Co. of Boston 133 Electric Pr. & Lt. Corp. 134 General Gas & Elec. Corp. 243 Lehigh Pr. Securities Corp. 137 Middle West Utilities Co. 148 Midland Utilities Co. 156 Mohawk Hudson Pr. Corp. 205 Montana Power Co. 207 National Elec. Power Co. 158 National Power & Light Co. 139 National Public Service Corp. 167 North American Co. 247 North American Lt. & Pr. Co. 161 Northeastern Power Corp. 208 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. 190 Philadelphia Electric Co. 171 Public Service Corp. of N. J. 173 Public Service Co. of Northern Illinois 165 Southeastern Power & Light Co. 141 Southern California Edison Co. 251 Standard Gas & Electric Co. 225 United Gas Improvement Co. 177 United Light & Power Co. 221 Utilities Power & Light Corp. 254 Western United Corp. 215 THE POWER MONOPOLY ITS MAKE-UP AND ITS MENACE BGIFFORD PINCHOT Is there a Nation-wide, organized, persistent movement to monopo- lize the electrical powers of the United States? Is there an electric monopoly? And if there is a power monopoly, has it been organized and financed for economical production and efficient service, with fair rates to the public, and fair profits for the power corporations and their investors? Or are we facing a power monopoly organized and ¶inanced to secure the profits of extortion by the arrogant abuse of unregulated, unrestrained privilege? As a private citizen, as a Federal official, and as the Governor of a State, I have given much time and some money to a conscientious study of the electric question.For years I have been in almost constant com- munication and consultation with many serious students of electric power, who have been spurred on in their investigations by deep-seated and public- spirited apprehension over the vision of our country entering the great electric era of world competition under the handicap of excessive cost of electricity, the one great modern driving power turning the wheels of our domestic, commercial and industrial life. The sum total of these investigations and studies is the positive and well-supported conclusion that a Nation-wide, organized, persistent, in- creasing movement to monopolize the electric power of these United States actually does exist. There is an electric power monopoly. Moreover, there is an electric power monopoly organized and financed, not for fair and efficient public service, but for ruthless exploitation, unin- terrupted and unrestrained by anything approaching effctive Government intervention or control. We need not be surprised that State and Federal authorities have stood in awe before this gigantic Nation-wide power monopoly, because beside it, as its creator, financial supporter, and master, stands the con- centrated money power of the United States, which today is the dominat- ing money power of the world. This dominating money power has seized upon the electric power resources of our country with a full realization of the fact that before very many years it will be not "the hand that rocks the cradle," butthe hand that turns the electric switch that will rule the land. Therefore the electric power monopoly deserves the fullest public attention.The people ought to know what itis, and why it is, and how it affects them.All the facts about it ought to be publicly available, either through Governmental agenciesor through private effort.The people must learn to judge intelligently ofits advantages and of its evils.Everything about it should be investigated fearlessly and published fully, because we must learn to regulate and control it before itsmothers and enslaves us. This pamphlet is intended asa contribution to public knowledge of the electric power monopoly.It is also intended to point the way for theadditionalauthentic information needed for adequate protective legislation. The power monopoly study submitted in this publicationcovers 4,362 corporations, which are listed alphabetically in Appendix "A."This list of power corporations may or may not be entirely complete.But it has attained so near to absolute completeness that itis without doubt the most complete list ever compiled or published.It includes the big holding companies, the smaller holding companies, companies owned or controlled by the holding companies, and what few independent companies remain. Some minor gompanies of recent origin, and some companiesso long ago absorbed or dissolved that no current records are available, may be missing from this list, but that the list is practically complete, and does give a full view and a true view of the electric power industry is proved by the fact that one division of the corporations here listedthat of the 41 big holding companiesalone accounts for 82 percent of the electric energy produced in the United States. In order to make the list as complete as possible, the listed companies also include those subsidiary organizations of power companies whichare not engaged in the electrical power business, but through which electric holding companies control coal, coke, gas, water, street railways, bus lines, bridges, lumber, real estate, amusement parks, and other interests con- tributing to their monopoly. The records of corporations in this report are given as nearly as possible as of June 30, 1927, with the nearest applicable and available financial and statistical figuresfor the most part as of December 31, 1926. Constant changes, never-ceasing mergers or consolidations, in the never-sleeping zeal to concentrate extortionate controlin fewer and fewer hands, have altered the status of a number of corporations since the compilation of this record. These changes, however, merely emphasize the monopolistic tendency toward concentration by bringing together two or more companies treated separately in this report. The United Gas Improvement Company and the Philadelphia Electric Company, for instance, are here treated separately, although since June 30, 1927, these two corporations have been merged.In the same way, the Consolidated Gas Company of New York and the Brooklyn Edison Company are treated separately, although plans for their consolidation were this year approved by the Public Service Commission of New York. The most striking fact uncovered by this study of 4,362 corporations in the power industry is the thoroughness with which concentration has been achieved. Under this concentration the power corporations fall into four general groups: 2 Operating Companies 3,108 controlled by41 big holding companies. 877 "125 smaller holding companies. 126 31 investment companies allied with the power interests. 85 entirely independent companies. 4,196 operating companies. 166 holding companies. 4,362 corporations owned or controlled by the electrical power industry, not including the 31 investment companies mentioned above. The outstanding importance of the 41 big holding companies, which own or control 3,108 of the 4,196 operating companies, is recognized here at a glance.Yet the dominating importance of the 41 is still further increased when their kilowatt hours of production and population served are considered. The records show that the 41 big holding companies control a little more than 82 percent of all the electric power generated in theUnited States.The records further show that almost 83 percent of the country's population depends upon the 41 power giants for the electric energy they need. The kilowatt hours of production and the population served by each of the 41 is given herewith in detail from the corporations' own reports for the year ended December 31, 1926: PRODUCTION IN K. W. HRS. AND POPULATION SERVED BY 41 BIG HOLDING COMPANIES IN POWER MONOPOLY Name K. W. H. Population Am. Gas & Elec. Co. 2,877,274,000 3,262,000 Am. Pwr. & Lt. Co. 1,948,992,000* 2,925,000* Am. Pub. Utilities Co. 334,518,201 335,931 Am. Lt. & Traction Co. 104,587,720* 2,600,000* Am. Water Wks. & Elec. Co. 1,514,609,984* 1,690,000* Ass. Gas & Elec. Co. 590,905,367 2,300,000 Brooklyn Edison Co. 674,741,645* 2,200,000* Buffalo, Niagara & East. Pwr. 4,089,994,000* 2,700,000* Cons. Gas Elec. Lt. & Pwr. Co. of Balto. 727,475,746* 900,000* Comwlth. Edison Co. 3,482,632,000* 3,048,000* Comwlth. Lt. & Pwr. Co. 69,316,000 314,500 Cities Service Co. 1,307,477,634* 3,000,000* Cons. Gas Co. of N. Y. 2,064,289,000* 4,500,000* Columbia Gas & Elec. Corp. 894,615,230* 1,100,000* Comwlth. Pwr. Corp. 1,429,553,946* 2,000,000* Detroit Edison Co. 2,025,063,700* 2,000,000* Edison Elec. Illu. Co., Boston 543,487,896* 1,265,000* 3 Name K. W. H.