REA handbook for field auditors

Form FI-176, Revised March 194

A Guide for Members of REA Cooperatives

Excerpts from the Report: This booklet will tell you how effective cooperative enterprise can be in rural electrification. In the four years since 1935, more than 600 REA-financed cooperatives have been organized. The number of farms electrified has more than doubled. Aid to cooperative rural electrification projects became a direct concern of the Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1939, when REA was made a unit of the Department. We are throwing the resources of the Department behind the REA program. Our aim is to carry electricity to as many farms as is possible on a sound, self-liquidating basis. Already cooperative electricity has contributed significantly toward making farm life worthy of the people who live on the farm. Along with our other activities, rural electrification, cooperatively accomplished, will continue to move forward

Electricity for the Farm through REA

Excerpts from the Foreword: The Rural Electrification Administration is an agency of the Federal Government. The letters “REA” are its initials. But they are more than that. They form the symbol of a great movement that springs from the farm men and farm women of America. These farm men and farm women are banding together in increasing numbers to bring themselves the electric service so long denied them. This banding together we call cooperation. This pamphlet is designed to introduce the citizen to the REA program—what it is and how it functions. But this is only a pamphlet. The reader who wishes a full understanding of the mechanics and significance of the program can do no better than to visit one of the hundreds of farmer-controlled rural electric power systems that REA has financed. Today these systems are located in almost every State; at least one of them is within visiting distance of virtually any point in the country

Financial and Operating Statistics of All Systems to Which REA Had Made Allotments as of September 30, 1940

Excerpts from the report: The following tables present financial and operating data for all REA-financed systems. Data are divided among the tables as follows: Table I — Allotments, Advances and Operating Statistics; Table II — Income and Debt Service Statements; Table III — Interest and Principal Accrued Accounts; Table IV — Borrowers with Interest or Principal More Than 30 Days in Arrears on June 30, 1940 and October 31, 1940; Table V — Summary of Debt Service Statements June 30, 1940 and October 31, 1940. Revenue, expense and operating statistics included in these tables summarize reports to REA by the REA-financed systems and are subject to possible revision on the basis of future audits adjustment

Electricity for the Farm through REA

Excerpts from the Foreword: The Rural Electrification Administration is an agency of the Federal Government. The letters “REA” are its initials. But they are more than that. They form the symbol of a great movement that springs from the farm men and farm women of America. These farm men and farm women are banding together in increasing numbers to bring themselves the electric service so long denied them. This banding together we call cooperation. This pamphlet is designed to introduce the citizen to the REA program—what it is and how it functions. But this is only a pamphlet. The reader who wishes a full understanding of the mechanics and significance of the program can do no better than to visit one of the hundreds of farmer-controlled rural electric power systems that REA has financed. Today these systems are located in almost every State; at least one of them is within visiting distance of virtually any point in the country

Telling the Co-op Story: An Educational Handbook for Rural Electric Co-ops

Excerpts: This book was written to help rural electric cooperatives grow and prosper as service organizations in a modern rural America. In 1936, when Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act, it emphasized the role that cooperatives were to play in the vast task that lay ahead. It authorized the Administrator of REA to give preference in making loans to cooperative and other nonprofit associations. Since then the co-ops, owned by the people they serve, have taken the initiative in bringing electric power to rural areas. About 95 percent of all REA loans have been made to these private, locally owned and locally operated, enterprises. It is in the interest of all American taxpayers, as well as in accordance with the spirit of the Rural Electrification Act, that the rural electric co-ops be kept strong and sound business enterprises. Yet there are threats to their strength. One of the most serious of those threats lies in an uninformed or poorly informed co-op membership. Experience of co-ops of all types has shown clearly that, next to inadequate management, the indifference of co-op members about their co-op has been the chief cause of co-op failure. Realizing the nature of this threat to their welfare or to their very existence, rural electric co-ops are taking steps to inform their members more fully about their rights and responsibilities as owners of rural power systems. At the same time they are informing them about an equally important matter—the proper use of their electric service. The soundness of co-ops as rural service enterprises demands that their member-owners be fully aware of what electricity can do to improve working and living conditions on their farms, in their homes, and in their communities. This handbook is concerned more with the How than with the What. It is intended as a working tool for the men and women who have the broad task of fully informing the member-owners of the Nation's rural co-op power systems

A Brief History of the Rural Electric and Telephone Programs

Excerpts from the report: The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) is a credit agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture which assists rural electric and telephone organizations in obtaining the financing required to provide electric and telephone service in rural areas. These essential services help improve the quality of life for people who live, work, or do business throughout rural America. Financial assistance may include (a) loans from REA, (b) guarantees of loans made by others, and (c) REA approval of security arrangements which permit the borrower to obtain financing from other lenders without a guarantee. REA was first established by Executive Order 7037 on May 11, 1935, as part of a general program of unemployment relief. It soon became clear, however, that the task of extending central station electric service to rural areas required very specialized skills (engineering, management, etc.) that would be difficult to attract if REA operated under the constraints of the unemployment relief authorization. REA was given its own statutory authorization by the Rural Electrification Act of May 20, 1936. It became a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1939. Federal support was needed to electrify rural America because most of the established utilities served high density areas and did not extend lines to farmers and other rural residents because such investments were not considered to be feasible. The purpose of REA was expanded in 1949 when REA was authorized to loan funds for telephone service in rural areas. As in the case of electricity, it became clear that rural residents would not have access to adequate and dependable telephone service unless Federal support was provided. Both the rural Telephone and rural Electric programs of REA have been successful in achieving their goals

Profits from Farm Power

Contents : Electricity Aids the Poultry Industry; Dairying Profits Stimulated; A New Approach to Farm Grinding: The Portable Farm Motor; Electricity and Two Special Crops; Electrical Refrigeration on the Farm; Electrical Irrigation for the Kitchen and Market Garden; Six New Aids to Farming; Farmers Themselves Build Some Equipmen