Going further, the REA has enlisted the aid of electrical appliance manufacturers to provide the new users of power with economical fixtures suitable to modest farm homes, They now can get them packaged—lighting equipment for an entire house in one lot for a lump sum, and other combinations in proportion—always cheaper than the individual items would have cost if bought separately.
Where a farm home is unwired and the owner cannot afford the cash outlay, a five-year loan is available to enable him to take advantage of the new power supply.
Not all REA loans go to ce-operatives. In some cases local governmental units decide to extend the operations of their power systems, and in some others private utilities have taken advantage of the long-term loan. As of last June 30, 88.7 per cent. of all borrowers were farmer ce-operatives, 7.9 per cent, were public, and 3.5 per cent. were private utilities, The organic act of the REA prohibits it from entering into competition with private companies—it must operate only where they cannot or will not. And its loans are wide open to any one with a feasible project and good credit. When a ce-operative is formed, an effort is first made to buy power wholesale from the nearest private company. If the company refuses, then the ce-operative sets up its own plant, or, if adjacent to a Federal power project, buys its current there instead.
Because of the non-profit aspect of most of these projects, they are naturally able to operate at much lower cost per consumer than a private company. There are no big salaries to pay, no metre readers and bill collectors (the consumer reads his own metre and pays his bill); in short, little of the customary overhead. The REA has financed the building of close to 200,000 miles of rural power lines, and a daily average of 422 miles is being maintained. In addition, it claims to have greatly stimulated the building of rural lines by private companies which have fallen in line when the feasibility Of such a project was demonstrated. On the financial side there have been no absolute defaults on REA loans, although delays have been granted in some cases,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.