Because of the importance of aluminunt to aeroplane manufacture, Government engineers re rushing new generating equipment into place at Grand Coulee and Bonneville. Huge quantities of electricity are essential to high-speed aluminium production.
Some weeks ago, Secretary Ickes refused to contract with the Aluminum Company of America for more Federal power for its Vancouver plant. He said the McNery-Bone Act required the reservation of at least half the Bonneville output for publicly owned power systems, He also maintained that the hydroelectricity sold to private industry "should be split up among as many competitors as possible."
This action of the Secretary of the Interior was denounced by Governor Charles A. Sprague of Oregon, who accused Mr. Ickes of bitrary and dictatorial tendencies. Mr. Ickes, im turn, charged the Governor with sympathy. for private power companies and said he would not permit Columbia River power to be "mono-policed by limited groups." Not long after this political rumpus, the Reynolds company announced the definite selection of a site for its new plant.
Some observers in the region believe the Rey-naids factory at Longview will be the spearhead of an attempt to challenge the dominance long held by the Aluminium Company of America. Mr. R. S. Reynolds, president of the organization, said recently he believed the Columbia River basin would inevitably become one of the greatest aluminium centres "anywhere on earth."
At peak capacity, the two aluminium corporations will pay the Government about $4,000,000 a year for power. They will use one-seventh of the ultimate output of Bonneville and Grand Coulee. Much of this new energy will pump water for irrigating and reclaiming land and will light the farms to be built on this land.
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