Page View
Wisconsin Rural Electric Cooperative Association / First yearbook, 1938
(1938)
The builders, pp. 31-32
PDF (485.5 KB)
Page 31
WISCONSIN RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION THE BUILDERS (A story of STATEWIDE as written for the monthly magazine of the Municipal Ownership League of America) Generations of dreams of rural electrification crystallized into reality in 1935 with the energetic and voluntary cooperation of Wisconsin farmers who knew that electrification was more than bright city lights-it was energy that could be harnassed to make their work that much more effect- ual in producing the urgent wants of an inter-dependent society. To the friendly, neighborly farmers of the state, electric cooperatives were the natural way. Along main highways and on small roads they trudged through fall mud and winter snow to carry their message. By April of the following year several electric cooperatives had been organ- ized and they were anticipating the construction of lines. But now a real problem arose. Where could each of these little separate groups secure engineering services compatible with reliable con- struction at a cost consistent with the cooperative spirit? With true coop- erative intent they sent representatives to a congress in Madison. It was here, then, that their ideas on their separate needs for strength and pro- tection met and merged in a unified whole in the organization of the WISCONSIN RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION-a cooperative of and for cooperatives-which has become familiarly known as "STATEWIDE", and now furnishes guidance and supervision through engineering, manag- erial and accounting services to its member cooperatives, with the aim and. purpose of expediting electric service to all of rural Wisconsin. The new electric cooperatives became members of STATEWIDE and elected directors and officers to guide their policies and steer their course in the path of cooperative principles. Mr. B. W. Huiskamp, and later Mr. J. A. Becker served as part time managers of the organization, and in February, 1937, the Board of Directors appointed Mr. J. Morgan Wilson as full time manager. Mr. Wilson is an electrical engineer with experience in construction and operation of cooperatively owned and managed dis- tribution lines. In the spring of 1937, five projects totaling about 2,000 miles, were under construction. These lines are now energized through the engineer- ing supervision of the WISCONSIN RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE Asso- CIATION. It is of interest to note that the location of these original units is in the extreme north, the extreme south and through the central part of the state. As the picture develops, and projects spring up in all the areas which *had long been neglected, the state becomes a network of gleaming wires. During the season just past, eleven additional electric cooperatives have brought their projects into the construction stage with several soon to energize. New cooperatives, a municipal extension, and extensions to original projects now brings the total to twenty projects, 5,000 miles and 15,000 farm houses. A new venture in our state, the WISCONSIN POWER COOPERATIVE, which has a membership of ten coop- eratives in the northwestern part of the state, is building 243 miles of transmission lines under the supervision of STATEWIDE, to serve, at present, eight of its member groups. The cooperative builders have found that theirs is a "forward" move- ment with an unlimited future. The scope of their activity is like a giant magnetic field, which draws alike the liberal and the conservative. Coop- erative achievement has shown that the type of individual leadership which produces socialized effort, successfully brings about the happy economic 31
This material may be protected by copyright law (e.g., Title 17, US Code).| For information on re-use, see http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright