TWL NnETIICENTun·A~IIII:lC""SS
TVA - Democracyatwork
The Tennessee I S a ile o f th e great rivers of
Amer ica.Itdrains all areaofthe easternU nited
States alm o st as large as West Germany. T he
valleyoftheTennesseew asonceacountryoftree-
covered slopes, bUT generatio ns of farmers nit
downthe[feesandplo ug hedtheslopestog ro w
corn, tobaccoandconon. All thesecropswere
plantedinthespnng andharvestedintheautum n.
In thewinterthelandlaybare .Its soil waswashed
;l\'iJYb v heavywinterrains.Thesame rainsoften
caused floods which drov e people from their
homes.
By 19 33 the T enn essee Valle y's land was ex-
haustcd. It was produ cin g poorer cro ps every
Yl·ar.The very nam esth atthefarmer sgan'tothe
counrrvside-.H ard Labor Creek. Long Hungry
C reek. Po o rland Valley -showed how hopeless
theywere.
Ro o sevelt set up a special alpha bet ;lgellcy to
organizehelp for theTennesseeValley's millions
ofpeople. It was called the Tennessee Valley
Authority (T V A). The TVA had three mam
ainrs -,tosto p flood s.tom ake electricity and to
make th e landfertileagain-
From193 3 onwardsth e valleyoftheT cnucsscc
echoedtotherono f heav y machinery.H u genew
stee l andconcreted am sro se up. Whenheavy rams
fell thedamsheld back thefloodw aterin great
m an- m ade lakes. By guiding the same \...-arc r
throughturbines ,th eyalsomadeelectri city .T he
TVAsoldtheelectricitycheaplytofarmers.The
electricitywas alsousedtopO\Vl'r newfactories
making paper. aluminum. chemicals and ferti-
lizers.T hesefa cto ries m eantj obs anda betterlife
fo r rhc TennesseeValley'speople.
T V A also plantedmillion s of trees andpersu ad ed
farmerstoplantcrop slikegras s and clover.These
cove redth eground'all year ro un dand prevented
winter rains from washingaw ay the soil. The
fields and h illsof(he T enn essee Valleybecame
g fl'l'nagain as rhc scarsoferos io nwerehealed.
Just as impo rt an tasth e achievem entsofT VAwas
till'way inwhichtheywerewon .In (he 1930 s(he
peopleofmanycountrieswert:acceptingth e ru le
ofdictatorsin a desper ateattempttoescapefrom102
Ofl~~flJ.I'd.""jb"ill by th..T~m'rJj((I'allry.-lurh"riry.th emiseries ofpo ve rt y and unemployment. In
timeslike these (he T VAwasa startl ingdemon-
stranon o f w h at democr ati cmethod sufgove rn -
mcu rcouldachieve. Far from limiting the part
p eo plewereable to play inrunnlllg rhcir own
lives,ashappenedinthe co u ntriesofrhcdictators.
TVAencouragedthemtotak eamore active part.
It set up voluntary coo perative g ro u ps to sell
electricity. for instan ce, and to o rga nize the
market in go f (he farmers' produce.Such grou ps
wererun by th epeo p lethemselves. T hey p ro-
vidcd valu ableexperi enceofdemocracyatworkat
the locallevel-wha thasbeen called"democracy
at thegras sroots.'
Roosevelthim self regard edthis aspectofTVAas
o ne of th e mostimpo r tantthin gsaboutit. In 1940
thearmiesoftheGlT111and ictato r Hitlerseemed
abouttodestroyth elastrem n antsofdemocracyIII
Europe. T hat September. Roosevelt tra veledto
the T enne ssee Valley to opena newdam. In his
speechhepointed to theTVA as living proofo f
whatthe idea ls andmeth o ds o f d em ocr aticgovern -
mentcou ldachiev e:
" T hesefine changesweseehaven otcomeby
compu lsion. Tho usan dsoftownspeople have met
to getherIIIth ecommoneffort.T heyhaved ebated
it anddiscussed it. No farmerwasfo rcedtojoin
this m o vem ent. N oworkman wascompelledto
laborhereforlessthan a rightfulwage.Nocitize n
h as lo sta sin gleo neo f t h es eh um anlibertiesth at
weprize sohighly. ThisI Sa d em on str atio n of
whata democracyatworkcand o ."