{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","@type":"sc:Manifest","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/ncdcr/iiif/13756464-1de7-4daf-ac3f-6a6334ec56f0/manifest","label":"Rural_Electrification_Authority","metadata":[{"label":"Title","value":"State Agency Finding Aid: Rural Electrification Authority, 1935-1961"},{"label":"MARS ID","value":"50"},{"label":"Digital Collections","value":["Legacy Finding Aids Collection"]},{"label":"Identifier","value":"Rural_Electrification_Authority"},{"label":"Digital Format","value":["application/pdf"]},{"label":"Hosted By","value":["State Archives of North Carolina"]},{"label":"Metadata Creator","value":["Cusick, Aaron"]},{"label":"Type","value":["Text"]},{"label":"Notes Public","value":"If you have questions about this collection, please contact the State Archives of North Carolina at archives@ncdcr.gov."},{"label":"Source","value":"Rural Electrification Authority Records. State Archives of North Carolina"},{"label":"Language","value":["English"]},{"label":"Description","value":"North Carolina's promotion of the use of electric energy in rural areas can be traced to the early decades of the twentieth century.  In his inaugural address in 1917, Governor Thomas W. Bickett recommended   that the legislature provide the State Highway Commission with funds to   assist rural citizens in acquiring electricity and running water.  That   year the General Assembly responded with a law guaranteeing an annual   appropriation of five thousand dollars to provide professional assistance   to those who qualified, but established no mechanism to advertise the   availability of these funds or to ensure their use.  By the early 1920s,  the University of North Carolina and its Department of Rural Social   Economics began to promote public awareness of the uses and benefits of   electricity and collaborated with the State Highway Commission to supply   free advisory services to rural communities.  This program marked the  beginning of an educational process that successfully created a strong  desire within the rural population for electrification services.  Following his election in 1932, Governor J. C. B. Ehringhaus accepted responsibility for promoting a program of rural electrification. Ehringhaus was supported enthusiastically by the farm population,  including the State Grange and other farm organizations that had long been proponents of a statewide electrification program.  At the suggestion of the State Grange, the governor in May of 1934 appointed fourteen members to the Committee to Study the Problem of Rural Electrification to report to the governor and to the 1935 General  Assembly.  Meeting shortly after its appointment, the committee decided that a statewide survey should be taken to assess conditions and needs. With no immediate financial support from the legislature available, the governor enlisted the assistance of the state Emergency Relief Administration (ERA).  Subsequently, the administrator of the ERA procured from the federal government a grant of twenty-five thousand dollars for a statewide survey of the following:  the location of extant rural electrification facilities and distribution lines; the desire on the part of farm families for service; and the location of areas where the construction of lines would prove feasible.  The survey was begun on 10 August 1934 and completed in October of 1935, providing vital data for the future of the electrification effort.  During the same period, the president of the United States acted  under the authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 to issue an executive order creating the federal Rural Electrification Administration.  The new agency was charged with facilitating the introduction of electric service in areas throughout the country that  were not yet served.  Subsequently, on 3 May 1935 the General Assembly created the North Carolina Rural Electrification Authority (NCREA) to serve as the state's link to the federal agency and to promote the fullest possible use of electric energy throughout the state.  The NCREA consisted of six gubernatorial appointees serving staggered terms initially, with successors serving terms of four years.  A chairman and a secretary were to be chosen by the authority from among its membership. To fulfill its purpose, the authority was charged with the following duties:  to investigate applications from communities where service was not available; to conduct surveys; to negotiate with power companies; to arrange for the extension of service; to estimate the cost of service  charges; and to request that the Utilities Commission establish rates and require extension of lines by privately owned power companies.    Additionally, the authority was granted the power of eminent domain, the right to obtain assistance from the federal government, and the right to act as agent for electric membership corporations.  In separate legislation in 1935, the General Assembly enacted the  Electric Membership Corporation Act which enabled the formation of local non-profit organizations to promote the widest possible use of electric energy.  These membership corporations were encouraged to organize in areas lacking or without adequate electrical service, and to make  electricity available to the inhabitants at the lowest possible cost. Under provisions of the act, such corporations could establish themselves legally through application to the NCREA.  The following May Congress enacted the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, providing for a new Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to supersede the former agency of the same name.  The federal REA was granted the same general functions as its predecessor and authorized to assume loans and contracts entered by the former agency.  Under terms of the act, an administrator would be appointed by the president, with the advice of the Senate; he was given authority to make loans to a variety of entities, including cooperatives and non-profit corporations, for financing, constructing, and operating rural electrification systems. States that had already established agencies to facilitate rural electrification programs were give preferential treatment in the loan process.  Under the terms of North Carolina's legal arrangements, if the application of an electric membership corporation had been previously accepted by the NCREA, it would then be submitted to the federal REA for consideration for loan approval.  In 1945 the General Assembly authorized the NCREA to assist rural communities lacking in adequate telephone service and to help them secure such service from telephone companies serving the area.  Under  terms of this legislation, the authority was required to conduct  investigations and determine which areas met the requirements for  forming non-profit telephone membership corporations.  Like electric membership corporations, they were to obtain loans from the federal REA by first applying to the state authority.  Under terms of the Executive Organization Act of 1971, the NCREA  was placed for administrative purposes under the Department of Commerce, a newly formed umbrella agency under the management of a cabinet-level secretary.  The act specified, however, that the NCREA would continue to exercise all of its prescribed statutory powers independently of the head of the department.  The General Assembly of 1975 enacted legislation that reorganized the Department of Commerce and recreated the NCREA.  The authority thereafter consisted of five gubernatorial appointees who continued to serve terms of four years.  When the Department of Commerce  was again reconstituted in 1977, the General Assembly stipulated that  the NCREA was authorized to employ and supervise professional and  technical personnel and that the authority would not be accountable to the secretary of commerce in the exercise of its quasi-judicial powers.  The legislature of 1989 restructured the Department of Commerce and changed its name to the Department of Economic and Community Development. In 1991 the agency was renamed the Department of Commerce, effective 1 January 1993.  The General Assembly of 1991 enacted a law requiring electric and telephone membership corporations to pay regulatory fees in order to defray the expenses of the NCREA.  The fees were to be placed in a  special fund maintained in the office of the state treasurer and spent pursuant to an appropriation by the General Assembly.  REFERENCES:  P.L., 1917, c. 267.  P.L., 1935, cc. 288, 291.  S.L., 1945, c. 853.  S.L., 1971, c. 864, s. 17(1)(2)(3)(16).  S.L., 1975, c, 709, s. 7-8.  S.L., 1977, c. 198, s. 1.  S.L., 1979, c. 285.  S.L., 1981, c. 919, s. 12.  S.L., 1989, c. 751, ss. 1-2.  S.L., 1991, cc. 473, s. 1; 803, s. 1; 959.  G.S. 117-1 through 117-46 [1994].  Brown, D. Clayton.  ELECTRICITY FOR RURAL AMERICA. No. 29 in    CONTRIBUTIONS IN ECONOMICS AND ECONOMIC HISTORY.  Edited by Robert    Sobel.  Westport, Ct.:  Greenwood Press, 1980.  Pp. 35-66.  Corbitt, David Leroy.  ADDRESSES, LETTERS AND PAPERS OF JOHN CHRISTOPH   BLUCHER EHRINGHAUS, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1933-1937.  Raleigh:   Council of State, 1950.  Pp. 472-473.  Deutsch, Joseph.  \"Rural Electrification in North Carolina.\"  Master's   thesis, University of North Carolina, 1944.  Duplicated and bound       by the North Carolina Rural Electrification Authority.  Emergency Relief Administration.  EMERGENCY RELIEF IN NORTH CAROLINA:   A RECORD OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA   EMERGENCY RELIEF ADMINISTRATION, 1932-1935.  Edited by J. S. Kirk,   Walter A. Cutter, and Thomas W. Moore.  Raleigh, 1936. Pp. 356-368.  Historical Records Survey Project, Works Progress Administration,   Division of Professional and Service Projects.  NORTH CAROLINA RURAL   ELECTRIFICATION AUTHORITY.  No. 10 in Series IX, Miscellaneous   Agencies.  Raleigh:  Historical Commission, 1940.  Pp. 1-3.  House, R. B., ed., and Santford Martin, comp.  PUBLIC LETTERS AND PAPERS    OF THOMAS WALTER BICKETT, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1917-   1921.  Raleigh: State Printers, 1923.  Pp. 7, 10, 284."},{"label":"Digital Characteristics","value":"1 page"},{"label":"Format","value":["Finding aids"]},{"label":"Rights","value":"This item is provided courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina and is a public record according to G.S.132."},{"label":"Source Collections","value":["Rural Electrification Authority Records. 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