When the Lights Came On

This week’s announcement of federal funding to extend broadband internet access to underserved area—especially rural areas—reminded me of Dad and Grandpa’s stories of the REA and the arrival of electricity. 

Back in the 1930s, the lights came on in Henry Turck’s barn for the first time, spooking the milk cows. Electric lights were welcome, but the real improvement was electric milking machines. Dad recalled that his father made a deal with him. Dad would milk the cows, and that would leave Grandpa time for more trapping so he could earn enough money to purchase an electric milking machine. 

Dad described the difference that made: 

“The milking machine was a big pail to which was attached four suction cups that were put on the cows for milking them or getting the milk from them. With the milking machine, you would put four-tit cup on the cow’s udders and then with the REA electric power engine, the cows wouldn’t have to be milked by hand. 

“It was a bit easier than milking the cows by hand. Pulling and squeezing two tits at a time to get the milk from the cows, as opposed to milking all four tits at one time. (It allowed for a lot more time for hunting and fishing.)”

My own father was a teenager when FDR’s New Deal and the Rural Electrification Association brought the possibility of electricity to the farm. Farmers could join the REA electric cooperative to get electricity. With government funding, the REA would string power lines out into the countryside. Before that, farmers couldn’t get electricity at all, because the power companies wouldn’t make enough profit on miles-long power lines strung over the countryside. In 1935, less than 11 percent of farms had electricity, compared to more than 90 percent of town and city dwellers. 

MNopedia described the REA cooperative that powered our family’s farm:

“On September 13, 1935, the Meeker Cooperative Light and Power Association (MCLPA) became the first REA co-op organized in Minnesota. Nearly seven hundred farmers signed up at five dollars per share within twenty-seven days of incorporation. The following February the co-op received a $450,000 loan, and by November 28 of that year it powered up the first REA lines in the state. Taking a cue from an electrified farm project set up in the eastern United States, the MCLPA went on to establish a demonstration farm on the property of Charles Ness. Appliance and farm equipment manufacturers furnished sixty-seven pieces of equipment for the purpose of sharing the benefits of electricity with local farmers. The Ness family hosted 2,000 people at the farm during its grand opening on June 12, 1937. Within two years, more than 34,000 people had visited the farm from around the United States and abroad.” 

Today, broadband connection is almost as vital to everyday life as electricity. Heather Cox Richardson reported on the Biden administration initiative to bring broadband to everyone:

“Today the Biden administration launched its ‘Investing in America’ tour with the announcement of a $40 billion investment to make sure everyone in the United States has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet by the end of the decade. Comparing the effort to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act during the New Deal, the White House noted today that 8.5 million households and small businesses live in areas without the infrastructure for high-speed internet, while millions more have limited or unreliable options (like me!). High-speed internet is no longer a luxury, the administration points out; it is not possible to participate equally in jobs, school, or healthcare, or to stay connected to family and friends without it (they didn’t mention shopping, but that’s an issue, now, too).” 

Like the electric companies in the 1930s, broadband internet providers have not found it profitable to bring reliable, fast internet to all areas. The Biden administration initiative is one of many programs echoing earlier New Deal and Great Society programs that still serve all of us, helping more people to participate more fully in the economic and social and political life of the nation.