public utility field.

I consider this legislation a positive recovery measure. Power
production in this country is virtually back to the 1929 peak. The
operating companies in the gas and electric utility field are by
and large in good condition. But under holding company domination
the utility industry has long been hopelessly at war within itself
and with public sentiment. By far the greater part of the general
decline in utility securities had occurred before I was
inaugurated. The absentee management of unnecessary holding company
control has lost touch with, and has lost the sympathy of, the
communities it pretends to serve. Even more significantly it has
given the country as a whole an uneasy apprehension of
overconcentrated economic power.

A business that loses the confidence of its customers and the good-
will of the public cannot long continue to be a good risk for the
investor. This legislation will serve the investor by ending the
conditions which have caused that lack of confidence and good-will.
It will put the public utility operating industry on a sound basis
for the future, both in its public relations and in its internal
relations.

This legislation will not only in the long run result in providing
lower electric and gas rates to the consumer, but it will protect
the actual value and earning power of properties now owned by
thousands of investors who have little protection under the old
laws against what used to be called frenzied finance. It will not
destroy values.