During recent months, public utilities have come in for more than their share of bruising. Verbal bricks have been hurled at them from all directions. Bouquets have been few and far between. Really, if you were to believe all you've heard, you'd say the electric bill must be the people's biggest burden.

But face the facts and figures and what do you see? That the cost of electricity has come down--down--steadily down for the last twenty years. Today, your electric light bill takes but a small part of your income. More than likely it is one of the smallest items in your household budget. Then what's all the shouting about?

You have reason to ask. For beside the nation's domestic electric light bill stands a colossus that dwarfs it. A giant that dips deeper and deeper into your pockets--stealthily takes approximately one-fourth of all you earn...takes it in the form of visible and invisible assessments. This giant is the nation's bill for taxes--and it has grown bigger and bigger year after year.

No wonder you wonder, why doesn't someone attack the giant instead of the dwarf? Especially when you realize that the country's tax bill is greater than the total expenditure for food--twice the annual purchases for clothing. Five times as much as that for coal and oil. And less than six percent of this tax bill would pay for all the electricity used in the homes of America!

Source: Recensio; Miami University
School Year 1936 - 1937, A.D.
Copyright©1937

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The national bill for domestic electricity is less than that for cigarettes. Less than the bill for amusements or hair dressing and cosmetics. Yet reformers and headline hunters would harangue you into believing that the Nation's domestic electric bill has assumed terrific proportions.