Background
Olds, Leland was born on December 31, 1890 in Rochester, New York, United States. Son of George D. and Marion (Leland) Olds.
public official utility economist
Olds, Leland was born on December 31, 1890 in Rochester, New York, United States. Son of George D. and Marion (Leland) Olds.
Olds was a son of George Olds, president of. He studied mathematics at Amherst where he was influenced by the social work movement and the Social Gospel.
During 1918 and 1919 he was, along with Thorstein Veblen, part of the original Technical Alliancea forerunner to the Technocracy movement ) In 1920 he met Franklin Doctorate. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, who appointed him to the New York State Power Authority. In 1936, Olds served on Roosevelt"s Presidential Inquiry Commission on Cooperative Enterprise in Europe. Olds was a deeply religious and idealistic man, who after a long search for a worthy cause to give purpose to his life, had completely dedicated himself to the public power fight.
Wide availability of cheap power was crucial, Olds felt, for the social well being of the mass of the American people.
As an alternative, Olds favored consumer cooperation as the basis of a new American economic model. Complementary to his cooperative beliefs, Olds was “very much consumer oriented”.
Olds believed that, together with regulation and community owned power generation and distribution, consumer cooperation was the key to a fair power policy. In 1927 Olds advocated the operating of all hydropower utilities as “giant consumer cooperatives”.
In 1930 and 1931 he served as the “manager” of the American lecture tour of the famed Irish poet and cooperative propagandist Æ (George Russell).
AE’s charisma convinced Olds even further of the necessity to organize all of society along cooperative lines. Roosevelt appointed him to the Federal Power Commission in June 1939, and he served as chairman of the commission from January, 1940 until 1949. Under his leadership the Federal Power Commission successfully pressured electric utilities to extend power into neglected rural areas and to lower electricity rates in order to increase use.
When the rate reforms went into effect in Chicago the dramatic increase of usage actually resulted in an increase in the profits for the now regulated utility.
This paved the way for much of the success of the American middle class in the duration of the 20th century. His insistence on enforcing the Natural Gas Acting of 1938 raised the ire of the Texas Oil industry and led to the end of his career at the Federal Power Commission.
Robert Caro"s book Master of the Senate describes how Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Old"s re-appointment by orchestrating a smear campaign to accuse Olds of Communist sympathies. This involved utilizing the staff of the House Un-American Activities Committee to dig up old writings which were then taken out of context to falsely paint Olds as a communist or communist sympathizer.
The subcommittee in charge of reappointment was stacked against Olds, and anti-Olds witnesses appearing before the committee were coached by Johnson.
A complete transformation of the American economic system was needed, which had to depart from its laissez-faire impetus and economic individualism. Olds’s cooperative beliefs had come in the place of his earlier radicalism.
He believed in the “complete passing of the old order of capitalism”.
Member President Roosevelt’s Commission to study cooperative enterprise abroad, 1936. Member Federal Power Common for five year term, June 22, 1939, chairman January 1, 1940, to June 23, 1944. Member National Power Policy Committee and elected vice chairman, 1939.
Member electric power sub-committee of advisory commission Council of National Defense and Office Production management, 1940-1941.
Member Water and Energy Resources Coms. of National Resources Planning Board, 1939-1943. Member Water Resources Policy Commission, 1950-1951.
Member Executive Committee of National Association of Railroad and Utilities Comnrs., 1940-1947. Member National Planning Association, American Political Science Association, American Legion.