Public Utilities Companies Are Charged With Move to Subsidize Business School

Rumours which have been current throughout the winter were brought to a head yesterday afternoon, when Representative Hagan, speaking in the Massachusetts legislature, linked the nefarious interests of the Power Trust with the Harvard Business School. Hagan demanded a sweeping investigation into the activities of these companies with special emphasis upon their attempt to "invade the sacred portals of Harvard" in the exercise of their influence.

Questions Relationship

"I want to know," the representative said, "and I believe the people of this state will want to know, what is the relation between the Harvard Business School and the power interests. That is one of the things I had in mind in asking in this resolve for an investigation of the activities in this Common-wealth of the National Electric Light Association."

Altho Hagan did not definitely state that this company was actively subsidizing the Harvard Business School, he more than implied as much when he declared, "We have a situation right out here in Harvard College, where the Harvard School of Business Administration, which has enormous influence upon the other educational institutions and upon the press of the country, is absolutely linked up with the power interests. The students in the course on public utilities are being filled with prejudices against public and municipal ownership, and they are being taught a theory of regulation that runs counter to the established system of regulation in this state.

"They are being taught a theory of regulation called the reproduction value doctrine, that Chairman Attwill of the Department of Public Utilities only the other day called a 'monstrous doctrine'".

Finance Propaganda

Speaking of the three companies, at which the proposed investigation is aimed, the National Electric Light Association, the American Gas Association, and the New England Bureau of Public Service Information, he stated: "These organizations, according to the evidence before the Federal Trade Commission, appear to have financed propaganda activities in this State, even invading the sacred portals of Harvard College, the Harvard School of Business Administration.

"In view of the disclosures of the political activities of the national light and power interests in other states, we have a right to inquire whether the same thing is going on here.

"The Power Trust has taken to heart and made its own, the old Motto: As the twig is bent, so will the free inclined. We are right up against a situation where we have got to determine just what these great power interests are doing to us and what we have got to do about them."