Cleveland Municipal Light Plant Association.

Organized in 1937, by Paul W. Walter, to rekindle interest in the city's deteriorating public electric plant, and to prevent the formation of a monopoly by the area's privately owned company.

From the description of Records 1929-1953. (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 17938166

The Cleveland Municipal Light Plant Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, in January of 1937 by Paul W. Walter. The association was created to rekindle interest in the city's deteriorating public power facilities and to prevent the usurpation of utility supply and rate-making by the area's privately owned company.

The problem of public versus private ownership of utilities has been a long-standing political issue in Cleveland, Ohio. The matter was first brought into consideration by Mayor Tom Johnson in 1903 when he proposed, and the city council passed, a bond issue to finance a municipal electric plant. Because of subsequent council action, and a court injunction, the project never materialized.

Only after the city acquired the light plants of the South Brooklyn and Collinwood upon the annexation of these villages in 1905 and 1910 was the move for a large municipal facility renewed. With council approval of a bond issue in 1910, construction of a Cleveland light plant began. When completed in 1914, it was the largest municipally-owned plant of its kind in the United States.

By the mid-1930s, public apathy and governmental neglect had seriously damaged the plant's ability to compete with privately owned utilities and it seemed that the operation would be taken over by the rival, private company. Mr. Walter, a lawyer, and campaign manager for Mary Harold H. Burton, was apprised of this situation by the employees of the plant.

Walter's response was the creation of the Cleveland Municipal Light Plant Association. The association was composed of representatives of organized labor, civic organizations, employees of the light plant, and the public at large.

Since its inception, the association has sought to keep the issue of municipal ownership of utilities before the public and to keep the population of Cleveland informed of the condition and needs of its light plant. Though the association still exists today, it has been dormant since Paul Walters resigned from its directorship in 1952.

From the guide to the Cleveland Municipal Light Plant Association Records, 1929-1954, (Western Reserve Historical Society)