Introduce the lesson by turning the light off in the classroom for a few seconds, long enough for students to adjust to the darkness. Ask rhetorically, "what would it have been like studying in this classroom before electricity? What do we have in our classroom today that we would not have had before electricity was available here?" The class may mention: air conditioning, lighting, heat, computers, audio-visual equipment, etc. You may have a student write these on the board.

State that the use of electric power dramatically changed the personal and professional lives of many Americans. Explain that in the early years of the twentieth century, privately owned and operated electrical power companies began to install their lines in areas that were more densely populated. The companies extended their lines more slowly into rural areas because they considered the installation too costly for the minimal return they would receive [fewer people, less use, less revenue]. Farmers and residents of rural areas continued to live without electricity for quite some time beyond their counterparts in the city.

Ask students to imagine living in rural Pennsylvania in 1940. Mention that it may be difficult for us to understand rural life prior to electrical conveniences. Ask students to discuss what life in 1940 may have been like without electricity and to describe what the addition of electricity might mean to rural life. Ask the students to list benefits that would have accompanied electricity when it was introduced to rural Pennsylvania in the 1940s and have a student record that list on the board. Some examples might be stoves, refrigeration, washing machines, and lighting. Point out that these would be real labor-savers for rural families [no need for wood or coal for cooking; food could be prepared in advance and refrigerated, laundry would be simpler, lighting would extend the day].

Using transparencies of Primary Source 2: Rural Family, Primary Source 3: Laundry Day, and Primary Source 4: Old Kitchen, discuss whether these photos support the students" perceptions of the period. Point out that in 1940, the rural population in Pennsylvania was a larger percentage of the total population than it is today and that only 10 percent of that rural population had electricity.

Explain that, with farmers already reeling from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt sought to alleviate hardships and increase farmers" standard of living across the US. Part of this effort included his creating the Rural Electrification Administration [REA] by executive order. Congress supported the REA through the release of $100 million in emergency funds to bring electrical power to rural areas.

Power companies were privately owned and many of those owners found the creation of the REA symbolic of the intrusive nature of the New Deal and worked to curb what they perceived as an abuse of government power. In Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, this disagreement escalated to a conflict that came to be known nationally as the "Battle of the Pole Holes."

Using a transparency of Primary Source 1 Big Springs Clash, ask the students several questions to generate a discussion, such as:

• What is happening in the photograph?


• When do you think this event took place? Time of day? Decade or era? (Teacher note: This event took place at night on January 30, 1941.)


• Why are the people working above their heads? [Cutting the pole head-high will prevent it from possibly being used again.]

Distribute copies of Student Handout 1 Penn Lines: Your Cooperative Newsmagazine, February 2003 Read the article (or ask a student to read the article) out loud. As a class, discuss these questions:

• Ask a student to summarize the conflict.


• Ask one student to look up "civil" in the dictionary and another to look up "criminal" and write the definitions on the board.


• Ask students to discuss the difference between a "civil" or "criminal" matter?


• Was this action by the farmers a civil or a criminal matter?


• Ask students if they believe it was civil disobedience or criminal mischief? (Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Civics and Government define Civil Disobedience as "Refusal to obey laws. This tactic is usually passive and nonviolent, aimed at bringing injustices to the attention of lawmakers and the public at large.")

Inform students that this local incident received widespread attention and was part of a larger conflict resulting from the national effort begun during the New Deal to provide electricity to rural areas of the nation. At that time, Republican state Senator Charles Ealy from Somerset County termed REA-funded cooperatives as "part of a comprehensive plan for government ownership of all public utilities to be followed by government ownership of all business." Conclude the lesson by emphasizing the underlying question, "Is it better for the government to be involved in situations like access to utilities, or not?"