Public Power Lost
Ultimately, Duke’s power company found greater acceptance among the public
as the state’s Corporation Commission granted partial rate increases that provided
additional profits for Southern Power while convincing many that the Commission
was protecting their interests. The regulation that Duke had fought so vigorously
against, and that Clark had fought so ardently for, became a bulwark of his
power company. It shifted criticism of Southern Power’s rates and policies to the
commissioners whose vote would decide the future of rate increases after 1920. As
North Carolinians accepted the regulatory state’s control over Southern Power,
Clark’s plans for public ownership appealed to an ever-smaller section of the public.
In an arrangement that allowed Duke’s company to earn a profit under the
watchful eye of the Commission, calls for public ownership seemed radical, and
perhaps worse, entirely unnecessary.