Read Online Overload by Arthur Hailey - Free Book Online

go. I believe we'll get around the capacity shortage
    somehow . . ."
    Nim Goldman interjected, "How?"
    35
     

"Let me finish," Fenton said. "Another point I want to make is about
    opposition. It's true that right now we encounter organized opposition to
    everything we try to do, whether it's build more plants, increase rates, ~r
    Cive stockholders a decent dividend. But I believe most, if not all of
    that-the opposition and consurnerism-will pass. It's a fashion and a fad.
    Those involved will eventually become tired, and when that happens we'll go
    back to the way things used to be, when this utilitv and others did pretty
    much what they wanted. That's why I say we should continue talking a
    moderate line, and not stir up trouble and antagonism by alarming people
    needlessly."
    "I agree with A that," Stewart Ino said.
    Ray Paulsen added, "Me, too."
    Nini's eyes met Teresa Van Buren's and he knew their thoughts were the
    same. Within the public utilities business, Fraser Fenton, Ino, Paulsen,
    and others like them represented a cadre of entrenched executives who bad
    grown up in their jobs during easier times and refused to acknowledge that
    these were gone forever. Mostly, such people attained their present
    eminence through seniority, never having been subject to the tough,
    S01r1CtiMCS cutthroat cornp~tition for advancement which was a norm in
    other industries. Tlie personal security of the Fraser Fentons et al had
    become wrapped around them like a cocoon. 'Hic status quo was their holy
    grall. Predictably, thev ob'ected to anything the~l saw as rocking the
    boat.
    There were reasons for this-often debated bv Nim and other younger
    executives. One was the nature of a public"utility-monopolistic, not
    subject to day-by-day competition in the marketplace; this was why
    utilities like Gc~ldcn State Power & Light sometimes resembled government
    bureaucracies. Secondly, utilities, through most of their historv, had been
    in a strong seller's market, able to sell as much of their product as they
    could produce, the process helped along by abundant sources of cheap power.
    Only in recent years, as power sources became scarcer and more costly, bad
    utility executives needed to face serious commercial problcms and make
    hard, unpopular decisions. Nor, in older days, Nvere the), locked in combat
    with tough-minded, skillful1v led opposition groups, including consumers
    and environmentalists.
    It was these profound changes, the Nim Goldman types argued, which a
    majority of top level executives had failed to accept, or deal with real-
    istically. (Walter Talbot, Nim remembered sadIv, had been a notable
    exception.) The oldsters, for their part, regarded Nim and his kind as
    impatient, troublemaking upstarts and usually, since the older group
    comprised a majority, their point of view prevailed.
    "I'll admit to being ambivalent," J. Eric Humphrey told the group, "on this
    question of should we, or shouldn't we, bore in harder with our public
    statements. My personal nature is against it, but at times I see
    36
     

the other side." The chairman, smiling slightly, glanced at Nim. "You were
    bristling just now. Anything to add?"
    Nim hesitated. Then he said, "Only this. When the serious blackouts
    begin-I mean the long-lasting and repeated blackouts a few years from
    now-we, the utilities, will be blamed, no matter what has, or hasn't,
    happened in the meantime. The press will crucify us. So will the politi-
    cians, doing their usual Pontius Pilate act. After that the public will
    blame us too, and say: Why didn't you warn us while there was still time?
    I agree with Teresa-that time is now."
    "We'll vote on it," Eric Humphrey announced. "A show of hands, please,
    for the harder approach we've just beard advocated."
    Three hands went up-Teresa Van Buren's, Nim's, and that of Oscar O'Brien,
    the general counsel.
    "Against," the chairman called.
    This time the raised hands numbered eight.
    Eric Humphrey nodded. "I'll go with the