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Show HUNGRY HORSE PREDICTION 41 increased value of goods and services produced by the utilization of project power." Presumably these goods and services included toilet paper and chiropractic treatments, without the consideration that project resi- dents might purchase one or both of these items even if they lived in some other section of the United States. "The commission believes," said Wallgren to Straus, "that the inclusion of such benefits is, at the least, open to question." Fancy figuring by the Bureau had resulted in the announcement that the project would have a benefit- cost ratio of 1.8 to 1. This the Bureau considered was a very feasible project, well worth the investment of several billions by the taxpayers. The power commission's practical minded engineers, unhampered by the emotions of such men as Straus, didn't agree. By looking the facts squarely in the face, they found that the best benefit-cost ratio they could conjure up came to 1.08 to 1, only eight-hundredths of one per cent benefit over cost. Chairman Wallgren also pointed out to Commissioner Straus that the Bureau planned to use the interest com- ponent of revenue received from the sale of project power to help pay for the participating projects, which even the Bureau admitted couldn't pay for themselves. The Bureau plan recommended a development period of 20 years, and a pay out period of 50 years for the power project, a total of 70 years. Wallgren further reminded Straus that over this 70-year period the project would receive about $675 million by keeping the interest that might otherwise have been returned to the U. S. Treasury. The Treasury itself had to pay interest on the money it loaned to the project, and if it didn't get any |