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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.comINDIVIDUALISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! 53It was at this juncture that Rand became smitten with WendellWillkie. The last of the dark horse presidential candidates inAmerican politics, Willkie swept to the 1940 Republican presidentialnomination on a feverish surge of support at the Party’s NationalConvention. 37 He had first come into the public eye as the chairmanof Commonwealth and Southern (C&S), a utility company fightingRoosevelt’s proposed Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA wasintended to bring electricity to the blighted towns of Tennessee,northern Alabama, and Mississippi, a region bypassed by the forcesof modernization. Roosevelt’s solution was the creation of publiclyowned utilities that would provide affordable electricity for the conveniencesof modern life, such as refrigerators and radios, to customersotherwise overlooked by private industry. As part of the plan the utilitycompanies would have to sell their holdings to TVA-backed publicutilities. It was the kind of government assault on private industry thatmade Rand’s blood boil.As chairman and former general counsel for C&S, one of the majorcompanies targeted by Roosevelt’s reform, Willkie had fought the government’splan. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and when thecourts upheld Roosevelt’s legislation TVA proceeded to purchase privateholdings and lower electricity costs for homeowners. Willkie himselfhelped negotiate some of the agreements. In the meantime, though, hehad made a name for himself as a Roosevelt foe. He had certainly caughtRand’s attention, for she thought he had delivered an honest and effectivedefense of the utility company’s rights. Willkie also claimed to berepresenting a constituency larger than his company. During congressionalhearings on the TVA a flood of telegrams expressed support forthe company’s suit. 38Now, in the summer of 1940, Willkie claimed to be arousing similarsupport in his last-minute bid for the Republican presidential nomination.His claim to a groundswell of genuine popular enthusiasm wasquestionable; as Alice Roosevelt Longsworth quipped, Willkie’s supportcame “from the grass roots of a thousand country clubs.” 39 Allegationsof fraud dogged both his nomination and his earlier work for the utilitycompanies. The telegrams touted as spontaneous manifestations of hispopularity turned out to be part of a carefully orchestrated corporatecampaign.