The Rural Missourian's “platform" back in the 1950s—what we'd call a mission statement today—announced to anyone who happened to read it that co-op electricity, like public education, “should be made available to all rural people, without regard to location, political affiliation, creed or race."

So, it follows that the statewide newsletter would warn co-op members—its readers—of anyone or anything that could compromise this social contract. The Missourian was doing just that in its January 1955 issue with an article about an anti-co-op propaganda movie being distributed by the National Tax Equality Association (NTEA), a longtime critic of co-ops of all types.

The title of the movie was “Citizen Dave Douglas." “You won't like it," the article says, “but you'll want to know about this film because it affects YOU."

Thirty minutes long, this black-and-white “Hollywood-type" film tells what Dave does after he learns from his school-teacher daughter that co-ops “pay little or no taxes." He's so riled up over the “inequality" of this, he tells everyone he comes across in town.

Dave's son, just home from military service and hoping to launch a business career, is waiting to get his hair cut at the barber shop when he reads in a magazine that co-ops are “tax dodgers." He tells this to the guy sitting next to him, who responds that he has read that co-ops want to take over all businesses in the U.S.

The PTA, civic clubs and the local newspaper all rally to the cause of defending capitalism from the “socialistic" co-ops, the narrator of the movie says. All are urged to write to their Congressman, who, presumably, will put the co-ops in their places.

“The NTEA is an avowed enemy of co-ops," the Rural Missourian writes. It receives “heavy financial backing" from the investor-owned utilities. Recently, IOU leaders have gone underground and let “Citizen Dave Douglas" do their trash talking for them.

Reportedly, the State Chamber of Commerce—another enemy of the co-ops—showed the movies to its staff members and plans show it to all local chambers of commerce and civic clubs.

The Missourian concluded the article this way: “If this propaganda movie is allowed proceed unchallenged, a lot of good-intentioned but uninformed people will be misled. You know the falsity of this propaganda, but many do not. What can you as Citizen John Farmer do about it? Simply this: If your school or church or club considers showing the film, you can warn these organizations against falling for it.

“If some local TV station, theater, or club shows the film, you can request, as one group already has, that the organization give equal time for the co-op side."

The newsletter notes that after one television station manager “got the facts," he apologized for showing the propaganda film and offered the co-op free time to reply.

“In any event, don't sit idly by. To do so will mean higher taxes for your co-op and higher prices for you," the Missourian warned."