longer remember the name of it) that was sponsored by the congressman for
 the lower east side of Florida which covered from Miami maybe 150 or 200
 miles north up the coast. This law gave some measure of relief to the
 municipalities and served as a basis for an eventual return of interest in the
 municipal bonds of Florida. I just do not know enough about it. I do know
 that a few people who happened to have a little money and happened to be
 acquainted with the situation were able to buy, literally at ten cents on the
 dollar, Florida municipal bonds. Within a comparatively short period of time,
 like eighteen to twenty-four months, they had seen a ten-fold appreciation.

P: Would that have included people like Alfred DuPont and Ed Ball?

M: Certainly they were in a position from a financial standpoint to do something
 about it, but I do not know whether they actually did or not.

P: What other major personalities were associated with Florida Power and Light
 from the time that Mr. Smith took over in 1939 until you arrived in 1971?

M: I am told that he did not permit any.

P: He just loomed so large?

M: That is right.

P: But did he run it as kind of a benevolent dictator?

M: Specifically.

P: He ran everything? Everything had to cross his desk?

M: Everything.

P: How large was Florida Power and Light then, in terms of employees? Was
 it a huge operation?

M: When I joined the company in 1971 there were about 7,000 employees. I
 do not know what it was in the sixties, the fifties, or the forties; but as they
 came out of the war it was a comparatively small company.

P: But in Florida it was a large company.

M: In Florida it was a big frog in a little pond. By various indexes it has been
 the largest company in Florida. By other indexes Southern Bell has been
 larger.

P: When you arrived its corporate headquarters were in Miami.


 55