Evening Star Newspaper, January 22, 1922, Page 59

vs Part 4—8 Pages . "~ MAGAZINE- SECTION WASHINGTON, D. O, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 22, 1922, | Eg‘,rhg %unagm Star, l FEATURES | ‘The Muscle Shoals Project—What It Is, Where It Isand Why It Is BY JAMES MARTIN MILLER. {4 S that Washington?' was a volce heard by central the other day over the telephone wires from Detroit. I want to talk with Uncle Sam. Don’t be so long, central,” was heard. “Who wants Uncle Sam?” demanded the War Department central. “Henry Ford,” came the answer. «On, Henry Ford; right-away, Mr. Ford; glad to serve you,” said cen- tral. Henry Ford. speaking. Uncle Sam.” «Yes, Henry, it is:I but you had better take the first train for Wash- ington for we can’t talk about that Muscles Shoals proposition over the *phone very well, besides I think I'm ready to say something to you about your offer,” said Uncle Sam. And Mr. Ford responded to Uncle Sam’s call by appearing in Washing- ton a few days ago. Secretary master of ceremonies in receiving Mr. Ford. After a handshake between Uncle Sam and Mr.. Ford both sat down as if they were tackling the Muscle Shoals business at once, just like hard-headed business men. But Ford digressed a little with a look of quaint humor in his eye, by say- ing: B “Uncle Sam, I want to tell you little story, or rather it is a conum- drum,” with your kind permission.” “When a bachelor marries a widow named Elizabeth with two children what has he got?” “Give it up,” said Uncle Sam, smil- ‘That you sald Henry, “he got a Lizzie and two runabouts.” Uncle Sam laughed and said: “I see, Henry, that you measure everything in the terms of the ‘Tin Lizzie." “Yes,” sald Ford, “that may be, and Tm down here to help you out of the awful financial hole you are in at Muscle Shoais. You put millions upon millions of dollars into the Muscle Shoals proposition. You part- ly built the Wilson dam acrossythe Tennessee river, in mnorthern Ala- bama, almost at the southern boufid- ary of Tennessee. You also covered 3,900 acres of ground with partly constructed buildings of a hydro-elec- tric plant and two enormous nitrate plants, plants Na. 1 and No. 2. It is a useless pile of junk in the present | state. This enormous pile is going to waste fast, Uncle Sam, and besides it is costing you $500,000 a year to watch the idle pile and take care of it the best you can.” “Yes, what you say is too true and sometimes I feel that I will break down with nervous prostration think- ing of the inyestments I have made dufing the past six years. But that is what war drove us into. These proposed great power amd nitrate plants were much needed had the war continued,” said Uncle Sam. *® kK K ¢ OME people, Henry, you know, 2 say that I am an impressionable e1d man, easily influenced and led into making bad investments. They say these things after the war is over. but these same people before the war shouted ‘preparedness’ from the house- tops, you remember. And so I pre- pared. My Muscle Shoals is simply _mnother example of the waste of war. Seme people say 1 get into very bad company when I associate with the democrats and listen to what they say and advise. Then some others .tell me that the republicans are a lot of rascals and will get me in bad it 1 associate with them. So, Henry. to tell you the truth, I don’t know what to do sometimes. 1 confess that I get badly mixed. I have both of these parties to deal with and in addition to them the socialist party, the pro- hibition party, and now 1 have the women's party on my hands. are all after me all the time, telling me what to do and what not to do. “Even your Uncle Sam had a mother, Henry, so I am obliged to listen nowadays to the ladies. Il admit they sort o’ make me dizzy sometimes. simply sit mute and take my medi- cine.” “But, Ungle Sam, you have a lot of rich relations who will get you out of this wasteful Muscle Shoals in- vestment. They will stand by you to the finish and enable you to Henry Ford. “Oh, some of my rich relatiops are kind, but really I think I can place more .dependence in my poor rela- tions; they have stood by me through thick and thin. These poor relations of mine are the salt of the earth. It is true that some of them become a little unreasonable at times and get absurd notions into their heads and are apt to credit silly rumors that pass from mouth to mouth and sound like and is parrot talk. I wish my rich relations and my poor rela- tions would get together and have a better understanding of each other. But I've seen encoyraging indica- tions lately that they are under- standing each other better, Henry. “Now, I think they are going to stand by me in the Muscle Shoals en- terprises. I am convinced that we can make of that power plant, to- gether with the nitrate plant, one of the most productive Institutions. “My nitrate plants at Muscle Shoal 4ncluding the hydro-electric plant, h: cost me up to June 30, 1920,” com- tinued Uncle Sam, the sum of $87,- 951,977. The Wilson dam, or- dam No. 2, has cost me the round sum of $17,000,000. This Wilson dam is about 30 per cent completed. I s from the report of ygur engineers, Henry, that you will complete the dam, which means that 70 per cent of it is to be ‘completed, for $23,000,000. I'll admi that this, on the face of it, seems to be much cheaper than my own War Department engineers did 30 per cent of the work for. To fully complete dams No. 3 and No. 3, including the the $17,000,000 .already spent by ms,} LOCK, N of War Weeks became; They | But I have to listen. I} ‘save face,’ as the Chinaman puts it,” said’ L OCATED in Northwestern Alabama, on the Tennessee River a Few Miles From the Tennessee State Line, It Has Cost the Government About $105,000,000—Nitrate and Hydro-Electric Plants as a War Measure—The Great Wilson Dam, About 30 Per Cent Completed—Towns in Vicinity Are Having Big Real Estate Boom—Rich Phosphate Deposits in Tennessee Are Nearby, While There Are Great Coal and Iron Mines in the Vicinity—Engineers Claim 1,000,000 Horsepower Can Be Devel- oped With Fall of 135 Feet in Thirty-five Miles of Tennessee River. e LA g T e WILSON DAM, OR DAM NO. 2, AT MUSCLE SHOALS, ON THE TENNESSEE RIVER. 1 | of the dry weight is made of com- pounds formed from carbon taken from the air by the leaves of the plants and formed into sugar starches, oils, etc. “The amount of these carbon com- pounds that can be formed |is measured, however, by the amount of materials that could be secured from been spent for dams, $10.000,000. This| phate fields, as well as from the exceed- | has an offer under consideration by makes the total cost for the nitrate | ingly rich phosphate deposits of south- |the War Department that will un- plats and dams $129,951.9%F This | ern Tennessee, adjacent toMuscleShoals. | doubtedly be put up to Congress, with |seems to be about wht the Muscle| Before the war most of this valuable | at least two other offers to lease the Shoals enterprises will cost. | fertiiizer went to France, Germany and | Muscle Shoals plants, within a very * % % % | other countries. We did not appre- | gnort time. The particular one men- «NOW. Henry, T want to be per- | “‘:" the value of our rich phos- | yioned is looked upon as an offer in fectly frank with you. Your pdme flelds. The supply of Phosphate | 104 faith and it is the strong bellet idea of issuing money against the| SSiacent 1o Musele Shoals 1s almost| inat there is no “nigger in the wood and economical to supplement this legume nitrogen with a fixed commer- cial nitrogen. In the south, however, with the high average temperature and rainfall, it is doubtful if it would be possibie to maintain enough legume nitrogen in a soil to secure a high production of food products, because of the great destruction of the or- on the Tennessee river, which fis navigable for 652 miles of its length. But 400 miles of the upper Tennessee is now cut off from navigation be- cause the river is obstructed by the ‘Wilson dam at Muscle Shoals. Muscle Shoals is not a fown. There are three towns near this place in the river called Muscle Shoals— assets represented in the Muscle| :';z“’“e‘:fl‘l‘:;’:! It ie from this tha'! pile” in this proposition. the soll. If the same plants which|@anic matter in which such “Mmsenl -, Florence, Sheflield and Tus- Shoals Droperty. doesn’t exactly aP-| mewnesven siver is navi :{fle ‘3 One representative, opposing the | produced 100 pounds of corn could !must be held from the bacterial action total population about 15,000. Peal to me. Of course. bonds would| yuscie Snoals, Boats now navigate | the Musclo Shoals project, explains —— : o " — - b s have to bear interest and. as you uy.1 this big rivge ‘below the, dam. This| M8 stand. as follows: . ’ - o A D {the government would not lave to' makes chea§ transportation,” con-, 'The Muscle Shoals plant is mot a fertilizer plants, but a high explosive plant. It cannot produce fertilizer without extensive and expensive alterations. The plant not only can- not, as it stands, produce fertilizer to sell to the farmers, but the War Department’s plan does not even con- template the manufacture of a fin- ished fertilizer. “The principal product will be sul- phate of ammonia, which is not a fer- tilizer, but & fertilis€T ingredient. to be sold, not to farmers, but to fer- tilier manufactusers. “The Secretary of War promised that the sulphate of ammonia pro- duced at Muscle Stoals can be sold at $65 a ton, but sulphaté of am- monia from commercial plants is now quoted at $65 a ton, and I understand that today a shrewd buyer can get all he wants at $60 a ton.” * k % X JFRANK L MANN sent the follow- ing report to Congress on Feb- ruary 19, 1920. He is an expert on soil and farms, and is a brother of Representative Mann of Illinois. He says in a letter to his brother: “Ever since I learned of the Muscle Shoals project, when in Tennessce a | few. years ago, 1 have felt quite an| interest in its success, because of the great opportunity it seemed to pro- sent for an increased and economical production of crops by supplying 2 cheaper form of fixed nitrogen. The value of nitrogen and phosporus in the production of crops has not been : : ‘ - ; properly realized., Take an example MUSCLE SHOALS CANAL AT LEFT OF RAILWAY. THIS WAS COMPLETED IN 1800 AT A COST OF of corn, for instance: In 100 pounds, $3.500,000, BUT IT PROVED INADEQUATE AND INEFFICIENT. THE CANAL WILL BE SUBMERGED BY THE of corn there are but about three and', NEW DAMS OF MUSCLE SHOALS, AND WATER OVER THE RAILWAY, TRACK WILL BE EIGHTY FEET DEEP. a half pounds of materials whi hl PHOTO TAKEN FIVE MILES ABOVE THE WILSON DAM. were taken from the soil; the balance pay interest if T just start my print- ing presses turning out money with which to pay the some $23,000,000, more or less, that is required to fin-| ish up the Muscle Shoals proposition | and put it in working order. All I'll have to do is to put my name on this money. But T say mno. “True, it puts that much more money in circulation and redeems this enormous plant to usefulness, that will, unless it is completed, be worse than a ‘dead horse.’ for you can bury the ‘dead horse’ and he is no more expense. Eut T'll have to pro- tect and care for this property at a cost to me of $500.000 a year. as T said a while ago. Besides, it blocks | navigation in the upper Tennessee, and I'll simply have to remove this obstruction, if nothing more than to let boats up the river. “Herry, 1 feel a bit finicky about tampering with my money. Neither my rich relations nor my poor ones would want to see our money de- !nreciam Your scheme might not| | nave that effect of itself, but it would establish a bad precedent and might jtend to cheapen our money if car- {ried on after we got started once. ! The principle is wrong. “I wonder sometimes, however, if our dearest money in the world is I not giving those countries with cheap i, money a great advantage over us. tinued Uncle Sam, concluding the conversation. ¥ 1918 this country purchased §7 000,000 worth of nitrate from Chile and in 1919, $68,229,548 worth. There is an export duty paid to Chile for the nitrate brought out of that coun- try. In 1918 we paid Chile $20,135,- 960 in export duties on the nitrate brought to the United States, In 1914 and other years before the war we brought from Chile $20,000,000 worth a year and somewhat less some years. But we are constant users of nitrate and should use more. It is expected of those most interested in Muscle Shoals, in the broad way as a help to our agricultural welfare, that we will not need to bring any nitrate from Chile if the great dams and water power, with the nitrate pro- duction plants, are completed and utilized at Muscle Shoals. These plants need only slight changes 50 as to make fertilizer. The American Farm Bureau Federa- tion, with an office in Washington, reports that a strong fight is being made against the Muscle Shoals de- velopment by the fertilizer trust. They also claim that big British in- terests that are interested in the nitrate deposits in Chile are’fighting the Muscle Shoals proposition with the “unseen hand.” Government of- ficials have intimated to the writer that some of the propositions made to lease and operate the Muscle Shoals water power and hitrate plants are not made in good faith, but only with a view to bottling these enterprises up and to throttle competition. One man of very great resources * k% | The European countries can't afford to buy dollars with which to buy American corn, wheat, cotton and | our manufactured products. Our ex- i port trade is at a very low ebb. We need to sell our goods in foreign countries for our complete prosperity. ‘Millions of tons of phosphate have been shipped from the Florida phos- ‘ and leaching when crops ing f0od from the sofl. * ok kX “I KNOW of no one thing which could add so much to the produc- tion of more and cheaper food, and in such an economical way, as to supply ehcap nitrogen for these lands so poor in humus. I do not know how cheaply nitrogen might be fixed at Muscle Shoals, but it would certainly be much cheaper than to secure it through legume growth. I figured out once the relative horsepower equivalent at Ni- agara Falls in fixing nitrogen compared to & clover fleld. The nitrogen fixed by an eighty-acre fleld of clover, un- der favorable conditions and a large growth, could be fixed by a twenty- eight - horsepower , engine | working throughout the season. -If the Tennes- see river can be properly harnessed it should be able to fix nitrogen at a small fraction of the cost of fixing it by means of bacterial or legume energy-. “In these days of low manpower on the farms and the need of more food economically - produced, it would seem to be almost a crime against civiliza- tion to mot heed this great need for cheap nitrogen. ' “If there is any possible and fair way to provide that the Muscle Shoals power might be used for fixing nitro- gen, and that it might be obtained cheaply fof farm use,'it would be a wonderful step in thé production of cheaper food and help to quiet the un- &8t of the present and future.” Muscle Shoals is in the northwest- ern_part. of Alsbama, within a few miles of the Tennesses line. It is, roughly, midway between Birming- ham,-Als, apd Nashville, Tenn. Itis have secured another three and a half pounds of soil materfals—most- ly phosphorus and nitrogen—they could have formed another 100 pounds of corn, without any further effort on the part of the grower, and the yleld would be increased 100 per cent. On the best corn-belt spils we find it is comparatively easy to dou- ble the yields of crops by doubling the phosphorus available to the crops, where there is sufficlent nitrogen to match such an amount of phospho- rus. 'The soils which contain such an amount of nitrogen, however, are small in area. On the early glaciated and the unglaciated soils nitrogen is in small amount and the crops will grow In proportion as they can se- cure nitrogen, except on the natural rich- soils, which are usually alluvial and limited in extent. As a rule, the soils south of the Ohlo and Missouri rivers are unglaciated and low in ni- trogen, except the alluvial types. A large part of southern Illinois, Jndi- ana, Missouri, Kansas, Jowa and’'Ohlo is composed of soil-types on which crops — other. than legumes — will grow in proportion as the plants‘can secure nitrogen from the sofl. “This increase in yield, which-comes from the proper element of fertility, increases food production without an increase in area or of man labor, and is real economic production if the cost of ‘the fertilizing element is small. “A good deal of the corn-belt soils have already or will soon reach a ni- trogen limit to their production, and, while ‘'we will be able to profitably maintain & nitrogen supply for some purpose, it mlfllim ‘be ‘profitable As is always the case, these towns anticipate the great improvements at Muscle Shoals and real “estate boom- ers~and speculators are there to tell you how to make millions by buying ! real estate. Prices are said to be soaring and unreasonable. No doubt, however, a big town will develop in time if the Muscle Shoals project does not die. A special committee of the Mis- sissippl Valley Association made the following report under date of May 28, 1921, before Henry Ford and oth- ers made their offers: That two (2) nitrate plants of large capacity, well built at great expense, and required for national defense are standing idle. “2. That these plants<can be made a profitable investment and a benefit to agriculture if cheap power were available. That this cheap power:can be furnishéd only by the dam, now awaiting completion. "4, That in its present. condition the dam completely blocks navigation on the Tennessee river at this point. “5. That the work done to date has been well done, but will certainly b damaged if abandoned in its present condition. . That additional delay means only a constantly increasing loss to the government. “7. That & relatively small adadi- tional cost will bring to fruition a great enterprise, and add an import- ant factor to the development of our country. “3. That the completion of this en- OF MUSCLE SHOALS CANAL. THIS WILL BE COMPLETELY SUBMERGED BY BACKWATER . T = 0. & befors us at this time and ia terprise is one of the mast important accord with the declaration of prin- ciples of our association, which calls for the development of agriculture, of industry, of finance, and of trans- portation. “We therefore recommend. “(1) The immediate appropriation of $10,000,000 to enable the construc- tion of the dam to be resumed. *“(2) In view of the fact that the government cannot transfer its right to manufacture nitrate by the cyana- mid process to others than the patentee, a government-controlled corporation or corporations should be established to operate both the hydro-electric power and the nitrate plants, preference being given to agriculture, but always reserving the right to resume control and operation in event of war.” * ¥ x * HE War Department has re- ceived many Irresponsible and freak letters since this Muscle Shoals agitation started. One individual wrote the government that if it would pay him $1,000,000 a year in advance for five years he would put the dams and nitrate plants in “apple pie” order. Mr. Ford has received several hun- dred letters with propositions. One man wrote him that he had discovered a process for making nitrate out of which he would guarantee that $1,- 000,000 a year could be made. “But,” said he, “I will sell you the right for $50,000 cash.” A summary of Henry Ford's proposi- tion to the government follows: The government must complete the Wilson dam as speedily as possible and install hydro-electric facilities and equipment for generating 600,000 horsepower, then Mr. Ford's company will agree to lease the dam, power plant and all property connected with them for 100 years. The company will pay to the United States 6 per cent on the remaining cost of locks, the dam and power house taken at $20,- 000,000 in payments of $1,200,000, ex- cept during the first six years of the lease period payments shall begin and be made annually as follows: $200,000 one year from date, and thereafter $200,000 annually at the end of each year for the period of five years. After the first six years payment of $1,200,000 shall be made annually at the end of each calendar year, during the lease period. The company will also pay the government $35000 a year for repairs, maintenance and operation of the dam, gates and locks at Wilson dam for the 100 years. It will also pay a sinking fund of $39,637 a year for ninety-four years, the sink- ln: fun investments to bear the high-, est rate of interest obtainable, but not less than 4 per cent per annum. Mr. Ford also agrees to buy nitrate plant No. 2 for $5.000,000. In order that the farmers may have the fer- tilizer produced without paying ex- cessive profits he guarantees that his net profits shall not exceed more than 8 per cent. He proposes that farmers’ organizations shall have representa- tives (two) on the board with two representatives of the company. In a word, they are to see to it that no more than 8 per cent profit is made. Mr. Ford being a quantity production man, his friends believe that he will manufacture fertilizer from the un- limited phosphate deposits in Tennes- see very near Muscle Shoals in such a large volume that it will give them their supply of fertilizer at a very reasonable price. Charting the Air. XPECTATION of established and well used lines of air travel be- tween Europe and .the United States has grown into certainty in the minds of governmental scientists who are working on its problems. Sev- eral federal departments are co-oper- ating in an effort to make the air safer for daily overseas trade and passenger traffic, which they belleve to be nearer than the public supposes. For this development the meteorologi- cal experts of the weather bureau, Navy, paring. Some interesting things are being done. Preparations are afoot to ex- tend the forecasts now made as to overland air conditions and to in- clude those above the Atlantic by means of complete outfits of Instru- ments, pilot balloons and other ap- paratus to be carried on ships of commerce as well as those of war and the revenue service. Regular ob- servations along the ocean lanes then would furnish data from which pre- dictions could be made of storms and wind conditions between New York and London, just as they are now sup- plied to the aerial mail service and all aviators throughout the eastern half of the United States of overland conditions. This new information would be so inherently related to land observations that a study of it could hardly £sf o increase the accuracy of the weather forecasts which are now so familiar. No filer thinks of leaving earth without consulting the recently begun forecasts of condi- tions in the upper air. The resulis of the “soundings,” as the deductions from the flights of pilot balloons are termed, have been found invaluable in indicating what the immediate fu- ture free-air conditions over the land will be. ‘Without the pilot balloons it would have been impossible, owing to the ipaccuracy of barometric reports, to 'hnvc foretold what wind conditions were to be exverienced in the first transatlantic flight made by NC-# from Halifax to Horta. They have are experimenting and pre- twenty-three stations, at which they are used every day, dot the country east of a line drawn north and south through central Nebraska and soon may extend over the whole country. A number of these balloon stations: ire being set up at other points o hydroplane. proved their value so compietely that’ account of the increased use of the. together with those of the Army and ~