The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-31
HARDING CALLS UPON ALABAMA TO
 DEVELOP HER NATURAL RESOURCES

1 with some qualifications they can be made effective here. Nearly 15O years | ago Oliver Goldsmith wrote his greatest poem, The Deserted Village" It was striking exposition of English history and remarkable forecast of the future | 'Ill fares the land, to hastening ills d 1 prey,
 Where wealth accumulates, and men | decay;
 | Princes and lords may flourish, or may | fade;
 A breath can make them, as a breath
 has made,
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride
 When once destroyed, can never he A time there was, ere Englands griefs I began,
 When every rood of land maintain'd its man:
 For him light labor spread her whole some store,
 l Just gave what life required but gave no more;
 His best companions, innocence and | health,
 And his best riches, ignorance of
 wealth.
 But times are alterd; trades unfeel-
 ing train
 Usurp the land, and dispossess the
 
 Along the lawn, where scattr'd ham
 lets rose,
 Unwieldly wealth and cumbrous pomp
 repose,
 And every want to luxury allied, And every pang that folly pays to
 pride.
 Those gentle hours that plenty bade Those calm desires that ask'd but It. | tie room,
 Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,
 Lived in each look, and brightend all ;! the green:
 shore,
 And rural mirth and manners are no more
 Have we not in America been drift 1 ing into the conditions so graphically 7, described? Let us never lose sight of the fact that farming is the most inn portant industry in the world. With out the farm all other business would stagnate and die, the railroads would | cease to run, the banks and mercantile establishments could no longer oper- ate, and grass would grow in the streets of our cities, which would no longer be thriving marts of commerce but would become, through famine,
 
 l CT business can succeed without the farmer, but the farming business can survive, if left unfettered, without the aid of any other business. l WATER, POWER
 "Let us now consider for moment the subject of water. For some years past we in Alabama have heard a great deal about another liquid, and I am sure that it will be refreshing to turn our thoughts to pure and unadulter- ated water! We need not discuss it's superlative merits as a beverage or as a cleansing agent, but rather let us consider it's utility as means of transportation and as source of power
 "Bountiful nature has favored our state in the matter of waterways. Through the Warrior, the Tomb gbee, the Alabama and the Coosa, the wa ters springing from the hills in the mineral regions flow through rich agricultural sections and discharge themselves into the Gulf of Mexico The work of nature has been supple mented by the national government and by means of locks and dams on the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, perennial navigation has been provided from the coal fields to the gulf. Already l barges laden with black diamonds pass every day down the river just below the university, bound for Mobile and New Orleans. Through beautiful val ley in northern Alabama flows the great Tennessee river, majestic stream which springs from the noun tains of North Carolina and Virginia, and flowing through east Tennessee, enters our state near it's northeastern corner. and leaving it at it's north | western extremity turns again through Tennessee and, passing through Ken lucky, unites with the Ohio and finally discharges its waters into the mighty Mississippi. Most of this wonderful stream is already open to commerce, but in its course through Alabama, it's waters plunge through series of shoals. and rapids known as Muscle Shoals, which block navigation, but which, if properly harnessed, will fur nish one of the greatest water pow CTS in the United States. Locks and dams at Muscle Shoals would render the Tennessee river navigable from Knoxville to Paducah and would, at the same time, offer to industries electric energy of approximately 5Oo,- 900 horsepower.
 "When we speak of Muscle Shoals | there results a triangu1ation of ideas. On one side is transportation on an- other the fertilization of our farms and l on the third, military preparedness. We | all know that nitre, or saltpetre, is an essential ingredient in the manufac- l ture of gunpowder and of fertilizers | and that the worlds greatest natural deposits of nitre are in northern Chile We know, furthermore, that the oxy- gen in the air we breathe is heavily diluted with nitrogen, and that science | has found the way, through mechan | ical means of accomplishing the fixa- tion of air nitrogen into nitrates.
 'The marvellous efficiency of Germany and enemies alike, by her sympathizers and by her critics. Some years ago Ger man manufacturers began, under adverse conditions the manufacture of nitrates 1 from the air. When I refer to adverse conditions I mean that this process of fixation requires enormous power and calls for a tremendous expenditure of energy, and in a country like Germany, l having no great water powers, this en- ergy can be supplied at high cost only by l the consumption of an enormous amount of fuel I understand that not less than | 300, ,000- horse power must be produced in order to manufacture air nitrates on commercial scale and the only nitrate manufacturing plant on the American continent is located on the Canadian side at Niagara Falls. The bill that has re- gently passed both houses of Congress to increase the efficiency of the mili- tary establishment of the United States, recognizes the necessity of an adequate nitrate supply and empowers the Presi- ! of 10 to lxa