The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-16
Thinks Birmingham Should Begin Vigorous Fight. to
 Garry It Through
ITEMS OF COST ARE
 ALL IN ITS FAVOR
Thinks Birmingham Has Been Boost ing Muscle Shoals Under Mis- apprehension of City's
 Real Advantages

The people of Birmingham have been gentle and considerate too long, f The time has come when I think it is necessary to throw a few brick, and unless we make most vigorous. persistent and unrelenting fight for the adoption of the Warrior river nt- trate plant, we will lose the biggest thing we have ever had an opportu-
 nity to get, said H. Key Miner last right e
 MT. Miner stated that an out-of- town
 Rotarian suggested to him that Birming- ham go after the Warrior river site for the location of the nitrate plant after Birmingham had become committed to the Muscle Shoals location For that reason we said nothing about the War rior at that time" said MT. Miner.
 Later when 1t developed that the War
 ror river was the logical, economical To-
 cation for this great industry that Con
 gress has passed a bill appropriating s2o,- OO0,0 GOO te build, we began to get our eyes open.
 EFFORTS TO KILL IT T know that efforts were made re- gently to kill the Warrior river proposi- tion. and to bury it so that 1t would never see the light again, and to my surprise these efforts were made by a
 man whom Birmingham would expect to support instead of kill the measure,
 whe' ein Warrior river would benefit.
 T feel that an effort is being made
 now to chloroform us and steal away
 fl orn us this thing to which we are en-
 titled. The Washington dispatches re-
 gardirg the Warrior river site appear
 irg ill The Age-Herald are undoubtedly
 correct so far as they go. but they are impression, to that which the whole truth would convey
 General Black, chief of Engineers,
 charged with the investigation of all sites in time delegated the various district en- g;neers to inspect and report to him on the sites in their territory, and to sort out on merit, and 270 sites were reported on, 259 of which were discarded, only Il of merit remaining for consideration, and they were placed in order of their respective merit, Warrior river coming first No recommendation was neces- sary--the reports showed on their faces. Ut is possible, as seen from this re- port to produce on the Warrior river 79, 900 horse power within the 24-hour pe- riod, with an ultimate possibility of 10O : 000 horsepower. at cost of 5 .91 per horse power, or a total cost of erecting the plant of s7,oooooo. The Muscle Shoals location, with 60000 horsepower at 5 .267 per horse power, will total in cost of erecting the plant $16,000C0A which Is practically three times as much per horse power.
 COST OF MANUFACTURE This would make the cost to manufac- ture nitFates' and to the consumer, three times as great at Muscle Shoals as on the Warrior river. The interdepartmen- tai board was not a board of engineers, and it is not necessary for them to make any recommendations whatever. As a matter, of fact. they know nothing of the subject, it being a purely scientific one. So these stories from Washington that no recommendations have been made
 are no doubt quite true. The bill au-
 thorizng the construction of this plant
 fixes the responsibility of the president
 to select the place for the location of the nitrate plant and with these reports of engineers before him, it should be as simple as A. B. c. to make the se- lection At one place. all the nitrate necessary can be reduced at an expense of 5 91 per horse power and at another, it would cost practically three times as
 much to do the same thing. I do not
 think that it would require very acute
 mind to do the same thing on merit
 Tn The Herald of July IS Mir.
 Underwood is quoted When I asked
 the Secretary if the Warrior or any
 other river had been recommended for a governmental power project, he replied
 absolutely no'" The bill says an ap- propriatons of s200o0.O0s to build nj trate plant to be owned and operated by the government MT. Underwood evil dcntly gave expression to the thought uppermost in his mind and not to the language of the bill. This government
 tai undertaking is not a power project. in the cheapest and most satisfactory manner.
 we all know that there is vastly more potential water power in Muscle Shoals than any point on thea Warrior but that Is not the purpose of this un-
 dertaking.
 STEAM PLANT PLANNED
 .'The plans suggested for the. nitrate plant on the Warrior river depend only incidentally on the use of water power. They contemplate the construction of a by. rroduct plant, using. coal, which can be n,lned on the river bank at mini- mum cost. Coke and other by-products can be made from the coal and the gas which the necessary electricity may be used to drive the large gas engines from generated.
 No well informed engineer will deny that in this way electricity and nitrates can be made at a price with which no