The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-01-03
TO Secure the Nitrogen Plant.

/ Columbia, Jan. 1.-Having secured
the federal land bank for this dis
trict, Columbia, with the aid of var
lous interests throughout the state,
is now planning an earnest effort to
secure the government nitrogen fxa-
tion plant, provided for in the Smith
bill passed at the last session of con-
gress.
A mass meeting of the chamber Of
commerce will be he'd in the cham
ber of commerce tomorrow night, at
8 o'clock, to consider ways end means
to supplement- the work of the special
committee, which has been urging the
claims of Columbia and of this state
This special committee is composed
of Messrs. Edmund A. Fielder, r. B.
Stackhouse, Gadsden Shand, r. c.
Williams and B. r. Cooner, and the
board of directors of the local cham
ber of commerce have been added to
the committee.
The appropriation by congress for
the establishment of plant or plants
for the manufacture of nitric acid for
munitions and fertilizers, is $2O,OOO,-
900. One or more plants may be es-
tablished under the bill, as may be
deemed advisable by the national au-
thorities.
Columbia's principal competitors
are Muscle Shoals, il. northern Ala
bama, on the Tennessee line; Keokuk,
Iowa; st. Paul, MINI; a number of
other points in the central west and
on the Pacific coast, and Augusta, Ga.
Taking into consideration our
river navigation and the water haul
from Charleston or Wilmington" said
chairman Fielder, of the special COM
L.
advantage in the matter of the dis
tribution of the fertilizer product, as
CO readily be seen by a glance at the
which the Muscle Shoals people
~" nut out, and which is really a
E, 80 "gument for the location at CO.
.....,C.l, Of the plant especially con-
ten.. tied for the manufacture Of
: ZerS.
senator f. d. Smith recently had
an interview with President Wilson,
who will finally determine the loca-
ton of the plant or plants, and the
president expressed himself in favor
of one plant to supply the peace-time
and wartime requirements Of the
army and navy: one plant for the in
dustrial arts, which consume enor-
nous amounts of nitric acid, and
third plant for the great agricultural
interests, for which fertilizers high in
nitrogen are most needed
"We feel that Columbia is the log
ical point for the location of the fer
tilizer plant All the raw materials
required for the construction of a
plant can be found right on the spot;
we have narrow valleys, making an
early completion possible; we have
splendid supplies of calcium carbon
ate on the banks Of the Santee river,
within water haul Of Columbia-all
these things giving us an immense
advantage over other points.
"The government engineers and
ordnance experts" continued Mr.. Eel
der, "have determined the minimum
amount of nitric acid necessary to
conduct a war, and they plact it as
the product of 100000 horsepower. In
the event of war it would be possible
TO concentrate at Columbia electric
power aggregating far more than
100000 horsepower by utilizing the
tributary powers Of the Catawba,
Wateree and Savannah rivers, and at
the same time still manufacture lime
nitrate ip order to grow the cotton
and food crops which this section
would be called on to produce. The
great war in Europe mas demonstrate
ed that the agriculture OF the country
tt ,etlt a $500 si-f < 5 va