The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-22


 ment in estimating the cost of tnis ! plan based upon a development of ! 79,329 horsepower at the switchboard.
 MT. Little in his report gives no estimated cost of hydro electric power per lStlowatt hour or horsepower year
 and it is reasonable that he does not, since to do so would require a Ie- tailed survey of the power plan he pro- poses and this Mir Little did not have
 the opportunity to make. The lowest estimate he claims Is about 1.5 mills per kilowatt hour for steam power, which would give a cost of about s9 so per horsepower year. This would be
 more than double the cost of power at dam No. on Muscle Shoals MT. Little | suggests in his report that steam
 power can be produced about as cheap, according to his information. as hydro
 electric power can be produced; in fact, Mir Ilttle's plan is largely a stean.- power proposition.
 This seems to rne to state the Warrior river case. allowing that the engineer ing facts in MT. Lttle's report at 100 per cent correct. Now, let me state the ] Muscle Shoals case as I see it from the
 record.
 Mai. Lytle Brown, United States dis i trict engineer at Nashville, in a letter 1 of March 2S in transmitting a memoran- | dunn prepared by MT. ". G. Waldo, giv- ing a statement of the amount of power and the cost of power as estimated by him 1t Muscle Shoals. says in closing his i letter.:
 /" It is my opinion that the results given lby MT. Waldo are as reliable as present knowledge can produce
 { And Assistant Engineer Winn, in sub- | hitting MT Waldos statement to District Engineer Brown. says:
 " I have checked the statements and | computations contained therein and I l have found them correct.
 "The facts presented by MT. Waldo in l his statement transmitted by Major l Brown, were all extracted from docu | ment 1262, Sixty-fourth Congress. first ses- | sion, which document contains the minute | details of the final survey of the Muscle 1 Shoals stretch of the Tennessee river, requiring, as I am informed, nearly years time and cost of S15oo00 to the | government.
 I "In MT Waldo's statement, he esti- mates the primary power at Dam No. ? l at Muscle Shoals at 10000 horse power, and the secondary 10-months' power at S5,000 horse power. So we see that As I sistant Engineer Winn and District En- gineer Major Brown approved 70,000 pri- 1 mary horse power at Dam No. 2 Muscle Shoals and S5,O00 secondary horse power. MT. Little reports 57, ,117 primary horse power from the Warrior river develop ments and makes no mention of second ary power.
 Assuming that the government could sell at the switchboard of the power house at Dam No ?, Muscle Shoals, S5,000 sec ondary horsepower with a 70 per cent load factor, or in other words, 70 per cent of the total 85000 secondary power pro- duced, at mills per hlowatt hour (s13.07 per horse power year), at the switch board. this would give a gross annual earning from this secondary power of $777665. Deducting from this sum the operating cost of producing this second- ary power estimated al 63 of mill per Silowatt hour ($l.12 per horsepower year and in this cost is included 10 per cent depreciation per annum on all machin- cry as well as 1 per cent depreciation per annum on all structures both for nav
 gation and for power purposes), leaves a net income available for the payment Of interest charges of $532, ,525 annually.
 WILL PAY 1 PER CENT
 "The estimated total cost submitted by Mir Waldo and checked by Assistant Engineer Vim and approved by Major Brown, amounts to $13, 300 600. The net annual income of s532,525 will pay interest on this entire investment at the annual date of per cent.
 T believe that this is fair statement of the earning power of the secondary power alone of the development at Dam No. ?, based on statements and estimates approved by the United States engineers themselves. If this statement is approx imately correct, then the government can eet the use of 70010 primary power at Dam No ?, Muscle Shoals, for the pro- duction of air nitrogen and the manu- fracture of nitric acid at the cost of phy- scal operation, and the farmers in time of peace can get the same for the 1nanu- fae-rre of fertilizers
 "The comparison by the chief of engi- "o"'s between the Warrior river and the Tennessee river at Muscle Shoals, in my n nu, js not a fair one.
 "The cost of power at Muscle Shoals was taken from an estimate for an alter native navigation power dam at site No ? Document 1262, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session, page IT'D, and this dam and it's estimate contemplates a head of 110 feet. General Black states that the pri- mary power at this dam is 6O000 horse power, which would require a minimum | flow of only 6000 second feet, The min-. mum flow of the dryest day in the dryest 1 year in history-1904-is shown by the rec ord to be TOGO second feet Document % l SiNty-third Congress, second session. 1 pages 59-62).
 The estimate for the Warrior river is based on the regulated mean monthly flow for the wet period from 1905 to 1914 l inclusive, excluding the dry years 1902 1 1903 and 1904, although the data for these l years was obtainable.
 i The power estimated and reported at dam No. ? on the Muscle Shoals by the 1 United States engineers is power that is i actually to be made available at the switchboard, while the power on the 1 Warrior river report by General Black is potential power which cannot be made available except with machinery that is | 100 per cent efficient; and such ma l chinery does not exist. In other words | the fact that the machinery is not 100 Der l cent efficient is conceded by the engi- neers in the case of Muscle Shoals, and was overlooked by General Black in the 1 case of the Warrior.
 1 '"rhe $16000,000 cost for dam No. 2 at Muscle Shoals as reported by the enei- neers to the nitrate board is the cost i of a navigation power dam at site No 1 ? of an alternative suggestion or pro- pcsal made by Major Burgess with no
 intention of it's adoption, and he did not | recommend it's adoption unless land own 1 CTS whose lands would be overflowed by the building of dam No. B. which dam | Major Burgess did recommend, should charge the government exorbitant prices for these lands. Since Major Bur ! gess made his report, satisfactory prices | have been secured on a majority of these 1 lands, and of course this alternative sug- l gestion will never be carried out.
 FOR NAVIGATION STRUCTURES
 Tt is well to remember that in the
 estimated cost of this alternative dam 110 feet high at site No. ?, there was in- cluded in the cost $4, 495, ,000 for naviga- ton in no way connected with this dam Itself, and therefore if this dam should be built there would be chargeable to the construction of this dam out of the $lGooO,0OO total for the alternative plan. l,9oo'oVo and not $l6ooo,0o0 as suggested (Naf1nr nroJ OI~ TIL ~