The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-17
Wants Government to Let Him
Buy Muscle Shoals Plant.
Promises He Would Then Give
Jobs to Million.
FARMERS ERA NOW DAMNING
Claims 80 Per Cent Farm Work
Is Unnecessary.
Wants New Job Not for the
Money But for Work.
BY ALLAN BENSON.

Copyright 1921, by the International News
Service.)
Notice is hereby served that infringement
proseeuted.)
Aboard Train En- Route from De-
troit to Washington. Nov. 17.-Henry
Ford has just given me an interview
in which he said:
IF the government will sell its
Muscle Shoals project, 1 will put the
south on the map"
Just what do you mean by that?'
1 inquired.
Il will give employment to a mil
lion men in the SOUTH he replied
Il will establish industries that will
have beneficial effect not only upon
the south, but upon the whole country.
! l will extract from the air nitrates that
will be sufficient in quantity to fertil-
! ize the entire cotton belt.
Edison would Help.
Thomas A. Edison has been ready
| for the past month to go with me to
! Muscle Shoals and give me expert ad-
/ vice with regard to the nitrate plant.
/ Mr.. Edison and I will start south the
| moment the government decides TO
I turn the property over to me.
| IF the government will let me go
| to work at Muscle Shoals l will estab-
lish a great aluminium plant in which
aluminium will not only be extracted
Z
parts. I will establish plants in which
| cotton will be spun and woven into
| cloth. ] will put to work every horse
power that can wiring out of Muscle
Shoals, no matter how many plants it
may take to consume II.
From my experience in other
! places. 1 have learned that one man IS
| employed for each horsepower of mo
ehanical energy in a plant Muscle
| Shoals is good for 10000 horse
power That is why say that il the
governtnent viii let me. 1 viii put
million men at work.
Object Lesson to Nation.
IT will give the whole nation an
object lesson, Lot only in the use OF
| water power but in modern agricul-
: ture. The country is full of unused
| water power that should be harnessed
and put to work. There is a fall of
400 feet in the Mississippi river be-
| tween st. Louis and New Orleans and
not n dam on the river.
There should be at least a dozen
l'dams on this great stream. No land
worth anything need be flooded. 1t is
sufficient to install a low dam and
then take the water off at one side in
| a great iron conduit and carry IL along
beside the river until the fall has
been sufficient to run water wheels.
| 4 have nine dams on a little river
| thirty feet across that runs thru my
| farm at Dearborn, Mich. and from
this small stream take 400 and 400
! horsepower. NV little stream fur
nishes light and heat for my home
and buildings and the rest OF the cur
| rent Is wired over to my Dearborn
plant.
Mississippi Holds Vast Power.
How many homes could the Mis-
sissippi iheat If its power were con-
verted into electricity? How many
! states could be fortified with the nj
trates that could be extracted How
many industries could be established ,
BOW many millions Of men could be
| employed?
Il tell you it Is time that we awak-
ehed to the neglected opportunities
lhat our country presents. 1t is time
We should do something more than
complain Of unemployment II is
aso uine that we paid some attention
TO modern methods Of agriculture.
Farmers may not know it. but the
oid methods of agriculture are about
Fetdy to go. The farmers Of the very
near future are going to be bright,
snappy young men from the cities
They are going to make more money
while devoting. but fraction of the
time to agriculture that the old-fash-
ioned farmers put in.
Much Farm Work Unnecessary.
Fully 30 per cent of the farmers
work tod2y is unnecessary. They do
not sufficiently fertilize their soil and
tney 90 not use enough machinery.
harvested three thousand acres of
wheat on my Dearborn farm last sum
mer and the operation required Just
| four days. Twenty days a year Is
! enough to do the farm work on any
farm if it is done with machinery in
the right way.
The farmer Of the very near fu-
tture will be a man who will divide his
time among three occupations. Twenty
| days of each year he will devote TO
agriculture. Five or ten days more
| he will devote to transportation. dur
ing which he will load his products
on motor trucks Snd whirl them over
good roads to his market. The rest
OF the year he will devote to indus
try. by which / mean that he will be
employed in a factory near his nome.
These factories do not at present exist
, to any great extent. but they are
coming.
Z have seventeen factories in little
I Michigan towns in which have been
able to develop water power aad am
esta ablishing more all the time In
these factories some Of the minor parts
: Iof my automobiles are made. one
factory will be devoted wholly to the
: manufacture Of nuts and bolts ana
another to screws.
ii Employs Many Farmers.
"It is a common thing FOR one Of
. the workers in these factories to say
4 what time he wants to lay off for q
r day or 50 20 dig his potatoes or har-
I vest his wheat. We always let them
i off and are glad to do It, because.
- contrary to the common belief, our
= men do not spend their lives doing The
(ContlDUed on Page six-s