New-York tribune., 1921-03-13
Smell Assails
!. " Paternalistic
( Bills i'm House
Representative Declares Lit
.~ tie Economy Can Be Eff
- =, fected Unless They Are
. IL Modified or kiIle d
HitsMuscleShOals Scheme
$1I6, 100000 Expended on
.@s- ~" Dam and $4O,OOO,OOO
More Needed, He Says

chairman OF the steering committee Of
the New York delegation, yesterday
uttered warning against paternalism
IN government, intimating that little
real economy can be effected unless
various paternalistic measures now be-
fore Congress either are modified or
smothered. Mr.. Smell is prominent
member of the Committee on Rules,
and his potentiality in that committee
means hard travelling for some of the
: latter-day popular measures now before
: the House
3 "One of the worst and costliest cases
& OF paternal ism before Congress at the
: present time," said Representative
Smell yesterday, "is the notorious
Muscle Shoals hydro electric develop
ment on the Tennessee River. About
project, and the great dam is only fair
ly started. To finish the dam will cost
from s30.0OO,0O0 to S40,000,00o more,
/ and even then it will not be com
! mercial success
Colonel Cooper. the engineer in
, charge, when questioned recently be-
fore the committee of the House, ad~
nlitted that he would not accept the
. project as gift, even if the govern
=
more on it. He said the enterprise was
commendable as government plant,
but that as private proposition it did
not appeal to him as money Garner.
One Plant Cost sS6,O0O,O00
"The governments project at Muscle
Shoals includes two nitrate plants and
a huge dam. One of the proposed
nitrate plants cost $S6,0000O0 and the
=, other one $13,000,00O. They were built
with the idea of using formula which
afterward was found to be unfeasible,
and which now will have to give way
to another method, which later method
still is in an experimental stage.
This Muscle Shoals proposition had
been up before Congress for twelve
or fourteen years, and had been voted
down each time. At different times
its development was urged as de-
sirable water power, and then for
navigation purposes, and then for other
purposes. The only way it got started
at all was by an executive order of
President Wilson during the war, and
the money came from the emergency
fund. Even then no considerable work
was done on the project until after
the armistice was signed. The gov
ernment merely started the thing in
the closing weeks of the war, counting
on getting the government so fully
committed to it that it could not be
dropped in times of peace.
"This tremendous plant could not
ing three or four months in the year
on account Of seasonal drouth. Their
during the rainy period of the year its
efficiency would be seriously affected
by the floods, leaving only about sia
months when the plant could be oper
ated to it's capacity The best thing
the sanest thing-to do is to stop worl
on the enterprise and not start agar
until we find out what we really wan
to do with the plant, and what its cos,
Is going to be.
Argue Can't Afford to Stop
"Now objectors are up against the ar
gument from the friends Of the enter
prise that the investment is so larg,
that we cannot afford to abandon it
That sort Of argument does not appea
to the great mass Of Republicans. Per
sonally I believe that it would be bet
ter to lose $10O,000,000 on an imprac
ticable manufacturing proposition thai
to go ahead and sink $500, ,o0o, 900, witt
no reasonable hope of making it
commercial success.
Concerning the general outlook 70.
economy at Washington, cannot sa,
that I am entirely satisfied. There ar
all sorts of humanitarian and welfar
projects before Congress, including on
for the government officially to TAX
over sight of every woman about t.
become a mother, all in the interest O
improved eugenics. When we get start
ed on programs Of that kind there j
no telling where we will bring up.
another matter involving large es
pense to which the party is supposed t
! be committed is the soldiers bonus
which l expect to see passed at tn
next session. The leaders are virtual
committed to it, and Judging from th
vote in this state on the soldiers bonus
the people are in favor Of it.
81 sometimes doubt whether the in
scessant chmor for paternalistic ex
spenditures will stop until the govern
sment imposes tax on incomes in ex
cess of, say, about 81 900. Perhaps tina
would be the surest way Of remindin
the people that il they are going t
have so many latter-day luxuries 8
government expense they will have t
pay for them