The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-13

tions department of the federal army or | to the farmers of the United States would
 be piece of madness which could find ' it's justification only in a devotion to private competitive interests of some de-
 scription, somewhere, who want to see
 this scheme fail.p
 The bulwark of the opposition has come I from Lenroot of Wisconsin and Wads-
 worth of New York Lenroot is a re- 1 sourceful man with 8 ready wit. but m
 a political factional or sectional issue IS startlingly narrow. IL was he who ln- jected the delicate morsel into the de- { bate that the Alabama Power company must be interested in the developmnt or the Muscle Shoals projects because US l agents are not on the scene hghtlng such ldvelopment; conclusion which with lequal justice and statesmanship might have been reached regarding the Sea board Air Line railroad. Senator Wads- worth fights the bill under the thin guise
 of attempting to remedy its defects. ne was vigorous in his implied opposition to the amendment of Senator Smith of South ! Carolina under the terms of which the . government. in disposng of fertilizer, would be forced to show preference to farmers rather than manufacturers Of 1 fertilizer.
 PLAY ON PREJUDICE I The champiOnS ot the Dili SustdHieu themselves with marked ability. Senator Smith of South Carolina led the light. He was ably backed by Senators Heflin 1 and Underwood of Alabama, Harris or Georgia Stanley of Kentucky. Williams of Mississippi and Gronna of North Da-
 kota who, although republican, seems to be friend of the farmer, and as such less keen in his hatred of the south A notable instance of the injection or | small things into the debate was Len roots statement that at Muscle Shoals an officers club had been constructed at | cost of $300,000 He based his charge on the report of the republican committee | headed by Representative Graham or H. linois. who. during and just prior to the
 national political campaign. displayed ex-
 ceeding bitterness respecting Muscle Shoals. Senator Williams. following Len 1 root on the floor. declared that he dlo i not believe a word of the report, but that | if it was true he would offer resolu- ton calling upon the war department not | only to dismiss the officer guilty but to | put him in the penitentiary.
 '"The officer in charge exclaimed Sen ator Williams, "is a West Point gradu-
 ate in all probability. West Point. as 1 a rule, turns out gentlemen. certaihly
 men who will not steal. West Point gave the country Robert E. Lee. Therefore, | I do not believe the report But if 1t | 1 put him behind the bars of prison where he deserves to be"
 HIDDEN PROPAGANDA 1 Senator Lenroot, thereupon. referred 1 Senator Williams to the testimony on
 which the Graham report was based. Some agent of the investigation commit tee had testified that hotel had been constructed for the housing of the men engaged in the work at the shoals
 which authorized Senator Williams to declare that hotel in no respect was | an officers club. and to repeat his TOT | mer promise to investigate to the end that fact might be developed and punish ment if required, meted out
 1 There seems to have been reason Tor lthe announcement of Senator Heflin Of l Alabama that "in the gallery at the 1 present time are agents of the fertilizer trust engaged in 8 fight to destroy this project" For it develops that the latest tissue of the propaganda against Muscle Shoals is mailed to members of Congress land newspaper correspondents from | Washington. whereas formerly it was dated in New York. The propaganda m question is headed Press Service, 70 West 49d St.. New York" It contains no signature, and the source of the money involved is carefully guarded.
 The propagandist impose even on the newspapers In the Washington Post in it's column of interviews on the edi- torial page, was printed statement ny lsHampden Norman of Memphis, Tenn- lin which the Muscle Shoals projects were denounced There is no such man III Memphis as Hampden Norman, and ms statement was palpable fake. sucn facts were developed by Senator Mckei- liar of tennessee, who investigated py
 telegraph.
 HEFLIN IS DIRECT
 Senator Heflin late in the afternoon charged on the floor of the Senate
 that the lobbyist for the fertilizer and
 gunpowder trusts were endeavoring to destroy the Muscle Shoals property, 1 and that they had won the ears of in fluential people in Washington He referred to an interview printed n the Washington Post in which an al legged Hapgood Norman of Memphis had denounced the scheme and chal- 1enged the republican party to pro- duce the Norman, who, the senator declared, did not exist.
 Senator Heflin declared that Con- gress some years ago passed bill for nitrate plant on the Coosa river, and that President Taft vetoed the bill with the result that the plant was located proftably in Canada.
 That was short-sighted policy, he concluded "and the republicans would repeat the stupidity in the pres ent day"
 Senators Underwood and Heflin are insistent that final vote be had to- ynorrow