The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-12-05
! MONDAY, DECEMBER S, 1921
HENRY FORD'S MUSCLE
-. SHOALS PROPOSAL

The business genius of Henry Ford
has been volunteered to transmute
the relatively untouched natural re-
sources of the South into the gold of
solid achievement. The creative gen
ius of Thomas Edison underwrites the
colossal material assests Of the other
"high adventurer.
We are not acquainted with the
minutiae of detail involved in the
Ford offer for Muscle Shoals. Mr..
Ford has usually been most liberal in
his business offers and has not been
inclined to haggle over few dollars.
We are, on the other hand, most inti-
mately advised as to the repeated ef-
forts of more or less responsible peo-
pie, some styling themselves experts,
to deride and belittle the whole Mus
Gle Shoals development. The public
over and over again was given to un-
derstand that the appropriations for
Muscle Shoals represented nothing
more than a bold raid on the treas
ury, that it never could and never
should be made to amount to any
thing. that at best it was but junk
and that the Government would be
lucky if it got back any part at all
of the millions it had expended. But
no sooner did Mr.. Ford suggest that
if the property was worthless to. the
Government it was worth q great
many millions to him, which he was
prepared to pay, then great cry OF
protest rose to high Heaven. We be-
lieve that it will require consider
ably more logic and. considerably bet
ter arithmetic than have yet appear
ed to convince the people Of the
United States that the Government,
in. any fairness whatever, either to
itself or to. the taxpayers, can decline
the Ford proposal.
It may be argued with power that
it would be of advantage to the.
whole United States, and not to the
South only, were Mr.. Ford permitted
to undertake his plans even if he
were not in a position to pay in cash
4 single penny for the Muscle Shoals
property. He is prepared to under
take a development which is incom-
parable in it's magnitude. He plans
in millions-not in millions of dollars
but in millions of men-work for
million men. He visions an industrial
creation which would appear to be
absurd were it not for the fact that
aeeemplishments almost equally great
he has already achieved. If hs is able
n oct but half Of the million horse1
power he hopes to obtain and is ablei
therefore, to give employment to but
half a million men, still that in itself
would be an achievement to amaze
and educate the world.
Mr.. Ford intimates that as result
of his operations at Muscle Shoals he
will be able to revolutionize agricul-
ture in the South. He foreshadows
the upbuilding of a variety of manu-
featuring enterprises, including pro-
duction of aluminium on a huge scale
and promises to upbuild in the envir-
ons of the power-development an in
dustrial area that, if his plans are
carried out, would quite obviously
rival any similar area in any other
place on the face of the earth. =
Mr.. Ford intimates that there is
much he can teach the South, to the
South's great benefit. We do not
doubt it. He has taught the North
and the industry of the whole world
many things. His peculiarities are
various. His ignorance on some sub
jects is astounding. But in the bal
ance scales his eccentricities are a:
nothing compared with the things he
is able to achieve. The world is in
terested in his merits, not his de-
merits.
The future belongs to the South
It is not remarkable that man o.
Ford's magnitude has foreseen it
Power is the open sesame in moderr
development. white coal' is power
The Southern Power Company ha'