The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-01
HOT FIGHT RACES ALL DAY IN HOUSE
 OVER WILSON DAM
Project Bitterly Attacked and Warmly Defended and Lines Are Drawn for Fresh
 Battle Monday
By Associated Press

w dSnlngJOn, DecemDef j j.. The old year closed in the House tonight with flood of talk on the ups and downs of Muscle Shoals.
 Working through to the eve of the new year discussing $lO.OOo,09o ap- propriation for completion of the Will son dam. part of the governments big wartime nitrate project. the House ad journed with lines sharply drawn for 8 fresh fight Monday and a determina- tion on the part of republicans opposing further aid not to yield. even in the face of cry of sectionalsm
 All day long inc dam project was
 bitterly attacked and warmly de-
 tended. It remained. however, for
 Chairman Graham of the inyesti-
 gating committee which went over
 the ground to turn loose the guns "a upon the little Alabama settlement
 into which he declared there had
 been dumped with reckless disre-
 Ngard for the future enough money
 to erect half of the public buildings
 in Washington.
 PRESENTS OTHER SIDE
 Then the other side of the picture was presented by Representative Gar rett, democrat. of Tennessee, himself a member of the Investigating body who pleaded for funds with which to go ahead with construction of the dam named for the President, and which he insisted would be vital cog in the American machinery of war.
 The charge by MT. Garrett that the people of the south could see in the opposition to the measure no ground except sectionalism was vigorously denied by Chairman Graham, who said a dam like that now being constructed in the Tennessee river never had been built in the history of the world, and probably never would
 From the proposal advanced by southern representatives that the House put into the sundry civil bill the $10,. 000,00 stricken out by the committee. the debate jumped from the dam it. self to nitrate plants two miles away Discussing the policy of the govern ment in selecting Muscle Shoals as a site and building there project cost ing upwards of S100, 100000, Mir. Garrett declared that to stop work now on the undertaking. 30 per cent complete and for which s17,o00,0oO had been ex- pended, not only would bring great loss to the government but would be "the height of folly when nitrate es- tablshments ranked as the most vital assets ip time CT war; MT. Grahitm; on the other santi. co},tSfded that Con- gross should not go deeper into the hole" until it had decided on definite policy as to disposal of the plant.
 SAYS FARMERS ROBBED
 Charges that the farmers of the United States have been robbed by the Chilean nitrate trusts,' which, he declared, was opposing the develop ment of the nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals, were made by Representative Almon, democrat, in whose district the plant is located.
 Representative Almon asserted that American farmers, because of their in- ability to obtain nitrates for fertilizer in sufficient quantities, were obliged to pay the Chilean government since 1879 total of $153,000,O0O as export duty on nitrates shipped to the United States from Chile. If the manufacture of fertilizers in this country had been encouraged Mir. Almon continued. im- portations could have been curtailed and payment of the tax avoided
 Representative Bankhead, democrat Alabama. declared experts had stated that Muscle Shoals could be success fully operated as commercial plant. Completion of the dam he argued, was necessary as part of the nitrate plant machinery. big enough to serve Ameri- can farmers trying for cheaper pro duets needed for the yield of bountiful crops.
 There was decided opposition from some quarters to bill now pending which would convert the Alabama plant into fertilizer factories, members pro- fessing to sec the specter of govern ment ownership.