The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-23
WHY ARE FORD AND. MUSCLE SHOALS 50. WELL ADVERT|SED?.
billiard Tells What Is En- -sbraced In Detroit Mans se| Plan to Utilize Great
 ' Project
By MASON J. nILLARp

Henry Ford and Muscle Shoals are more talked about and better adyer- tised than any person or place prob ally in the United States today. Why?
 Because he has dona the biggest things ever done by one man, and Muscle Shoals has more merit than any place in America. If Ford has accomplished big things without Muscle Shoals, what may we expect with this combination?
 The congressman who on the floor of the House said that Muscle Shoals was a sink hole, and gave 1t all kinds of abuse, when we were fight ing for s10,o00,000 last october and lost by seven votes, now have some thing to take back when Ford, the Duponts, the Cyanamid companies the steel companies and other big companies are bidding for it's great worth.
 The $2s 100000 under the Ford plan means more than the casual reader may think. It includes all ttree dams, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, while the s1o000,0o0 asked for last october was to- complete dam No. 2. which is about 50 per cent completed. When completed this will be the largest dam in the world, and will generate PTS. 900 0-horsepower. Dam No. is 14 miles up the Tennessee river above Dam No. 2, and will be almost as large as No. 9, giving over 600,00o horse power when connected up with No. and it's units. Dam No. 1 is across the channel. at the Florence railroad bridge, and will be for navi- gation only. giving 2 feet Of lack water to Dam No. 3. When the dams are completed they will form the largest artificial lake in the world, and will give back water to Decatur, which is 43 miles from the foot of Muscle Shoals, Muscle Shoals ex- tends for 2l miles up the Tennessee river from Dam No. ,. and has a fall of 125 feet in that distance.
 The building of the three dams will give navigation from Knoxville to the outside world. It Is over 600 miles from Knoxville to the Ohio river, where the Tennessee empties, and the Muscle Shoals is the only embargo between Knoxville and igs mouth.
 Nitrate Is invaluable. Man or veg citation cannot live without it. Sci entists have decreed that in 100 years unless nitrate Is extracted from the air or there is some other scientific method of producing it, there will not be enough to serve the earth and It's peoples. Enough nitrate can be taken from over 10 acres to serve the United States; fourAfifths of the air so taken is oxygen and one-fifth is nitrogen. It is separated by power full scientific machinery under heavy voltage.
 The only nitrate nature serves is from flashes Of lightning, which burn the air into scales of nitrate. and the rain washes it into the earth When MT. Ford gets this business going, Alabama and the farms of the 1 United States will be equal to the lands in the valley of the Nile river, and the combination will revolution | ize the south, aside from the nanu- featuring he will do, and the navig1- tion and commercial life he will in- fuse into this old country. And yet they say there may be a fight in Con gross Mir. Ford may be a Moses to lead us in the Muscle Shoals valley and make the world bigger and bet ter and more wonderful to live in. 1 There Is no limit to the combina- tion.