Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-25
GEORGIA MEMBERS
Of CONGRESS ASKED
TO VOTE FOR FORD
Mass Meeting at Macon
Passes Resolutions on
Muscle Shoals Offers
Mayor Key Speaks

MACON, Ca. April 24.-By
unanimous vote delegates from all
over Georgia will call on their del
egation in congress to support the'
Henry Ford project for the develop
ment of Muscle Shoals. This &C
ton followed meeting here Sat
urday that lasted practically all
day. Addresses were made by En-
NETT ONeal, former governor Of Al
ALBANIA; Mayor Jams L. Key, OF At
lanta; Harry Stroller, of Macon; Z.
D. Ledbetter, of Hawkinsville; W.
J. Vereen, of Moultrie; Hon. II. A.
Perry, member of the railroad COM
mission, and Judge Malcolm ID.
Jones, of the Bibb county superior
court, who presided.
Great enthusiasm featured the.
meeting. Governor O'Neal declared
in his speech that the Alabama
Power company was endeavoring to
throttle the farmers and business
men of the south in order to prevent
Mr.. Ford from adopting his plan.
Mayor Key said that he was bit
terly opposed to the control of any
project in America by foreign cap
ital. Both the speeches of the may
or and Governor O'Neal were re-
ceived with much applause.
Commissioner Perry stirred the
audience with a spirited address and
indorsed the Ford Muscle Shoals
plan. Practically every section of
the state was represented at the
meeting. Walker T. Lee, secretary
to Mayor Key, was one of the main
promoters of the demonstration here
Saturday.
A., b. & A. Plan Popular
Several times during the meet
ing the plan for the state to take
over the A.. B. & A. railroad rather
than have the road junked was
mentioned. Indications at the meet
ing showed that this was a very
popular movement.
Commissioner Perry took the
Losition that the development OF
Muscle Shoals would be done with
the peoples money and they had a
right to have voice in the matter
He said the property had been idle
for two years and that nobody want
ed it until Mr.. Ford made his prop
oSition to congress. He showed
how water competition would result
in lower freight rather by the de-
Velopment. of this property. He |
said if the people will clog Wash |
ington with letters and clippings,
congress would get busy and dis
pose of the matter.
Mayor James L. Key, of Atlanta,
.Iol ~
come when h, addressed the meet
ing. The mayor was very eloquent
in his appeal for Henry Ford and
scored the Alabama Power com.
pany, which he said was owned by
English capital, and which was en-
deavoring to throttle cheaper fer.
tilizer manufacture and cheaper
power.
Roger F. Miller, secretary of the
Macon Chamber of Commerce, ex
planned in full the object Of the
statewide mass meeting. The sOut1
ne explained, was the greatest sec
ton for development. He related
an incident, a number of years ago
when he was living in Tennessee,
of coming across Henry Ford, John
Burroughs and Thomas A. Edison
on one of their automobile trips and
Of Ford saying to him that Tennes.
sees water power project was
great undeveloped property, and
that Muscle Shoals was an ideal site
for wonderful plant. This meeting,
he said, was in 1915, prior to II
beginning of the development. The
south, said Mr.. Ford at that time,
had greater possibilities than any
other part of the country.
Key Gives Ovation
Mayor James J.. Key, of Atlanta,
was given an ovation when he was
introduced to the meeting. Mayor
Key did not go very much into the
details of the Ford plan, but told
the audience that Atlanta people, at
a recent mass meeting, without a
single vote of discord, unanimously
Endorsed the Ford plan.
The mayor said he was just from
addressing the convention of the
Georgia Federation Of Labor, and he
was glad to bring the message that
the state laboring men had as a
unit solidly Endorsed Henry Ford's
proposition as the best of all.
Georgia and the south, said the
mayor, realized that his plan was
one of national Importance, and if
the southern congressman did not
stand by Ford in this crisis the peo-
pie were going to tell them to come
home.
He denounced the Alabama Power
company as a concern that was self
ish and grasping, that it did not pro-
pose to manufacture fertilizer or
anything that would benefit the peo-
pie, whereas Ford would not only
pay the government per cent on
its money, but would manufacture
cheap fertilizer and cheap power
that would make Georgia and the
south blossom like a rose.
Mr.. Ford, said the mayor, was an
industrial Democrat who had shown
that he was a friend of the people,
AMI the charge that in event Ford
died, the policy he had adopted would
not be carried out was all bunk.
Fords policies would live for cen
turtles. The Alabama Power COM
pany, he said. was owned and con-
trolled by English capital, which
was interested only in making
money. The south welcomed for
eign capital, but the south, he in.
sisted. did not want to surrender
the company to them.
IN the event Of war, and if the
Alabama Power company was award
ed the contract, an English general
would be in command of our main
ammunition plant, when Americans
should control all of our resources.
Mayor Key was continuously in
terrupted by applause, and his de.
nurciation Of the Alabama Power
company, and it's foreign ownership
brought the people to their feet.
Mayor Key ended his talk rather
abruptly, as former Governor O'Neal.
who was one of the principal speak
ers, arrived on the platform. The
mayors talk, however, was very i'm
pressive and made a splendid i'm
preston on his hearers.
He offered the following resolu