The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-07-20
HENRY FORD'S
 OFFER DEALT
 WITH BITTERLY
Comprehensive Report De- nounces Ford's Offer For Muscle Shoals Projects.

washington, July 2O.-In com -rehensive report submitted to the S,enate today by Chairman Norris ot the Senate Agricultural Committee, Senry Ford's offer for the purchase -a1 lease of the governments war initiated projects at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, is cond demned in unusually strong language, while the Nebraska senator's bill, proposing development of the properties under government owned and controlled corporation, is described as ''the most wonderful plan" that has ever been proposed in the history of the country.
 On the question of the Ford bid, the report says, Senators Page, McNary Reyes, Gooding, Norbeck, Harrald and Mckinley, Republicans and kendrtck, Dem ocrat concur with the chairman. With reference to the gOvernm ent ownership proposal, the report gives Nary, Gooding, Norbeck and Mckin- ley, who favor it's passage by the Sem ate for the solution of the Muscle Shoals problem.
 nitteemen, the report is chara cteriZed as a minority opinion insofar as it ex- presses approval of the government ownership bill. but is presented as a majority opinion insofar as it deals with the rejection by the committee of all proposals for Muscle Shoals de- velopment.
 The Ford offer is dealt with in un- sparing terms. Its adoption, the re- port says, would put ''the government of the United States into business with a vengeance,'' adding that "those who ask Congress to accept the Ford offer ask us, in effect, to lease this property to this corporation without any real consid eration, and then in addition thereto, guarantee to repair and keep and maintain it in good condition pc, riod of 100 years
 Ford Silent
 f'It is difficult to harmonize our idea of MT. FOrd's fairness the report continues, with his silence on this subject when his name is so often used in augmentation and misrepresenta- tion as to just what he does offer to do. The country has been given to understand that MT. Ford has guaran- teed to reduce the cost of fertilizer by one-half. He has done nothing of the kind. He has made no guarantee of any kind in the way of the reduction of the cost of fertilizer. The country has been given to understand that he pays the government four persent. in terest on it's investment in the two dams. He does nothing of the kind. He has not made any such offer and such proposition is included in his bid. Giving his corporation credit for every dollar that it pays, he will be paying to the taxpayers less than three per cent on the money which he uses out of the Treasury of the United States, and when we consider that this loan runs for 100 years. it requires even the stretch of the imagination to understand the enormous profit that this corporation secures in this one item alone
 Assuming that a fair interest rate In the commercial world Is six per cent. interest, this would give his cor poratfon during a 100 year period. \ total gift of cold cash of S236,250, ,000 and if this money were compounded az Mr- Ford asks the government to com- pound what he pays, the profit to the corporation at the end of the 100 year period would be s145OO,OOO, 900. This iS more than half our total cost of the World War.
 Payment Small
 ''The country has been given to un- derstand that the Ford offer provides for the repayment to the government within the 100 year period, the entire investment that the government has made. His offer does nothing of the kind. On the other hand. the total payments included in the offer of both interest and amortization, amount to less than three per cent on the in- vestnent and he never pays one dollar Of the principal The people of the country have been lead to believe that the Ford offer means reduced price for electricity to the consumer. It means nothing of the kind. He has not agreed to furnish a single kilowatt to any home or to any ma ,ufacturine concern except his own. The mighty power at Muscle Shoals will be de- voted entirely and exclusively to the use of the great corporation which MT Ford will organize.
 When we bring together the re- suits that must follow from these two divisions of the Ford offer, the mind is dazed at the unrea asonableness of the proposition. ct the enormity of the gift With the expenditure of no money there is to be turned over to corporation property of the value of more than s10O.O0O,00O and the right and privilege to extort unjust profits from the citizens of this country with out limit.
 Without Presedent
 There is nothing in the history Of the world with which this can be com pared. Civilization is without a prec- edent- If the Ford offer is accepted then the fight for conservation that has been waged by publc-spirited and patriotic men and women all over the country is not only lost and given away. but those who are unwiIIingIy compelled to make the gift are to be taxed 100 years to make the gift more profitable. It is the greatest gift ever bestowed upon mortal man since sal walton was made free to the human race''
 Other features of the Ford pro- posal are vigorously attacked. That proposing the 100 year lease of the. water-power projects. the report as sertS, would make the Federal Water power Act, in effect, "a scrap of pa per-
 There Is very little, if any. differ. ence. the document declares. ''be- tween giving a deed outright to this property and giving lease for 1On years- In the event the 100 year lease should he given Mir. Ford, the report says, if IS practically certain that every corporation that has made a lease under the Water Power A ct will he clamo bring at the doors of Congress for a modification of their lease and the extension Of the time from 50 to 1000 years IT We make a 100 year lease to MT. FOrd's corporation, are we not in honor bound to make a 100 year lease to Mir. Rockefener's corporationy IT cannot be claimed in defense that we cannot afford to do this because of the confidence which the America n people have in MT. Ford, and the lack of confidence they have in some of his co-multimillionaires. We are not deal Ing with men, we are dealing with a corporation as unrestrained and as unlimited and as unreguIated as any pirate that ever sailed the seas. Mir. - FOrd will have at best but a very. fe1r