The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-28
WAY CLEARED FOR ALABAMA POWER
 SHOALSPROPOSAL
Committee Plans Preparation of Report for House on Va rlous Offers by First
 of Next Week
By Associated Press


 Whshington. Fehrnnry .T.-The
 Ford offer for pnrchmse and lease
 Of the governments wnr project
 properties at Muscle Shoals was
 Temporarily side-traeked today
 by the House military committee
 after almost three weeks' con-
 tinsous investigation. and the
 way was cleared to begin con
 sideration tomorrow of the rf,nl
 proposal for the san,c propertics
 submitted by the Alabama Power
 company.
 At the same time Chairman Kahn said the committee hoped to dispose by the end of the week of all hear ings on offers before 1t. including those from Afr. Ford. the Alabama Power company and Frederick l. Engstrum. and begin work next week on preparing report for the House reciting the committees opinions of the various proposals 1t will have studied.
 The decision to begin the examlna-
 
 pany's offer was reached today when Hubert Dent of Alabama, former chairman of the House military com mittee, acting chief counsel for the Alabama concern, and Thomas ", Martin, president Of the company. concluded arguu1entS in which they strod$is dcfchdsd the o5tion claimed by the company for exclusive right to purchase the Warrior steam plant contained in the contract signed with the war department. by which the power was supplied by the plant dur Ing the war for operation of the nj trate plants at Muscle Shoals
 Mayo Goes fo Detroit
 W. B. Mayo, chief engineer for Mir. Ford, had been expected to appear to- morrow to explain the alterations in the Ford offer which he announced recently Mir. Ford had agreed to. It was learned, however. that Mir. Mayo had returned to Detroit for further conference with Mir. Ford and would not return here until Wednesday, when he would outline to the com mittee the alterations agreed to. Then 1t was decided to suspend hearings of the Ford proposal and begin im- medately to consider the Alabama company's offer.
 While the Power company omitted in it's proposal to make any pro- vision for the manufacture of fer tilizer or the operation of nitrate plants Nos. 1 and 2. it was understood that it's officials had received infor- mation from independent interests indicating that they would ask the government for lease of the plants for use in commercial fertilizer pro- duction.
 wonid Be Independent
 It was pointed out that this enter prise would be established by new capital from American sources, and be entirely independent of the Power company or existing fertilizer pro- ducers in the event the Alabama company's offer was accepted by Congress and power would be made available for operation of the plant under the terms of the bid Officials of the company, however, declined to- right to reveal the identity of the interests which had approached them on the subject, but said they believed them to be reliable and thoroughly capable of successfully producing soil foods in finished forms.
 In defending the contract which the company eXeCuLeu WitH WAT dcpat V ment officials for the building of an addition to the Warrior plant and transmitting power to Muscle Shoals nitrate factories during the war, MT. Dent declared the contract was flair and just.' and was drafted in the same "standardized way" hundreds of oti.er contracts were framed in war times.
 Contract Hearings Read
 Senate hearings on war contracts regotiated by the war department and investigated by Congress were read into the record by MT. Dent to snow that in agreeing to purchase the Warrior plant at a fair value. or compelling the government to re- move the plant from the privately owned grounds of the Alabama Pow CT comrany, that concern had done nothing more than Henry Ford had in
 tCont;nued on Page seyen.)