The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1922-07-26
THERE rs SOMETHING IN IT.

10 SuUuull d Diu IOI MuSCle OHOdlS, we
have INDUCED the, hope that Ford
would succeed in securing the proper
Ity This desire was of course based
on the theory that unless Mr. Ford
did succeed in acquiring it, the gov
eminent would, as it had done in most
of the unfinished war industries, junk
the whole shooting match.
We have always been convinced
that of all the bidders who sought to
secure this proposition. Mr.. Ford was
the only one of the bunch with wis
dom and money enough and with bus
mess sagacity enough to make it a
great success and to bring to this sec
ton of the country great industry
calculated to fairly revolutionize conf
ditions in a vast section of it.
Now then, the report of the Senate
committee on agriculture recommends
that the government complete and OPP
crate this great plant at Muscle Shoals
offering new hope to the people that
after all. something good might come
from this mammoth enterprise.
Certainly. the operation of the plast
by the government would prove of
great value to the South and in many
respects would give us many of the
things we had hoped for from Ford
In any event the esteemed Column
bus Enquirer-Sun of a few days ago,
devoted itself to the subject as fol-
lows
THE Enquirer-Sun, as has been call
cd to its attention more than once of
late months, has been subjected to
some criticism fer not permitting it
self to get excited over Henry Fords
offer for Muscle Shoals or, rather
what might better be called the wide
Iy and widely exploited movement to
force congress to make Mir Ford a
present OF Muscle Shoals, and then
pay him something. to take it.
Frankly, we have felt all along
that the Ford offer should, to say the
very least, be considered strictly on
It's merits, and that congress should
not be swept Off its feet by all the
noise and hurrah being made in this
section of the country. The methods
pursued by the Ford propagandists
rather tended, in fact, to discount
the whole proposition, for it was such
a palpable and demagogic effort to
5rowbeat people into endorsing the
Ford program without giving them, an
opportunity to know a blessed thing
about it.
But at last. the senate committee
on agriculture, which has had under
consideration the Ford offer, and
which has made an exhaustive study
Of the Muscle Shoals situation, has re-
ported, and its report is to the effect
that instead of the Ford offer being
such wonderful thing for the govern,
ment and the people, it would mean,
if accepted that the government
would, in the end, be handing Mr.. Ford
a gift of about $4,000, 900, 600.
THE enormity of the gift Icrd ask
ed is virtually beyond human concep-
ton, the report declared. 1t was add
ed that acceptance of the Ford offer
would have merited everlasting cen
domination Of congress-
The report, which is to pro-
position. made largely along party
lines-as if the disposition OF Muscle
Shoals is, or could be- party qucs-
,jon-goes to declare, in effect, that
The public has been duped into belfev-
ing that the Ford offer is 4 good thing
for the country 1t definitely charges
that an attempt has been nada By i
soulless corporation to obtain the
greatest gift ever bestowed upon mvr-
ial man.
Ford, the report asserted, not only
wanted the property with its water
power potentialities, greater than any
project in the world, at unreasonable
terms but in addition, demanded that
The government furnish all the money
for its development and the taxpayers
Of the country assume all the risk il,
yolved. The report further goes on to
say:
1.-The acceptance of Mr.. Ford's
offer turns back thS clock of progress
and opens the door wide for the use
of natural resources by corporations
and monopolies without restriction
without regulation and without re
straint. If this proposition is accept
ed, the fight for the country is lost, the
surrender to special interests and mo-
nopolies is absolute and a precedent is
established that will take from the
control of the people the greatest re
sources that have ever been given to
man by an all-wise Creator.
There is no man so good, no cor
poration so benefcient as should in
duce a patriotic legislator to- thus sur
L.