Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-02-01
Ford's Offer Analyzed.
(National Republican,

\A>dtlOIldl INeI)uDllCdu.J
Rowland Thomas has analysed for
the New York World the proposal
which Henry Ford nas made for his
acquisition of the governments Mus
Gle Shoals property, and which his
press agents have been industriously
advertising to the world as a bcauti-
full bit of philanthropy and patriotism.
What Ford actually offers is five
million dollars, no cash down, for
title to physical properties costing
sS7, 100000.
He proposed to pay an annual
rental" of s1,726,547, for exclusive
leasehold possession for 100 years
with privilege of renewal perpetually.
a hundred years at time. of hydro
horse power. The government is. to
maintain, replace and repair these
units, at an estimated average cost
per year greater than the rental"
THE magnitude of the bargain Mr.
Ford thus offers himself" writes Mr.
Thomas, "can be appreciated only
when it is understood that consum-
ers of power at Niagara Falls. the
most economical of all hydro electric
plants now in operation, pay an
average rental of about SIS per horse
power per year, and that in most
parts Of the country the charge for
horse power per year is $50 and up
ward" At the lowest rental rate
prevalent anywhere else in the coun-
try what Mr.. Ford is getting for
sl,726547 per year. would cost him
rental rate it would cost him more
than s25,000,000 per year.
Mr.. Thomas analyses the statement
of the Ford press agents that Mr.
Ford intends to produce fertilizer for
the farmers at Muscle Shoals, to be
sold at low price. He points out
that the plant was constructed to
build explosives and cannot without
extensive alterations produce nitrates,
and that if the plant is remodeled it
can make only one fertilizer in
gredient, ammonia sulphate, and that
not at a cheap price even locally,
much less at a considerable distance
from the plant. Ford in his contract
does not agree to produce fertilizers
at all; he merely agrees to experiment
with a view to seeing if he can make
fertilizers cheaply. This country
makes more ammonia sulphate now
than it uses, one third of the entire
output being exported. Coke ovens
now produce ammonia sulphate prob
ably twenty dollars per ton cheaper
than Mr.. Ford can turn it out.
The Ford offer las been camou-
tagged with all sorts of juggIed fig
ures, false pretenses concerning the
contents of the ontract and the ac-
tual returns to the government under
the proposed lease" and circus an
nouncements as to what Mr.. Ford in
tends to do for the South industrially.
1t has been claimed that he would
employ a million men. that he would
build a city IS miles long, that he
would make it possible for every
farmer in the South to dam a creek
and get a power plant that would dig
potatoes and milk the COWS. that he
would operate without profit and give
fertilizer away to all corners. The
newspapers have been reeking with
this bunk. even the big press associa-
tons and many metropolitan news
papers joining to distribute literally
the Mulberry Sellers prospectnses of
the flivver plutocrat.
What Ford actually proposes is
to have the government practically
give him the richest collection Of
natural resources, for perpetual ex-
ploitation, to be found anywhere
within the same compass on the
continent. And in driving this bar
gain he is posing as philanthro-
pist and actually putting the bunk
over with many people. including
large number who pose as the pro-
fessional friends of the down trodden
proletariat.