Great Falls tribune., 1922-02-18
FORD 0FFERFAR
FROM BARGAIN,
ENGINEER SAYS
Calamity to Accept Bid,
Asserts; Shoals Back
bone of Power Era.

Washington, Feb. 17.-Acceptance
by congress Of the offer of Henry
Ford for the purchase and lease OF
the government properties at Muscle
Shoals. Alabama. would handicap the
water power development of the entire
south, and in this respect would be like
removing the vertebrae from a man
Hugh l.. Cooper, consulting engineer
to the government on Muscle Shoals
development, declared in testifying be-
fore the house military committee,
which is considering the offer.
Mr. Cooper attacked the offer from
virtually every angle and at one point
declared it would be a calamity to re-
move the super-water power projects
Of the south from the field Of public
utility for 100 years. He also pre-
sented estimates based upon army en-
gineer data showing that it would cost
the government 1,275,O00,O0O dur
ing the next 100 years in order that
Mr.. Ford may secure sole. unreguiated
possession of the greatest water power
the south has"
iO0-Year Period Risky
The minimum time for release Of
government lands containing water
power possibilities, Mr.. Cooper said,
should be 80 years and only that long,
unless the license was made subject to
the regulations of the federal water
power act. He opposed the lOo-year
period ON the ground it was impractical
from q business standpoint and no con-
tract negotiated at this time could be
made applicable to conditions he be-
lieved would prevail in 2022.
Another feature Of the Ford offer
which was mentioned by the witness
was that agreeing to pay 4 per cent
interest on the money which would be
necessary to complete the two dams
at Muscle Shoals. He said the total
amount expended and required to be
spent upon those projects. estimated
at $50. .175 ,475, should be made inter
est-bearing, and pointed out that the
government was paying a per cent and
more for the money it had borrowed.
South's Eyes Would Soon Open
Development of power at Muscle
Shoals under the Ford offer. Mr.. Coop
er asserted, would be possibly at ap-
proximately half the same costs as at
Niagara Falls and at the Keokuk dam
across the Mississippi, and at less than
half the rate cost for the same class
Of energy developed in the commercial
pOWeT WHILE l-aSh - t'A'SS1S
Shoals.
While the witness said he realized
that the people Of the south were
"crying for the consummation Of the
Ford offer" he firmly believed they
would be crying for its abrogatien be
fore the lease period expired. He de-
clared that the belief was predicated
on personal experience on water power
development in the past 30 years. in
Guiding that at Niagara Falls. The
power has been used for chemical pur-
poses there. he said not unlike the
plans he understood Mr.. Ford had for
Muscle Shoals, and vet the city of
Buffalo, about % miles away. had
been compelled to build a steam power
plant to serve its needs.
See Plant In Films
The committee adjourned until Mon
day. but members of the house and
senate at night attended motion pic
ture exhibition in the house office
building, where the construction and
development Of the Muscle Shoals prof
ects were shown, thereby obviating a
visit to the plant to study the situa-
ton at first hand. as had been pro
posed