The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-20


country and particularly to the south
ern states. the most wonderful plan
for the development of power on the
Tennessee river and it's distribution
over the southern states, that has ever
been proposed in the history Of our
country, and 1t is difficult to under
stand how representatives from that
section could block any progress of
this kind and insist that this great t
property should be turned over pracS
tically without consideration to one
corporation, and that the power on
leased for 100 years without regula-
ton and without restriction"
Ford PIan?-NIy No"
Pointing out that only five of the
sixteen senators on the committee ac-
uuiesced in that part of the report
port continues l. part:
';In comparison with its (the Norris
plan) provision regarding fertilizer,
the Ford offer sinks into absolute
insignificance. 1t offers the greatest
hope to struggling, agriculture, it
frankly recognizes that improvements
must be made If we would cheaper
the production of fertilizer, and it
provides for the use of the govern
ment property and funds to make the
necessary investigation for such i'm
provements. In advocating its pas
sage we hold out no will -o'-the-wisp
10 deceive ana T1lS1edQ the people, we
face the fertilizer LNoposition with
out practicing any deception upon the
farmers. We believe the extraction
of nitrogen from the air can be cheap
ened, but we cannot guarantee it.
Fertilizer can be produced at Muscle
Shoals but if it is cheapened to the
farmer we must have cheap power
and improved processes. Nothing can
be gained by deception. The desira-
bi,ity of cheapening the cost of fer
Se Had hxr-a
When the power on the Tennessee
river is fully developed it ought to be
carried to the cities all over the states
of Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and
Kentucky and given as wide a dis
tribution as possible so that all of the
people met get the benefit of the de-
velopment of the property owned by
all of the people,
Norris Likes His Bill.
Attention is invited to provisions of
the senate bill directing the secretary
of war to construct dams in the upper
tennessee river to equalize the flow of
water thruout the year and, the re-
port says. more than doubling the
power possibilities at Muscle Shoals.
1t adds that the government is about
the only one that can afford to con-
struct these reservoir dams. The
storage of waters in the Tennessee
river, the report claims. would auto
matically assist to a great extent in
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, there
by offering at least a partial remedy
to flood control conditions.
The only objection made to the pas
sage of the Norris bill, the report
says, has been by those who are OPP
posed to the government engaging in
any kind of business, adding that "a
fair consideration of all the facts sur
rounding the Muscle Shoals propeFty
will, We think, convince any fair
minded investigator that the govern
ment is amply justified in operating
the governments property at Muscle
Shoals"
The document concludes with a de-
tailed comparison between features of
the Ford offer and those of the Norris
bill and emphasizing what it describes
will obtain from Muscle Shoals devel-
opment under the latter proposal.
Ford Has No Answer.
Detroit, July ,20.-Henry Ford has
no answer to. make to the scathing
charges contained in the senate COM
mittee'S report on his offer to buy
Muscle Shoals. From sources close to
Mr. Ford, it was stated Mr.. Ford con-
siders the charges odd stuff and in
tends to stand pat on his original
offer to take over the gigantic project
Mr.. Ford's position today was de-
clared to be substantially the same as
that expressed in a letter to julius
Kahn, chairman of the house military
committee, on May 1. In this letter
Mr.. Ford declared only congress had
the power to accept or reject the prop
osition and warned that rejection
would mean only the beginnina of a
more determined fight on his part to
save Muscle Shoals for the public"