Norwich bulletin., 1922-11-11
GOING AHEAD WITH MUSCLE SHOALS DAM.

The roar of construction work on 1 the great Wilson dam at Muscle Shoals is sounding again through the valleys and over the hills along the Tennessee river. The federal govern ment has stepped in to rescue fror possible decay the spectacular war time nitrate and power projects, whic 5prang up almost over night, involve
 in the building of what will be IL worlds largest water-power dam.
 United States army engineers, who have been furnished $S,19o,O00 in con- gressional appropriations, are once more proceeding with the work of harnessing the mighty water of the Tennessee under government pro- gramme which provides. for the com
 pletion of the dam, the installation
 of machinery, and the furnishing of
 electrical Juice" by the late winter
 of 1925 1r the early spring of 1926.
 This programme is so definite that the army appropriation bill to be in- troduced in Congress Dec. 4 will con tain an item making available $7,50e,- 900 additional for the work for the
 fiscal year 1923-24 They will require
 $7,4e0,OQ0 more after that, for the fol-
 lowing fiscal year, before they will | have, a finished job at the dam and | power house, and it will be ready to | turn the switches that send out the | electrical current.
 The army engineer dam builders do
 not vex themselves with the question of what will become of the electrical | energy to be harnessed from the wa ters of the Tennessee, sometimes
 swollen, angry, turbid. To the army engineer dam builder it makes no diff | ference whether nitrates are made I xxyhn art iG To 1 whether the Tennessee River moves | the street cars in distant New Orleans; l Whether~ it drains the sWamps of Flor l ida with cheap power. He does not concern himself with the question oi
 whether a woman with an up- to date | electric hair-curling iron in Mobile is 1 to benefit, or whether the farmer ir | Mississippi, Tennessee or Alabama is
 to light his premises, pump his water
 or drive his machinery with the cleo trical energy to come from harness
 ing of the waters. Questions such a! I whether Chattanooga, Memphis, Pen
 sacola, or other communities shall qsI l electrical energy from the Tennesse,
 finally for cheap power for manufac
 turing purposes are questions whicl
 give the army engineer dam builde
 no concern whatever.
 All these army men have known O cared is that they have been halte,
 in their work since April Is, 1921, b,
 lack of money, when the dam was on third completed. The armistice ha'
 come. Appropriation had dribbled fo a while, then stopped completely. Arm
 ed sentries faded from the picture o
 the great work. The dam builders wer obliged to turn their backs on thei war time picture of furnishing nj trates for explosives for the army i France by means of the water powe
 of the Tennessee, which had calle F into being the plans for the dam. Flo
 time it seemed as if the great dar , were asleep.
 : But now an awakening has come i these early days of November, an at the hands of the same men, tn 7 army engineers. Their picture now i l one of peace, with about twelve hun 3 dred men at work on the dam toda] : soon two thousand to be sWarmin . over the works, and the call going ou ] for a small group of able assistar engineers.
 6 The music of the noisy rock crush oI CTS, the toot-toot of the locomotive = hauling sand and gravel, and tt 1; pleasant control bells of the boats tow = ing barges in the river, are making d harmony of peace time efficiency, LII e der which the builders expect to carr L out their programme of a finished jc s not later than the spring of 1926 wit + hardly ever more men at work at or v time than two thousand to do the wol
 four thousand at time were requil u ed to do under war time conditions