The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1922-09-19
VERY INTERESTING LETTER
CONCERNING MUSCLE SHOALS

1879, W OIdy onNcIs representative
Of the American Farm Bureau, is self.
Thank you for your courteous let
ter of July IS, suggesting that
sent to your organization in the state
of Illinois, giving my position in ref
erence to the power development at
Muscle Shoals.
The testimony of the United States
engineers who are In charge at Mus
Gle Shoals shows that with the aux
iliary steam power which the govern |
ment has bought and paid for and /
which II is proposed to give Mr..
Ford 100000 horsepower can be de- |
pended upon for practically every |
day in the year and an additional 150,- |
900 to 100000 horsepower for 10
months in the year. Under the pres /
ent standard of electrical art this
power can be distributed to towns
and cities, mines and manufacturing
plants covering a circle of 600 miles
in diameter, thus providing untold
advantages for very large section
of the United States. Power of this
kind delivered from Keokuk over
parts of the western and southern IL
linois sells at the dam for about $40
per horsepower per year, which
would mean a revenue to the govern
ment for the Muscle Shoals power of
not less than eight to ten million dol
lars per year If the government
should sell same to a distributing
company at same price. This is fig
ured on a basis of about one-half OF
one cent per kilowatt hour. A farm
er or a resident in a small town or
city is glad to secure this power on a
basis of twenty times that much, or
10 cents per kilowatt hour. One OBJ
lection ] have to Mr.. Ford taking
over this power under his present
plan is because he proposes to de-
prive thousands and thousands of
people over an area of 600 miles in d.
ameter of power and its use in order
that he may build up at Muscle
Shoals a new Detroit. That is fine
thing for the inhabitants of Muscle
Shoals, and naturally they are ex-
tremely desirious of seeing their real
estate advance in value from $50 per
acre to $4,000 an acre, but it is a
bad thing for the thousands and
thousands of people within this 600
mile area. This power which will
Wholesale at $10,0O0,OOO per year will
retail for over $50,000,000 per year.
Mr.. Ford proposes to buy from the
government for $5,000,000 what has
cost the government $150,000,000 and
pay four per cent interest on the ad-
ditional forty million dollars which
the government must invest to COM
plete the dams, and in addition to
that lie proposes to pay the govern
ment $4,000 a year, which he calls
amortizement. and $55,000 year
which he calls repairs.
The testimony of the army engi-
neers is that the repairs at the dams
will be about 1927, 900 a year, and not
$55,000 a year. AS Mr.. Ford is to
have the benefits If he gets this prop
erty on his terms and is to have these
benefits for 100 years, he certainly,
instead of offering to pay $4,000 a
year. ought to agree to keep the dam
in repair, which the army engineers
say will cost $4,000 a year.
Mr.. Ford does not propose to take
this property, but to have. a 100000
900 corporation take title to it, and
and this title stands for 100 years.
The experience with all large capital
Investments as corporations is that
sooner or later, within 10 or 20 years.
they pass into control of large money
holders commonly known as "Wall
street." Mr.. Ford, if he secures this
property on the proposition endorsed
by you so strongly. gets the property
tax free for 100 years, with no con-
troll of any kind as to what price he
should charge for power. He requires
the government to install, at govern
ment cost, machinery for $4,000
horsepower and agrees to use 100000
of this power to make 10000 tons of
ammonia, which would make an
amount of fertilizer which would not
be sufficient to fertilize one-third of
the acreage of Illinois alone, not in
Guiding any other state, and he only
agrees to furnish this provided he can
sell at a profit of per cent on the
per cent interest money he has Sc
cured from the government. The tes-
timony of the army engineers who
have had this property in charge
since it's inception is that with Chi
lean nitrates, or ammonia made from
the by-products of coke ovens, power
must be secured at three-quarters OF a
mill per kilowatt. They further tes-
tify that, not getting any interest on
the money the government has al
ready invested, and 4 per cent on the
additional money which the govern
ment must invest under Mr.. Ford's
offer, il would cost two and one-htlf
mills per kilowatt to generate the
power or three times as much as they
testify that power must necessarily
be provided in order 10 compete with
present fertilizer.
One hundred years is long time
to give one man tremendous natur-
al resource, which now belongs to
the people, and disinterested, think
ing persous certainly should hesitate
before voting TO rsuch a law. After
a great deal of consideration congress
within the past two years has created
a federal power commission, which
can lease water power for a limit OF
so years. or half the time you have
recommended that, this property be
given to Mr.. Ford. Under federal
power control the government, has
10