Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-02-23
FERT|L|zERPLEDGE
AGREED To BY FORD
IN H|SPLANT OFFER
Finished Product Is Guaran-
teed-American Farm Bu-
reau Federation Urges Ac-
ceptance of Ford's Offer

reau Federation urges AC-
Ceptance of Ford's Offer
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.-The
text of the offer of Henry Ford for
the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, nitrate
and power plant will be so changed
as to guarantee the production of
finished fertilizer" w. B. Mayo
Ford's chief engineer, stated today.
Mr.. Mayo has just returned to
Washington from Detroit, where he
conferred with the automobile man
ufacturer on this point. Several
members of the house military af,
fairs committee had requested that
| this change be made.
| The offer as it stands provides for
the production of 10000 tons a year
of nitrogen and other fertilizer
compounds"
FARM BUREAU URGES
ACCEPTANCE OF FORD OFFER
W. -IINGTON, Feb. 22.---ccept-
; ce by congress of the offer of Hen
ry Ford for lease and purchase of
the government properties at Mus
Gle Shoals, Alabama, was advoca
by the American Farm Bureau fed
Grafton trough it's Washington rep
resentative, Gray Silver, at today's
hearing of the house military af-
IRIS committee on the Ford offer.
Coincident with Mr.. Silver's ap-
pearance before the committee the
seL4.te and house received from Sec
rotary Weeks the offer for the prop
critics made by the Alabama Power
company. The offer was accompan-
led y the letter of transmission
from Mr.. Weeks, made public yes
te~day. The offer pen being laid
before the house was Immediately
referred to the military affairs COM
mittee to become the subject of
hearings similar to those now in
progress on the Ford offer.
The farm bureau representative in
h. testi ,ony pictul ed the now
productive lands of The country as a
desert waste in time unless the
E rmers were given a cheaper soil
food and declared his faith in Mr..
Ford's plan to manufacture cheap
fe-tilize at Muscle Shoals. He sal :.
the far yer found themselves at the
present time IN most unhappy sit
alton it'll the h =. cost Of fertil-
izer as a factor.
'There is we'll defined propa-
.,nda going on to prevent Mr.. Ford
seeing VIII he can do - Muscle
Shoals to produce cheap fertilizer
for tt farmer" Mr.. Silver said, add
i - that if the fertilizer people be-
ieve il il )ssible Or Mr.. Ford or
any one e to operate successfully
&C MI Gle Shoals, why are they op-
pc ed to him."
Resolutions passed by the fedora
ton in annual convention in Chicago
in 1920, at Atlanta in 1921, at meet
ings of southern members recently
held at Tloren ;, Ala, and later in
the Washington agricultural confer
ence were read into the record. All
favored the development of Muscle
Shell water power and fertilizer
disabilities and those more recently
adopted exl ressed "unreserved in
dorsement" of the Ford offer.
FavOrs Bonds
A letter addressed to Secretary
Weeks by Mr.. Silver advocating q
S40,000,000 bond issue to finance de-
velopment of power at the shoals, to
relieve 1.-The government from fur
Their expenditure Of federal money at
this time Of heavy expense" also
was presented for the record. Mr..
Silver said the bonds would finance
the completion of the Wilson dam
and could be retired as the power
created there was sold.
Statements of previous witnesses
that the government would subsidize
the fertilizer business at Muscle
Shoals if the Ford offer was ac-
cepted, were challenged by Mr., Sill
yer.
Mr.. Ford is not asking for a sub
sidy," he asserted, land if we under
stand his offer, and we believe we
do, none is contemplated"
A telegram from the Alabama
Farm bureau read by Mr.. Silver, said
the acceptance of the Alabama Pow
er company's offer would be injuri-
Gus to the farmers of that state and
of the south. The power company's
proposal was a "culmination of tricl;
methods, devoid Of business ethics -
| the telegram read.
Chairman Kahn adjourned the
committee at 1890 today out of re-
| spect to- the memory of George
| Washington, and announced it would
| meet tomorrow, when Mr.. Silver
would complete his testimony.
Whalebone Stay