The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-03

Chairman Khan of the military
 committee eontended. however, that the report had properly been re- l terred to his committee and pointed i out that It's members already had conducted hearings on the Muscle
 Shoals question, were entirely ia
 miliar with the projects involved, the
 ground occupied and several members personally had inspected the site and works.
 For that reason, MT. Kahn said ex- peditious action by his committee could be taken and, in the event hear iEgs were held. they would not be protracted With the exception ot Secretary Weeks. and probably Mir. Ford himself, who might be called Go testify, few other witnesses were understood to be under consideration in that connection.
 Prompt Action Indicated Evidences of equally rapid action by the House itself, after the com nittees report with reference to rec concentrations that the proposal pc accepted or rejected is made to the body, were somewhat dinner. Keen interest in the matter already has been manifested by a large number of House members. and indications were that they would discuss the question at some length before final vote could be reached
 Frederick E. Engstrum who has submitted to Secretary Weeks an swended proposal for the lease and operstlon of the Muscle Shoals prop efip issued statement today after f1Ni 4,etion of the Ford proposal.
 EnRntrum Statement
 My proposal" Mir. Engstrum said, contains no conditions which might prevent the manufacture of nitrates.
 ee entire development of the project be devoted to the manufacture af i atcs and ta nothing else. The presenl nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals pre designeG to produce ni- tfates for plosiees and cannot be tsrd 70 aanei eture nitrates for fsf tiii i1er Ia lny Nroposai ! agree
 eaesiea af anee these Iplants aa sSitepat tsss eff g. a,00q, if nec esssry | na p 1e nmerelal nj Hg c. et .s-dow nsrau sl,
 "s rali known. hows sr. i nitrat, fertilizer cam
 1 itably l. lufactured by fXation .. nitrogen from the air by any process i known, but evAryone hopes and be- 1 lieves that improved processes can i be developed to produce such re- ! suits. My proposal does not provide ] for waiting to manufacture nitrates until the same car be produced a. per cent profit or even al cost. but. on the other hand. l propose to be- gin the manufacture of nitrates at once and to continue to produce the same at the full capacity of the. plant. even at a loss, until such nm proved methods for making cheap nitrates are developed, and to oper ate, in addition, a research plant in the interest of developing such inl- proved processes. In the meantime, I propose to sell sufficient excess power produced at Muscle Shoals to finance the continuous production of nitrates and the operation of such research plants"
 My proposal provides" the state ment continued, that when nitrates can be made at less than the cost of Chilean products, that the money re- sulting from the sale of excess power which had before been used to fi- nance the manufacture of nitrates, shall be turned into the treasury of the United States. Thus, it will be seen that under my proposal the gov ernment will receive an income from the start estimated at more than s. 900 ,000 per year, which will be de- voted 10 financing the production of nitrates as long as necessary, and then to receive the same as a cash income"