The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-16
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
PROGRESS AT MUSCLE SHOALS.
FREDERIC j. HASKIN. DfreCel
Washington. d. O

Washington, d. c., Dec. 1.-THE
general public may not be aware of it,
but the great power project at Muscle
Shoals has not been abandoned while
congress bickers and dickers over the
question of accepting Henry Ford's
proposal to take it over and complete
it as private enterprise work is
going steadily forward on the con-
struction of the big Wilson dam under
the direction of government engineers
and reports received in Washington
show that rapid progress is being
made.
Government funds are being ex-
pended at the rate of 100000
month and more than 1900 men are
now engaged in a race against time
and the Tennessee river. The race As
to complete a complicated job of Golfer
damming and foundation excavating
and laying before the winter floods
come that would seriously interfere
with the task, and prospects are said
to be excellent that the elements will
be circumVented.
When this section is finished only
ono foundation section. will remain TO
be dug and poured and the engineers
plan to put it in next summer and
complete it before flood time next De-
cember. Meanwhile work is being
pushed on the upper portions of the
dam and tits estimated that the COM
pleted job will be ready in little over
two years.
OF even greater Importance and in
LeIeSL 10 the PUBIC Is lile
that the work now being done repre-
sents the cheapest and best construc-
ton that has been accomplished since
the project was started. Wages are
far below those paid under wartime
conditions and the number of men
employed is being limited by the
strictest consid eration of economy and
efficiency. Originally, it is said. there
were many men on the job tnat
they got in each others way and wage
rates were little short of scandalouS-
That labor costs are now at a Rinl-
mum Is indicated by the fact that
to S2.0O a day. Water boys received
substantially more than that when the
war emergency was on
Work Stopped Two Years Ago.
Work was stopped at Muscle Shoals
more than two years ago when con
grees refused to provide any addi-
tionaI funds. but last spring this de-
cision was reversed and the resump-
ton of operations was made possible
by an appropriation of $7.5OO,OOO. To
this sum an additional half million
was made available by a presidential
order transferring certain unexpended
appropriation balances to Muscle
Shoals construction uses. APPROX
mately S6,000,0O0 of these funds are
left and it is expected that this viii
suffice to carry on the work at the
present rate of expenditure until next
September. BY that time congress will
probably have made further provision
for the project.
on July g last when the construc-
ton work was renewed the engineers
estimated that the Wilson dam was 80
per cent completed, that 80 per cent
of the necessary materials had been
purchased and that 40 per cent of the
cost of the whole job had been laid
out. This dam is the big feature OF
the Muscle Shoals power project and is
expected to develop 100000 horse
power. There has now been expended
a total
mated cost of $45.500,OOO, and before
| it is finished it will be necessary tor
congress to provide something over
100000 in addition to the funds
now available.
There are two other dams in the
operation, but No. 1 will be for navl-
1 CATION purposes only and will cost only
a million and a quarter. Dam NO. 3,
seventeen miles up the Tennessee-from
Wilson dam, which is officially NO. z.
has not been started as yet. 1t is eX-
pected to develop 100000 horsepower.
When Wilson dam is finished II Will
be one of the engineering wonders of
the world. More concrete Is being
poured. in its construction than was
required in building the famous AS
suan dam on the river Nile, and $780,
600 cubic yards of masonry will be re-
Quired' as compared with 1,179,O0O for
Assuan. The work is divided into sec
tions and of the foundation section
fifty-six out of eighty-eight are done,
i
finished this year Three blocks out
of a total of ninety-one in the spillway
section are finished to the river crest
of ASS feet, and on the large island in
/ the middle OF the river, which is
crossed by the dam, nineteen blocks
are completed to a height of $50 feet.
The foundation level is at 404 feet
and the superstructures will rise III
feet above that, so that the roadway
on the top of the completed dam will
be 525 feet
'sThe Land of Tr."
The Muscle Shoals region might
/ well be called ''The Land of If" at this
time, for the people there are living
/ say and plan is predicated on the
magic word of two letters that Is
/ pregnant of all of hope and fear.
Their recovery from the slough of de-
spond into which they were plunged
a year ago and their future prosperity,
as they see it, all depend on ''if'' the
| great project is completed, but more
essentially on 'if' it is turned over to
Henry Ford and the Detroit magician
1 is given an opportunity to demonstrate
| the wonders he can perform.
Naturally the spirit of speculation
I is rampant and land values are soar
1 ing. Florence, the small town near
/ the base of the Wilson Dam, is re-
garded by its people as a potential
metropolis of anywhere from 100000
| to 100000 inhabitants Business
property IS DelnS sofa or pelnS nelu
at from 500 to $1,000 a front foot
and subdivision. are being plotted and
lots sold at prices many times the
acreage values of a few years ago.
The same story may be told of Shelf
/ field and Tuscumbia-
The spirit of the Muscle Shoals peo-
! pie is unQuestionably for Ford, ac-
/ cording to a recent report from there
/ They base their real hopes Of wealth
! on Henry Ford, whom they regard
/ as the Midas of Industry, the man
whose touch means gold They be-
/ lieve that If this offer for Muscle
I Shoals is accepted money vii, flow
| into their Golfers with the speed Of