The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-26

ty held the contracts negotiated be- tween the war department, the Ala Power Company and the Air Nitrates Corporation to be invalid" with re- spect to the provisions which. of ficials of the two concerns claimed,
 gave them exclusive rights to pur- chase the Gorgas, Alabama, steam power plant and nitrate plant num- Der at Muscle Shoals.
 The opinion was immediately placed before the committee by Chairman Kahn for study in connec- ton with the investig gation 1t is mak- Ing of Henry Ford's offer to purchase
 and lease the Muscle Shoals project. Committee members advocating ac- eeptance of the Ford proposal by Con-
 gress expressed qualification at the position token by the Attorney Gen eral and some declared the chief ob-
 struction to their labors had been re-
 moved by the opinion.
 No action was taken by the com
 mittee After an hours study of the
 document in executive session, the
 members were summoned to the house by a quorum call and adjourn ed until tomorrow when, 1t was pre- dicted, the way would be cleared for
 early action.
 mHy Iuke Gturt ACttuH Officials of the nitrate corpora
 tion and the power company ap- bearing before the committee had
 made it plain that they expected the government to meet the obligations imposed by the contracts and an- nounced that, in the event the gov ernment failed to do so, court action would be instituted to compel com p'iance.
 Their testimony was accepted hy some committeeman as presenting a difficult problem, which they would have to solve before the Ford offer could be reported, unless 1t was mod flied so as to eliminate the nitrate plant. which he proposed to purchase and the Gorgas steam plant for which
 clear title was asked.
 Spokesmen for Mir. Ford de- clined repeatedly to assent to
 such modification. The power
 company and the nitrate corpora tion steadfastIy contended that
 the contracts were legal md re-
 fused to consent to any proposal to scil the two plants to other than their own interests. Thus the committeeman found themselves occupying middle ground with MT Ford's representa- lives insistent upon one hand that he be given the disputed properties
 and the witnesses for the two other companies firmly opposed Moreover. the chief or ordnance advised the committee that the contracts should be fulfilled and the moral obliga- ton of the war department removed in that way. while the acting judge advocate general of the army held the contracts were null and void and "unenforceable."
 Committee Deficiencies Meanwhile the committee delib-
 erated None of it's IT lawyer mem bers was able to find a way out of
 the difficult position 1t held which the full membership would accept Delay after delay resulted while ef- forts to draft a report which House
 members impatiently called for con l tinued.
 Chairman Kahn finally appealed to Attorney General Daugherty for an opinion on the legality of the con tracts and was informed that the chief law officers could not give an opinion to legislative officials of the
 government. He appealed to Secre- tary Weeks as head of the depart
 ment which negotiated the contracts
 to request an opinion from the At torney General.
 The request was made and fol-