Evening star., 1923-03-25

the apprehensions about things that
personally throw his energy and his
resources into the situation. consume
good deal of the politicians
thought.
x 4 !; x
In addition to the familiar reasons
for interest in Ford, his making Of a
useful and familiar article at an as
tonfshingly low price, his reputation
for paying higher wages to his work
ers than do his competitors. his ex-
perience as the successful operator of
a railroad which no one else could
make profitable (although railroad
men knew he was able to do this by
concentrating his own traffic on his
own road), and his occasional pungent
utterances about various public mat
ters, a recent reason figuring in the
popular mind as the feeling that he
IS being made a martyr of in the mat
ter Of Muscle Shoals. This is not the
place for any sufficient statement of
facts to show whether Congress and
the government have done wisely or
unwisely in refusing to. SO far. let
Ford have Muscle Shoals.
The writer has seen a curious story
about this episode of Ford and Muscle
Shoals. 1t is to the effect that the Of
fer which Ford made to the govern
ment Is really a better offer than he
ought to have made. and that from
tho purely business point OF view he
would now be relieved rather than
refused to him permanently. The
story Is that Ford's interest In Mus
! Gle Shoals did not arise within him.
self at all. but that 1t was brought
| to his attention by some of the Army
| officers who are now in charge of the
plant and who wanted to see it de-
veloped in the best way by private in
terests. The matter being brought to
Ford's attention, he made an offer for
| it which subsequent examination
showed to be rather less to his advan.
tage than was at first realized.
Undoubtedly Ford could make fer
| tiliser at Muscle Shoals and sell il
rather more advantageously than
+, anybody else. for the reason that hs
| already has in existence the agencies
| for the distribution OF fertilizer. Fore
| has literally thousands of agents
| throughout the country and probably
tens of thousands Of men selling his
! present products to the farmers. He
could add fertilizer to these products
\ practically without any addition tc
| his overhead costs.
x * x *
One of the men frequently men.
toned as likely to be added to the
| list of democratic presidential posi-
| bilities or. in another alternative
| likely to figure as dark horse In
convention deadlock lis the newly
| elected senator from Indiana, Samuel
Ralston. Ralston's equipment is
based. in the talk of his advocates
on the excellent record he made when
! he was governor Of Indiana; his i'm
mediate availability is based on his
proved capacity TO carry one of the
| important doubtful states. An OBJ
lection which thoughtful persons will
raise to RaIston is his age He was
born December /, 1857. On December
| 1 Of this year he will be sixty-si1
years old. II he should be elected he
would be within eight months OF
| sixty eight on the day Of his inaug-
! uration and approaching seventy
two when he should come to the end
of his term. Persons who r. llize the
| immensely increased burde-88f work
on the President, a burden which
Congress increases every day ir
every way" have come to attach
weight to sheer physical fitness as
i one of the equipments for the presi-
| y : !; K
One Of the conditions which makes
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