Evening star., 1923-12-20
ord BOOM SEEN
AS SHOALS PLOT
uto King Merely Wanted to
: Show Congress His Po-
IiticaI Strength.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Henry Ford probably will win that
fIr which he has yearned far more
;-tpn the presidency, namely. Muscle
Goals
fsfFhe inside story of the events lead
sSg up to Mr.. Ford's latest pro-
npuncement in favor of President
tpolidge indicates that the automo-
bile king at no time took seriously
tle efforts of his friends to get for
Sim a political nomination. but that
=. took no steps to repress them
=noner because he saw an advantage
= exhibiting to Congress the politi-
ca! strength he could command.
s5When one of the managers of the
iCAdoo boom in South Dakota re-
a-arked that he was for McAdoo for
resident and Ford for Muscle
Shoals. he gave expression to some
thing that only lately has been i'm
dressed on political Washington. For
ar. Ford it will be recalled. has felt
for several months that he did not
E"t a square deal on his Muscle
shoals proposition and that he could
rive the farmers of the country
%neaper fertilizer if the goNernment
would really cooperate with him.
President Wade Move.
The first sign of true cooperation
came from President Coolidge him
E1lf. The President told the coun-
Try in his first message TO Congress
tsrat he believed Muscle Shoals should
be privately operated if satisfactory
arrangements could be made to guar
Entee that certain experiments would
= carried out and fertilizer furnish
ii at low rates. Mr.. Ford came To
tae White House after the message
mad been prepared, but before il was
made public. No changes were made
N the message, but Mr.. Ford was told
"f certain plans for the execution of
tue suggestions made in the message.
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace
had been drafting certain bills for
introduction in Congress. which it
was hoped would meet Mr.. Ford
i1ore than half way. The Detroit
~nufacturer did not comment on the
suggested amendments to his offer,
but he left the White House in a
genial mood. He had at last been as
>ured of fair consideration of his Of
Ter.
Up to that time. there had been some
r ason to believe that political fear
If Mr.. F'ord's ambitions had had as
,nuch to do with halting the Muscle
hoals proposition as anything else.
AIR. Ford went back to Detroit and
with single statement eliminated
himself from the presidential contest
;'ud at the same time gave the Cool
.1Se campaign its most significant
Hoost thus far. The President has
a
Ford has been looked upon as par
'.cularly strong with the farmers of
JIe country and the radicals. Yet he
tinds Mr.. Coolidge worthy of support.
Mr.. Ford also opposes the bonus and
lSvors the Mellon tax plan.
Democrats Favor Ford.
Speaking Of Muscle Shoals, il is in
teresting to point out in this connec-
tiou that the democrats have been
ming up in favor Of giving it to Mr..
Ford on proper terms. Bernard NJ.
Haruch. one of the leading hackers
"f the McAdoo candidacy, and himself
one OF the leading Jew of America,
swept aside conSideratio ion of the anti
Jewish campaign conducted by Mr
r'urdS associates and announced that
;:ftcr a careful study of the subject
ny engineers he had specially en-
rl"yed. the government should accept
Mr. Ford's offer.
Had President Harding lived he
would have had Mr.. Ford's support
Tor denomination and reelection. He
wrote Mr.. Harding letter promising
support, though it was never made
public. Mr. Ford gave then virtually
tho same reasons he is giving now for
supporting Mr.. Coolidge He doesn't
want tn see the country disturbed by
presidential contest. His motto. in
effect which may become that of the
republican candidate, is Let we'll
enough alone