The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-14
VIE DECEIVED COOLIDGE IN SALE
 GORGAS, CHARGED
Congressman Oliver Gives New Light On Deal, h.
 cluding Exposures
(Continued From Page one)

Congress seemed to unite in rec ognizIng that Congress alone had the right to dispose of this property The Attorney General, in a written opinion to the Secretary of War, held that the contract between the government and the Alabama Power company in reference to the Gorgas plant and transmission line created no valid obligation on the part of the government to sell this prop erty to the Alabama Power company. Strong For Ford offer.
 The supporters of the Ford offer in the last Congress were not con- fined to any section or to any party, and had Congress been given an op- portunity to vote on the offer,
 think the offer would have been accepted by a safe majority; in fact it was this belief that doubtless kept ''the few" clothed with too much au-
 thority under the rules of the last
 House, from allowing the offer to
 be voted on.
 Since the adjournment of the last
 Congress the Ford offer has con tinued to be & matter of large pub lie interest and 1t was generally understood that 1t would be among the first matters taken up by the next Congress, not in a partisan way, but as an outstanding national ques- ton, commanding strong support from the leaders of both parties. Now we find that, almost on the
 eve of the assembling of the new Congress, the public, MT. Ford and
 members of Congress have just learned for the first time of certain action taken by the Alabama Power company soon after the adjournment of Congress in March, last, to-wit: That on April 4, 1923, the Alabama Power company served notice on an official of the war department demanding that the government re- move the Gorgas plant and transmits l sion line from the land of the power company within six months from that | date unless the government sold the property to the power company with | in three months from the said date 1 the power company claiming that II l had the right to give this notice un- | der & provision of the original con- tract entered into with the govern I ment for the construction of this 1 plant and transmission line, in which 1 contract 1t was stipulated that this notice could be given if the govern ment, after 24 months, failed to take 1 current from the Alabama Power 1 company over the government trans
 
 | plant with the Muscle Shoals prop l critics of the government. As evil dence that this condition had been broken, the power company cited a notice given by the Secretary oi ! War In 1919 discontinuing the talk ing of current after June 30, 1913 and the Power company claimed that this default to take current contin- ued for two years next following
 
 facts hereinafter recited may be un- derstood, it is important to bear in mind that the provision of the con- tract authorizing the notice to be
 gwen by the power company is predi-
 cated on the failure of the govern ment to take any energy from the Warrior extension" etc.).
 The date fixed for the removal of the government property, if not sold to the power company, as stipulated | in the April notice, seems to have l been extended to September 24, 1923 on which date the Secretary of War | sold the property to Alabama Power company. pursuant to an evident un- derstanding, since all papers neces- sary to the transaction had been pre- pared prior thereto.
 The only facts which the Attorney General, MT. Ford, the public, anc the President, 1t is believed, mad knowledge of in reference to this transaction, prior to the sale of the property on September A, 1923. were | those now found to be set out with l in the four corners of three papers l all bearing date since the adjourn ment of the late Congress, namely ! the notice of the Alabama Power | company dated April 4, 1923, the let | ter from Secretary Weeks to the At | torney General dated July 21, 1923. n4 Nan ] eral dated August 24, 1923, given ir response to Secretary Weeks letter | and predicated alone on the facts set out In the letter.
 Weeks Requests Opinion.
 The power company in It's Apri notice, bases its right to give such notice on the governments default to take current and which default it I Is claimed was complete on July l 1921. The letter from Secretary Weeks to the Attorney General, dated July 21 1922, not only acquiesces in but affirms the existence of the de | fault as set out in the power com pany's notice, and further assumes | that the Secretary of War had no au thority to sell the Gorgas steam plant and transmission line without further authorization by Congress. and or these assumptions the Secretary o War merely requests of the Attorney 1 General an opinion (quoting the las 1 paragraph of his letter) on the fol' | lowing question:
 | "In view of the notice given, I re- quest your opinion whether, the gov ernment having no title to the lan( upon which either the transmission line of the Warrior extension or tho Warrior substation are built. and the option provisions of the contract be- ing invalid as stated in the former opinion, in event the United States | should not determine to sell the prop erty to the Alabama Power com pany under the general authority | vested in the Secretary of War within
 the time fixed by the notice, as ex
 United States to comply with the pro visions of the contract with refer ence to removal"
 The part of the Attorney General. opinion answering the question above l quoted from the Secretary of Var letter Is in the following terse anc significant language, to-wit:
 | "If therefore you look to the con- tract alone your question must be answered in the affirmative"
 Could have Condemned Land.
 1 Immediately following the above | strikingly succinct and unique reply
 to the secretarys question, the At
 torney General goes out of his wa,
 to add concluding paragraph in his
 opinion. in which he states that he
 deems it proper to say that this con
 tract (referring to the governments original contract with the Alabams
 Power company does not control the
 relations of the United States to the Alabama Power company and the
 properties with which the contract
 deals, and he then calls MT. Weeks
 attention to the fact that as Secretary
 of War he Is fully authorized by al
 act of April IS. 1918, amendatory oi
 an earlier act, to condemn the prop