The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-29
A POWER
 TO SKATER SHOALS PLAN
kstimated Company Has Spent S25O, ,OOO In Efforts
 To ThWart Ford
Continued From Page onc)

can Wield. It was that popular clamor which precluded the pos sibility of the secretary hurl- ing the Ford bid out of the window.
 There were concrete reasons for the belief tf the corporate allies the Alabama Power company, and all other companies with which 1t is associated, the aluminium interests formerly headed by Andrew w. Mel lon, Secretary of the Treasury, the Chilean nitrate and fertilizer trusts, and others-that Weeks would re- ject the Ford offer without their formal suggestion. They argued that in the first place, s5,000,000 was trivial sum in comparison with the s1Oo,O00,o0o which the govern ment had invested; in the second necessity conclude that the Ford amortization plan was simply a plan for the payment of interest at a rate cheaper than the government, itself, could borrow money; in the third place, that the secretary would not consider the construction of an additional dam at Muscle Shoals where already sc much money had been spent; in the fourth place, that the Secretary would realize that he could not deliver the Gorgas steam plant which Ford demanded because d the Alabama Power company, and in the fifth place. that the secretary would realize that the bid required 100-year lease on Muscle Shoals water power whereas the existin g law limited all lease periods to 30 years.
 Had To Fight In Open.
 But when Weeks announced that hi f tha tire affair, and put the proposition up to Congress, the allied conspira- tors found it necessary to initiate fight in the open. It was deter mined that the Alabama Power, by submitting a b!d in certain none tary respects superior to that of Ford should nominally bear the brunt CT the fight, whereas, all, contributing their portion to the propaganda would tax their treasuries.
 The bid of the Alabama Power company received weeks after the bid of Ford, was sent to Congress ontemporaneously with the sending of the Ford bid. In the House, the offers were referred to the commit tee on military affairs; in the senate to the commttee on agriculture.
 The Cffer of the Alabama Power company was in effect $5,000,000 for
 
 Corgas steam plant and transmission lines, the auxiliary steamplant at Sheffield. together with 50-year lease on Muscle Shoals water power, for which an additional rental would be paid. It left the government pos sessed of the nitrate plants. and its proposed lease was In accord with existing law. The fatal defect, how ever. was that the company sug-
 
 nitrate plants for fertilizer-al- though it offered to furnish power free of charge to any lessee which knight take over those plants for fertilizer production. Inasmuch as the fertilizer feature contained the appeal to the farmers of the country the proposition of the Alabama Power company was beaten from the beginning.
 The company very soon abandoned hope that it's offer would be ac- ccpted. and confined itself to a flu rious effort to prevent the adoption of the Ford offer
 Spent S25O.OOO Against Ford.
 It is estimated that the Alabama Power company and associates, in fighting the Ford offer, spent ap- proximately S250,000 Its lobby was headed, In the main, by officials of the company, Thomas w. Martin, president, and his large staff of le- gal assistants. One of it's special at torneys commissioned to defend the company's claim to the Gorgas steam plant was s. IT. Dent, Jr., of Montgomery. MT. Dent is regarded as an excellent lawyer. It was not only for his legal ability, however, that Mir Dent was employed. At ba chairman of the military committee of the House, be- fore which he was expected to ap- pear He had been an exceedingly popular chairman, He was held in the very highest regard not only by his democratic colleagues but by the republican members. Had he been of very small ability as a lawyer, he would still, nevertheless. have been the man for the company to retain.
 There is no question but that he influenced the committe both from a-legal and personal standpoint. 4 situation which might have from two angles an equal appeal to an indi- vidual mind would be resolved in favor of the angle sustained by MT. Dent when the individual mlnd was influenced by it's high regard for MT. Dent. It Is not known what the services of Mir. Dent cost the company. But it is known that the  dollar.
 Another attorney who rendered the company most effective service-and his service must have cost pretty penny-was James w. Goode of Iowa Mir. Goode was former member of Congress. When he re- signed just year previous to his employment by the Alabama Power company, he was chairman of the committee on appropriations, the noNvarfi1 COtnnitfen of Con- gress. It Is the committee which au- thorizes all appropriations for what ever purpose. MT Goode was very popular with his colleagues in Con gress. Furthermore as chairman of the committee on appropriations he had had opportunity to confer many favors on his associates and thus to wind himself into their heartstrnGs. He was an ideal man for the Ala hapaa Power company. He not only Rad ability. He had jury to which he could apeal with the certainty sympathetic hearing, Incidentally, it was the report In Washington that Mir. Goode was the author of a state ment issued by Representative Charles c. Kearns of Ohio, in which the offer of Ford was masterfully analysed, then criticised and ridi- culed Again, it was the understand Ing that MT. Goode's friendly per suasion was responsible for the re- pudiation of the Ford offer by Rep resentative L. J. Dickinson, also of Iowa, a prominent member of the farm bloc of Congress.
 Obstacle At GOrEas.
 It carly developed that the Cor gas involvement was the main ob- stacle the Ford advocStes had to sur mount in their fight before the mili- tary committee. While that contract