The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-07
NEED FOR FERTILIZER
 STRESSED INV DEBATE
 OVER SHOALS AWARD
Mckenzie Bill Warmly Indorsed By Congress. men In Face Of Efforts By Other Side
 In Behalf Of Power Bid @
make something more they can get more

make sohething more they can get nor, out of. . Looks into Future sToday we are contracting for oul children and our children's children We are building for 100 years not to day. In fifty years from now thoss southern states will support popula tion of millions.
 "In that day where are the people of that region to look for their power; In 50 years our stock of coal will al most be exhausted. We are thoughtless ly throwing away oil. The one place where God has set down in your midst one of the greatest places for produc ing power is at Muscle Shoals. The pow CT will then be in the control not oi Henry Ford, but of the corporation that will come after him.
 q defy any lawyer to point out ir this contract where there is given the right of the United States to regulate the power in 100 years. In time of wal Ford will turn back the plant or its equivalent" the Illinois representative asserted.
 Arguing against acceptance of the manufacturers offer, Representative Wood, republican, Indiana, declared he did not believe the farmers realized what Mir. Ford would get if given the shoals properties.
 "The present economic condition oi the farmer" Mir. Wood declared, ap. parently has caused him to believe that his only salvation depends upon the es- tablishment of this plant"
 MT. Wood declared he had great nd miration for MT. Ford but it was duty to protect the people he represented.
 In contrast with yesterdays slim at tendance about half the membership of the House was on the floor as the first showdown in voting approached. In the closing hours of debate, Chairman Mad den, Representatives Quinn, Mississippi, and Garrett, Texas, democrats, on the military committee, and Representative Boylan, democrat, New York, urged acceptance of the Ford bid, while Rep resentatives, Frothingham, Wood, Gra- ham, Pennsylvania Graham, Illinois, and LaGuaria, New York, spoke in op- position.
 Representative Garrett, democrat, Texas, opend the discussion, when the session convened at noon, with a warm endorsement of the Mckenzie bill pro viding for acceptance of the manufac- turer's proposal.
 "The manufacture of nitrate and fer tilizer," he said, "are of primary con- sideration in the development of Muscle Shoals, and not waterpower."
 The need of all states for fertilizer was reviewed by MT. Garrett who de- clared that this feature of the Shoals project was vital to all sections.
 Representative Hull, Republican, Iowa, interrupted to ask if Mir. Garrett had read the Union Carbides company's offer to manufacture fertilizer at five per cent and pointed out that Ford wants eight per cent.
 q want to tell the gentleman from Iowa." Mr.. Garrett replied, "that when the secretary of war advertised the sale oe Muscle Shoals, Henry Ford was the only man to come forward"
 Mir. Hull, replying to a remark by Mir. Garrett, said he was not urging the southern power companys' bid, and had introduced a bill authorizing ac- ccptance of the company's offer so that the public might become familiar with the proposal.
 "In the last Congress the Alabama Power company never raised its hand against the Ford offer, excepting re- garding the purchase of the Gorgas steam plant" Mir. Garrett declared.
 Pictures Ford As "IndustriaI King
 Following Mir. Garrett, Representa- tive Laguardi, republican, New York, attacked Mir. Ford and declared that ii given Muscle Shoals. MT. Ford would become the industrial king" of the nation. -.
 "Should the Detroit man be given control of the nitrate plant" he said, ''the government would not know in what condition they might be if war should develop, adding that giving Muscle Shoals to Mir. Ford would make Teapot Dome look like petty larceny"
 Asked if he would not rather have MT. Ford receive control of the prop critics than foreigners. Mir. Laguradi replied he favored government owner ship in that case.
 Giving Muscle Shoals to Mir. Ford would be tearing down the American flag and putting the dollar sign in its place." he said.
 Representative Boylan, democrat. New York, then asked if Mir. Laguardia would "tear down the American flag and raise the British ensign"
 What he termed failure of the meas ure to provide for manufacture of fertilizer was denounced by Represen- tative Buckingham, republican, Mas sachusetts.
 Wants Fertilizer Clause
 If this company could be forced to manufacture fertilizer" he declared, "there might be some excuse for ap- proving this bill. But there is not a word in the measure calling for such action. The great need of the farmers today is for cheap fertilizer and this certainly should be the only reason for selling out such an enormous plant as this"
 Mir. Frothingham also assailed the terms of the proposed sale and lease, declaring the government was dispos- ing of one of its greatest manufactur- ing plants "on nominal terms for not even four per cent interest"
 Chairman Madden, of the appropria- tions committee, recalled that the gov ernment had sold- two other wartime plants costing $145,000,OO0 for $12,- 100000.
 Representative Quinn. democrat, Mis- sissippi, ranking member of his party on the House agriculture committee, in urging acceptance of the Ford offer for Muscle Shoals, referred to the national defense act, which he said, provided for erection of such a plant to produce fertilizer for @the farmers in time of peace and manufacture ex- plosives in time of war.
 Muscle Shoals was picked as the proper place to, erect the plant in 1917," he said, land it was then a wilderness that had to be cleared away.
 "A young citytwas put up." he de- clared. ''and after the armistice was signed in 1918. men who opposed Sec