The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-21
Forum Of The People
Suggested Muscle Shoals Safeguards

To the Editor of The Herald:
 As a former engineer officer of the army with twelve years experience in letting i'm portant government contracts-as citizen of Alabama-as a business man at the head of an Alabama corporation which has achieved a. modest degree of success-but as one not directly or indirectly interested, per sonally, in the Muscle Shoals question ex- cept in his capacity a citizen of this state, I have made careful study of the majority and minority reports of the committee on military affairs of the house of representa- tives in reference to acceptance of Mir. Henry Fords offer
 I can see no objection to Mr. Ford, or any other responsible party, taking this plant and putting it into operation under proper terms. My past experience as, a contracting officer on behalf of the United States, my more re- cent experience in connection with large con tracts in the building trades compels me to agree with the minority report in reference to the acceptance of Mir. Ford's offer. The offer, itself, if written word for word into a con tract with the United States without supple mental provisions would be very loose doc ument No head of an executive department ill Washington would approve such a con tract if submitted to him by one of his sub ordnates He would certainly consider that the subordinate had failed to protect the interests of the government and would cer- tainly consider himself derelict in his duty if he approved it. There are many obviously possible contingencies which are covered only by inference, if at all, and many others which are not even remotely covered. The offer is quite specific as to what the United States must do, but it leaves Mir. Ford with an almost entirely free hand.
 If the offer is accepted in accordance with the report of the majority, and if everything goes well, the question may never be reopened. Should the public, however, be disappointed xr-1fh tln I- A1r- fC hN fax.- years from now, a storm of criticism and scandal beside which the Teapot Dome ques- tion will be a small affair. The Tennessee river will continue to flow long after all of the oil has been exhausted from all of the oil fields in the country, and after Teapot Dome shall have faded from the public memory.
 Section twenty-three of the proposed bill was presumably written with an idea of making Mir. Ford and his estate continuously liable during the entire period of the lease, for the performance of all of the undertak- - ings set forth in his offer It is almost cer- tain that the wording of section twenty-three fails to accomplish this object, and it is doubtful whether it is expedient to do so.
 MT. Ford undertakes to form corporation with ten million dollars paid in cash-he undertakes to see that this corporation un- dertakes to carry out the promises contained in his offer. If some years from now it should appear that this corporation is fail ing to do all the things promised and im- piled in the offer, it is highly probable, all most certain, that the courts would decide that having formed the corporation and started 1t in business in accordance with the terms of the offer, Mir. Ford and his estate are released from further liability. It no where appears in the record that Mir. Ford has agreed to sign up with this section twen- ty-three in the law anyway. This section reads as follows:
 All of the contracts leases, deeds, trans fprS, and conveyanceS necessary to effectuate the acceptance of said offer shall be binding upon the United States and jointly and Severally on Henry Ford, his heirs, repre- sentatives and assigns, and the company to be incorporated by him, its successors and assigns
 It is no part of his final and revised offer. Would he accept it if the following were added to section twenty-three
 "The continued solvency of the company and the continuous performance of it's ob- ligation to manufacture fertilizer equivalent to forty thousand tons of fixed nitrogen an nualIy during the term of the lease, as pro vided in section fourteen of this blf- shall be guaranteed for the full term of the lease by Henry Ford and jointly and severally by his heirs. executors and assigns"
 It iS very doubtful whether Mir. Ford would accept this liability. He would be very unwisc if he did. It would be manifestly unjust to him and to his estate to ask him to do il. Yet it expresses in plain words what the public believes he will take upon himself if the offer is accepted.
 Suppose, seems probable, the manufac- lure of fertilizer at Nitrate Plant No. 2I turns out to be expensive that it cannot De sold at the present market price without serious loss. Will the company continue to forty thousand tons per year and sell it at loss? If so, how long will he company remain solvent? If it does not sell it. will it continue to manufacture forty housand tons per year and pile it mp; If { should do this what will be done with the ertilzrr and what good would it do any ,od!:
 Suppose Mir. Ford were to sign mp with ection twenty three with some addition as lcrcin suggested. Suppose he should later m decide to dispose of much of his estate by lift Suppose the people among whom he distributes should sell the assets trans |