The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-03
aSPOILS' ISSUE IN SHOALS FIGHT, SAYS FORD PAPER
Claims Two Systems Of Business Collide
 Head-On

DETROIT, Mich, June 2.-The Muscle Shoals controversy means more than water power and fertilizer, more than the opening of the south's new era it means that two systems of busi- ness are colliding head on! says the current issue of The Dearborn In dependent published by Henry Ford. The contest is Production versus Pro fits. Service and Spells confront each other, the article continues.
 If nothing else comes of this contro- versy, this at least has been achieved the system of exploitation has been drawn out from its cover into public view. All its American and foreign tentacles have been disclosed. Its pressure methods have been studied Tn all sections of the country and in all lines of business. For the first time in our economic history the interests which commonly sharpen their teeth on each other have ceased their private fights and have joined in single pack for combined terrific assault on one lone offer for Muscle Shoals. Never before has such concentrated opposition been piled up against single object
 
 want Muscl Shoals SO badly? No. When the war stopped and the government found unfinishde Muscle Shoals on its hands, the government sent out men and messages to these very interests asking bids for the completion and op- eration of the works. One after an- other all possible users of Muscle Shoals were approached. And with one accord they declared that Muscle Shoals wasn't worth nickel, that as for themselves they would never invest penny in it.
 Interests Join Forces
 Whether this was a concerted move ment to destroy any idea that Muscle Shoals had value, is not for us to say. Whether it's purpose was to enable some member of the trust to get it for nothing, is not here alleged. But the fact is that the interests when ap- preached joined with one voice i'll de- preciating the value of this government property.
 By some chance, and last of all, Henry Ford was proposed as a possible user, and the government requested him to examine the proposition. In re- sponse, he made the first and >Only businesslike offer the government has received, an offer backed by millions of his own funds, an offer involving the completion of the great works to high productive capacity, an offer involving a limited income fixed by law, and, last of all, an offer involving the re- turn of the entire developed property to the government at the expiration of the contract period, or at any time 1t might be needed for war purposes.
 What this meant, although it cannot all be stated in the cold language of contracts, is that a demonstration was to be made of how cheaply power could be produced for employment and pro- ductive purposes. The ratio developed by the Ford Motor company is one workman per horsepower-a job for every unit of power developed. If million horsepower is developed at the Shoals, it means a million jobs. It meant also the liberation of the farmer from the present heavy burdens of the fertilizer trust. More than that, it meant a great source of munitions. a military resource American controlled and of the first importance. ,
 Many Newspapers Change"
 This is the proposition which the concentrated forces of the exploiting in- terests are opposing. This is the of- fer which many newspapers and maga- zines are now attacking after having indorsed it. The pressure came late upon the newspapers; apparently it was applied in other quarters first; but within three months there have been concerted and wholesale assertions of thir former position by the press.
 Why? Is there better or more promising offer in sight? No. With the Ford offer refused, there will never be any other offer heard of. Why, then? Is the personal opposition to Mir. Henry Ford? As to that strangely enough, the real opposition is not against Mir. Ford personally. It is against his system of service in busi- ness. If he were less likely to make Muscle Shoals demonstration of how cheaply the necessaries of life could be made there would be less opposition to his offer The great fear is that he will actually accomplish what his of fer proposes!
 If Henry Ford had agreed to do business along the old lines. charging the power-users all the traffic would bear, charging farmers all they could pay, squeezing out every cent of per sonal profits that could be had-if he had agreed to do business along the lines his opponents follow, boosting prices and profits, Muscle Shoals would have been handed to him long ago, with the blessing of every explOiter in the land. But the power trust knew that he would demonstrate that power costs little to produce and less to transmit The fertilizer trust knew that he would demonstrate what a wholesale system of robbery has been practiced against the American farmer. In fact, the Ford system of doing business would be the Judgment Day for the Old Sys tenn, and the Old System has gathered itself in bristling alliance to save its life.
 Is Head-On Collision
 This is the meaning of the opposi ton. Two opposed systems are col Hiding head on.
 What temporarily becomes of Mus cle Shoals may be q secondary matter But, the Ford offer has already done this for the nation: It has given mil lions of dollars of value to a property that the interests said wasn't worth a nickel" It has given the System of Selfishness in business it's death warn, ing. That system knows it too. Nc other meaning can be attached to this unparalleled concentration of hostility to the only offer which the government has thought it worth while to consider EXPRESS COMPANY