The Washington times., 1924-12-12
CAPACI Y
Of PLANT
SMALL
Maximum Only one-flfth Of
country's Needs Saving
Almost Nothing
BY WILLIAM HARD.

BY WILLIAM HARD.
The Muscle Shoals nitrogen ball
loon which was going to lift the
farmer off-hand into q happy lofty
realm Of almost costless fertilizers
has been suddenly and cruelty de-
Hated BY the debates in Congress.
These debates have proved that
80 far as nitrogen is concerned
at Muscle Shoals, we have to back
up and make fresh start.
The basic facts which prove it
are simple and they Indicate that
the long political process Of mes
InerizlHg the farmer and throwing
him into q trance and levitatinR
him of the ground into the sky
by simply repeating to him the
magic words, Muscle Shoals"
viii presently have to come to q
halt.
Capacity ID Small.
How much nitrogen does the
farmer IN America use in his
Fertilizers each year?
Inquiry shows that he il now
using about 10000 tons Of 1t.
And how many tons of it could
our riitrogA fi.fixation plant at
Muscle Shoals produce In q year?
How. many tons was Henry Ford
himself. with all his genius, going
TO produce?
The answer. ~ STATED in the last
Article. ID 10000.
Forty thousand il one.fifth OF
200 900. It Is twenty per cent OF it.
All that our present nitrogen
1ixAtion plant at Muscle Shoals
could possibly do would be to in.
crease the annual nitrogen supply,
now produced In this country or
OOfning into this country, by twenty
Per cent.
No Effect On Price.
Moreover, it would not reduce the
price. If the dam at Muscle
Shoals were six times longer and
eight times higher and IL the
electric power from it came to be
90 Inexpensive as to be reckoned
70 zero in cost, why, even then, the
nitrogen from our present plant ut
Muscle Shoals would not reduce the
price Of nitrogen or 81 fertilizers III
the market.
senator Norris Of Nebraska puts
&c forcibly BY saying:
IF you had forty million horse
power at Muscle Shoals, you could
not produce with Through our
present existing cyanimide process
ANY fertilizer that would be
cheaper than the present com
merciaI product"
Senator Norris, of course, might
be thought to be in q way preju-
diced; because he wants to use
Muscle Shoals largely for electric
power to be sold away from Muscle
Shoals to communities in the Muscle
Shoals district.
Backed BY Harrison.
Senator Harrison of Mississippi;
however, cannot fall under this
suspicion. He Is one of our great
est fertilizer enthusiasts. With him
the word fertilizer is a rapturous
word. He Is for fertilizers through
and through, day and night.
He agrees, nevertheless, with
Senator Norris on the proposition
that no amount Of power at Muscle
Shoals and no amount of use of
our present nitrogen-fixation plant
at Muscle Shoals can give US any
fertilizer cheaper than the present
commercial product.
Moreover, again, when one leaves
dreams and desoends to realities,
It becomes speedily apparent that
there is no known characterization
process which we could introduce
into our plant at Muscle Shoals
with any certainty Whatsoever Of
being able to do any such thing as
Is talked about WREN we all glibly
say that Muscle Shoals will cut
the price of fertilizers in two"
Transport Cost High.
It is to be remembered, in the
first place, that nitrogen is only one
OF the three chief Ingredients VI
fertilizers.
It ID to be remembered. In the
second place, that fertilizers, besides
those three. chief ingredients, carry
q lot Of SlNr which is heavy, and
which hsee 20 be transported at
large COZ and which ads greatly
20 the price q fertilizers: and
It is to be remembered that no
cheapening OF nitrogen can dirnin.
ish the expensiveness Of this filler.
Finally, It is to be noted that
learned chemists and adventurous
capitalists have been working FOR
years at the problem of low-cost
nitrogen and that the various pro.
cesses for arriving at low-cost nitro.
zen are under constant study, and
that there is no reason Whatsoever
10 believe that some suddenly su.
Dlmely cheap process will be, con.
Jured into being by the simple
method Of merely turning on the
power at Muscle Shoals.
Amonia-which is the form in
which nitrogen is largely developed
lis being produced now at Nj.
agara Falls at a cost OF lens than
cents pound.
Little Gain Seen.
The utmost that is hoped even bv
the most ambitious prophets AZ
Muscle Shoals is that there 4 pound
or ammonia may be produced at a
cost of cents.
That is . drop Of very much lAaa
indeed than one-half, and Il affNota
only one ingredient in the probIene.
A candid consideration 81 fh~a~