The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-25
COOLIDGE MEASURES FORD

It is now reported that Mr. Coolidge has given assurance to MT. Ford that he will ask the senate in December to ratify the Ford offer for Muscle Shoals. It is understood, however, that MT. Ford has made some concessions as to clauses which have been exploited as insuperable obstacles to the offers progress. While Mr. Ford has declared that, though he favors Mr. Coolidge's candidacy, he will make no effort to get votes for him, yet the Detroiter's announcement carries some influence of itself.
 It is interesting to observe MT. Ford's policy with respect to political maneuver- ings Unlike his adversary, the power trust, he sought to play no politics, nor did he try to influence members of con- gress covertly and improperly to sup port his offer. The so-called Ford lobby in Washington had no sanction from MT. Ford. It was maintained by those who favored the Ford offer on it's merits, and there is no indication that MT. Ford ever said one word for or against it. He sim ply had no connection with it.
 In like manner, when the senate com mittee on the Ford offer, headed by the hostile and adroit Senator Norris, called upon MT. Ford to appear before it, he declined to do so, well knowing that it was not the august senatorial committee that he was refusing, but group of .poli- ticians who unfortunately occupied the strategic position. MT. Ford knew, just as everybody else knew, that the invi- tation was an unfriendly one with the purpose of grilling him on the witness stand, notain order to bring out facts hitelto obscure, but for the sake of dis crediting MT. Ford himself by those methods so we'll known to skilled but un- scrupulous cross-examiners.
 With the president, however, the man. ufacturer assumes an entirely different attitude. Whatever political capital Mir. Coolidge might seek to make out of the Muscle Shoals question, Mr. Ford was assured in advance that he would be met by the president in sincerity and not in poorly masked hostility. Undoubtedly, if he had believed that concessions would have been honestly considered, MT. Ford would have made then earlier in the game; but when he saw that the under lying purpose was really to wrest from him one by one his proper claims to seri- ous consideration, Mr. Ford naturally re- fused to negotiate.
 As for MT. Coolidge's purpose to urge acceptance of the Ford offer upon the senate in December, the question natur- ally arises why the president did not make that demand during the. session res ently closed. Perhaps Mr. Coolidge felt that his other suggestions had been treated in such cavalier manner that he could not afford to jeopardize the pro- ject by precipitating rejection by the senate. The president may feel that his prestige has, been heightened by his nomination, and that the next session will give more heed to his recommenda- tions, whether he is reelected by the people or not. Perhaps he felt that it would be politically more expedient to postpone the final wrestle on this ques- tion. Whatever the presidents reason, it should not be forgotten that the South ern opponents of the Ford offer like wise concluded that its passage was hope less at the recent session, and withdrew from further attempt to pass it.
 The South is duly gratified that there is this aditional reason for hoping that the offer will be accepted at the next ses- sion. The election will be over by that time, and it will be too late for the act to be coined into political mintage. As for promises, the public accepts them at such wide discount that their political market value is not great. Meanwhile, as the election draws near, the people of this section hope that the success of the Ford offer and the long-delayed de- velopment of North Alabama and sec tions of adjoining states will follow closely on it's heels.