Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10
MUSCLE SHOALS In PROCESS
OF SOLVING OWN PROBLEMS
Elimination of Nitrate and Fertilizer Features Nav
Smooth Way for Congress to Consider
Project From Power Angle Alone.

Muscle Shoals, which has vexet
Congress ever since the war ended i:
in process of solving itself. Inability
| to harmoniZe the three divergent ele
ments-power, powder and fertilizer
has been the stumbling block. Science
and the progress of industry is in tbs
way of removing this obstacle. The
| fact is that for the commercial pro
duction of nitrates the Muscle Shoals
p. oject is fast reaching obsolescenca
and with nitrate eliminated, powder
and fertilizer fade from the picture
and power alone remains. Fertilizer
for farmers from Muscle Shoals be
comes an idle dream. 1t is as a nam
moth power project and nothing else
that Congress will soon be required tt
deal with.
Science and industry have perfected
| new processes for the extraction OF
nitrogen from the air-processes far
simpler and cheaper than the process
which the Muscle Shoals nitrate plan;
was created to employ. Contrary to
general impression, coal and coke, not
hydroelectric power, are the most i'm
portant factors in nitrate "fixation'
today. Because of this fact, talk of
the conversion of the Muscles Shoals
nitrate plant to the employment of
new processes is entirely beside the
mark.
The Allied Chemical and Dye Cor.
poration Of New York recently an.
nounced it's plans to spend 500, 000,0 900
in the erection of a gigantic plant at
Hopewell, Va, for the production of
nitrateS for fertilizer extracted from
the air by the synthetic process. This
is but the forerunner of other like pri.
vate undertakings to compete with
Chilean nitrates in the fertilizer mar.
ket and to furnish nitrates for explO.
siyeS in time of war. The War De.
partment comedies that Muscle Shoals
will soon cease to figure as a factor
in national defense.
The Hopewell plant will employ
fuel, not water power, to obtain its
nitrates for fertilizer. This testifies
more eloquently than all the flood of
words appearing in technical and trade
journals to the proven practicability
OF the synthetic process for nitrate
fixation. 1t spells the doom of the
more complicated and expensive proc
esses which required vast quantities
Of electric power for their operation.
The more Congress talked about the
several bids for a 50-year lease of
Muscle Shoals the more it became APP
parent that the fertilizer features of
all the proposals were largely Cam0u-
flage, designed to mask the bidders
real objective-control of the power
Fertilizer for the farmers was a popu-
lar chord in Congress, and the bidders
played on this chord for all it was
worth, but without the slightest real
expectation that fertilizer could be
produced there at a price which the
farmers could afford to pay unless the
Government in one way or another
subsidized it. Indeed, every fertilizer
proposal stipulated for some form OF
subsidy.
These bids, like the water which
flowed over the Wilson Dam while
Congress talked, are now gone for
ever. When Congress tackles the
problem of Muscle Shoals at the next
session it must decide first whether to
lease or sell the property as it stands
or to engage in Government operation
and sell the power. There win be a
big battle on this issue. which is iden-
teal with the issue In the Boulder
Dam project--whether Boulder Dam
shall be operated by private business
or by Uncle Sam.
Whichever course Congress follows
1t Is confronted with the further vital