Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-04

at all. want to say that the dere-
LECTION Of duty has been IN another
department Of Our Government. want
/ to quote from that act:
The President of the United States
-" . is further authorized to construct,
maintain and operate, ct or on any
site or sites so designated, dams, locks,
improvements to navigation, power
houses and other plants and equipment
| or other means than waterpower AZ In
his judgment Is the best and cheapest,
necessary or convenient for the genera
ton Of electrical or other power and for
the production of nitrates or other prod
ucts needed for munitions OF war and
useful in the manufacture Of fertilizers
and other Useful products"
It will thus be seen that the Presi-
dent of the United States has fun au-
thority now under this law Of 1918 TO
manufacture fertilizer ut this place for
the benefit Of the farmers and to dis
pose Of the current under the act. He
is just not exercising that power, that
is all. Mr.. Coolidge would never exer-
| else that power and neither has Mr.
| Hoover exercised 1t. take 1t that
both President Coolidge and President
Hoover have not believed in Govern
ment operation Of this plant, and not
believing In 1t they have just not exer-
CIScQ ILlS DOWcES tklAb Vic pECSCIlb law
| gives to them. I quote this law for the
purpose of showing that the Congress
has not been derelict and II there has
been any dereliction 1t has been upon
| the part of the executive and not upon
the part of the legislative branch Of the
! Government.
/ But over and above all that, the pres
ent law provides: THE plant or plants
provided for under this act shall be
constructed and operated solely by the
Government and not in conjunction
with any other industry or enterprise
| carried on by private capital"
| Since the plant was completed in
| 1925 the Government has allowed the
Alabama Power Co. to take so much
| Of the current generated and which was
/ only q small portion of It, as 1t desired,
paying the Government about one-f1fth
of cent per kilowatt for 1t. In thus
| turning this power over to the Alabama
Power Co. for operation 1t seems to me
that the Executive has violated the
! plain terms of the law. 1t has not been
operated by the Government at all, but
has been operated in conjunction with
the alabama Power Co. So II any
blame attaches, it attaches to the Ex-
ecutive and not to the Congress.
| Before talking about the various bills
that have been introduced for the oper-
alton of this dam, want to tell what
is there.
Cost Of the Dam and the Steam Plants.
The Government now owns dam No.
2 and the steam plants at Muscle
Shoals. These with various other i'm
provements have cost the Government
up to this date about the sum OF $14O.-
900 900 and will probably cost much
more when completed. OF course all
this was not spent on the building OF
the dam. Nitrate plant No. alone
cost 100000 and the other plants
and improvements cost about $25, 0OO,-
900, while the dam itself and the steam
plant cost about $50,000,000 in round
numbers. The Government has large
amount Of property there. We bought
SUFFICIENT land and built town at
nitrate plant No. /, and another town
at nitrate plant No. 2. We constructed
road track on the property. We have
IS locomotive engines. There are q
large number of other kinds Of cars and
railroad equipment. At nitrate plant
No. l we have 112 permanent houses.
At nitrate plant No. Q we have 1856
permanent residences. The houses at
the nitrate plants are fully equipped
with every modern convenience. They
have electric light, heating plants, run
/
way modern. There Is also large water
filtration plant. The towns are about
miles apart and are both capable Of
almost indefinite expansion. There are
some five hundred other temporary
houses. Altogether there are 80 miles
Of macadamized roads on this property.
There are % miles Of sewers, 23 miles
Of water mains and 50 miles Of electric
light facilities. There is Q furnished
hotel of 100 rooms at nitrate plant No. q
We own 1900 acres Of land on which
these plants are built. It is said that
there Is over $4,000 900 worth Of per-
Sonal property on the plants, though
of course this must have sadly deterio-
rated in this time.
The primary horsepower amounts to
about 100000 and about 100000 Of
secondary power for six months in the
year. At times we have l 200 900 horse
power. We have q steam power plant
at nitrate plant No. 2 capable Of pro-
ducing 100, 900 horsepower. All of the
units have not yet been installed, only
10000 horsepower being now installed.
So 1t is seen that with the steam plant
used in connection with the water plant
at dam No. there can be generated
now all the year around considerably
In any consideration OF Muscle Shoals
the dam and the nitrate plants should
be considered separately. the dam hav-
ing cost about 10000, 600 and Is q
wonderful property, probably worth
several times that sum, while the nj
trate plants and other property. having
cost SOC, 100000, may be worth little
or nothing Therefore, these figures and
these facts should be kept in mind.
The Cyanamld Plants.
It is claimed that both nitrate plants
No. / and No. are out Of date and the
processes are out Of date and that
neither nitrates for explosives or war
purposes or nitrates for fertilizer pur-
poses can be successfully manufactured
in these plants. It IL believed that the
synthetic method Of producing nitrateS
Is much cheaper and takes vastly less
electric power. I am inclined to think
that this Is 80 and that the larger part
2 Is that much money gone, and it
amounts to the larger part Of the cost
Of Muscle Shoals, some 500, 5000 It
must Just be considered war loss. On
| the other hand, the dam itself and the
steam plants, Of course, are far more
valuable than the cost. They are prob
!, ably worth 200,000,000. Electric cur
rent can be generated at these plants
ut cost of less than two mills. or one
NTH Of a cent, and If this plant alone
had been properly handled since it has
been completed by the Government, as
the present law required, it would have
probably gone long way toward paying
for itself by this time.
Instead Of that, 1t has been used by
the Government merely as an adjunct
of the Alabama Power Co. business. In
other words, the Alabama Power Co.
Is the only company that has had a
Transmission line into the plant and
whatever power it needs it gets from
the Government under q 30-day con-
tract, believe at about two mills per
kilowatt, or one-fifth Of a cent. OF
course, it takes only a very small Dor