• U.S.

MUSCLE SHOALS: Spotlight Again

5 minute read
TIME

The first order of business in the reconvened Senate was the settlement of the perdurable question: “What shall we do with Muscle Shoals?”

Of the suggested answers, one of the most prominent—'”Sell it to Henry Ford”—was largely out of the question because Henry Ford withdrew his bid for the plant last October.

There remained a substitute answer: “Let the Government run it,” offered by Senator Norris of Nebraska.

In his message to Congress, President Coolidge called attention to the question thus: “The production of nitrogen for plant food in peace and explosives in war is more and more important. It is one of the chief sustaining elements of life. It is estimated that soil exhaustion each year is represented by about 9,000,000 tons and replenishment by 5,450,000 tons. The deficit of 3,550,000 tons is reported to represent the impairment of 118,000,000 acres of farm lands each year.

“To meet these necessities, the Government has been developing a water-power project at Muscle Shoals to be equipped to produce nitrogen for explosives and fertilizer. … It could by no means supply the present needs for nitrogen, but it would help; and its de-velopment would encourage bringing other water powers into like use.

“Several offers have been made for the purchase of this property. Probably none of them represents final terms. Much costly experimentation is necessary to produce commercial nitrogen. For that reason, it is a field better suited to private enterprise than to Government operation.

“I should favor a sale of this property or long-time lease under rigid guarantees of commercial nitrogen production at reasonable prices for agricultural use. …”

The situation at Muscle Shoals is this : The Government is completing a waterpower plant, built at an expense of some $160,000,000. The electrical power there generated will soon be available in quantity for any use to which it may be turned. Because we have been depend ent in large measure for nitrogen on imports of nitrate of soda from Chile (there occurring as a natural mineral caliche}, it has been suggested that the power of Muscle Shoals be devoted to the manufacture of nitrogen compounds from the free nitrogen of the air. This free nitrogen is an inert element and has to be forced and cajoled to enter into compounds with other elements — and only in these compound forms is it usable as fertilizer or in the manufacture of explosives. There are several methods of getting this nitrogen out of the air and into compounds — none of them entirely satisfactory. With experiment, these methods should be improved.

The Muscle Shoals power, while a nitrogen-fixing industry is developing, will probably be considerably greater than is needed. But, if Muscle Shoals plants were eventually called upon to furnish all the nitrogen compounds necessary for domestic agriculture and industry, they would probably fall short of the demand for lack of power—they certainly would at the present stage of development. On account of the many “ifs,” “buts” and uncertainties, whatever disposal is made of the plant must be reasonably flexible in its provisions.

To solve this knotty problem Senator Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama began work on a new bill. If he was to succeed he must have the support of the Administration. He called on the President and, by inference, he got a substantial endorsement of his plans. That the Administration was so favorably im-pressed was in itself atribute to the Alabama Senator. His tact, h!s pleasant personality, his ability long ago won him the respect of his Republican opponents. His 20 years of service in the House, culminating in his leadership in that body, his nine years in the Senate have won him a large place even in Republican eyes. Not so brilliant as Harrison, nor so brilliant as Heflin, not so witty as Caraway, nor so downright as Robinson, his prestige is as great as that of any of them. Muscle Shoals lies in his own state. Heflin, also from Alabama, has done an almost endless amount of talking about it. Underwood sent out to find a practical settlement.

If the Underwood Bill should pass it would be a triple feather in the Senator’s cap—for solving a knotty problem, for exercising tact as well as ability, for taking a problem out of the hands of the majority and arranging such a settlement that it won them to his support.

His plan, in brief, provides: 1) That the Government shall retain ownership of Muscle Shoals; 2) that at any time the Government may take over the plant on five days’ notice for the manufacture of nitrates for war purposes; 3) that the operators of the plant are to produce 40,000 tons of fertilizer annually after the fourth year and sell it at a profit of not over 8%; 4) that the Secretary of War is to lease the plant for 50 years to a private enterprise, on these conditions and on others concerning the disposal of surplus power, etc.; 5) that if the plant has not been leased by July 1, 1925, a Government corporation is to be organized—its stock to belong to the U. S., its bonds (at 5% and not exceeding $50,00,000 in total) to be sold to the public, all profits after deductions for improvements, payment of interest, reserve, etc., to go to the U. S. Treasury.

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