New Bid

Senator Oscar W. Underwood hounded the Senate to vote on Henry Ford's bid for the industrial capital of the southern states (Muscle Shoals). The House had accepted the Ford offer, but no sooner had it done so than an unparalleled outburst of opposition to the Ford plan developed.

The scandal alarm was definitely sounded. "How do you account for the fact," roared Senator Norris, "that Ford came to Washington angry with the Administration, and after his visit he came out and endorsed President Coolidge?" (Mr. Ford conferred with the President on the occasion of his row with Secretary of War Weeks last October.)

The plain facts are:

1) Mr. Ford's bid is not the highest bid.

2) Mr. Ford's bid is so low it would almost certainly be rejected except for the tremendous prestige of the bidder. ("Trust Ford" is the sum of favorable arguments.)

3) The question which the Govern-ment must decide is whether its faith in Mr. Ford justifies the bargain.

Last week there was given to Ford's opponents a new big argument. It is known as the Hooker-White-Atterbury bid. Elon H. Hooker, owner of an electro-chemical company at Niagara Falls, built two of the Muscle Shoals units during the War. J. G. White is a great chemical manufacturer. Atterbury, famed "General," is operative head of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They aggregate no mean amount of prestige. Their offer is to function as an operating company for the Government in the manufacture of a metallic magnesium aluminum alloy, which has the strength of mild steel, would revolutionize railway car construction, cheapen transportation, provide stocks of metal--discovered by the Germans in the World War-- for airplanes and dirigible structures.

Points in the offer are:

1) The Government shall furnish the capital for the various operations involved and the company shall put in $1,000,000 as evidence of good faith.

2) The company shall at once relieve the Government of construction, operation, research, manufacture.

3) After various sinking funds shall have been cared for, covering the return of the main Government investment, the Government shall receive the bulk of the profits, which proportion after ten years shall amount to 75% to the Government and 25% to the company on fertilizer.

4) Absolute ownership in all properties shall reside in the Government, and the water power and all other rights shall revert to the Government in 50 years, in compliance with the Federal Water Power Act.

5) The company estimates the Government's returns in 50 years at $305,000,000 as against the estimate of the Alabama Power Company of $136,000,000 and Mr. Ford's of $91,000,000.

Thereupon Senator Ralston, Demo-cratic sage, proposed that there should be a new deal. Let the Government, said he, devise a Muscle Shoals pol- icy. In conformity with that policy, let there be new bids. This was tantamount to postponing the whole question for at least a year.

Anti-Ford comment:

Democratic Minority of the House Committee on Military Affairs: "Imagi- nation cannot compass the advantages to the fortunate legatee of this gigantic gift from a great government. . . . Can it be anything less than a sinister menace, a grave danger, an unmistakably false step wholly unjustified, a grievous wrong to the future generations that will have to live under it and abide by what we here do?"

Newton D. Baker: "To grant Muscle Shoals to any individual or company for 100 years, or even 50 years, grants to such company or individual the industrial dominance for that period of the whole Southeastern portion of our country.

"If I were greedy for power over my fellowmen I would rather control Muscle Shoals than to be continuously elected President of the United States, and in the nature of the case nobody can now be wise enough to foresee or adroit enough to forestall all the ways in which the private control of this immense power source will be prejudicial to the general public interest and profitable to a private interest.

"I am, therefore, clearly of the belief that the Congress should retain Muscle Shoals, provide for its operation directly by the corps of engineers of the army, or by a public corporation ana-lagous to the Panama Railroad Company, and through such operation deal with the power produced in the mass, without entering into retail operation."