Show I TIMELY Y TOPICS 4 I If f MUSCLE SHOALS PROBLEM It has at last ast been announced from the White House that Henry Ford has withdrawn his offer to take over O the entire plant at Muscle Shoals which will come as a dreadful shock to the real estate companies which have been buying options in the vicinity In substance the Ford proposal Wa was that the United States should give him hint property which has cost around to which there Would have been little litt serious objection had that ended ende l the con con- of f the government with the project But it did not We Ve were to be taxed to complete the project which the Ford company was to in instalments Instalments ments covering a century He lie was to agree to make a certain quantity df f fertilizer about fertilizer about one-fifth one of ot our present consumption provIded consumption provided he could make a profit of S per cent on the turnover It is Js doubtful whether there is another living person who could develop Muscle l Shoals so effectively I as Henry Ford His experimental work in fertilizers would almost certainly have been of the greatest value alue But Mr 11 Ford can have hare an expectation of business I activity of ot not more Ulan thau ten or o twelve e years and that is too little to get for a surrender of that vat val I power source for a century to a corporation whose membership cannot be foreseen on terms which made its authority param paramount over national and state laws for the full term of its lease San San Francisco Chronicle |