Show x 4 i 14 its 3 what muscle shoals really means l al 2 g 1 14 am 4 5 M THE musel muscle e shoals controvert cont rovers I 1 water power and means more than the opening of 0 fertilizer more than tiie the mouths Sout lis new era it means that two systems ol of business are colliding head on the contest Is production vs profits service and spoils confront each other I 1 it nothing else comes ot of this con least has been troverse tro versy this at achieved the system ot of exploitation has been drawn out from tta its cover into view all its american and foreign tentacles ten acles have been disclosed i its pressure methods havo hav been studied in all sections of 0 the country and in all lines ot of business for the first time in our economic history the interests which commonly sharpen their teeth on each other have ceased their private fights and have joined in single pack for or a a combined terrific assault on one lone otter offer tor for muscle shoals stever before has such concentrated opposition been piled up against a single object it is because the interests themselves want muscle shoals so badly no when the war stopped and the government found unfinished muscle shoals on its hands the govern I 1 anent ir ent sent out men and messages to these ti ese very interests asking bids tor for I 1 a completion and operation ot of tho w one after another all pos I 1 bille faille users ot of muscle shoals were approached and with one ona accord they declared that muscle shoals worth a nickel that as tor for themselves they would never invest a penny in it whether this was a concerted movement to destroy any idea that muscle shoals had bad value is not tor for us to say whether its purpose was to enable some member of the trust to td get it tor for nothing thing is not here alleged but the tact fact is that the interests when approached joined with one cne voice in depreciating the value ot of this government property I 1 by some chance and last ot of all henry ford was proposed as a possible user and the government requested him to examine the proposition in response he made t the he first and only businesslike offer the hie government has received an offer backed by millions ot of his own funds an otter offer involving the completion of the tha reat works to high prodoc productive five capacity an offer involving a limited income fixed by law and last ot of all an offer involving the return ot of the entire de developed property to the government at the expiration of 0 the contract period or at any time I 1 it t might be needed tor for war purposes I 1 what this meant although it cannot all be stated in the cold langu age of contracts is that a demonstration was to be made of how cheaply power could be produced tor for employment and productive pur poses the ratio developed by the ford motor company is one work man per horsepower a job tor for every unit of power developed it if a million horsepower is developed at the shoals it means a million jobs jobst it meant also the liberation ot of thu tho farmer from the present heavy barj bur dens ot of the fertilizer trust more than that it meant a great source of munitions a military resource amer lean ican controlled and of the first im this Is the proposition which th concentrated forces of the exploiting interests are opposing this Is the tha otter offer which many newspapers and magazines tire are now attacking after having endorsed it the pressur preisur came late upon the newsy newspapers a pers ap parent patently ly it was applied in othe quarters first but within three months there have been concerted and wholes desertions of their former position by the press why Is there a better or more promising otter offer in sight no with the ford otter offer refused there wll wil never be any other otter offer heard of 1 why then Is it personal opposition iou to mr henry ford As to thail that I strangely enough the real opposition Is s not against mr ford personally I 1 so it is against his system ot of service in business it if he were less likely to notice muscle shoals a dem 1 atiq ot of how cheaply the necessaries es ot of life could be made therol there would be less opposition to his otter offer the great tear fear Is that he will actually what his otter offer proposes it if henry ford had agreed to do business along the old lines charging the power frers all the traffic would bear charging farmers all they could pay squeezing out every cent of 0 personal profits that could coula be had it if he had agreed to do business along the lines his opponents follow boosting prices and profits M muscle shoals would have been handed to him long ago with the blessing ot of every exploiter in the land but the power trust knew that he would demonstrate that power costs little to produce and less to tr admit the fertilizer trust knew that he would demonstrate what a wholesale system ot of robbery has been practiced against the american tanner farmer in tact fact the ford system of doing business would be the judgment day tor for the old system and the old OIA system has gathered itself in bristling alliance to save its fife eife this is the meaning ot of the opposition two opposed systems are colliding head on what temporarily becomes of 0 muscle shoals may be a secondary matter but the ford offer has already done this for the nation it has given millions ot of dollars of value to a property that the interests said wort worth h a nickel it has given the system ot of selfishness 7 in business its death warning that sy system stem knows 11 too no other meaning can be attached to this unparalleled concentration of hostility to the tha only offer ofer which the government has thought 1 it worth while to consider dearborn independent |