Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

NITROGEN A NECESSITY ? Imperative That America Secure He Supply. MUSCLE SHOALS MUST BE UTILIZE f. . .. Behind the Great Strife in Connectioi With Muscle Shoals in the Futur Welfare of America?An Independ oent Supply of Fertilizer Must b Had. , ?. . It Is written large In hifman histor; that no nation or civilization ever ha: disappeared except from one, or both of two reasoufi: They either were beat ??n down hv aetrDerior military ndver< scry or they bad exhausted the. fertl Ifty of,their soils and had to move ti new lands, sometimes perishing b; the way. There> have been races foi gold In history, but that is giving- wa; to a new race, the race for nitrogen; The Battle of Muscle Shoals that ii being fought now in congress and else where really is the first skirmish ii the battle for nitrogen. The grea' war wus A war of nitrogen. Nationi gathered it up and hurled it at eacl other -as Jove hurled the lightnings It Is the food, the clothing, the eheh ter and the war stuff of the world Plenty of nitrates in America will restore the fields now being exhausted will furnish a war material wlthoui which guns and planes and soldier? are useless and helpless hnd will k.eej two great dangers, aforesaid, fronr drawing nigh America. Henry Ford wants to insure thes< two things for. us at Muscle Shoals The Chilean nitrate intersts and tht coking industry and divers other art opposed to him. They would prefer to keep the situation where it it today. Incidentally Henry Ford want? to give the farmer cheap fertilizer sc he may buy more automobiles. Naturally. considerable money will movt thereby In the direction of the Ford treasury. , " - ' 1 L.i I.tn. .However, mat is oui wiuti mo miw efcts assailing' Ford at present feax most. They are fearful that money will not be the first consideration, but that he may wish to do for agriculture and for other Interests whnt Johr D. Rockefeller has done for medicine They are fearful of what he may bring about In chemistry, machine-building hydro-electric fields and the lightmetal business. They are not worried about Its hope to sell a tractor, a truck and a car, all for $1,000 as much as they are about a possible Ford aspiration to go down in history as thf man who made agriculture a business and a profession instead of a gamble Tiiere are other phases to Muscle Shoals, but nitrogen is the main one. At the present time there are three main source? qf nitrogen. The Chilean nitrhte" beds are first; njyt. between 1867 and 1919 wo spent for this nitrate for export duties to Chile, for insurance atad shipping, about $800.000.000. Chile got'$163,647,000 of this In duties. We had hauled 13,314,006 long tons of It to America at the end of 1919 When-we brought in 68,229,000 tons. We are now bringing in about 85,000,000 tons a year, and it is not enough. The world is falling behind in its production of nitrogen, and the nitrate* beds, less rich nbw, will not last forever. We get no American nitrogen by airfixation; and of the ammonium sulphate produced-as a eoking by-product, not morie than 100,000 tons a year come on the fertilizer market. Muscle Shoals is the one answer in sight. There and in the immediate nelghborhobd are two government nitrate-fixation plants, one partially completed dam across the Tennessee river, a great steam power plant, a quarry, a transmission line eightyeight miles long and about 4,000 acres of land. The two nitrate plants at cost, plus wartime priced, represent about $85,000,000. One of them, costing $13,000,000, is a failure. Both ol them could now be built at half the wartime cost. About $17,000,000 has been spent on the dam to help navigation and furnish water power. It will develop an average of 300,000 horsepower daily and never less than 100,000. The steam plant, as an auxiliary, Is good for 125,000 horsepower. In the Tennessee watershed are millions of tons of coal and phosphate rock. The air is overheard, there is lime in the hills, the No. 2 nitrate plant is ready to make the nitrates The river is ready to furnish the navigable water when the dam Is complete, ready to furnish the power foi the electric furnaces, for making gases, phosphates, light metals, acids and xo nine a circie ox power arouna o 300-mile radius. There stands $100,000,000 in taxpayers' money, the plants with nt wheel turning, the unfinished darr blocking navigation, falsework fallinf down, metal rusting, the whole thin* idle, waiting for congress to do something. It is a "white elephant" eating its head off on the hay of maintenanc< Charges. Three things can he done with it. I may be scrapped and its cost "charger off the hooks." The government cai i go into the water-power and nitrab business and run the plant fmn Washington. Or some such offer a: that of Henry Ford may he accepted He will take it over if the goveiumon will eomplete it with money on whlel he will pay an interest of 4 per cent For a long-term lease he will keep th nitrate plant ready to make explos ives and the rest of the time he will di as he pleases with it. As scrap the whole business wll bring maybe $S,000,000. That will b about ten cents on the dollar for th plants as junk. Henry Ford will pa but six cents, with a difference?th plants will be in operation and on of them at least always in readinos EX-EMPEROR KAI fhy;* "J" v. \ - ? ' $ i r ^ ^ . r - . >.^: _ , Birm*'^ :v":<r -' - - -^Dtt^^jji Charles I, former emperor of Austria, and king of Hungary, died on the island of Madeira Saturday morning at 11:30 o'clock. The exiled monarch had been suffering from pneumonia for r more than a week. Charles, who re; tained consciousness uniil the last, passed away in the presence of His wife, the former Empress Zita, and 1 thidir eldest son, Francis Joseph Otto, j , one time heir-apparent to the throne ! , to make nitrates for' defense. At the end of the contract Ford will have ! I paid the nullon* about $15,000,000 for . his tenure. i The Mississippi Valley, claiming 55 per cent, of the American population, 1 is solid for Ford. He has the "farm bloc" l>ack of him to a man. The ! South wants the work c:irried on. I Dixie believes that on the watershed ' of the Tennessee another New England Industrial district will be created. Everybody who eats foo'd arid wears 1 I clothes Is concerned directly. It ties j ' i ittllfc tho #irw? irrnnl nmlilom of the world?with what shall wc ho fed and i i how shall we be clothed? Iiig^er than' 1 four-Power pacts or leagues of na- j 1 tions is the problem of keeping the 1 soils of a ration from being exhausted, for around it hover the specter shapes of famine. i Muscle Shoals can furnish no more 1 than 55 per cent, of the nitrogen we" are now using, and we are not using a tenth part of the nitrogen fertilizer that ought to be used. What is sold is put out at a price almost prohibitory, i Henry Ford proposes to make 11,000 tons a year. This product will have f about three times the value of Chilean i nitrates. It will ease a situation that increases in loss and danger yearly. 1 The matter is one for congress, in its wisdom to deal with. It will disturb certain very powerful interests, ' break some virtual monopolies, hurt a good many people in one way or ant other, but it cannot be ignored. If something is not done today, it must be done tomorrow. Henry Ford and ! the interests that are attacking his proposals are no more than incidents 1 in the race for nitrogen and the battle for nitrogen that is starting in every 1 civilized corner of the world.?Philadelphia Public Ledger, > _ I SAYS EUROPE WILL PAY. 1 >pP- < ' , ml .'-'k :m- ? I. Senator Robert L. Owen, lust t I back frort the Old World, finds h the production power over there greater than before the war and asserts Europe will be able to pay 0 her debts. .W Cheat ing contractors ami crooked officials of Kinnvrian civilisation in II Mesopotamia 5,000 years ano were tried e briefly anil thrown into tin* river, ac- I cording to recent scicntilic discovers s, 1 0 A motif,' other things, the.v had an clabV orate banking system, with a reserve I e | bank comparable to our own <>f today.' a postal system with a parcel post branch and circulating libraries, which s I distributed clay tablet books. i IL DIES IN EXILE of Austria-Hungary. Zita, when the condition bf her husband became critical, desired that tine physicians in at? tendance permit her to undergo blood transfusion in an effort to save him, but the physicians refused their consent. The expectation is that the body will bo taken back tp Austria fop burial. On the announcement of the death of Charles all the commercial houses in Funchal closed their doors as a token of respect. NEXT STAGE OF RUSSIA Bolshevik Will Collapse and Democ. racy Will Follow. Mrs. Marguerite E. Harrison, internationally known newspaper woman, who was a prisoner of the Soviet authorities in Russia for eight months, addressed members of the City cino at their forum luncheon yesterday. She was introduced by Claudfe N. Bennett. Dr. Bcdrlck Stepamtck, the Cssecho-Slovakian minister, with his sister, and W: W. Husband, commls^ sioner general of immigration, were guests of the City Club. "American impressions of Russia are largely' fantastic," Mrs. Harrison said. "There is ,no 'chaos,' order is absolute except* in the far south, which has always been bandit-infested; children arc not taken from their parents to become property of the state; the ridiculous 'nationalization of women' has never been heard of except by those in the foreign office who read the American netvsparers. Peasants Want Land. The Bolsheviks gained power by promising the peasants the land, Mrs. Harrison ..explained, adding that the land hunger of the peasantry, which makes up for nine-tenths of the population, is the gr?at nothating force in the nation. . "This brought their success," she said, "but it will also bring their defeat. For they are now engaged in a gigantic work of educating the peasantry and as these peasants become educated and learn that Bolshevism means nationalization of the land, thev aie coine to break away." This change has already begun In a way, Mrs. Harrison indicated, pointing out that the peasants actually occupy the land, which the state holds theore tically, and pay their rents in grain, which is the main tax source of the government. "However," she added, "they are increasing their demands for 'a piece of paper,' otherwise title deeds." The Kerensky regime failed, she was told, because it did not give the land to the peasants, being purely a weak political government. Embargo Strengthens Forces The allied embargo, by strengthening the nationalistic spirit, has aided the Holsheviks tremendously in mainl.ml..,. nn,?nn AT-,. ITnMittnnH onl.l iciimife j'uvtvi, jinn. iiaiiiouii nii.w, pointing out that it. had induced such leaders of the old regime as Gen. lirusiloff to lend tYielr aid to the Soviet government. This embargo and the aHled attacks, she also added, were largely responsible for the present famine by shutting off necessary machinery and railroad repair material, forcing the peasants into the Red army and disorganizing the country. Mrs. Harrison said she "richly deserved imprisonment," as she broke all the laws applying to immigrants, starting off by entering the country illegally and following it by other law violations. "However, the experience in jail was worth it," she added. "Our companions were very interesting and we were treated very kindly. Most of our companions wore anarchists and Socialists* as the Bolsheviki are greatly in fear of them. Russia. today is lull of vitality and has a great future," Mrs. Harrison said in conclusion. "The people are now downhearted; the Red leaders are fanatical hut very able men; they are adueating the people, and there Is more general interest, in-education, crt drama and world affairs than one could lietievf .possible. World recognition will bring a return to normal." * i .. . , .w ? ' - r. -i -- ...k. ? TROUBLESOME MR. FORD . V : ' . -r ^ .. , ! ~t Why the Manufacturer is Objectionable to Mall Street. VESTED INTERESTS ARE OPPOSED ' .. I I -it;. - .? ? ? . . : If the Automobile Man Succeeds in Carrying out His Ideas, the Result Will be a Revolution in Established Conditions. For all practical purposes the Amercan manufacture of aluminum is in the hands of a few men. Suppose you Were making aluminum by the pound and selling it by the pound, and a new competitor, lifting his head above the horizon, promised to make it by the carload and sell it by the ton? Little is heard of the electric furnace or the making of electric steel. If you were in this shy, retiring, halfTurtive business, suppose a man announced plans for making such steel by the tftiinloeid arid selling it in car lots? Or take the fertilizer business, where the sources of available nitrates nre in your grip In the shape of Chilean nitrate bed concessions. The farmer and explosive maker are eating out of your hand. You are putting out a fertiliser that is 14 per cent, useful and 88 per cent "filler."' What if you faced competition with a product far more plentiful 'and 75 per cent, more useful at a price cut so low that you shuddered at the mention of it? t Or suppose you had much money in hydro-electric development, everything pretty much to yonf liking, the future Charted but, fates satisfactory, and a rank outsider ctepped in threatening to upset everything-, pay better wages, extend developments and cut rfte?? Or if you were in the coal 11-- i.kA.,4 If \? iiuc, nunr auuui it it ouma lucuaw were about to wipe out a market for 6,500,009 tons of coal yearly? Or If you were In the cbking Industry and your ammonia by-product, used in nitrogen fertilizers and whht not, was threatened by enormous massas of nitrogen Jerked out of the air? . Or interested in a railway that hauled coal and phdflphate rbck, and a pair of new dams in a rlVer was about to divert much heavy tonnage from cars or barges? Or in the Jute bag business and wfere About to lose $2,000,000 annually becAUsfe a way had been found to concentrate shipments? All these are' suppositions and by way W indicating the Jlndustrlal, commercial and financial hornets' nest stirred up' by Henry Ford's dream of industrial fempjre at Mtiscle Shoals, with Its nitrate and hydro-electric plants and navigation possibilities. They light, more or11 less dithljt, * the reasons that mary bo facte of the agoriizing and propagandizing under ^ray against the Ford Alabama project by the fertilizer, light, ihetal, waterpower and industrial-chemical Interests. * For' alt theso things and more are on the Ford program so far aA It has been revfealed. He proposes to take with government consent, "cheap mcney" and "favorable lease conditions," and with the3e develop mighty wcterpowers in the center Of a great region stuffed with lime and phosphate rocks, dotted with coking plants and hills full of coal beds. From waterpower, coke and rocks he plans to create four great matters?nitrogen fixatioh, electric furnace development and navigation and transportatioh improvement. rx ILrugUU IIAUVIUII tiucauo cuvuy, VV??ccntrated fertilizers in large tonnage, and for this the cotton ahd corn belts will rise up and call him blessed. Chilean nitrate's grip will be loosed and there will be more crops with less labor, greater earning capacity per man and farm, and a mighty encouragement to the man between the plow handles. To the nation Ford offers cheap, large-scale explosive production in wartime, absolute Independence to Chile and the banishing of that nightmare of some disaster to the Panama Canal, cutting us off from our raw explosive material supply. Electric furnace development as vlsioned by Ford moans improved steel production, relief f^om that Old Man of the Sea, "Pittsburgh Plus," help to building and industry, phosphoric acid for jwtash fertilizer and still more help to farmers through a cheap fertilizer and more crops with iess labor. Out or these furnaces he proposes vast production of light metals, steels, aluminums, ferro-alloys and polson-gus materials, with resulting military preparedness and sounder national security. With this come rhonnor nnrj wider use of motorcars and their cheaper operation. It will bo recalled that Henry Ford is in the motorcar business. Navigation improvement of the Tennessee river will make it possible for the coal, fertilizers, raw rock phosphates, light metals, acids and gases to move to farms and factories in the Mississippi Basts or to the sea by bout. The Ford idea is to make real use of the inland rivers, to trace a national policy in which waterways are paid for by waterpower and to offer cheap hauling to a great section of America. The transportation end of the scheme looks to the coming electrification of railroads and mines, giving greater rail revenue capacity per man, car and mine. Tho Ford offer was about as welcome as ,a ten-inch shell falling in the middle of a tea party. Maybe he can do all these things, and maybe he can't but Henry Ford proposes them. You can see who will be hit and hit hard if congress accepts the plan. It is easy, also, to see why the farmers are hack of .Ford to a man and why preparedness advocates lean to his of BRITISH AIR MINISTER SAYS BATTLESHIPS TO BE OBSOLETE gMuBBj ^HMweB|BBHk ffjBw^fr . /S&98K Capt' Frederick (Sliest.* Bfftiah Air Minister, says that within the next ten years A combat between forces of the dlf and forces of the sea w(11 become a grotesque and pathetically oneside affair. He asserts that no battle ships will btf built at the end of the ten year naval holiday arranged at ins Washington conference, due to the fact that fast fighting planes, with bombs more deadly than shells, will drive the war ships from the seas.; fer. All this helps to explain why It is that so rrrany corporations that were nonchalantly poohpooing Muscle Shoals a year ago are now shouting that Ford is a false alarm, that he will fail at Muscle Shoals, and why, at the same time, some of them are hurryir*- In bids and rolling rocks artd -f*. . ij trees across the road In front of FoTd. v Spmebody, a good many somebodies are troubled. They know Ford at Muscle Shoals means Ford competition, and that Is terrific, market breaking,- wage-raising, Dram-sweating competition. If HeUry Ford is all wrong, if he is a puttering, doddering, futile and foolish dreamer, then why this raussirrg of hair, this tearing of shirts and this rush to discredit a thing that would soon discredit itself? Why aro the prophets of failure so anxious to block the experiment? Why this so sudden tenderness and anxiety* over federal funds* Out of the flood of technical afgumentfc, figures, assertions charges and couhter-chrarges, these questions stick up Iikfc shafts of steel and concrete.? Philadelphia Public Ledger. KEPT FRESH IN ICE I . i/ Body of Viking Is One Thousand . i Years Old The body of a Viking rul^r, 1,000 years old. standing upright in a huge iceburg, has returned ,to civilization aftfer drifting for at least ten centuries through the' ice-blocked seas in the barren Arctic region^. Preserved more perfectly than any body wver uncovered in mystic Egypt, the giant Norseman was discovered by Danish doctofs staring out at them from his frozen winding sheet on the east coast of Greenland. The ,body of the Viking found by the Dnnlfch men of medicine towered seven feet tall. It was clad in rude ancient armor, gripping spear and shield, with his head crowned with the winged helmet of Norse royalty. Standing sternly in his transparent tomb of ice, this warrior of another day was an incredible phantom of Norse lerigendry. Skin was White and Firm. When the ice. had been chopped away from the giant body, the Viking stood unravnged by time. The skin was white and firm instead of dried and shrunken, and the head and.ehin was covered- with hair that was long and red and silky. A ship now is' bearing the body of the one-time Viking king to Copenhagen, where skilled scientists will be called to perpetuate, If possible, the process of preservation by the injection of .chemicals. The body will be^ placed in the Copenhagen, museum if a method can he found to preserve the body as it was kept in the cnnnng embrace of the iceburg. Upon the discovery of the Viking's body an expedition was dispatched from Copenhagen to Greenland to excavate the iceburg in which the ageold king was found. This expedition has serit back word that s6ven other Ao iirttnuoVinrl hv thft VOQ rfl n.Q ! i-fuuira uo uuivu^iicu . v??w j w the tlrst, have,been dug from the mammoth eake of ice. May Rewrite American History. The early history of America may be rewritten before-the investigators are through. Already Copenhagen scholars are considering a theory that the Viking with his royal winged helmet may be no less a celebrity than Lief Erlksen.. "Krik the Red," famed as a. daOntfess voyager of ten centuries ago, and believed by many historians-to have landed on the shores of America 400 years before Colum bus steered the Santa Maria into harbor at San Salvador. A Norse legend has it that "Erik the Red" was an earl banished to Greenland because of his secret romance with his liege lord's beautiful daughter. Hearing of a vast land to the southwest, Erik sailed away and is supposed to have reached what Is now .Cape Cod Bay, sailing along Scituate Beach past Coronet Rock into Boston harbor, and thence up the. Charles river into the Back Bay, where he landed near Cambridge and built a large house. * 1 --/. > . m | * t - ' ' REMINISCENCES Of OLD TIMES By JAMES HENRY RICE, Jr. The Dark Corner of old Ed^efjeld seemed to have fallen from its high estate. Even the most hopeful had begun to doubt If the spirit bf former times, even a trace of It, existed In those parts. The "piping times of peace" have laid like a wet-blanket on the Are and enthusiasm, the harumscarum, devil-may-care spirit which won lor the Dark corner envia'ne renown Of yore. However, a recent newspaper despatch shows that life stirs yet; all is not gone. There was a chicken-flghting bout, a sale of hash and perhaps of Other refreshments, ahd the outbheak broke forth, much as in former times. One man dead, a negro knocked down, and a fleeing participant struck by a stray bullet in the heel; the negro who did the shooting taking to the swamps and the bloodhounds on his trail; "something doing evidently." Had all this happened forty years ago, it would not have been "news;" but times have changed. During the early days of Governor Tlllrtian's dispensary, two Whisky constables ("spies" as they were called then) seized a gentleman's liquor in the Dark Corner. This was a plain and unmistakable invitation for a lynching; but the honor of the countryside was at stake; so wise neacs got togetner and agreed that the thing be pulled off in a proper and befitting manner, in a way that would reflect; credit - on the community. It was agreed that when the case was called next day and all parties were up before the trial Justice as the magistrate was then termed, there would be a simultaneous rush, the constables would be seized and swung to the limb 1 of a nearby tree, even the limb being selected and stripped of extra foiioge. j Next day, however, when the plan was Just ready to be executed, the trial Justice being deaf and not apprised of what was intended, got in the way of the crowd and the officers escaped with their lives, barely malting the train ahead of their pursuers. The week after I was on the Cambridge road, near the famous Monkey bridge, named from the fact of a stray Italian having once stopped there with his monkey. Up the road, between the classic hedges of Cherokee rose, an old man came along, driving a white mule. His head was sunk; he was in deep reverie, and in trouble beyond question. As he came opposite, he looked up and saw me. There was a quick and frantic gesture. I joined him by the wagon. Whereupon he poured forth his woes. It was all about the lynching {hat never came off. "You know I'm deef,' he said, ' "so deef I caint 1 ear thunder; and you know ef the boys had 'er let me on to what they wuz atter, I'd thrown her wide open and told 'em to go ahead] I never had a thing to bother ine so in all iny life.". He pleaded . and protested until I agreed that he had no part In stopping the slaughter of the officers, and that he would have contributed his mite thereto with a full heart. ' "Well," he said after a while, "I must be goln*. I'm powerful glad you don't think hard o'" me for that thing. I'd 'er never done, if I'd 'er knowed." With that he drove on. I watched him until a turn in the road hid him from view, "the rolling hills basked in sunshine; the pines far away over th6 creek were blue in the distance; and one historic clump marked a light spot in the centre of the Dark Corner, whose pent-up wrath still smouldered. Times have changed and men have changed with them; but it would, not be safe to take chances on the Dark Corner even yet It might go off in your hands any time. 4 Just a Beautiful Dream,?A man from a bone-dry Arkansas community went to a wet Missouri town and was invited by an acquaintance to have a drink. In the saloon the frifend asked: "What are you going to have?" "Have?" dreamingly observed the visitor. blinking at the glorious array of j ? w." k ASHE Fertilizei I I ' HIGH e FERTIL . BUILT P 1 (R*g. U. 8. Pat. I J F0R SA I A. H. B ROCK HI - . j > >v ??if barreled and bottled gqods. "I ain't goin' to have nuthln'.". "What 4?. 7ou mean, Gabe? You won't have a 4Mn)c after coming all this distance?" "Nope," answered the' Arkansswyer. "There hain't no such place as thlB. rll wake up In a minute."?Houston Post. Most Unususl.?Hubb: "Your bill tor flowers was something terrible this month, my dear." Wlfc> "But, dear, you must remember that .Fido doesn't uBUally get as sick as he was this month." * TUs AnfSnSssa^fw r?hlns mn* 11 n"?iviji?kvi J wmKiiwi A * ."I believe yer do]? Ilke9 me, laxiy. Hd wagged his tail at me when I cotixfe Ih." Housewife: "Perhaps Me wa* just thinking: of all the fun he's going' to. ha^b with you when you do I. - 11 -ii i? I am the "SURE-FIT' CAP. Always adjustable to "nor- N mal" Lead comfort. : - V,' ' Ffl bet that President Hard* ing. wears me when he plays golf, if he dc j, he knows that I tan fitting company for even the"hesj^(_4 that wears the crown'!. >r \ ' % .? t V-: p.* ? lijw- vh '.^n ^vftoJ He knows I can be made tighter for the wiWy days, . at Chevy Chase; or loosexu ed tip for reaV headfeaae ? after a '"windy" session with Senator Lodge! .r 4 ' ?. My whole secret is in a simple invisible, adjusting strap? like your belt (Illustrated ?'? below.) . % , Uils yt. ;;i... * . j Yes Siree: I'm your exact head size?no matter what your size is. The way I fit you in the store, is the way rQ fit you forever after. \]j If- ! ' ' ' ; Look me over. Try me on. I am the "SURE.FIT' CAP. Cst me! * ? * e i\$ /. 4 surej^t B* means of this tinU^ pie in Wiiblc strap,you Hi^ /* ' <4;wil0i ^ SOLD AT BEST I. V-. \ !: 1 ? c, < "In f v? STORES ' ?(?* H "T "* * - " V ? Made by Fine & Levy, 702 Broadway.N.Y.C. a ^? -iitt*:l"*. . - cc :poo 1 r Works iRADE : ft* . jgjj I'J ,T 'V ' V 4;?W? : ' I fi ' ''lit -3 > a standard Msvr _ :. !;! h|vm uown i og.i * ' to a price [LE BY H I YNUM | ILL, S. C.