A NEW SENSATION

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 184, 30 April 1924, Page 7

A NEW SENSATION

PRESIDENT COOLIDGE INVOLVED LEASE OF VALUABLE SOURCE OF POWER ALLEGATION OF PREFERENCE By Telegraph—Press Association, —copyright. (Rec. April 29, 8.40 p.m.) Washington, April 28. A new sensation, involving President Coolidge, was revealed in tho Senate during the Agriculture Committee’s discussion of the disposal of the socalled Muscle Shoals of the Alabama power plant, which, next to Niagara, is regarded as the greatest source of water power, and from which the Government during the war used to manufacture nitrates. Mr. Henry Lord recently made a bid to lease and operate the plant, but the conservationists bitterly opposed the lease, alleging that it would vest private interests in a monopolistic control of one of the greatest sources of natural wealth. The chairman, Mr. Norris, caused amazement in the committee by reading a telegram in which Mr. Ford’s agent at Washington; following a conference with Mr. Coolidge, quoted ths President as saying: “I hope Air. Ford will saj - nothing that will make it difficult for me to deliver the Muscle Sboals to him, as I am trying to do.” The message caused uproar among the committee, which had just then been examining Mr. Weeks. The latter denied all knowledge of the matter, nevertheless the affair gains verisimilitude from the fact that the agent is Mr. Ford’s accredited representative, who, according to White House reel rds, visited President Coolidge on the day he lodged the telegram. The latter comes from official files at the Iccal telegraph office. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. PROMPT DENIAL BY THE PRESIDENT (Rec. April 29, 9.5 .p.m.) Washington, April 28. President Coolidge promptly denied that he ever said he was trying to deliver the Muscle Shoals to Mr. Ford or anyone else. President Coolidge declared that he fully expressed his attitude on tho question in his first Message to Congress, in which ho urged the appointment of a joint committee to consider the offers. The President’s statement concludes: “From this position I have never departed. I expected other bids and wanted all to bo considered on their merits. I have no other method of dealing therewith, and Congress should have none.”—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.