POWERGRAMS

and passenger ships, shocked Americans. The acts of sabotage by German agents in the United States, such as blowing up the New Jersey Black Tom munitions plant in 1916 and encouraging strikes at other munitions plants, caused a backlash against Germany. Alabama Power's leadership understood that the U.S. defensive preparations were creating an economic boom, and the company was positioned to supply the future electric demands that the state of Alabama and its people needed. Congress passed a National Defense Act in June 1916 to increase the strength of the military, and the government began coordinating industry and security through the Council of National Defense. The National Defense Act included a provision for $20 million to construct two government plants that would produce nitrates. After a vigorous and sometimes heated national competition for the location of the plants, Alabama U.S. Sens. Oscar Underwood of Birmingham and John Bankhead of Jasper managed to leverage their political clout to see that the federal plants were located at Muscle Shoals near the Tennessee River. Although neither saw eye to eye with Alabama Power all the time, they supported company attorney Tom Martin in securing the location. At the time, Alabama Power owned two dam sites at Muscle Shoals, where Wilson and Wheeler Dams were eventually built. The hydroelectric power from the dam that Mitchell and Alabama Power intended to construct at Muscle Shoals would power the plants' production of nitrates. The provocation that pushed the U.S. into the war was the publication of a cable from Germany's foreign minister to the Mexican government. Known as the "Zimmerman Note," in it Germany promised Mexico if it supported Germany, Mexico's lands lost to the U.S. would be returned to Mexico. Americans, especially those living in south Texas, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada, immediately supported the U.S. waging war with Germany. Although in the fall presidential election President Wilson had presented a neutrality platform, he could not withstand the pressure to enter the war. On April 2, 1917, just weeks after his second inauguration, Wilson stood "pale and erect" before a joint session of Congress and requested a declaration of war against Germany. On Good Friday, April 6, 1917, the Congress responded. The first unit of Alabama Power's newly constructed Warrior Reserve Steam Plant in Walker County went into service four months later. It was impossible to build the Muscle Shoals dam soon enough to provide electricity, so Alabama Power employees ran a transmission line due north from the Warrior Reserve Steam Plant to provide electricity for the construction of the plants and the production of nitrates. Alabama Power also allowed the U.S. government to install a generator at Gorgas. Birmingham industries were turning out iron and steel for war products. The United States Steel Company's TCI Fairfield works converted the Ensley plant to cast ingots for steel in ships and constructed a large shipyard in Mobile. The federal government completed the dam and Lock 17 on the Black Warrior River in 1915 in time for barges to carry raw materials from Birmingham Port to Mobile. The U.S. Army increased its force at Anniston's Fort McClellan. The Alabama National Guard had been mobilized and federalized in June 1916 as part of a 15,000- man Army with 156,000 National Guardsmen sent to Mexico to capture Pancho Villa, who had been raiding U.S. territory. It was not long before these soldiers were training for duty in France. Nimrod T. Frazer's award-winning book, "Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division" (2014), recounts the story of one group of Alabama soldiers who helped turn the tide for an Allied victory. The title comes from a remark by Gen. Edward Plummer, who commanded them during the early days of their service: "In time of war, send me all the Alabamians you can get, but in time of peace, for Lord's sake, send them to somebody else!" The spirited ferocity of these young men in peacetime made them fierce soldiers on the battlefield. Perhaps by the time Alabama commemorates the centennial of America's entrance into World War I in 2017, we will be able to verify the military service of some of Alabama Power's men, including any in the Rainbow Division during World War I. The European war that the United States entered in 1917 was the first modern war, with near total mobilization of society. The terrible maiming and the large number of deaths on the battlefields were caused by new weapons that made their first appearances – lightweight and efficient machine guns, poison gas, the tank and the airplane. Despite the tragedy of some 120,000 American deaths, the war boosted the U.S. economy and ushered in a prosperity that culminated in the Roaring , 20s, when Alabama Power, as well as other American companies and the American people, prospered into the Jazz Age. Lay Dam began generating power in 1914. 4

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