POWERGRAMS

HISTORY When James Mitchell first came to Alabama in the fall of 1911 to inspect the possible sites where he could construct a hydroelectric dam, the diplomatic alignments that would bring a general war to Europe in 1914 were already in place. The Triple Alliance united Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and was completed by 1882. The Triple Entente linked France and Russia in 1894, Great Britain and France in 1904, and Russia and Great Britain in 1907. The battle sides for war had been determined. A long series of escalating provocations began. As concerned as Mitchell was about the stability of peace in Europe, his immediate focus was on his opportunities to develop an interconnected electrical system for the state of Alabama. Powered by hydroelectricity from dams and backed up by coal-fired generation, Mitchell believed in Alabama he could produce and sell electricity cheaper than any other place he had ever seen. Mitchell was an entrepreneur who was investing much of his own fortune in what he called "his Alabama adventure," but he also needed to borrow money. After traveling over the state, he observed the living conditions of much of the population — rural, agricultural, isolated with no electricity and with limited employment opportunities, few good wage-paying manufacturing jobs and an economic climate that needed more cash flow. Mitchell believed that cheap electricity to run machinery would attract new industries and improve the lives of Alabama's people. He developed a strong personal commitment to the state. Mitchell knew that by bringing inexpensive and reliable electricity to operate mills and factories, street railways, cities and homes, more good jobs would come, which would increase cash flow and bring a higher standard of living. But first Mitchell had to produce enough profit to repay his loans and provide a return on his investments. Between 1905 and 1914, one European diplomatic crisis after another ratcheted up European tensions and the possibility of war. By 1913, Mitchell saw generation at Jackson Shoals, the completion of his Coosa River dam and the production of hydroelectricity there. The new Gadsden Steam Plant was soon producing power, and transmission lines connected the Lock 12 Dam (named Lay Dam in 1929), Gadsden and the Birmingham Industrial District. This was the first power generation in Alabama that delivered multisources of generation to provide continued operation and backup power in case of an outage. As Mitchell feared, the market for English capital dried up as soon as war began in Europe in August 1914. Technically, Great Britain joined the conflict over the German violation of Belgium neutrality, which Britain and Prussia had agreed to uphold in 1839. The conflict was eventually called "World War I" and later "The Great War." During the development of his Alabama properties, Mitchell routinely had crossed the Atlantic, desperately trying to hold his investments together, while finding adequate capital to continue his plans of promoting and providing Alabama Power electricity to towns, industry and homes. From the beginning of the European war, U.S. military leaders were deeply concerned over an inadequate source of nitrates for the manufacture of explosives. Nitrates were also used for making fertilizers. Since the 19th century, the United States had imported guano from South America to obtain nitrates for fertilizer and explosives, but the activities of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico now endangered this supply line. Frank S. Washburn, whose American Cyanamid Co. was organized to manufacture nitrates using a cyanamid process, was elected to the board of directors of Alabama Power on Aug. 5, 1913. On Aug. 20, with Mitchell's support, Washburn became president of Alabama Power. Washburn's knowledge of nitrate production and German experiments in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen to manufacture fertilizer and explosives was significant. These processes took a large quantity of cheap electricity, feasible only from hydroelectricity. Washburn originally planned that the Alabama Power dam to be constructed at Wetumpka would produce hydroelectricity for nitrates, and he planned to construct a nitrate plant there; however, there were problems obtaining Congressional approval and the war came too quickly. As the Birmingham Industrial District's iron and steel industries began to gear up to service the large orders coming from Britain and France, and nationwide as the Allies demanded more supplies, the 1913-1914 national business recession ended and a war boom began. To ensure an adequate supply of electricity, Alabama Power constructed a coal-fired generation plant where Bakers Creek flowed into the Black Warrior River in Walker County. Construction began in 1916 on the Warrior Reserve Steam Plant, which was later named for Gen. William Crawford Gorgas, an Alabama military hero. When war started in Europe in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the neutrality of the United States and campaigned for his second term in 1916 on the U.S. staying out of the war. However, that proved impossible when German submarines continued to attack and sink unarmed merchant vessels. The lifeblood for Britain had always come from the sea. Germany anticipated knocking Great Britain out of the war by destroying the island's supplies and bringing it to its knees before the Americans could enter the war. But the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915, angered Americans, as did the actions of German spies in the United States. For Alabama Power, the sinking hit close to home. Mitchell and Washburn sailed to England on the Lusitania in 39

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