Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-14
a Tech Tour of Georgia

w HEN the Georgia Tech Industrial Tour
w of Georgia is launched some time in
February, the state should witness
beginning of a business and Industrial re-
vival of a more compelling and far-reaching
character than any movement launched to
build I'D the South in the last twenty-five
years.
The tour is home product, conceived by
Georgians, organized by Georgians and con-
Quoted by Georgia.. for the benefit of Geor-
gians. Therein is, significant characters
tic-that no outside influence furnished the
motive power, but that the realization by
Georgians themselves of their own industrial
weakness and their great industrial oppor-
tunities led them to seek a practical and an
effective remedy for the situation.
The Georgians who will make the tour
have seen for a long time that their state,
though in resources a veritable treasure
house, was falling far behind other states in
reaping the industrial harvests. Our vast
Water-powers, our rich coal and iro1 and
mineral deposits, even our immense produc-
ton of cotton availed little compared to
the splendid uses made of such assets in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and half dozen other
states. Georgia, potentially one OF the
ually was one of the weakest. 1t was G
condition that cost the state millions every
year and brought dire consequences in de-
pendence on agriculture alone for our peo-
pies main income.
The states foremost business captains,
seeing this distressful picture with unblind-
ed eyes, decided to act. They went north
and east, to Pittsburg, where Georgia iron
ore was being made into steel which was
then shipped back to Georgia and sold at a
cotton seed was converted into toilet arti-
cles and cooking oils for which Georgians
later paid fancy prices; to plants where
Georgia clay was moulded into beautiful pot
/ terry; and, most impressive of all, to insti-
tutions such as the Mellon Institute and the
Massachusetts School of Technology, where
the research work was being done and the
men trained that enabled these industries
to wax mighty.
Now they have come home to Georgia
to preach the gospel Of industrial salvation
taught them by their trip. The message
they will bear on the Industrial tour in Feb
ruary is one every Georgian should take to
heart, for through it he stands to win for
himself and his children wealth, stability aud
happiness denied him in great measure to-
day. If the people of the state as a whole
can be shown what their fellow Georglans
saw, If they can be convinced of what their
fellow Georgians were convinced, if they will
likewise become disciples of the new indus
trial gospel, Georg1a's industrial future is as
sure as the rising of the sun. For the state
enthusiastically united in single effort for
single goal, will bring to pass a new era
In its progress.
The first step in that progress is to build
around the nucleus Of the present Georgia
Tech an institutio. comparable to the best
IN the east of the same character--an ;nsti-
tuition where business can bring it's problems
for solution, where scientific research will
find new methods for old and valuable as
sets in products now considered worthless;
where the young men of the SOUTH the fin
est raw material she has, can be trained for
the expert leadership that, by developing the
south's resources, will guide Georgia out Of
the wilderness into the land Of industrial
promise that waits ahead for her.