Evening star., 1943-04-15
South Must Develop
Resources, Virginia
State T.. Of T.. Told
Rudd Says Area Should
Be Viewed as Opportunity
And Not as Problem
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ROANOKE, Va, April 15-Dr.
Wortley F. Rudd, former president
of the Southern Association of
Science and Industry, declared to-
day that the generation now grow
ing up must be completely sold on
the idea that the South is not
economic problem No. /, but is
rather opportunity No. l for those
who will take advantage of this op-
portunity" if the South is to have
Its proper place in the national
economy.
Speaking at the annual meeting
of the Virginia State Chamber of
Commerce, DR.. Rudd said he found
far more disturbing than the send
ing away of the South's material
wealth for fabrication, the fact that
many of the most promising young
men and women ever born any,
where" were constantly crossing the
Potomac to be trained technologi-
cally In science or industry. And,
he added, relatively few ever came
back home to live. 5..-...
why do they leave In such large
numbers?" he asked. mot q first
rank school Of technology ii the
whole South. Why do they not
come back home to work and live?
Because southern industry and
southern institutions fail utterly to
evaluate properly the contributions
that these sons and daughters of
ours might make toward the de-
velopment of what is potentially one
OF the richest areas in the world"
Trend Must Be Reversed.
DR.. Rudd added that the South
now, as it had always been, is too
much the producer of raw material
which is shipped North for fabrica-
tion and is sold back to the South
with the additional charges of two
way freight rates and the costs of
brains, skill and labor put into the
finished products.
"The tragedy Of it is that all too
slowly are we. OF Virginia, and our
neighbors to the south Of us, TAX
ing proper steps to reverse these
trends which, If not reversed, will
bleed us white" he said.
mot until the hardheaded busi-
nessmen and the scientifically
trained personnel Of the region
realize fully that they must, working
hand in hand, reverse these trends
will we be anything but hewers of
yuaNl orl of ofn,> f4v H.,
rest OF the country"
Lists Natural Resources.
Pointing to the enormity of the
task and at the same time the posi-
bilities for development of the
South, DR.. Rudd quotes these fig
ures on the South's wealth-one-
third of the Nations minerals, one
fifth of the bituminous coal, two
thirds of the oil, two-thirds of the
natural gas, one-half of the mar
BILE, 81 per cent of the phosphates,
80 per cent Of the sulphur, 40 per
cent of the forests, more than 80 per
cent of the cotton, 100 per cent of
the turpentine and rosin, much iron
ore and salt estimated not in tons
but in cubic miles, And as a means
of utilizing this wealth and improv-
ing the South's modes of thinking,
working and living, he said:
I'm the first place we must begin
with the generation that is growing
up. During these impressionable
years, every effort should be made to
develop in them q wholesome at
titude toward the possibilities all
around them. They must be COM
pletely sold on the idea that the
South Is not economic problem No.
/, but is rather opportunity No. l
for those who will take advantage
Of this opportunity.
Would Publish Data.
Gas q means to this end, would
have published somewhere in every
textbook they use from kindergarten
through high school attractively pre-
pared data about the South's re-
sources; her raw materials, her ad-
vantages climatically and topo-
graphically, her adaptability to a
wide variety Of industrial and agri-
cultural developments, her homoge-
nous population, her comparative
freedom from the extremes and con-
vulsions Of nature that are so de-
vastating in some parts Of the
| world - =.
zone generation Of young folk thus
imbued with this idea would, we
believe, be q powerful ferment in
bringing about q changed attitude
toward the possibilities of the South.
And I submit that a changed atti-
tude Of our youth is fundamental
to any sort Of an intelligent solution
Of this problem. }"
Dr.. Rudd. dean Of pharmacy at
the Medical College of Virginia, Is
member Of the Long Range Plan
ming Committee Of taA Association
Of Science and Industry.