The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-01-07
Continued from Page One)

ing. >
The music is still inspiring but
the lyric wants rewriting. T h e
South is no longer merely the land
OF cottor, and the OLD times are
very definitely forgotten"
heartily agree: The South S
purely industrial contribution to
the present war effort is we'll
known, including its s:1lpyards, air.
plane plants, ordnance plants, ex-
plosive plants, and other new"
manufacturing plants. These, of
course, ar. in addition to h e
South's norma" textile, furniture,
steel, pulp and paper, lumber.
woodworking, manufactured to-
bacco, and various other indus
tries. The new industries did
not 'just hapoen' or come about
merely through military or politi-
cal expediency, but developed be-
cause of the South's natural re-
sources, urbane climate, intelligent
population, and above all, the
| South's visionary. and at S m e
time practical. industrial leader
ship, composed OF men who have
for some time realized what d.
versificatlon of effort will mean
to the future of the South, and
what industrial production can
mean in greatly increased income
and desire fo- wider opportunity.
The South's failure to progress
industrially for generations and
now, in turn, its amazing war in
dustry record, with the encourage
ment it holds for the postwar pc
Rod, can botri be traced to psy-
Geological attitudes, one generated
by much EARLIER war, the other
stimulated by the present war.
Following termination of the War
Between the States in 1865 and
the emancipation OF slave labor,
prejudices were widespread among
northern industrialists that south
ern labor was lazy and just not
naturally mechanically minded,
and economists saw no hope for
the South except in agriculture.
and very restricted { long crop'O
agriculture at that, meaning King
Cotton. The past tW5 or three gen
erations have made {, notable start
toward dispelling those prejudices,
for just ,efcre tie present war,
while cotton was (ana isl still an
important crop, the South began
to recognize no single economy.
and undertook the production of
leaf tobacco peanuts. live stock
(processed in packing plants in the
territory, corn, wheat, potatoes,
citrus fruits, truck garden produce
of all kinds. dairy p, oducts, and
numerous other pruducts of farm,
ranch and grove. During this time
$4,000 manufacturers had learned
that the South's natural resources
can be processed right here in
the South. The impact of the pres
ent total war ha: removed the
last lingering vestige of prejudice,
because southern latcr has dem
onstrated, that it MOI only is nei-
Their lazy nor Impractical but is
startlingly versatile ard dextrous.
The fact that the wartime indus
trial boom in Dixie lard has come
about more through expansion and
conversion of existing industries
than establishment Of new indus
tries demonstrates that southern
industria,ists and manufacturers
have the same ingenuity as their
northern contemporaries
Before the present war, southern
industry generally had shown a
growing tendency to decentralize.
The war has undoubtedly stimulat-
ed that trend fo- la1ge war in
dustries Rave been located in dis
tricts heretofore predonlinantly ag-
ricultural, and have demonstrated
that production costs here are no
higher, indeed are often lower,
than in the long established indus
trial centers lUcated elsewhere in
the country. The present war has
greatly ENLARGED the South's pro-
ductive facilities and skilled work
ers, and southern business lead
ers will not, I fee sure, resign
themselves to return to the old
economy when postwar adjust
ments come, and coae they must
with reccnversion to reacetime pro-
duction.
Perhaps ] may be justly accused
of being tinged witr the South S
traditional sentimentality, but the
personal, or human interest, fea-
ture of the SovtE's postwar future
has great appeal to me. I like
to think, and believe | am justified
in such thinking, that in the post
war period the South will be built,
really built, by individuals seek
ing personal opportunity, as well
as by industrlaliSts recruiting work
ers, or investors developing re-
sources. The framing program of
the huge military establishment
has resulted in the location in the
South. for reasons OF climate and
otherwise. of an exceptionally
large number Of military camps,
posts. and bases of al branches
of our armed services. The tenn
porary popula lion o. those camps,
posts, ard ba ses, ano the turn
over in personnel Of their garri-
sons. Aaizen in relation to the ag-
eregate number of rner assumed
or estimated 10 be il, the armed
forces. seems to indicate that at