The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-11-23

lively small, III Is true, but the organization
is here and its facilities are open to the pub
lie, and it can grow.
Among the men, most of them shipyard
workers, there are probably hundreds who
own cupboard motors for fishing, and small
~trailers for sporting trips, and there is prob
ably more wholesome recreational activity
along these lines than they could ever enjoy
back home for the reason that there is
more money to spend on these things and
more countryside to enjoy along this beau
tiful coast. Almost every block has Its scene
of backyard activity-a small boat hull I'M
der construction, a marine engine or an out
board motor in the process OF being rebuilt,
etc. These are scenes of a stimulated COM
munity. During a depression, or when living
in a country that is doing poorly, we are in
clined to 90 into a hole and lose interest In
such things.
The explanation for the fact that Pas
cagoula has stepped far ahead OF its
neiqhbors-even those Just down the
coasts not hard to find. Briefly. we
have become an industrial community.
while the Delta and the hills and even
much of the truck farming region are
still ciinqinq to an obsolete farm econ
omy not greatly changed from what 1t
was a century ago. There is money here
to afford education. books. clothes. fish
inq. hobbies. and many other varied and
interesting pursuits. And we differ from
Biloxi and Gulfport in that our war
created population are mostly steady
workers and family men. rather than a
constantly shifting military personnel;
and our economy has been geared to =
long-rsnge industry rather than to the
war alone. This has made for a greater
sense of permanence here: and 1t has
allowed the residents of the community
to become far better integrated than is
possible in any army town.
In many of the cotton-growing counties
the making of a crop takes only about 100
full days of labor. This leaves 265 relatively
unproductive days in the year, and 1t is
simply impossible to get enough production
under such a system to bring general pros
perity to a community. 1t is a system almost
impossible for the poor farmer to beat who
has no capital and good land of his own.
Only a few planters can get rich in such a
background. The workers who have come
here from such places have passed into the
Industrial Age from an age of semi-feudal-
ism. Many of them have developed gripes
and grumbies of one sort of another, for it is
human nature to do so; but most of them, we
believe, prefer by far the life of the indus
trial worker, and though they may miss the
ancient lore of the farmers life. the rythms
of the changing seasons, they do not miss the
steamy hot days in the cotton rows, the
alternating periods of toll and enforced idle
ness; nor the poverty, and the lack of oppor-
tunity for their children.
In addition to this, the leadership of the
Federal Public Housing Authority, through
experience and foresight and with available
funds, could give thenew developments here
the benefit of experience and overall plan
ming for community life. We have not taken
advantage of these opportunities fully but
their influence has been important. land we
must take the good sense to understand this,
and get the new Recreation building started
on an active prograin.)
why Pascagoula, for all its surface sprawl
and disorganization (none of it so bad as it
was two years ago. is nevertheless the most
stimulated and progressive city in the state,
We do not mean to leave the impress. y
sion that we all live here in a Garden of
Eden. and that no one has just or quar-
relous complaints. We have had troubles
in the past and we will have them in the
future. like any other community. There
are ~injustices here. there Is ignorance.
laziness. prejudice. hypocrisy and greed
here. as in any community. But relative
lY speaking we are in good shape. and
we intend to improve. Because there is
a stabilized industry here and a relatively
high proportion of Jobs available. the
worst patterns of injustice. blindness and
inefficiencY have not been able to de-
velop as in the Delta. for example.
And we wish to express here unqualified
disagreement with the idea, held by some OF
our business men, that Pascagoula should
not seek any more industry for the present
because the labor market is tight. Bring the
industries here, and pay fair wages, and the
labor will be found, now that the war is
over. Let no one concoet any fairytales tc
the contrary. The industrial wages paid al
the shipyards brought many thousands here
and other sound industries here can bring
many thousands more in the same way. We
are not making a plea for just any sort OF
industry, for sweat-shops or for industries
negligent and destructive of the country
side; Mississippi has enough of these, ano