SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



Obviously the South has enjoyed a great war boom. 

 But in the postwar years ahead of us will this rich 

 region slump back or forge ahead? 



Southerners have grave economic problems, plenty of 

 them, and they do not always agree as to either causes 

 or cures. Whether, for example, a low average of family 

 income lower in the South than in any other important 

 section of the nation is the root or the fruit of their 

 economic ills is as warmly debatable among them as 

 the classic riddle of hen and egg. It was editor Peter 

 Molyneaux of the Texas Digest who laid bare for me 

 the South's real economic dilemma. Ignoring both root 

 and fruit, this steel-brained, honey-hearted breaker of 

 idols from Dallas described the seed in a bright paradox. 



"The curse of the South is its blessing of abundant 

 raw materials. Because it has no raw materials New 

 England lives off the rest of the country by its wits: 

 the South lives by charity because it has permitted the 

 rest of the country to exploit its natural resources." 



This is the Molyneaux technique: a barbed needle 

 jabbed under the skin to stimulate the brain cells. By 

 means of a picturesque parable this same thought was 

 amplified by another brilliant Southern analyst, Fred- 

 erick H. McDonald, consulting industrial engineer of 

 Charleston, South Carolina. 



"If a damned Yankee up in Connecticut/' he said 

 with a twinkle in his eye, "found a gold nugget in his 

 backyard, he'd take it straight to the geology professor 



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