REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH 



land I can afford to," he confessed. "Every six or eight 

 years I have a crop of pulp wood; in twenty or twenty- 

 five, some good saw lumber; any year I can rent the 

 gum turpentine crop. The paper mills or the lumber 

 dealers will come in and cut and cart the wood I want 

 to sell them. All I need is a tractor to keep the fire 

 lanes open and some axes to keep the trash growth 

 down. And when I get a thousand acres I reckon I can 

 live out the rest of my life on that land. Ill have trou- 

 bles enough to keep me thin, but I won't have to go 

 on relief to keep from starving. Looks to me like pine 

 trees is the closest thing on earth to a perpetual cash 

 inventory." 



This switch from bonanza to bank account is even 

 more impressive in another area of conspicuous ex- 

 ploitation of Southern resources. Fifteen years ago 

 Louisiana and Texas took over control of crude petro- 

 leum and began to prorate the withdrawal of oil from 

 various fields. The petroleum companies had to take it. 

 They have come to like it. 



Texans and Louisianans watched that proration battle 

 from the sidelines. The real fight was fought in the 

 state legislature. Many newspapers crusaded actively 

 for the conservation laws, and demagogic talk about 

 "big Northern corporations" and "irreplaceable re- 

 serves" and "God's gift to the people" raised the sem- 

 blance of a popular, political issue. Nevertheless, the 

 people remained blithely indifferent to the oil con- 



17 



