DEVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH 



your gas and there is willing American capital to pipe 

 it down. 



"Your doom will be sealed in a matter of months, in- 

 stead of years. Because it takes only months to barter 

 away your natural gas forever. Once the pipelines are 

 laid and the contracts are made, your reserves are be- 

 yond your grasp, and your industrial future is bartered 

 away for a mess of pottage.'* 



And Sam H. Jones went on to "document," as he 

 himself said, the industrial future of the Gulf Coast by 

 pointing out that natural gas is the key to the future of 

 synthetic rubber and 100-octane gasoline, that it is 

 an industrial necessity as a fuel in a region lacking coal 

 and water power; and most important of all, that it is 

 the coming raw material for the modern plastics and 

 chemical industries. 



"As a basic material for chemicals, natural gas simply 

 has no competitor. This alone should build hundreds 

 of industrial plants in gas-producing states. This alone 

 will provide hundreds of thousands of jobs. It will 

 bring a caravan of prosperity. One basic plant will 

 beget many subsidiary plants. It is our nearest approach 

 to a balanced economy" a lawyer and a politician, 

 expounding to a crowd of Texas businessmen the doc- 

 trine of chemical values. 



Twenty years ago, an illustrious Georgian, aptly de- 

 scribed as "a Southern gentleman who happened to 

 be a damned good chemist," expounded that same doc- 



- 19 



