SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



supper party. Our host was Carl Fritsche, the emphatic 

 engineer who operates the Reichhold chemical plant 

 at Tuscaloosa. Fritsche has been a husky trail blazer 

 in the chemurgic movement to use more farm products 

 as factory raw materials and he laid before us his clean- 

 cut opinions about cotton economics. The sociological 

 aspects were firmly, gracefully set forth by Raymond 

 Paty, President of Alabama University, a gentleman of 

 the New School of the Old South. The feminine point 

 of view important, indeed, when we discuss the uses 

 of cotton was expounded by our wives with back- 

 grounds ranging from New York to New Orleans. 



Into the smooth, easy flow of this conversation Hud- 

 son Strode flung a verbal brickbat. Strode has lived 

 abroad and has written thought-spurring books about 

 Finland and Mexico, but he knows Alabama. 



"Let us face the facts," he said. "The North not only 

 beat the South in the War between the States, but it 

 ruined the South during Reconstruction and for years 

 since has robbed the South by high tariffs and preferen- 

 tial freight rates. It is only poetic justice if the taxpayers 

 of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania must 

 now pay us to grow cotton, as we have paid to support 

 their industries." 



Fearing for Mrs. Fritsche's nice party I tried to 

 cudgel up some diverting query. Our host himself saved 

 the pleasant discussion by a burst of mock heroics. I 



24 



