A WARNING TO THE READER 



liquors of the paper mills and using it in soaps and 

 paints; men who are blasting the atoms in petroleum 

 with electrical charges to make undreamed-of products. 



To show you what they are thinking, and how they 

 work, and the prizes they hope to win, I have placed 

 each in his workaday world. Hundreds of others who 

 are taking active parts in the great forward thrust of 

 Southern life, I have been forced to omit. And I have 

 had to pass by some developments that may rise up to 

 smite me by becoming important. But by means of this 

 simplification I have hoped to give you a vivid impres- 

 sion of what is happening in the South and a clearer 

 understanding of what it means to the whole nation. 



This book is the outgrowth of a long journey collect- 

 ing material for some articles for The Saturday Evening 

 Post. Ten years ago I covered much of the same ground, 

 talked to many of the same men, and wrote a series of 

 articles in which I forecast the coming chemical indus- 

 trialization of the South. At that time my prophecy was 

 pooh-poohed by some skeptics. Today the writing of 

 the following chapters has been a particularly enjoy- 

 able revenge. 



Nor have I been merely an inquiring reporter roam- 

 ing strange territory. I went South to college; an ex- 

 perience I heartily recommend to young New England- 

 ers, and in reverse, to young Southerners. Later for 

 several years I worked intimately with a group of 

 Southern industrialists as their chemical consultant. 



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