SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



power would sustain an annual payroll of at least fifty 

 million dollars. In addition, such an industrial growth in 

 the Valley would initiate a trend of events that would 

 double or treble this basic payroll in services and sup- 

 plementary industries. 



Aluminum and phosphorous products are already 

 established in the region. With limestone, coal, and 

 labor plus low-cost power all available, it is not vision- 

 ary to foresee great industries based upon carbide all 

 the way from Chattanooga to Paducah or preferably to 

 below Florence. From carbide, acetylene gas for weld- 

 ing could be distributed by water transport. The Tom- 

 bigbee Canal connects the Tennessee River practically 

 at Florence with the port of Mobile, whence imported 

 chrome and manganese could be brought in for the 

 production of ferroalloys. These steel-making ingre- 

 dients could still reach Pittsburgh and Chicago by water 

 transport. Adjacent to Sheffield is low-grade, high-silica 

 bauxite, ideal raw material for the manufacture of syn- 

 thetic abrasives of the general type of silicon carbide, 

 The by-product alloys are wanted today at the Bir- 

 mingham steel mills. Salt, sulfur, and petroleum, all 

 gathered in by barge, are the requirements for employ- 

 ing TVA kilowatts in an electrochemical development 

 that might threaten the supremacy of Niagara Falls. 



These are not dreams, but they cannot come true 

 unless the power policies of the TVA are revised to an 

 industrial base. Judged by the common-sense yardstick, 



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