SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



her of important chemical products. There is mercury 

 in the Big Bend of Texas; bauxite for alum in Arkansas 

 or across the Gulf of Mexico from British Guiana; fine 

 clays and ochres in Georgia and Alabama; native gyp- 

 sum and fine silica in many locations. This sector of the 

 South has almost everything, and what is lacking can 

 come in by barge or boat, the cheapest of all transporta- 

 tion. This last asset completes the economic combina- 

 tion. Most chemical raw materials are bulky or heavy 

 and low priced. They cannot afford high freight that 

 can be absorbed by finished products. 



The South has also a vast store of organic materials 

 needed in the synthesis of textile fibers, plastics and 

 resins, waxes and glues, perfumes and medicines. Here 

 are to be had two forms of cellulose, from cotton linters 

 and from pine wood, for manufacturing paper, trans- 

 parent wrapping sheets, photographic film, smokeless 

 powder, the finest of lacquers. At hand, too, are vege- 

 table oils from cottonseed and peanuts; proteins from 

 cottonseed meal, soybeans, and grain sorghums; carbo- 

 hydrates from sweet potato or rice starch or the sugar 

 cane of Louisiana. Southern rosin and turpentine are 

 already the base of exciting chemical developments. 

 Lignin, tall oil, and furfural, recovered wastes that have 

 chemical futures, are all available. 



Most important of all, petroleum and natural gas, per- 

 fectly able to replace coal, coke, and coal tar, both as 

 fuel ( chemical manufacturing needs lots of power and 



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