CHEMICAL TREASURE TROVE 



available for many kinds of industries, and much South- 

 ern postwar planning is predicated on these materials. 

 Synthetic resins will be made at Memphis, at Tusca- 

 loosa, and at Mobile, and while today there is but one 

 important Southern plastics fabricator making cups and 

 electrical sockets and such like, I was told of enthusi- 

 astic plans afoot in Atlanta, New Orleans, and Mobile 

 to enter this promising field. I read the blueprints for at 

 least two big plastic-plywood operations. Both these 

 have been drawn by Southern lumber companies which 

 prewar only shipped "rough stuff' to be finished in 

 Northern planing mills. With all the raw materials now 

 locally available and big market at the front door, new 

 paint and lacquer plants are projected at Houston, 

 Jacksonville, Savannah, Vicksburg, and, I dare say, a 

 dozen other Southern cities. 



Most of these projects are fathered by Southern men 

 financed by local capital. In the main the new petro- 

 chemical industry will be a big-boy game, played by 

 the strong petroleum, chemical, and rubber companies. 

 But these new "associated enterprises" are the idea of 

 home-town talent. This is a type of Southern industrial- 

 ization quite distinct from that which depends upon a 

 branch factory of a Northern company bribed by a free 

 plant site or lured by the delusive prospect of a low 

 wage scale. It is at once the promise and pledge of the 

 South's chemical future. 



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