Document: Deep South; Look away, Dixieland

Document deep south little over fields of cotton forests and factories in the heart of Dixie. A revealing story of progress documented with on the spot recordings and produced by the radio broadcasting service extension division. University of Alabama. For the next 30 minutes you will make a transcribed trip through the day. You will see the significance of a new industrial self. Changing south. You will see how determined people are nature's platy into prosperity. A move that more than ever is making itself felt in our nation's economy. Look away Dixieland.

Her. Question What makes a new South New South change. Does the newness of the change come by forces from within or without. Take a car travel U.S. Highway Number one and see for yourself. From Richmond to Raleigh through Columbia in Waycross and down the Atlantic coast to the tip of the Florida Keys from high up above the Blue Ridge in the night flight to low it will. See it to the streamlined window of a Southerner zooming southward through Charlotte to capture Atlanta by night and Birmingham to boot bustling in it links to New Orleans from the sea running Hatteras like the Hampton Roads.

And you ask yourself what has caused this unusual phenomenon this economic resurgence of the southland. The will of the people. Yes you've seen evidence of that. We have it just recently. We're trying to diversify as part of these organizations working to bring diversified farming in the industry combined so that we will have a table for our nurses few exist. Could it be education as well. Yes that too. You could build a reactor that is going to help the economy of the South the economy live good and scientific developments. I think it's sad to take research in the last few years. The farmer. On his way quite rapid.

But most of all the handiwork of nature show would understand once said The snow should be a very lovely lamb. Nature is done her part. Yes you think that all right. The rugged mountains and the rich or the flatlands and the fabulous crops. The people with perseverance and the production to prove it. Well the new South can be seen in wide acres of cultivated fields. In fact a till farm lands in Lynchburg to Lake Charles. I look forward to when the cities of steel and smokestack word also appears in tenements with TV aerials and tug boats and tow barges in income tax returns. And it would seem that the development of Dixie is an accomplishment of southern Africa Lome southern ingenuity. Hot actual

town copper mining area you haven't managed to get in a crash site. First real connection with connecting an Atlantic outage that was shipped out from a lot of miles about 40 miles out of the country.

How many cars do you think you up out of an average day. About Champa and some of the Flying going out on railroad cars about how many products of that found train right. Right. Thing about our products shipped out. The right hot plane can you explain that off to our own reject. Knowing and adding running to make guesses about water.

Sure but I didn't get my reply that. You were there that day standing in the shadow of the giant Tennessee copper company listening to Dr. Walter B Jones your travelling companion. Discuss transportation with a company official and it was then that you realize the scope the dimension of this development. This change called a new South. It is not confined to the foresight of southerners alone in neither cause nor effect. It has roots reaching out into other areas even in other lands. And well it speaks for a region. Please remember an economic rebirth such as this cannot possibly occur without the aid of many. This you have learned and so today industrialists seek out Dicksee for certain advantages. There's also an abundance of power. There is also natural gas. And among these is transportation.

There is always the fact that the community is served by two rivers. The South today is a busy place. Trains and planes and trucks galore cutting a cross hatch pattern of progress across 11 states. We're after all New South must be more than a productive south. It must be a selling themselves and to buy and sell the basic essentials of a sound and growing economy. It is necessary to have a fast and efficient transport system. You have but to add to the sounds of a summer a night to hear the lonely wail of a moving freight numbering across track and trestle to reap the reward of a richer more reliable Southland.

In Atlanta where railways converge with the confusion of spaghetti you discover a few facts you discover for one thing that southeastern railroads closed up in 1952 with total loadings of nearly 7 million cars because of competition with stimulated activities during the early part of the year because of those of their summer drought because of unhappy interruptions in the production of certain basic industries. This figure represents a drop over 951. Nevertheless and get this it represents a decrease of only 2 percent as compared to an overall national decrease of six point one per cent. You learn many things not just things distinctive of Dixie

but of facts of concern that must be considered by every state every region. Transportation you find is one factor that often dictates the location of an industrial farm. And while all plans have one thing in common that is they seek low cost transportation and satisfactory service. You discover that different needs must be met to fill the bill. Perhaps speed is required or regularity of service or certain types of transport of Florida citrus produce it will demand speed for the freshness of his fruit becomes his major concern. Yet for short haul economy he utilizes refrigerated trucks. I produce both products however I find it more practical to ship his goods by low cost water transportation. Therefore a river a waterway becomes a prerequisite in the location of his farm. Some companies desire many shipments per day and therefore seek the service that can only be offered in a large city. But sometimes mere rates are not a major concern at all cases for example

where quality and dependability of service are considered more important sometimes to the problem is in the transporting of raw materials rather than the finished product. Although usually the rates are higher on finished goods. This occurs when you have a weight reduction as in the production of elemental phosphorus. Since it takes 15 tons of rock to produce one ton of phosphorus. The economy is obvious. Locate the plant near the mine. Industrialists Pryde to eliminate unnecessary transportation. A what they term back all. By placing their plants between the source of their material and their market. They try to eliminate unnecessary handling too by sometimes locating at a natural break in transportation means. That is where there must be a transfer say from water to radio. Yes you've learned many things about the South. Just as the South and learned many things about herself.

And so a study of the new South becomes a study of geography extending far above and beyond the Mason-Dixon line. Well the South has not only learn to look at herself but to look away look away far away. Coming up a bit like Dad. Yeah. Yes it might be the way that much of it coming up for sale right. You're standing on a long walk with the number two port of the nation New Orleans. You're watching frantic stevedores noise and exerting muscle and energy moving up and down and they're a

gangplank pushing tugging tying knots lifting loading listening to the creak of straining cranes. Now far away you can see the same side from an office window. The office of the director of commerce for the Port of New Orleans Mr. Lewis BUSCH Well we all get the number one border of the Nation of course that settled because it's a big deal and so and we manage and have been fortunate to take away from you your tremendous amount of cargo for the reason that we've been able to sell people overseas and people in the Mid-Continent in the south but they can ship people through all sorts of people who have not been using dollars because they have not been made well aware already but not of the whole baby little and in our water work we're helping of course the other horse in the Gulf of Mexico like Mobi 11 the other ports in Texas. Well we're starting to bore in dollar value of merchandise because last year we had gold almost

what it was a billion seven hundred million dollars. Lewis Busch was a kind of distinguished looking gentleman a fast talker Phil. With all the enthusiasm and excitement his French ancestry can muster. But you and Dr. Jones could soon see that he has something to be excited about. A point of progress. Well for many years you know this sport has been in operation as a board as a world court. And way back in 1848 rival Liverpool London New York as a port. But the War Between The States took place and of course rehabilitation then developed then the port there went down in our convoy it went to well I would say it went the part. And it took us a markedly years to recoup the opposition but we never did get to the point where we did rival those great ports of the world London Liverpool and we all but down through the years we built to celebrate the era we made some progress but of course.

Lot of public agencies go into politics for a while before being a public agency of the state of Louisiana which is somewhat political ice and the result is that the agency did not carry the drive and initiative that it should have and the result of the rival courts came into being in terms of our commerce away from us. Well Dr. Jones by the end of the war we realized right here in New Orleans that we had to do something about the war and of course being situated at the gateway of the Mississippi Valley graphically located right in the heart of the Deep South we concluded that we didn't have to promote and tell the world that we had a good port here. But the war proved to us that that was necessary and so right after the war we began a promotion program. First of all we need to do it our own Commerce Department here and we opened offices in the interior New York Washington Chicago Bush a man traveling the entire area and then a man driving Latin America.

Well we have been a bit. We have been able to develop some buying traffic through here. We have increased our tonnage in 1945 to worry go back to Malchus abayas about eight and a half million tons of imports and exports. The early struggles of the New Orleans port are reminiscent of similar setbacks experienced by other docks of the deep south even today. For instance in Miami the Mecca of tourist trade. The future of a fledgling port appeared in doubt as late as this year. They were awaiting a decision in a dispute between city and county over the possession of the port. But like New Orleans to other parts of the South have risen to the responsibility of providing adequate facilities adequate information to attract trade from far and wide. Noteworthy among these are the ports harbored by for Junior's famous Hampton Roads Norfolk Portsmouth and Newport News. More total export

tonnage passed through Hampton Roads in 1951 in all the North Atlantic ports combined more than all the South Atlantic ports combined more total tonnage than all the Gulf ports could boast and even topped the combined ports of the Pacific. What does this mean to the south. Well among other things it means a trade outlet an essential element for industry for agriculture. No area can stand alone Southerners know it. They know the need for goods for buyers. The realisation is there. South Carolina is leading the way perhaps because we have more room for new industries that might be a very important factor in South Carolina for instance you have to ask them why their state has enjoyed the greatest increase for industrialization of any state in the nation. We are probably closer to the markets for some products. We have a first rate port in Charleston for particular reasons but to kill

industries located here rather than Georgia. Like New Orleans Charleston has more than doubled her port traffic by doing business with more than 100 ports of the world like New Orleans two ports at Savannah Georgia and Mobile Alabama shows signs of progress. In fact this year the state dock celebrated 25th anniversary a quarter century of service to a city that harbors historic tales of early explorers early beginnings. Further south some 400 miles on the gulf side of the Florida peninsula the Port of Tampa out of this port daily sail heavy freight is filled with phosphate. This cargo forming 91 percent of Tampa's export tonnage incoming vessels bring petroleum products sulfur bananas and the basic commodities for making time for the cigar center of America ones work from Havana Cuba and America.

And they are born in it. They then let me by then. Well it would be a good many of them have been in business generate some of that and even that their generation and there may have been a maker. I'm her father I'm sure make him take children away from them. What strength. What strides for the Deep South of House through these books. One of the Nordic features of a foreign sale or a bag of coffee beans from Brazil. The influence of in a Continental and world trade is tremendous. Its effect is far reaching and its forms of prosperity are numerous. How much currency for instance would be circulated with the arrival of a Liberty ship say at the Port of

New Orleans. Once again Mr. Lewis. One ship limited. Coming here with about seventy five hundred dollars of Godall that shipped here then export gobble is all horrible. Well that ship will remain here seven eight maybe 10 years. But the ship is right here to pour over 100 of them. Multiply that if you please but the countless number of cargo ships that move in and out of this port. About 4000 ships and 952 consider the astronomical figure tabulated by ports up and down the long coastline of the South even ports I mentioned ports that harbor everything from fishing fleets to foreign freighters ports like Morehead City in Wilmington North Carolina. Like Georgetown in Beaufort South Carolina ports in Georgia like Brunswick and in Florida like Jacksonville Panama City and Pensacola. Yes

you begin to see how I can count up and whether or not the port is big and the trade is brisk in the air alive with the shouts of shoving stevedores the clang of metal and the clatter of crates and the creak of grinding wind shears and the voice of the big tired darkie whose duty is to unload the ship. This whole ship loaded with all that and ready and loaded up until the bottom. Coming out of it and not let up like I thought whole thing I think of how many how many pounds of it I think about get out of the way let somebody else way about it. That demand by the way I thank you very much.

Whether or not the harbor he's in the swellings well in business laughing at the long lines of Liberty ships coming alive in the confusion of cargo Derrickson dock hams. One fact remains the South is on the march moving toward the ultimate in expectation moving by highway by railway by sea and by and a little less but the small one horse town tube in operation. They count the grimy station the 525 local the milk truck the travels the roads the dusty runway of the country airport the nips and piers of a fisherman's village. They count too. Big or little. What does it mean that under which ever goes the game that Atlanta terminal point for Southern Railroad should enjoy that particular prosperity along. That New Orleans Number Two part of the nation should not all the game from world trade.

We are playing a part not only into building the commerce of the port but we are playing a part into believing the commerce of the South in the Mid-Continent area by the Mid-Continent area I mean that bastion area between the rock is on one side and the Alleghenies on the other side and of course industry is moving south. Make no mistake about that centralization on the Atlantic seaboard has somewhat stung and of many factors of moving westward and southward and the reason for that is is that we have good transportation facilities in the south we have rivers we have highways we've got good rail roads and of course we've got good ports on the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe it was a good board. Well it was a good board. Houston is a good boy because we have taken the lead in promoting all baseball and has gone forward because we got the job. We realized that poor business was valuable to our people. A matter of interest to you. Let me say that 70 cents out of every dollar that circulates right in there didn't mean it was an idiot nor comes from the operation of the poor

soul like you see for the rich. The poor generates chorus and it generates the spending of dollars. Now you know very well that if you drop a pebble in the middle of a pawn it forms a ring and that ring experiment expand and expand in the prosperity generated right here this board here is that all the bottom is yeah maybe into Tennessee over the Mississippi over and over the joint here so you see that the creation of employment and prosperity at a point like the wall and at the Big Board help stand us out but we go for that. That might be our own selfish more if we go forward and that we try defining consumers for the products generated by the industries in the south. And so you see the answer to your question. And all South is made new by the will of the people. Yes by education in science and natural resources. But trade too plays its part in building a strong

and sturdy Southland trained in transportation. The economics of buy and sell. That's the secret to Southern influence in the world at large but that influence has even greater potentialities according to a bush well. Listen. Last year United States did a 25 billion dollar world trade but that's a lot of business for the United States. Well 25 billion dollars when you scratch that off. The production in the United States you're crippling the manufacturers and the farmers of the nation. There what we've got to protect the 25 billion dollar business. In fact we've got down to protect it but we've got to increase it and to keep this thing we've got to keep telling our people in the United States trading with foreign nations buy and sell and that way what happens. We get friendly with those people. And when you're trading with a man you get to be his friend and you're not likely to be an enemy of really you're not likely to go to war. Got a point. You see that in

the whole world. By doing that you make a friend of your customer. He depends on you. You depend on him and you're not going to fight and that more than anything else seems to me will be a great influence in promoting this world peace that we're all striving for. Is it any wonder we grow enthusiastic about this world trade business. Because not only do we benefit in a selfish way. Make no mistake about it we do. But we see all around us all nameless. The neighboring states are benefiting by all of this and we see the makeup of the United States prospering because we are generating trade for the midterm we're generating trade for the South but the Southland and of course all proximity to that last US market over there in Latin America makes a good natural flow of the South and Latin America to do business and one of these days you'll find that the

businesses will have to love America and the solve that with more Ryan will be able to live in manufacturing areas of the law things along the Atlantic seaboard big all of the World Trade that we're generating and we better protect them. And this has been Program 17 of document Deep South a series of actuality documentaries depicting the increasing

importance of the South and the economic development of our nation this week. Look away Dixieland a future outlook that involves many people many areas and the building of a better self. Your narrator was well but Iker. Document Deep South is written and produced by Roy BANNERMAN With Dr wont to be Jones as a senior consultant. Document deep self is resented by the radio broadcasting services extension division. University of Alabama and is made possible by a grant from the Hong for adult education and independently established by the Ford Foundation. Now this is bars reminding you that this has been a radio

presenter of the University of Alabama. This is the ne e b network ATL.