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Ships and Textiles. Promising industrially was the South's share of the nation's shipbuilding bulge. Southern yards extending from Virginia's Newport News all the way around the Gulf Coast to Orange, Tex. had received some $1,250,000,000 in orders: almost $1,000,000,000 for the Navy, the rest for the Maritime Commission and private interests. Just the list of new yards made heady reading. The one at Orange was a brand-new $5,000,000 Navy project preparing to go on three 48-hour shifts a week to turn out twelve destroyers (costing $97,200,000). To build 75 of the standardized 7,500-ton freighters, under President Roosevelt's new 200 emergency ship program, yards were under construction at Houston, New Orleans and Wilmington, N. C. At Mobile, Ala., new Gulf Shipbuilding Co. yards were working on their first contract (four cargo ships worth about $12,000,000). Norfolk, Va. had a newcomer in Welding Shipyards, Inc. (starting off with a $4,000,000 tanker).
On the basis of post-World War I performance, the South could expect to see many of its now bustling yards shut down to rot after the emergency passed. But in 1941. past performances were a poor guide. The U. S. was committed to a two-ocean Navy, for the first time in its history. Quite possibly the nation would not soon again let its merchant marine decline to the decrepit state it was in at the outbreak of World War II—80% of its vessels obsolete or on the verge. With both Navy and Maritime Commission committed to a three-coast building policy, the South looked to substantial shipyard payrolls for years to come.
The South's big textile industry (with 77% of the nation's capacity) also feels the defense spur. Up to last September (when contracts were last broken down by factory areas) Southern mills had received $19,127,000 worth of orders from the Army and Navy, 40% of the total. With civilian consumption up as well, these mills will produce more goods and employ more workers this year than ever before in their history.
Some new industries cropped up too. Texas got a $7,000,000 airplane factory at Grand Prairie, a $10,000,000 airplane assembly plant at Garland, a plant to assemble four-motored Army bombers at Fort Worth. Dow Chemical Co. is spending $15,000,000 on a plant at Freeport, Tex. for extracting magnesium from Gulf water. Manufacture of toluol (for TNT) from petroleum was begun by Shell Oil Co. at its Houston refinery; a new $10,760,000 toluol plant was also under construction at Baytown, Tex. by Humble Oil. Another defense-born baby of the oil industry was synthetic rubber: Standard Oil Co. of Louisiana had a $1,000,000 buna plant under construction at Baton Rouge, and Hydrocarbon Chemical & Rubber Co. will complete a butadiene plant at Borger, Tex. next month.