Preface
The time is coming when the South will no
longer exist as a separate and exotic province of the
American experience. Many of the old monuments of
regional distinction--one-party politics， one race of
voters， one-crop agriculture， one-industry towns--the
old symbols of a moi~olithic South， are vanishing. The
South still enjoys its ~hare of faults， but its blemishes
are increasingly the fa~lts of other parts of the country
--standard American \"faults. While positive in some
areas， this trend can also have melancholy results.
In too malay areas， the South is making a pell-mell
dash to catch up to something that is essentially sorry
and shabby in the rest of America. The South is buying
some brands of progress which it would better shun:
alienation from work and the land itself， the ugliness of
brash new cities and suburbs， a runaway bulldozer men-
tality; the narrow vision that sees polluting smokestacks
as simply obelisks of progress， that smells in polluted air
only the scent of jobs. I am speaking of that blind
boosterism， often found in Chambers of Commerce and
business associations throughout the South， which would
make industrial wastelands such as Newark， New Jersey，
the models of the Southern future.
Since the collapse of the Populists， Southerners have
become increasingly tolerant of corporate abuses which
needlessly reduce the safety and beauty of their work
and leisure environment. These attitudes have attracted
some of the least responsible corporate enterprises to
the South. It is now time to start counting their costs to
the quality of Southern life.
Environmental pollution is a good place to start. The
South， which prides itself on its open spaces and natural
beauty in contrast to the congested and polluted North，
is now being polluted at a faster rate than any section of
the nation. Seventy-five per cent of all pesticides used in
the United States are used on Southern soil. Southern
whites have 30 per cent more DDT in their tissue than
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