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