Texas Almanac, 1939-1940 Page: 169
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TEXAS INDUSTRIES-INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION.
Preceding chapters have dealt with (1)
the drama of Texas' political history and
the stage on which the drama has been
enacted, and (2) the heritage of natural
resources that has fallen to the lot of
Texas in its climate, soils water, and na-
tive flora and fauna. (One other large
division of natural resources, the miner-
als, is treated on later pages in connec-
tion with the mining industries.)
Chapters immediately following will re-
view the industries of Texas and indus-
trial production. In a basic sense indus-
try refers to all activity by which natural
resources are converted into usable com-
modities and articles. This includes live-
stock raising, all forms of crop-growing
and production of forest products, ex-
traction of minerals, and manufacturing.
Industrial Production, 1938.
The total industrial production of Tex-
as in 1938 was estimated at $1,815,562,000,
classified as follows:
Livestock products ................ $303,862,000
Crops ........................... 324,400,000
Minerals ........................ 757,000,000
Manufactures (net)................ 411,300,000
Miscellaneous ..................... 19,000,000
Total .........................$1,815,562,000
In the past, Texas industry has been
primarily the production of raw materi-
als. Prior to 1900 it was primarily the
production of raw livestock and crop ma-
terials; since 1900 there has been rapid
development of production of minerals.
The industrial development of Texas in
the narrower sense of the manufacturing
industries began with the crude grist
mills, sawmills and home industries that
came with the first white settlers, but it
was negligible until the beginning of the
current century. Prior to 1900 there was
development largely only in those indus-
tries such as lumbering, brick making,
cotton ginning and cottonseed crushing
industries which necessarily must be lo-
cated near the orign of crude materials.
In fact, most of the extensive develop-
ment of manufacturing in Texas to the
present date has been the kind stimulated
by the existence of raw materials.
Future Industrial Trends.
The future economic development of
Texas probably will be along the three
following courses:
1. There will be intensification of the
agricultural (livestock and cron) indus-
tries, plus some expansion. Not all of the
natural resources for the expansion of
the agricultural industries have been
utilized by any means, but the future de-
velopment will be primarily such proce-
dures as are witnessed today in the de-
velopment of dairying and stock farming,
and in the highly specialized and inten-
sive crop-growing industries, such as
fruits, vegetables and nuts, and in efforts
to produce greater quantities and better
qualities of staple crops on fewer acres.
There will be increasing adaptation ofagricultural production to the demands
of industry for raw materials.
2. In the mineral industries there
probably will be both expansion and in-
creasing diversification and intensifica-
tion. The future of petroleum and nat-
ural gas is a matter upon which the au-
thorities disagree. At least, there will
be a large production over a considerable
period from known reserves. Whatever
decline may occur can be more than off-
set by the development of other mineral
resources, notably the nonmetallic min-
erals, such as lime, salt, sulnhur, graphite
and the various types of building mate-
rials. Some of Texas' greatest mineral
resources are directly in line of the ex-
pansion of the newer chemical manufac-
turing industries.
3. In the manufacturing industries
there will be both continued expansion of
the primary industries that have consti-
tuted the bulk of Texas' manufacturing
activity in the past, and accelerated de-
velopment of more advanced and diversi-
fied fabricating processes.
Stable Economic Structure.
In these developments Texas has op-
portunity for building an economic
structure that will insure great stability
through diversity. In preceding chapters
much has been said of the diversity of
elements constituting Texas, regardless
of the angle from which it is viewed.
Texas' diversity began with its geological
structure and multiplied with the devel-
opment of topography formation of the
soils and evolution of indigenous plant
and animal life.
Need of a Program.
The need of intelligent co-operative
effort is especially essential to Texas' de-
velopment because of (1) the readapta-
tions that will be necessary due to par-
tial loss of foreign markets for cotton
and other basic products, and (2) the
character of industrial development of-
fering the most rapid advancement,
namely one based on the newer chemical
industries rather than the old coal-iron-
limestone pattern. Texas has grown up
on the geographic frontier; its future
development must be on the technologi-
cal and industrial frontier. Its program
will require much scientific investigation
such as that carried on by the Council of
Industrial and Commercial Research of
the University of Texas. It will require
co-ordinated effort in a program such as
that being formulated by the Texas
State Planning Board.
With a per capita production of new
wealth in raw materials far in excess of
the average for the nation, and with a
density of population only about half as
great as that of the entire nation, the
Texas community needs only intelligent
effort to realize a really great industrial
future.
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Texas Almanac, 1939-1940, book, 1939; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117163/m1/171/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.