Texas Almanac, 1943-1944 Page: 185
[338] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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MANUFACTURING. 185
ly to the volume of Texas manufacturing
-shipbuilding and airplane construction.
The largest single industrial enterprise
in Texas, as measured by investment and
number of employees, during 1942 was
the great shipbuilding plant at Orange,
constructed at a cost of $200,000,000 and
manufacturing principally destroyers for
the United States Navy. Primarily be-
cause of this industry, Orange jumped
from its 1940 census population of 7,472
to an estimated 33,000 in 1943. There
were also large ship and boat building
plants at Beaumont, Brownsville and in
the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston
areas. Total investment was upward of
$300,000,000.
Two large airplane manufacturing
plants were under operation early in
942, at Grand Prairie near Dallas and
at Fort Worth, and smaller plants were
in operation at Dallas and at Garland
near Dallas. Total investment was up-
ward of $200,000,000 and employees of
the combined aircraft industries of the
Dallas-Fort Worth area numbered up-
ward of 40,000.
Use of Federal Government Funds.
Foregoing paragraphs review briefly
only the outstanding developments in the
industrial progress of Texas during the
period of 1941, 1942 and first quarter of
1943. While it was primarily a period
marked by the establishment of big in-
dustries, there was some development of
smaller enterprises. Most of the indus-
tries catalogued above were built prima-
rily with Federal Government funds. In
some instances the funds were lent to
private enterprise. In other instances the
plants were built by the government for
operation by private enterprise. In a few
instances, the plants have been built and
operated by the government.
Much Seaport Development.
Greatest concentration of this industry
during the 1941-1942 period was adjacent
to deep water in the port cities-primari-
ly in the Houston Ship Channel and
Sabine Neches areas, but also at Free-
port, Corpus Christi and Brownsville.
reatest inland development was in the
Fort Worth-Dallas area where airplane
construction was reason for th e large ex-
pansion, though there was notable new
development of chemicals and machin-
ery, and a general speeding up of older
established industries.
" Meaning of War Industries.
The net result was that, between the
census enumeration of early 1940 and the
end of the first quarter of 1943, Texas
made as much or more industrial prog-
ress-as measured by investment in
plant, number of employees or physical
volume or value of production-than it
had made in its entire past history. The
immediate consequences in the economicand social structure of Texas have been
great, as mentioned above. What this
development means for the future of
Texas depends on many factors-the
length of the war, the trend of world
commerce following the war and the
readiness with which Texas civic and
business leaders co-operate to hold what-
ever advantage the war crisis has
brought to Texas in the form of indus-
trial development.
Some of the new industries will inev-
itably decline with the coming of peace,
notably the munitions industries, though,
with the further progress of chemical
industry, there will be possibility that
even these can be converted to normal
civilian consumers' needs. The aviation
and shipbuilding industries, constructed
primarily for wartime needs, will also
probably suffer at least a temporary de-
cline, though there will certainly be part
conversion of the airplane plants to meet
the greatly expanded civilian demand of
a coming air age.
The same can be said for such an in-
dustry as the big tin smelter at Texas
City, built, not to meet war needs, but
to meet normal demand for a commodity
that has been cut off by war's devasta-
tion. The Texas City plant has been con-
structed for permanent operation-the
largest and most modern ever built.
Permanent Iron Industry.
The new iron industry in East Texas
will undoubtedly prove to be the begin-
ning of realization of Texans' long-time
dream of utilization of the great iron ore
resources of that area. Since the decline
of the former small iron industry in that
area (see page 179), the principal ob-
structions to development have been (1)
lack of a known source of coal suitable
for making coke, (2) lack of information
as to quantity and quality of the East
Texas ores, (3) lack of an iron and steel
market in the Gulf Southwest, and (4)
a freight rate structure that makes mar-
keting iron and steel products outside
the Southwest difficult. All of these ob-
structions, except freight rate structure,
have been ehmminated. Even if this is not
eliminated the industrialized Southwest
now furnishes market for a large pro-
duction from a Texas iron and steel in-
dustry. Furthermore, the great var
demand is exhausting the better grade
ores of the Mesabi range of Minnesota.
The building of a Texas iron industry
will be profoundly significant. It has
long been said by economists that every
great industrial area rests on the trinity
of coal, iron and limestone. With the
coming of the chemical age, iron is no
longer necessary to major industrial de-
velopment. Texas, equal to any compar-
able area in the nation, has the materials
for great expansion of chemical indus-San Antonio
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Texas Almanac, 1943-1944, book, 1943; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117165/m1/187/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.