As the decades go by, the impact of the south's pioneering science-industry program of the 1950s becomes more obvious. Now we can see the real significance of the first economic development program based on high technology. There are lessons for the future.

According to an old saw often quoted in the field of economic development "it's surprising how much you can do if you don't care who gets the credit". An extrapolation of this axiom, thus, is that some of our most effective programs may be little appreciated and soon forgotten.

Such is the case of the long-deceased Southern Association of Science and Industry (SASI). Those who are still able to describe the origin and implementation of this precedent-setting program can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Yet, it can be argued that the SASI program was THE pioneering high-technology economic development program and that it set some patterns which will be followed for decades to come. While much of the history of the program can be traced in musty bound volumes in the library, it may be worthwhile to place on record a brief overview written from the perspective of a date several decades later.

Certainly, there are lessons in the program for other regions around the world. The success of the program proved the validity of the science-industry link. More important, the experience showed that a poor region with limited resources could mount an effective plan for developing high-technology activities.

The circumstances:

First, it is necessary to understand the environments from which the creators of this plan came. They included professors Lloyd and Palmer at the University of Alabama; Thomas W. Martin, president, Alabama Power Company; and director, McKinley Conway, a native of Alabama. All were intimately acquainted with the poverty of the region.

Consider the upbringing of Conway. He was born at Hackleburg, a rural community, population about 800, in Northwest Alabama, in 1920. He lived his early years under conditions similar to those found in the Third World today. There were no paved roads, no electric lines, no telephone, no indoor plumbing. At that time, there was no radio or daily paper to link with the outside world.

The economy of the Hackleburg area was entirely agricultural, as was that of most of the Southern states. The great depression of the 1930s hit the region particularly hard. Then came World War II with additional hardships.

Thus, at the end of WWII the situation facing the south was much like that facing many small nations around the world today. The region was poverty-stricken. Moreover, it was, to a considerable degree, an economic colony tied to outside financial and entrepreneurial centers.

Millions of veterans returning home to the South after military servive which took them throughout the nation and around the world had a new viewpoint. They had seen with their own eyes the better quality of life provided by a stronger economic system.

There was a mood to do something, to lift the region from beneath the poverty level. But what? The answer was found in a new organization just being organized.

Records reveal that Dr.George D. Palmer, then President of the Alabama Academy of Scienes, in 1940 called for the establishment of an organization devoted to the study and development of the South's resources. This led to an organizing session of scientists in 1941 in Mobile. In 1942 the expanding group met in Atlanta, voted to include businessmen and adopted the SASI name.

During the war years the group met, solidified its thinking, and recruited leaders from around the region. Among the key people were Dr. Palmer and Dr. Lloyd, chemists, from the University of Alabama; Dr. Odum and a group from the University of North Carolina; Senator Lloyd Bird, of Virginia; and utility executive Homer Pace, from South Carolina.

By 1949 SASI had grown from an informal discussion group to a working organization. As their first executive director they chose 29 year old Conway.

The primary objective was to inject technology into the business community of the region via the creation of research programs, organizations, and centers. A series of conferences was planned to gain support among major corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies.

Taking stock of the scientific resources in the region, the SASI looked to the Atomic Energy Commission's super-secret installation at Oak Ridge which had been built during the war and which was beginning to open up to discuss civilian applications. Another resource was the petrochemical industry springing up along the gulf coast.

The SASI gained the ear of the Southern Governors Conference and each year made a report on industrial development opportunities. State leaders were persuaded to set up research groups of various types. Conway spoke of the launching of the Stanford Research Institute in California, which he had observed while working on the NACA/NASA staff at the nearby Ames laboratory.

In this environment, efforts began for the establishment of the Research Triangle in North Carolina, The Southwest Research Institute in Texas, and the Southern Research Institute in Alabama. Almost all of the state agencies involved in economic development began to set up research units to catalog resources and identify opportunities.

The new emphasis on technology brought national media coverage in such publications as Time magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, and Fortune magazine. All of this was very beneficial in accelerating the pace of industrial growth.

At a time when new plant announcement were still rare in the region, Conway was emboldened to predict that 3,000 new multi-million dollar plants would be located in the region within 10 years. That this number was exceeded is testimony to the success of the program.

Those who wish to do historical research in this area will find substantial coverage in the bound volumes of Industrial Development magazine in the archives of Conway Data in Atlanta. The archives also contain a fiche file entitled "Origins of Sunbelt Economic Development"

The SASI was phased out in the late 1950s and was superseded by the Southern Growth Policies Board (SGPB). The SGPB and the Southern Technology Council can be contacted at www.southern.org.