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evidence of the Americanization of this region. And recent economic indicators suggest that on several fronts, the South is becoming more like the rest of the nation. The cost of living here is still lower than anywhere else, but last year the rate of inflation was higher [illegible] in the South than in the North and West, and it is projected to be higher again this year -- 13.6 percent compared to a national level [illegible] of 12.8 percent. The rate of unemployment in the South is still less than elsewhere, but the gap is narrowing. Business failures in the region are up sharply, especially in retail and construction firms. Even the moonshiners are feeling the squeeze, and many are going out of business -- because, it is said, of the escalating cost of sugar.
None of this means that the South is becoming a bad place to do business. The economic shifts [illegible] are probably a one-time phenomenon, a "catch-up," [illegible] proposition. And if one is looking to the South as a place to locate new industry, it is still a an inviting prime prospect--unless one is looking for a cheap labor pool in perpetuity. [illegible] The South's other intrinsic advantages for new industry -- ample space and natural resources, a large, [illegible] trainable, and willing worker pool, reasonable taxes, an advantageous climate, and essentially friendly state government --are almost sure to remain.
/_To put it another way, the South's [illegible] industrial development area of the United States-- its new political climate and its Americanization are going to preclude the gross exploitation some [illegible] businesses became accustomed to practising here. But for sound development by progressive corporations, the region remains today, and probably will be for years, the a prime industrial development region of the United States /--/ perhaps the country's very best.