HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, February 25, 1998
1998 Ron Paul 19:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, recently, a national
newsletter focusing on science, technology
and energy policy highlighted the small town
of Seadrift, Texas located in my District.
1998 Ron Paul 19:2
While focusing on Seadrift this newsletter
article (Access to Energy) went on to make
important points regarding the contributions
which science and technology have made to
freedom and industry and to the quality of life
of people everywhere.
1998 Ron Paul 19:3
Moreover, the article outlines how certain
radicals would shut off technological benefits
in the name of protecting earth at the expense
of the humans who live on this planet. I commend
this article to every Member and insert
it in the record as an extension hereof.
Near the Gulf of Mexico, on the road between
Houston and Corpus Christi, is the
town of Victoria, Texas — one of the oldest
settlements in the western United States. Thirty-five miles southeast of Victoria, rising
out of the mists that roll in from the
Gulf near the town of Seadrift, is one of
America’s great petrochemical plants, built
by Union Carbide in 1954 and later expanded
several times.
1998 Ron Paul 19:5
I feel that I know this plant well, since I
have a large framed aerial photograph of it
on the wall beside me along with a matching
framed artist’s drawing of the plant before it
was built. Under the artist’s drawing is the
aluminum hard hat of the man who was in
charge of the design and construction of this
plant and partially responsible for its operation
during the first four years — my father,
Edward H. “Ted” Robinson. His most trusted
and valued co-worker at that time, Arnold
Graham, still lives in Victoria, remembering
their efforts.
1998 Ron Paul 19:6
Ted Robinson went on to lead teams of engineers
who designed and built similar Union
Carbide plants in Puerto Rico, Scotland, Belgium,
Brazil, Japan, and India. He is buried
in an alpine glacier near the top of Mont
Blanc on the border between France and
Italy, which contains the remains of the Air
India Boeing 707 that crashed there on January
24, 1966. The cause of this crash is not
known for certain. It is believed to have been
the work of assassins that killed the Indian
physicist Bhaba, who was then head of the
nuclear energy program of India and was
also on the airplane.
1998 Ron Paul 19:7
The original plant at Seadrift produced
primarily polyethylene. It now produces additional
products. This plant is a part of the
vast infrastructure of chemical plants, built
by the generation of Americans now in their
80s and the generations before them, that
supplies the chemicals upon which our technological
civilization depends. Along with
the dams, bridges, foundries, mines, wells,
mills, factories, railroads, research laboratories,
computers, and other technological
installations that have been built by the
past several generations of Americans, these
plants form the technological superstructure
upon which our science, technology, and economic
freedom depend.
1998 Ron Paul 19:8
The capital required to build these things
was supplied by the savings of tens of millions
of people, who set aside part of the
money they had earned and invested it in the
free market in hopes of making a profit. It
was also built by the profits retained by the
corporations themselves. Capital alone did
not, however, build the industries — people
did. These people were led by unusual individuals
whose love of science and technology
dominated their personal lives and drove
them and those around them to ever greater
accomplishments.
1998 Ron Paul 19:9
Archibald MacLeish told me many years
ago that the thing that impressed him most
about human beings was their amazing ability
to love — and he was not thinking of the
shallow phenomenon that dominates the
lyrics in the cacophony of “pusic” (word invented
by a musician friend) which pollutes
most of America’s radio stations.
1998 Ron Paul 19:10
Each person has an enormous capacity to
love — in many different ways. In some individuals,
a part of this love is intensely directed
toward science and technology. My father,
for example, was simply head-over-heels
in love with chemical plants (and with
my mother, but that is another story). He
lived and breathed their design and construction. When not in use for food, our kitchen
table was covered with blueprints. He had no
hobbies or avocations — the building of chemical
plants was his vocation and all of his
avocations combined. And, as a result of this
all-consuming love, he built superb plants.
1998 Ron Paul 19:11
I have seen this sort of love in a few other
individuals. Mrs. Merrifield, the wife of R. Bruce Merrifield, who was the first man to
synthesize an enzyme, described her husband’s
love affair with each of the 20 naturally
occurring amino acids — a love that enabled
him to link them together in ways
never before accomplished.
1998 Ron Paul 19:12
Linus Pauling, regardless of the low state
of his personal and professional ethics, was
completely in love with the structures of
molecules. The incredible joy Linus felt as
he pursued three-dimensional, semi-quantitative
explanations for the structures of
molecules and, later, for the structures of
atomic nuclei was the greatest of all the scientists
I have known. He was supremely
happy when calculating or describing the
properties of chemical bonds.
1998 Ron Paul 19:13
Scientists work largely alone or with a few
other people. Those who build industries
work with large numbers of people. These
prime builders, driven by their love for their
work, are usually not the most well-liked,
but they are often the most respected. It is
their job to make our industrial world
work — regardless of the personal foibles of
those whom they must direct in doing this
work. Their personal love for their work is
the driving force that motivates them.
1998 Ron Paul 19:14
All of us are beneficiaries of science and
technology. We live lives that are much
longer and are filled with seemingly endless
pleasures, experiences, and freedoms that
would not be available without technology. Even the “warmers” who gathered in Kyoto
to bemoan and attack the world’s hydrocarbon
technology dropped in by way of airplanes
belching demon carbon dioxide.
1998 Ron Paul 19:15
Now, virtually all of our technology is
under serious attack. From our lumber
mills, farms, and ranches to our dams, power
plants, and factories, all are under assault.
1998 Ron Paul 19:16
Our enemies belong to a peculiar form of
pagan religion. Petr Beckmann called it the
“green religion.” This is not a new religion. The animal, plant, and earth worship ascendant
today (partially at the expense of animals,
plants, and the earth, which are, on
balance, actually harmed by this mania) is
fundamentally the same as that which arose
periodically among the ancients, as chronicled,
for example, in the Old Testament.
1998 Ron Paul 19:17
This religion is now preached in our
schools, our press, and our political institutions. It is, primarily, a religion of death.
1998 Ron Paul 19:18
Technology, in the view of these zealots, has
committed a terrible sin. It has made possible
the lives of billions of human beings —
human beings whom they believe to be alive
at the expense of worshiped plants and animals. (The fact that technology enhances the
lives of plants and animals is suppressed by
the professional enviro religious agitators.)
1998 Ron Paul 19:19
It is the moral obligation of every American
— each living and benefiting from freedom
and technology; each obligated to pass
these blessings on to future generations; and
each entrusted with a vote in the fate of the
great American experiment — to stop this
mania.
1998 Ron Paul 19:20
Seadrift and the tens of thousands of like
accomplishments must not be destroyed — at
least not without a terrible fight.
Notes:
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 19
The text of this chapter was inserted in the section of CongressionalRecord entitled “Extensions of Remarks” and was not spoken on the House floor.
1998 Ron Paul 19:3 I commend this article probably should be I recommend this article.
