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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />O[)22~6 <br /> <br />Clearly, before World War II, the areats employment was very <br />strongly related to agriculture, directly or indirectly. Railroads <br />were the major off-farm employers, first for building, then for <br />maintaining the track, equipment, and depots. Those were the years <br />before the great agricultural revolution with its technological <br />advances and highly capital-intensive innovations. Farm labor was <br />in great demand, but the supply was usually plentiful and the <br />resulting price of farm labor was extremely low, 35 cents an hour <br />a not uncommon wage. The oil discoveries were contributors to a <br />pumping and pipeline service labor force of importance to the <br />regional economy, but the product was exported, contributing little <br />to secondary industry, so the local economic benefits off the farm <br />were less than those associated with exported cattle, wheat and <br />cotton production, Apart from the oil service industry, principal <br />employment was wholesale and retail trade and the early beginnings <br />of the now familiar service industries .- finance, insurance. real <br />estate and government. However, pronounced benefits accrued to the <br />landowner in the form of oil and gas royalty payments. <br />One additional latter-day stimulant to the local economy was <br />the installation of Reece Air Force Base 12 miles west of lubbock <br />in 1941. As a pilot training base, it employed several hundred <br />civilians during and after the war and contributed substantially to <br />the lubbock economy. Also. in the public sector, Texas Tech Univer- <br />sity has been a pronounced economic and cultural stimulant to the <br /> <br />IV-13 <br /> <br />Arthur D Little, Inc <br />