Entered a* second-class meiter, June I. 1933. at the Poilofflc* at Raleigh. North CaroUno. under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Do You Want Ail Industry?
Most communities say: ‘*If oilier towns get
new industries, wliy can't we?” In this arti¬
cle Ur. Sharpe gives a partial answer to
this question.
ALL towns, everywhere, prob¬
ably want more industries,
but the hunger of eastern
North Carolina for industrial ex¬
pansion is almost desperate, and in
some respects tragic. You can
hardly get into and out of a town
without sensing this urgency, if
indeed it is not presented directly
to you.
Often the first greeting is, "Do
you know of any industry floating
around, looking for a location?"
and the goodbye not infrequently
includes, “Well, if you hear of an
industrial prospect, steer him our
way."
This preoccupation is more no¬
ticeable down east because our
Piedmont area already is indus¬
trialized, and is getting a good per¬
centage of the new locations. Your
eastern Carolinian looks on this
trend with increasing alarm, and
cannot completely understand it.
A familiar reaction is the "why-
can't-we” meeting. A why-can’t-we
By BILL SIIABPL
meeting is a gathering at which
members of the community get up
on their feet and say. in substance,
that if Greensboro or High Point
or Lenoir can get industry, then
why can’t we? I have attended doz¬
ens of why-can’t-we meetings, and
they are distressingly similar.
One frequent consequence of a
why-can’t-we meeting is the crea¬
tion of an industrial committee, in
or outside the Chamber of Com¬
merce, and sometime the raising of
an industrial promotion fund. An
"industrial survey” is also often
undertaken. In a larger town, such
a fund might be substantial enough
to employ an industrial engineer to
go after industry. Even more prac¬
tical, a community sometimes will
subscribe a sizable sum with which
to aid new business, principally
through the erection of suitable
quarters, if such are lacking.
But a lot of why-can’t-we meet¬
ings amount to no more than an
indignation rally and a steam¬
blowing party, after which there
is a sort of grumbling acquiescence
in the status quo.
No Formula
These various reactions in an
industry-starved community are
set down to sum up to this point:
Apparently, there is no good form¬
ula for grabbing yourself an indus¬
try; sometimes you get ’em one
way and sometimes another, and
sometimes lightning strikes a town
and industries move right in before
anyone knows about it.
There is one thing which is fairly
certain, and which communities
might keep in mind so as to be able
to view their quandary realis¬
tically and moderately: there are
( Continued on page 20)
Huge plant of the Ecusta Paper Corporation at Pisgah Forest, near Brevard.
THE STATE. JULY S, 1950
