North vs. South: The Effects of Regional Competition on the American Textile Industry During the 1950s

Abstract

This note traces the history of the U.S. textile industry and the reasons for its flight to the South in the 1950s. Written to accompany the Malden Mills series of cases (UVA-E-0125, UVA-E-0126, UVA-E-0127, and UVA-E-0128, concerning a company that did not migrate to the South), the note discusses the circumstances surrounding this anomaly.

Excerpt

UVA-E-0150

NORTH VS. SOUTH:

THE EFFECTS OF REGIONAL COMPETITION ON

THE AMERICAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY DURING THE 1950s

In the early 1950s, Walton County, Georgia, tried to persuade New England textile manufacturers to relocate by touting such compelling incentives as free building sites, responsible manufacturers, and the lowest state taxes in the entire Southeast, to the more mundane incentives: excellent specialty and department stores and perfect television reception (see Exhibit 1). Such incentives, along with the lower wages and state-of-the-art factories offered by the South, lured many New England factory owners to move their facilities. By the 1960s, most New England textile companies had either moved South or closed up altogether, leaving behind dilapidated factory buildings and decimated communities. The forces bringing about this industry exodus from New England had been at work since the late nineteenth century, but it was during the 1950s that the New England textile industry sank into what seemed to be its final decline.

A Brief History of the American Textile Industry, 1790-1950

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Keywords: Malden Mills, textile, South, labor relations, ethics