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The Crompton Closing: Imports and the Decline of America's Oldest Textile Company

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2012

TIMOTHY J. MINCHIN
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Abstract

This article explores the demise of the Crompton Company, which filed for bankruptcy in October 1984, causing 2,450 workers in five states to lose their jobs. Crompton was founded in 1807 in Providence, Rhode Island and when it went out of business it was the oldest textile firm in the country, having been in continuous operation for 178 years. Despite its history, scholars have overlooked Crompton, partly because most work on deindustrialization has concentrated on heavy manufacturing industries, especially steel and automobiles. I argue that Crompton's demise throws much light on the broader decline of the American textile and apparel industry, which has lost over two million jobs since the mid-1970s, and shows that textiles deserve a more central place in the literature. Using company papers, this study shows that imports played the central role in causing Crompton's decline, although there were also other problems, including the strong dollar, declining exports, and a reluctance to diversify, which contributed to it. The paper also explores broader trends, including the earlier flight of the industry from New England to the South and the industry's unsuccessful campaign to pass import-restriction legislation, a fight in which Crompton's managers were very involved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 231 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 “Standard ASE Stock Report,” 19, 89 (6 Nov. 1984), 7627, copy in Folder 10.14, Box 10, Crompton Company, West Warwick, R. I. Records, 1817–1989, held at the Osborne Library, American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA, hereafter cited as “Crompton Company Papers”; quotation in William E. Schmidt, “Textiles Defends Its Last Bastion,” New York Times, 23 June 1985, A4. The Crompton Company Papers are in two accessions – MS2002.215 and the larger MS1990.187. Unless otherwise indicated in the note, all citations here are to the main MS1990.187 collection.

2 “Drastically Increased” quotation from Lord in Bryan Doherty, “Crompton Files Chapter 11, Seeks Time to Sell Assets,” Women's Wear Daily, 24 Oct. 1984, 48, clipping in Folder 10.39, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; Closing Lord quotation in William G. Lord II to Ambassador William E. Brock III, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

3 Careful scholarly searches have failed to uncover any published history of Crompton, even in article form. The company's papers, however, do contain a short, internally commissioned history written by James F. Sweeney Jr. in 1979, but it was never published (or finished) and was written before the company's demise in the 1980s. See James F. Sweeney Jr., “A History of Crompton Company, Inc.” c.1979, in Folder 2.25, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215). To celebrate its 150th anniversary in 1957, the company also produced a celebratory booklet entitled “150th Anniversary of Crompton Company,” c.1957, in Folder 35, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers. Despite their limitations, both of these documents proved helpful in the preparation of this article.

4 “Veto of H.R. 1562,” 17 Dec. 1985, “Textile and Apparel Trade Enforcement Act 1985,” Folder, Box 7, President's Office Files, International Ladies' Garment Workers’ Union Papers, held at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Ed Jenkins interview with author on 25 June 2010, in Jasper, GA. A former congressman from Georgia, Jenkins was the chief sponsor of the 1985 textile bill and was also heavily involved in the bill that Reagan vetoed in 1988.

5 According to Clare Sheridan, the Osborne library's head archivist, company officials William G. Lord and James F. Sweeney Jr. donated the Crompton Company Papers in two accessions that included “everything” that they had in their possession. Clare Sheridan to the author, 17 Nov. 2011, copy in author's possession. This article also draws on labor records, which are more easily available than their corporate counterparts.

6 Cowie, Jefferson, Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999)Google Scholar, 2 (first quotation), 4 (second quotation).

7 Rhonda Zingraff, “Facing Extinction?”, in Jeffrey Leiter, Michael D. Schulman, and Rhonda Zingraff, eds., Hanging by a Thread: Social Change in Southern Textiles (Ithaca: ILR Press, 1991), 208. For an overview of the impact of NAFTA on the US textile and apparel industry see “America's Textile Industry Is in Deep Crisis,” Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, 5 Jan. 2002, 5C. For the ending of quotas see Hopkins, Stella M., “Tough Times ahead for Home Textiles,” Charlotte Observer, 12 Dec. 2004, 1DGoogle Scholar.

8 US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, The U. S. Textile and Apparel Industry: A Revolution in Progress – Special Report (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1987)Google Scholar, 3.

9 Mittelhauser, Mark, “Employment Trends in Textiles and Apparel, 1973–2005,” Monthly Labor Review, 120, 8 (Aug. 1997), 24Google Scholar; BLS employment data at www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag_index_alpha.htm, accessed 25 Oct. 2010. Under the BLS's North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), data for the textile and apparel sector is divided into three codes: Apparel (NAICS 315), Textile Mills (NAICS 313), and Textile Product Mills (NAICS 314). Here, industry employment data is obtained by adding the employment numbers in these three classifications together. See www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm for more information about these classifications. The BLS is part of the federal Department of Labor, and its site provides a wealth of official employment data for all sectors of the American economy.

10 Bluestone, Barry and Harrison, Bennett, The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry (New York: Basic Books, 1982)Google Scholar; Barry Bluestone, “Foreword,” in Jefferson Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, eds., Beyond the Ruins: The Meanings of Deindustrialization (Ithaca: ILR Press, 2003), xii; testimony of Betty McGrath, Labor Market Information Division, Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, 6 Sept. 2007, available at www.uscc.gov/hearings/2007hearings/transcripts/sept_6/betty_mcgrath.pdf (accessed 8 Dec. 2008). Bluestone and Harrison, at 4, defined deindustrialization as “a widespread, systematic disinvestment in the nation's basic productive capacity.”

11 Jack Sheinkman quoted in “Textile Trade Law a Must, Union Tells Senate Hearing,” Labor Unity, Aug–Sept. 1985, 3. Trade deficit data is taken from Herbert Koshetz, “Lag in Growth and Rise in Imports Decried at Meeting of Textile Makers,” New York Times, 15 April 1977, 95; and Kaufman, Lawrence H., “US Textile Export Outlook Brightens, Gains May Help Cut Trade Deficit,” Journal of Commerce, 1 March 1993, 3AGoogle Scholar.

12 For a sample of studies of deindustrialization with a northern focus see Dublin, Thomas, When the Mines Closed: Stories of Struggles in Hard Times, with photographs by George Harvan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Buss, Terry F. and Redburn, F. Stevens, Shutdown at Youngstown: Public Policy for Mass Unemployment (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Dandaneau, Steven P., A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Milkman, Ruth, Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Dudley, Kathryn Marie, The End of the Line: Lost Jobs, New Lives in Postindustrial America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994)Google Scholar; Serrin, William, Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town (New York: Vintage Books, 1993)Google Scholar; Reutter, Mark, Making Steel: The Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might (New York: Summit Books, 1988)Google Scholar; Hoerr, John P., And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Linkon, Sherry Lee and Russo, John, Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002)Google Scholar; Lynd, Staughton, The Fight against Shutdowns: Youngstown's Steel Mill Closings (San Pedro: Singlejack Books, 1982)Google Scholar. Apart from these case studies, Steven High has published a somewhat broader work on the entire North American rust belt: Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969–1984 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

13 John Leslie to the General Executive Board of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers' Union, 17 March 1986, “Grassroots Campaign” folder, Box 787, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union Papers, held at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, hereafter cited as “ACTWU Papers–Cornell.”

14 Influential studies of the textile industry's flight from the North to the South include Koistinen, David, “The Causes of Deindustrialization: The Migration of the Cotton Textile Industry from New England to the South,” Enterprise and Society, 3 (Sept. 2002), 482–520CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Friedman, Tami J., “Exploiting the North–South Differential: Corporate Power, Southern Politics, and the Decline of Organized Labor after World War II,” Journal of American History, 95, 2 (Sept. 2008), 323–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hartford, William F., Where Is Our Responsibility? Unions and Economic Change in the New England Textile Industry, 1870–1960 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996)Google Scholar; English, Beth, A Common Thread: Labor, Politics, and Capital Mobility in the Textile Industry (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Galenson, Alice, The Migration of the Cotton Textile Industry from New England to the South, 1880–1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985)Google Scholar.

15 William G. Lord II to Jim Martin, Ray Shockley, C. Moore, and G. Gwaltney, 13 Nov, 1984, Folder 10.15, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers. Union leaders also recognized that the textile and apparel industries were inextricably linked. As the heads of the newly merged textile and apparel workers' union noted in 1978, “If imports of apparel increase, this will adversely affect textiles as well.” Quotation from the ACTWU General Executive Board Minutes, 12 June 1978, 5, untitled minutes folder, Box 854, ACTWU Papers–Cornell.

16 Lee Hotz, “Crompton Holds Unique Spot in American Textile Industry,” undated (c.1978) Waynesboro News-Virginian clipping in Folder 2.21–1, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215); William G. Lord II to Robert Angell, 13 Dec. 1977, Folder 22, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers; “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1973,” in Box 4, Crompton Company Papers, quotation on cover page.

17 “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1979,” 2, in Box 4A, Crompton Company Papers; “Release for News-Virginian 75th Anniversary Edition,” c.1967, Folder 53, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers.

18 “Unique spot” quotation in Hotz; “Standard ASE Stock Report,” 19, 89 (6 Nov. 1984), 7627, copy in Folder 10.14, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers (second quotation); “150th Anniversary of Crompton Company,” c.1957, booklet in Folder 35, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers; Bryan Doherty, “Crompton Files Its Chap. 11,” Daily News Record, 24 Oct. 1984, 1; Chapman, Angelena, “Melinos Buy Crompton Mill: Condo Plan Failed Four Years Ago,” Kent County Daily Times (West Warwick, RI), 18 Jan. 2011, A1Google Scholar.

19 Sweeney, “A History of Crompton Company, Inc.”; Dublin, Thomas, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826–1860 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), 9, 16–20Google Scholar.

20 Sweeney, 8C, 20–22 (quotations on 8C); “Wage Cut Reacts on Textile Mills,” New York Times, 9 March 1922, 4; “Cotton Mill Strike Enters Eighth Week,” New York Times, 14 March 1922, 5.

21 Galenson, 140, 190 (quotation).

22 Hodges, James A., New Deal Labor Policy and the Southern Cotton Textile Industry, 1933–1941 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986), 9–12Google Scholar; Salmond, John A., The General Textile Strike of 1934: From Maine to Alabama (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002)Google Scholar, 2; Friedman, 325 (quotations).

23 Sweeney, 23–24, 26, 29–30, closing quotation on 26; “Report of Nightingale Richmond, President, submitted to the Directors of Crompton Company, June 5, 1946,” in Folder 3.30, Box 3, Crompton Company Papers; Hotz; Friedman, 327–28.

24 “Crompton Velvet Mill Will Close,” Providence Journal, 16 Feb. 1946 (first two quotations); Dalton, Kay, “They No Longer Live on Velvet in Crompton as Mill Closing Nears,” Providence Evening Bulletin, 18 March 1946Google Scholar (other quotations); “Some Thoughts on Crompton Company by Peter Richmond,” 15 Sept. 1979, 16, Folder 2.24, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215).

25 Sweeney, 22. For an up-to-date overview of how industry was lured South by a desire to escape union influence see Cobb, James C., The South and America since World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 56–61Google Scholar.

26 Sweeney, 26–27; “Some Thoughts on Crompton Company by Peter Richmond”; Dalton.

27 “Today We Salute the Crompton Company,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 28 March 1957, 4 (first quotation); other quotations in “Changing Times Caused Crompton's Migration South from Rhode Island; Remains, Landmark,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 28 March 1957, 6AGoogle Scholar.

28 “Crompton Company, Still Growing with Morrilton,” Morrilton Democrat-Perry County News, 25 Feb. 1981 (quotation); “Crompton-Osceola,” Osceola Times, 24 Sept. 1970, Section 9, 3.

29 Timothy J. Minchin, “Don't Sleep with Stevens!” The J. P. Stevens Campaign and the Struggle to Organize the South, 1963–1980 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 9–12; idem, Fighting against the Odds: A History of Southern Labor since World War II (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005)Google Scholar, 45; Cobb, 58.

30 Minchin, Don't Sleep with Stevens!, 11.

31 “Union Contract Presented Today: Crompton Company Is Handed Textile Workers' Proposals,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 9 Jan. 1941; “Union President States Cause for Local Walk-out: Says Company ‘Refused to Bargain in Good Faith’” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 7 Feb. 1941; quotation in “Waynesboro and the Crompton Strike: An Editorial,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 7 Feb. 1941; “Crompton Plant Strike Ends,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 1 March 1941, all clippings in Folder 66, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers.

32 “A Statement by Crompton-Highland Mills,” 4 June 1946, Griffin (GA) News, 4 June 1946; “NLRB Rules in Highland Case,” Griffin (GA) News, 23 Aug. 1946; Harris, Howell John, The Right to Manage: Industrial Relations Policies of American Business in the 1940s (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982)Google Scholar, 67; “Crompton-Highland Mills Strike Ends Today,” Griffin (GA) News, 26 Aug. 1946; closing quotation in “CIO Wins Election at Highland Mill,” Griffin (GA) News, 1 Dec. 1949. All clippings are in Folder 68, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers.

33 Crafted with Pride in USA Council Inc. Fact Sheet, nd., Folder 22.12, Box 22, Northern Textile Association Papers (MS2000.178.1), held at the American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA; “‘Jungle Cloth’ Made at Local Mill Saves Lives of Many Sailors,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 22 June 1943; “Report of Nightingale Richmond, President, submitted to the Directors of Crompton Company, 5 June 1946,” in Folder 3.30, Box 3, Crompton Company Papers; “Annual Report Submitted to the Stockholders of Crompton Company, 25 Nov. 1952,” in Folder 3.33, Box 3, Crompton Company Papers.

34 Minutes of Crompton Company's Board of Directors Meeting, 18 May 1966, Vol. 1.7 (12.1960–1.1967), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215).

35 Trumbull, Robert, “Japanese Growth Slows to a Gallop,” and “‘Made Elsewhere’ Label Irking Japan,” New York Times, 19 Jan. 1968, 51Google Scholar; “Statement of William F. Sullivan, Counsel, Northern Textile Association, for Boston Sunday Herald Textile Supplement,” 19 Jan. 1958, copy in “Tariffs” folder, “General Files, RU-TN,” John O. Pastore Papers, held at Phillips Memorial Library, Providence College, Providence, RI; Herman E. Talmadge Press Release, 15 Aug. 1969, “Textile Trade, 1969–71” folder, Box 312, Herman E. Talmadge Papers, held at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia.

36 “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report 1965,” 2, in Box 4, Crompton Company Papers (first two quotations); “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report 1968,” 1, in Box 4, Crompton Company Papers; Ernest, F.“Fritz” Hollings (with Kirk Victor), Making Government Work (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2008), 194–96Google Scholar.

37 William G. Lord II to Raymond J. Donovan, 5 March 1985, Folder 45, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers (first quotation); “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1980,” 2 (second quotation); “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1981,” 2, (third quotation), both in Box 4A, Crompton Company Papers.

38 “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1983,” 2, in Box 4A, Crompton Company Papers (“premium” quotation); second quotation in William G. Lord to Senator Dale Bumpers, 23 April 1985, Folder 45, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; Ed Berlin, “Crompton Heralded Industrial Boom Here,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 10 Nov. 1982, clipping in Folder 11.78, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers (closing quotation).

39 W. G. Lord II to Jack McCarroll, 17 May 1983, Folder 2.22, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers; quotation in Jane Richmond Pugh to William G. Lord II, 12 April 1983, Folder 2.22, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215). The shelved history was an updated version of James Sweeney's 1979 history, which was also never finished.

40 Maycumber, S. Gray, “After 3 and ½ Years, Crompton Finally Writing Last Chapter,” Daily News Record, 5 July 1988Google Scholar, Section 1, 3; “Minutes of Special Meeting of Board of Directors of Crompton Company, Inc.,” 4 Oct. 1984, Vol. 1.19 (1984–88), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215).

41 Closing Lord quotation in Hollie, Pamela G., “Crompton's Nemesis: Imports,” New York Times, 21 Nov. 1984Google Scholar, D1; other Lord quotation in William G. Lord II to William E. Brock III, 15 Nov. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; corduroy executives quoted in Chanko, Kenneth M., “Crompton's Filing Leaves Corduroy Market Disrupted,” Daily News Record, 24 Oct. 1984, 2Google Scholar.

42 W. G. Lord II to the Files, 20 Nov. 1986, Folder 10.31, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; W. G. Lord II Status Report, 30 Aug. 1987, Folder 10.32, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

43 “Deaths: William G. Lord II,” New York Times, 11 Aug. 2008; “Lord, William G. II,” The Enterprise (Falmouth, Mashpee, Bourne, and Sandwich, MA)Google Scholar, 8 Aug. 2008.

44 “Imports Sewed Weaver's Fate,” Chicago Tribune, 25 Nov. 1984, clipping in Folder 10.39, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; William Galey Lord II to Jean Richmond, 14 Jan. 1986, Folder 10.30, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers (quotation); “People and Business,” New York Times, 15 Dec. 1977, D9.

45 Karl Spilhaus interview with author on 26 April 2011 in Boston, MA.

46 “Imports Sewed Weaver's Fate”; George Wino to Bill Lord, 30 May 1984, Folder 10.10, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

47 W. G. Lord II to The Directors, 6 Dec. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

48 Quotation in Alex Dimitrief to Mitch Daniels et al., 21 Nov. 1985, “Textiles (3)” folder, White House Office of Political Affairs Records, OA19397, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California, hereafter cited as “Reagan Library”; John A. Svahn to Ed Rollins, 5 March 1985, “Textiles: Textile Trade Paper for Ed Rollins 03/05/1985” folder, Michael A. Driggs files, OA12242, Reagan Library.

49 William G. Lord to Hon. Bill Green, 1 July 1985, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers (first two Lord quotations); Ed Jenkins to William G. Lord II, 13 Aug. 1985, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; final Lord quotation in William G. Lord II to Roger Milliken, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 10.11, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers. For a good discussion of the climate within the industry that produced these initiatives see Frank, Dana, Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), 187–97Google Scholar, and Lichtenstein, Nelson, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009), 154–56Google Scholar.

50 William G. Lord II to Robert S. Strauss, 10 March 1978, Folder 42, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; Robert S. Strauss to William G. Lord II, 7 April 1978, Folder 42, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; William G. Lord II to “The Directors,” 13 April 1978, Folder 42, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers, underlining in original.

51 Robert S. Strauss to William G. Lord II, 5 March 1979, Folder 42, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

52 In October 1982, for example, Reagan told South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond that he stood by his “commitment” to “relate total import growth to the rate of growth in the domestic market,” which he had first made during the 1980 presidential election campaign. See Ronald Reagan to Strom Thurmond, 3 Sept. 1980 and 4 Oct. 1982; and White House Press Secretary Press Release, 16 Dec. 1983, all “FFACT Book: 1986 Override Vote,” Folder, Box 1019, ACTWU Papers–Cornell.

53 For evidence that the majority of textile executives supported the GOP, see Frederick B. Dent to George Bush, 15 Sept. 1982, “Address Final Session of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute's Annual Meeting 4/9/83” folder, Daniel Sullivan and Jennifer Fitzgerald Files, George Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas.

54 US Customs Service, “Textile Fraud Initiatives,” Jan. 1986, “Textile/Trade (5)” folder, OA13030, William B. Lacy files, Reagan Library; US Congress, The U. S. Textile and Apparel Industry, 7; Roger Milliken to Edwin Meese III, 3 Nov. 1983, “Textiles: Miscellaneous Letters (1)” folder, OA12242, Michael A. Driggs files, Reagan library; closing quotation in Salvador Alcina to Ronald Reagan, Folder 10.8, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

55 William G. Lord II to Ambassador William E. Brock III, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers (quotations); “Crompton Company, Inc. Annual Report – 1979,” 2, in Box 4A, Crompton Company Papers.

56 William E. Brock to William G. Lord II, 9 Nov. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; William G. Lord II to William E. Brock III, 15 Nov. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

57 “Analysis of Corduroy Apparel Imports,” 1979–84, Folder 10.8, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; William G. Lord II to the Files, 20 Nov. 1986, Folder 10.31, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

58 Hollie, “Crompton's Nemesis: Imports,” D1; Roger Milliken to William G. Lord, II, 15 Oct. 1984, Folder 10.11, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

59 John A. Steppacher to All International Salesmen, 19 Oct. 1984, Folder 10.11, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; affidavit cited in Bryan Doherty, “Crompton Files Chapter 11, Seeks Time to Sell Assets,” Women's Wear Daily, 24 Oct. 1984, 48, clipping in Folder 10.39, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers.

60 “Standard ASE Stock Report,” 19, 89; quotation in “Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Crompton Company, Inc.” 9 Feb. 1983, 2, Vol. 1.17 (1982–83), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215).

61 “Some Thoughts on Crompton Company by Peter Richmond.”

62 “Imports Sewed Weaver's Fate.”

63 Quotation in “Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors,” 2 May 1984, Vol. 1.18 (1984), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215); William G. Lord II to William E. Brock III, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

64 William G. Lord II to Jim Martin, Ray Shockley, C. Moore, and G. Gwaltney, 13 Nov. 1984, Folder 10.15, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; Karl Spilhaus interview with author on 26 April 2011 in Boston, MA.

65 “Release for News-Virginian 75th Anniversary Edition,” c.1967, Folder 53, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers; W. E. Boyett, “Memo for File,” 27 Aug. 1984, Folder 10.10, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; “A Worker with 16 years at Crompton” to W. J. Lord II, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 10.11, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers (quotations).

66 William G. Lord II to Phil Loh, 13 Dec. 1984, Folder 10.15, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers, underlining in original.

67 William G. Lord II to Ambassador William E. Brock III, 24 Oct. 1984, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

68 William G. Lord II to Senator Dale Bumpers, 23 April 1985, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; last two quotations in William G. Lord II to Raymond J. Donovan, 5 March 1985, Folder 45, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

69 For more information on the TAA program, as well as other federal programs to help displaced textile and apparel workers, see US Department of Labor, “The Past, Present and Future of Employment in the Textile and Apparel Industries: An Overview,” (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2004), 11–15.

70 William G. Lord II to Dale Bumpers, 23 May 1985 (first two quotations); closing quotation in Marvin M. Fooks to William G. Lord II, 25 March 1985, all in Folder 45, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

71 Dale Bumpers to William Galey Lord II, 12 Aug. 1985, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; William E. Brock to Dale Bumpers, 1 Aug. 1985, Folder 43, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers; William G. Lord II to Raymond J. Donovan, 5 March 1985, Folder 45, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers (“broader” quotation).

72 “Minutes of Meeting of Board of Directors of Crompton Company, Inc.,” 8 Jan. 1986, Vol. 1.19 (1984–1988), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215); Wilner, Rich, “Crompton Assets Appraised at Enough for 100% Payback,” Daily News Record, 15 Oct. 1986Google Scholar; William G. Lord II to Jean Richmond, 14 Jan. 1986, Folder 10.30, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; closing quotation in W. G. Lord II to The Files, 21 Nov. 1985, Folder 8, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers.

73 “Crompton's Alabama Plant Sold to Union Underwear Co.,” Daily News Record, 10 Feb. 1987, clipping in Folder 10.40, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers; Abbot, John, “Crompton Liquidation Plan Set for Hearing,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 25 Aug. 1988Google Scholar, clipping in Folder 2.21, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS 2002.215); Maycumber, “After 3 and ½ Years,” 3; Certificate of Dissolution, 10 March 1989, Vol. 1.20 (Corporate Records, 1983–1985), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215).

74 W. G. Lord II to “The Files,” re: “Selling the Fixed Assets,” 25 Oct. 1985, Folder 7, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers (first two quotations); W. G. Lord II to “The Files,” 11 Dec. 1985, Folder 8, Box 11, Crompton Company Papers (third quotation); Karl Spilhaus interview with author on 26 April 2011 in Boston, MA; William G. Lord II to “The Files,” 20 Nov. 1986, Folder 10.32, Box 10, Crompton Company Papers (closing quotation).

75 Maycumber, 3; Abbot, John, “Crompton Liquidation Plan Set for Hearing,” Waynesboro News-Virginian, 25 Aug. 1988Google Scholar, clipping in Folder 2.21, Box 2, Crompton Company Papers (MS 2002.215); Certificate of Dissolution, 10 March 1989, Vol. 1.20 (Corporate Records, 1983–1985), Crompton Company Papers (MS2002.215); “William G. Lord II,” The Enterprise.

76 United States International Trade Commission, “Emerging Textile-Exporting Countries,” USITC Publication 1273, Aug. 1982, 3, copy in “USITC Textile Reports (3)” folder, Wendell W. Gunn files, OA9646, Reagan Library; Stein, Judith, Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)Google Scholar, 35; Kletzer, Lori G., Job Loss from Imports: Measuring the Costs (Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 2001), 16–19Google Scholar, “displacement” quotation at 17. For a fine study of how the move toward an open trading system has hurt the American apparel industry see Rosen, Ellen Israel, Making Sweatshops: The Globalization of the U. S. Apparel Industry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

77 Hollings, Making Government Work, 218–20, 229–30, 237–39; Ed Jenkins interview with author on 25 June 2010 in Jasper, Georgia; Frank, Buy American, ix–xii (quotations in book title and at xi).

78 Rushford, Greg, “America's Dirty War on Chinese Clothing,” Far Eastern Economic Review, Dec. 2004, 31–6Google Scholar, quotation on 31–32.

79 Mecia, Tony, “Textile Graduates Find It's Key to Stretch,” Charlotte Observer, 3 Jan. 2007Google Scholar, 1D; Reeves, Jay, “Oldest Cloth Factory Shutter Its Looms: Ala. Textile Mill That Employed Generations Loses Fight with Imports,” Akron Beacon Journal, 28 Aug. 2005Google Scholar, D1; Lloyd Wood interview with author on 18 June 2009 in Washington, DC; Baity, Dave, “Cause of Lost Jobs Is Bigger than NAFTA,” Charlotte Observer, 2 Dec. 2001Google Scholar, 1L; Jim Nesbitt, “Textile Trouble: Imports Will Cut U. S. Jobs, Close Plants, Experts Say,” Augusta Chronicle, 10 Aug. 2003, D1; Import data from the Office of Textiles and Apparel, International Trade Administration, US Commerce Department, at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/msrcty/a5700.htm, accessed 23 Aug. 2010.

80 Chris Burritt, “Seven Years into NAFTA, Textile Makers Seek Payoff in Mexico,” Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, 17 Dec. 2000, Q1 (Bakane quotation); Hopkins, Stella M., “Tough Times Ahead for Home Textiles,” Charlotte Observer, 12 Dec. 2004Google Scholar, 1D; Rosen, 3, 150–52.

81 OECD study cited in Sparshott, Jeffrey, “An Industry Unraveling: U. S. Textiles Threatened as Quotas Expire,” Washington Times, 26 Dec. 2004Google Scholar, A1; “The U. S. Textile Industry,” National Council of Textile Organizations document available at www.ncto.org/ustextiles/index.asp, accessed 11 March 2009; Nowell, Paul, “N. C. Summit Focuses on Job Creation,” The State, 7 Aug. 2003Google Scholar, B7.

82 Fairlie, Robert W. and Kletzer, Lori G., “Race and the Shifting Burden of Job Displacement: 1982–93,” Monthly Labor Review, Sept. 1996, 13–23Google Scholar, 19; Hipple, Steven, “Worker Displacement in the Mid-1990s,” Monthly Labor Review, July 1999, 16, 23–24Google Scholar.

83 Dudley, The End of the Line, xi (quotation); Bensman, David and Lynch, Roberta, Rusted Dreams: Hard Times in a Steel Community (New York: McGraw Hill, 1987)Google Scholar, esp. 2–9; John Russo and Sherry Lee Linkon, “The Social Costs of Deindustrialization,” in Richard McCormack, ed., Manufacturing a Better Future for America (Washington, DC: The Alliance for American Manufacturing, 2009), 187–98.

84 There are thousands of press articles on textile mill closings, especially in the 1990s and 2000s. For representative articles on the reaction of textile workers to plant closures see Surratt, Clark, “Mill Closing Marks End of Era for Neighborhood,” The State, 29 June 1996Google Scholar, A1; Wrinn, Jim, “Mill's Ex-workers Weave New Life,” Charlotte Observer, 21 Nov. 1999Google Scholar, 4l.

85 US Department of Commerce's Office of Textiles and Apparel, “U. S. Textile and Apparel Import Program” document, 11 Jan. 1988, “U. S. Textile and Apparel Import Program” folder, Susan Lauffer files, OA16376, Reagan Library.

86 Fairlie, Robert W. and Kletzer, Lori G., “Jobs Lost, Jobs Regained: An Analysis of Black/White Differences in Job Displacement in the 1980s,” Industrial Relations, 37, 4 (Oct. 1998), 460–77Google Scholar, 460. For similar findings see also Horvath, Francis W., “The Pulse of Economic Change: Displaced Workers of 1981–85,” Monthly Labor Review, 110, 6 (June 1987), 3–12Google Scholar, 3; Herz, Diane E., “Worker Displacement in a Period of Rapid Job Expansion,” Monthly Labor Review, 113, 5 (May 1990), 21–33Google Scholar, 23.

87 W. G. Lord, “Impressions of Textiles in China,” 24 Sept. 1985, Folder 27, Box 8, Crompton Company Papers.

88 Nash quoted in Nesbitt, Jim, “Textile Trouble: Imports Will Cut U. S. Jobs, Close Plants, Experts Say,” Augusta Chronicle, 10 August 2003Google Scholar, D1.