Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-03-18
REGARDING
INDUSTRIES
FOR THE CITY

uEcE VI AnuhuEyS 1Cb - Eu01 w.
Says Conditions Against Big Indus
tries and That City Should Develop
Our Actual Resources of Climate and
Scenery.
Editor. Democrat:
am glad to accept your invitation
of March Bird to state my views upon
the question of securing manufactur-
ing industries for Hendersonville, as
outlined in your recent editorial en-
titled "HendersonviHe's Need"
1t is only upon the feasibility of Sc
curing more pay-rolls" that you
and / differ; we are of one mind as
to their desirability if they could IL
fact be landed here by any effort OF
which the town is capable.
Conditions Against Manufactures.
To speak plainly, it appears to me
that Hendersonville's only possible
development lies along other lines
than manufacturing. AS a rule the
location of manufacturing industries
which are of such a character as To
aid materially in a towns growth
depends mainly upon the familiar
factors of low freights, cheap and
abundant fuel, cheap and abundant
power, and nearness to raw materials,
and in a lesser degree upon accessi-
bility to markets and the presence OF
at least a potential supply of more or
less skilled labor. The gifts of sites
and exemption from taxation for a
term of years will never swing manu-
featuring plants into a location whera
they will have to face disadvantages
with regard to the above mentioned
points; disadvantages which will una
voidably force manufacturing costs
above those of competitive plants in bet
ter adapted localities. Gifts and grants
and privileges may possibly lessen the
first cost of putting in a plant, but in
the long run it will be closed up and
put out Of business by it's better-lo-
Gated and underselling competitor.
Manufacturers know this, and in Sc
Iecting a location seek one of perma -
nent advantage.
Opportunities for Small Industries.
l do not wish to be understood as
saying or thinking that the location
here of any form of manufacturing
industry would be equivalent to in
dustria1 suicide. On the contrary,
there are many small industries which
might thrive here, but it is well to
bear in mind that the real value OF
q plant to a town depends not only
upon the gross amount of wages paid
out monthly, but also, to an almost
equal degree, upon the rate of those
wages. Frankly, / am afraid that
the industries / have heard mentioned
as possibilities" would handle pay
rolls so small and made up of such low
wages, that the business life of thu
would not be materially benefit
ted. What l do mean, is that HendeI.
sonville's advantages-the real differ
ences between it and a thousand other
in the South-are not such as
to appeal strongly, from a business
to the man who has speI:t
the better part of a close-fisted life
time in watching the manufacturing
markets and figuring manufacturing
costs. Of purse we need" nor
pay-rolls; in the matter of industrial
development we need" most of the
essentials which Detroit and Hartford
now possess. But, sad to say, the fact
needing them most urgently and
prayerfully does not split much wood
when it comes to actually getting
them. Hendersonville, in my humble
opinion, must satisfy her needs by of
fering to the world the only really
valuable things she does in fact pos
climate and scenic location
which, to my way of thinking, are in
comparable in the South.
Our Business Not Artificial.
I beg to dissent from your state
nent that all of Hendersonville's pros |
perity is more or less artificial"
Financial conditions during the past
seven months have injected a large
element of "artifciality" into many
of business which were fond
supposed to be founded as firmly
Is Clingman's Dome; but as a mat
.er of fact the business life of Hender-
is as stable-and has as good
prospects for growth and permanence
AS the business life of the average
manufacturing town, with it's "de-
'ressions'' and "shut-downs" and
strikes" and "lock-outs." 1t is true
hat the business of the town is in
iome respects crowded to a degree
where profits approach the vanishing
that business is in nc n
1t is true that indica-
ions all apparently point to a less
rofitable season in 1915 than in the
ear just passed, but that simply
1eans that the general depression, of
usiness will reach Hendersonvflle
early twelve months late-nearly a
ear after it has struck other Sec
IONS; and one need not be a prophet
o see that when the European wal is
nded the return tide of prosperity
7il1 be felt here as quickly as any
here. In other words, we will have
side-stepped" about twelve months
( q nationwide business depression.
hat hardly strikes one as artificial"