Evening star., 1951-03-19
By George Kennedy
Stor Stoff CORRESPONDENT


houses Of red and painted brick
have remained much the same
as when Stonewall Jackson passed
under Barbara Fritchie's flag, is
about to experience industrial ex-
pansion.
There are new factory Chin
neys in the skyline where "The
clustered spires of Frederick
stand-green-walled by the hills
of Maryland" Most of them rise
from the Army's great biological
warfare research project at Camp
Detrick at the northwest corner
of the town. r.-.. o.. .
Camp Detrick is Frederick's
largest industry. employing about
l 900 civilian workers and getting
ready to hire more.
And Lansdale Tube, a sub
sidiary of the Philco Corp. is
about to build factory in the
northeast quarter of the city to
employ about 800 women and 200
men.
Frederick is one Maryland city
that did not mushroom during the
World War II period of expansion
While Hagerstown and Cumber-
land doomed, the population of
Frederick remained almost un-
changed. The 1850 census found
that it was 10000, an increase of
only 46 per cent over the 1910
figure. +
As in all small cities that have
been passed up by new industries.
there is a good deal of cynicism.
The word gets around that the
employers are keeping new estab-
lishments out because their entry
would disturb the prevailing wage
scales. Bitter things are said,
such as: "All this town needs is
25 good funerals"
Called Highly Competitive.
In these situations the local
Chamber of Commerce, which is
probably doing it's best to bring
new industries to the community,
becomes regarded as a conspiracy
to keep them out.
This selling a community to
industry is highly competitive and
all manner of factors. other than
the attitude of manufacturers
already located there, enter into
it.
For instance, 1t became known
right after the war that Du Pont
was considering Frederick as the
site of a tremendous chemical
plant. But Frederick finally lost
out to another community because
a check on the flow of the nearby
Monocacy River showed there was
not enough water in July and
to keep the plant in opera
ton. But the Chamber of Com
merce got the blame.
This makes Chamber of Com
merce work very discouraging.
There was a recent instance of
getting into world news.
Pravda in Moscow ran an article
saying that Frederick was the
center of the American imperial
lists experiments in breeding
germs to wipe out the population
of the U. S. S. r.
Civil Defense Activity.
This stimulated Civil Defense
activities in Frederick. After all,
the town might be Target No. /.
A physician made a talk at a
Civil Defense meeting. He said
there were not enough drugs in
Frederick to give first aid to 500
persons should an emergency
occur.
A subscriber to the Frederick
Post made this the subject of a
letter to the editor. He wrote
that the doctors statement should
occasion no alarm. The commu-
nifty should have confidence in its
Chamber of Commerce. The
chamber had kept everything else
out of Frederick; there was no rea-
son to doubt that it could keep
the atom bomb out.
Frederick is primarily an agri-
cultural trading community. The
farms are close to the city streets.
Men wearing red hunting caps,
Windbreakers, dungareeS and
muddy shoes are constantly going
in and out of the stores.
The fields around Frederick and
the Frederick road made Balti-
more one of the leading ports be-
fore the Revolution. The princi-
pal product was wheat and wheat
became big business compared to
the tobacco trade which centered
at Annapolis.
In this century, Frederick Coun-
ty became a great dairy land and
one of the richest agricultural
counties in the country. Frederick
milk goes to Baltimore, Washing
ton and Harrisburg, Pa.
Several Small Industries.
And Frederick City became the
home of several small industries.
The OK Fiber Brush Co. was the
largest for many years. There also
is Frederick Iron g. Steel Inc,
which manufactures pumps; the
Everedy Co., which makes kitchen
utensils; the Frederick Tailoring
Co., which makes mems clothes
the M. j. Grove Lime Co. and
smaller establishments making
shoes, rayon hose and stock feeds