Oral history interview with Caesar Cone, January 7, 1983
Subtitle: interview C-0003, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Watson, Harry L., interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Jewish businesspeople; Attitudes; Businessmen; Textile industry; Government policy; Management; Consolidation and merger of corporations; History; Textile workers; Labor unions; Cone Mills Corporation
Other titles: Interview C-0003, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Caesar Cone, January 7, 1983; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: After getting an education at Harvard Business School and experience in business around the country, Caesar Cone found success in the textile industry in North Carolina in the first half of the 20th century. In this interview he looks back on his career, describing the textile industry in North Carolina and attacking the increasing entanglement of government and business. Cone is a passionate believer in minimizing government involvement in the marketplace. "Hell, you can't go to the bathroom, hardly, today without running into ... breaking the law," he complains. The burden of regulation doesn't just limit individuals' freedoms, he thinks, but in conjunction with the demands of unions, has hurt the textile industry in the United States and snuffed out employers' impulses to treat their employees well. Cone seems in many ways a typical small-government conservative businessman, but he declares himself a social liberal. That Cone, a Jew, faced a good deal of discrimination throughout his early career may have informed that facet of his belief system. This is a spirited interview that will interest, among others, scholars of entrepreneurship and the textile industry in the South.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on February 20, 2008).

Interview participants: Caesar Cone, interviewee; Harry Watson, interviewer.

Duration: 02:15:34.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 176.6 kilobytes, 248.3 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series C, Notable North Carolinians, interview C-0003, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 56 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.