Public Policies for Countering Deindustrialization in Postwar Massachusetts

Journal of Policy History

Volumn 18, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 326-361

  Koistinen, David ^a  

^a AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT   (Lebanon)

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EID: 84863323866     PISSN: 08980306     EISSN: 15284190     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jph.2006.0009     Document Type: Article

References (126)

1. Among the numerous works on the impact of factory closures on workers, communities, and unions are Jefferson R. Cowie, Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor (Ithaca, 1999), and
2. William F. Hartford, Where Is Our Responsibility? Unions and Economic Change in the New England Textile Industry, 1870-1960 (Amherst, Mass. 1996).
3. Scholars have also investigated the economics of industrial decline and the experience of firms in downsizing sectors. See, for example, Lawrence F. Gross, The Course of Industrial Decline: The Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1835-1955 (Baltimore, 1993).
4. On local public policies for countering industrial decline, see Guian McKee, “Urban Deindustrialization and Local Public Policy: Industrial Renewal in Philadelphia, 1953-1976,” Journal of Policy History 16, no. 1 (2004): 66–98;
5. Joseph Heathcott and Maire Agnes Murphy, “Corridors of Flight, Zones of Renewal: Industry, Planning, and Policy in the Making of Metropolitan St. Louis, 1940-1980,” Journal of Urban History 31 (January 2005): 151-89;
6. Margaret Pugh O'Mara, Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, 2005), chap. 4.
7. Policymaking on the issue at the national level is explored in Gregory S. Wilson, “Deindustrialization, Poverty, and Federal Area Redevelopment in the United States, 1945-1965,” in Jefferson Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, eds. Beyond the Ruins: The Meanings of Deindustrialization (Ithaca, 2003), 181-98, and
8. Steven High, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969-1984 (Toronto, 2003), chaps. 5 and 6.
9. State, regional, and federal responses to deindustrialization in the period between the two world wars are explored in David Koistinen, “Dealing with Deindustrialization: Economics, Politics, and Policy During the Decline of the New England Textile Industry, 1920-1960” (Ph.D. diss. Yale University, 1999).
10. See, for example, Council of Economic Advisers, Committee on the New England Economy, The New England Economy: A Report to the President Transmitting a Study Initiated by the Council of Economic Advisers (Washington, D.C. 1951)
11. Forbes, 15 July 1953, contents page and 14-19.
12. On the pre-World War II decline of New England cotton manufacturing and its growth in the South, see David Koistinen, “The Causes of Deindustrialization: The Migration of the Cotton Textile Industry from New England to the South,” Enterprise & Society 3 (September 2002): 482-520.
13. On the southward migration of cotton and wool production after World War II, see Hartford, Where, chaps. 5 and 6.
14. J. Joseph Huthmacher, Massachusetts People and Politics (Cambridge, Mass. 1959)
15. Duane Lockard, New England State Politics (Princeton, 1959), chap. 5;
16. Jerome M. Mileur, “Party Politics in the Bay State: The Dominion of Democracy,” in Parties and Politics in the New England States, Jerome M. Mileur ed. (Amherst, Mass. 1997), 77-94;
17. Richard W. Wilkie and Jack Tager, eds. Historical Atlas of Massachusetts (Amherst, Mass. 1991), 68-69.
18. Richard Abrams, Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics, 1900-1912 (Cambridge, Mass. 1964), 182-83, 231-32, 234;
19. Massachusetts section of Clara M. Beyer, “History of Labor Legislation for Women in Three States,” in U.S. Department of Labor Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, no. 66 (Washington, D.C. 1929)
20. Jean-Claude G. Simon, “Textile Workers, Trade Unions, and Politics: Comparative Case Studies, France and the United States” (Ph.D. diss. Tufts University, 1980), 197-226.
21. Tom Juravich et al. Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions (Amherst, Mass. 1996), chaps. 12 and 13; Hartford, Where, chap.
22. Statistic from Arthur A. Bright Jr. and George H. Ellis, eds. The Economic State of New England: Report of the Committee of New England of the National Planning Association (New Haven, 1954), 370.
23. MA AFL DOCS [proceedings and reports of officers to the annual convention of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s; exact titles of documents change from year to year and are as specified in individual notes; all are in Massachusetts AFL-CIO Records, boxes 1 and 2, Du Bois Library Special Collections and Archives, University of Massachusetts, Amherst], Proceedings of the Fiftieth Annual Convention, 1935, 88–91;
24. Tulloch to Lodge, 14 November 1935, box 1, “1935” folder and Swift to Culter, 26 May 1936, box 67, “1936 correspondence” folder, both in Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. collection, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston;
25. Lodge entry in American National Biography, vol. 22;
26. Lockard, New England State Politics, 136–37, 143-45, 163, 165-66
27. Saltonstall entry in American National Biography, vol. 19.
28. Lockard, New England State Politics, 125 and chap. 6. Legislators' voting records demonstrate these patterns. State Senate roll calls were examined on ten issues of concern to organized labor during the 1951-52 legislative session. Of the twenty-two Republican Senators, thirteen had records of perfect or near-perfect opposition to union-backed bills (with at most one union-friendly vote); another six leaned strongly in an antilabor direction (with two or three pro-labor votes); and three had centrist records. Of the eighteen Democrats, thirteen had perfect or near-perfect records of support for union bills (with at most one antiunion vote); another three leaned strongly pro-union (with two antiunion votes); and two had centrist records. Voting records from Massachusetts Federation of Labor, Official Labor Record of the Massachusetts Legislature, 1951-1952 Session. This and Official Labor Record of the Massachusetts Legislature, 1953-1954 Session, cited below, are in Massachusetts AFL-CIO Records, box 24, folder 1056, Du Bois Library Special Collections and Archives, University of Massachusetts. Party membership of legislators for the 1951-52 session from the publication 1951-1952 Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [Boston, 1951].
29. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Division of Employment Security, A Report on Unemployment Compensation Benefit Costs in Massachusetts (n.p. [Boston], 1950), v. 12, 13, statistics on p. 12.
30. A Report on Unemployment Compensation, 3–4, 13-14, 30-32, 36-37.
31. A Report on Unemployment Compensation 19;
32. Arnold H. Raphaelson, Massachusetts Unemployment Compensation, 1948-1961: A Study in Countercyclical Finance (Boston, 1966), 25, 27-28;
33. Boston Globe, 22 March 1951, 10; 8 June 1951, 40.
34. A Report on Unemployment Compensation, 3, 9
35. “Final Report of the Recess Commission on Employment Security,” April 1949, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1949 (House, No. 2360), 32;
36. “Report of the Special Commission Relative to the Textile Industry and to Prevent the Removal Thereof from the Commonwealth,” May 1950, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1950 (House, No. 2590), 16–17. Statistics on maximum amount and maximum duration of benefits are for year-end 1948.
37. The statistics are my calculations, from figures appearing in “Report of the Special Commission Relative to the Textile Industry,” 16–17.
38. “Report of the Special Commission Relative to the Employment Security Law,” January 1948, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1948 (House, No. 1764), 3, 5 (quotation), 6-8, 27-30; Industry (Associated Industries of Massachusetts), May 1951, 5.
39. A Report on Unemployment Compensation, 3, 19;
40. Boston Globe, 22 March 1951, 10; 8 June 1951, 40.
41. MA AFL DOCS, Officers Reports and Proceedings, 1951, 46;
42. Boston Globe, 21 March 1951, 7.
43. MA AFL DOCS, Officers Reports and Proceedings, 1951, 46, and
44. Joint Report of the Executive Council and Officers, 1951, 39;
45. Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1951 (Senate, No. 251), 29–30.
46. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Division of Employment Security, Financing Unemployment Insurance in Massachusetts, 1951-1970 (Boston, 1962), 25.
47. Bay State unionists had multiple reasons for opposing cutbacks in unemployment insurance. The program was an important one for maintaining worker income during times of layoff, and significant political energy had been expended in earlier years to achieve the existing level of benefits. At a maximum of 2.7 percent of payroll, unemployment insurance taxes were a relatively small factor in total costs; reducing these levies would do little to help Massachusetts textile firms in competition with producers in the lower-cost South. In addition, only a fraction of the state's workers were in the troubled textile sector. Many labored in locally oriented industries, such as retail or construction, where there was no competition from out of state. Others worked for manufacturers that competed with producers in the industrial states of the Northeast and Midwest, where unemployment insurance taxes were roughly on a par with those in Massachusetts. Most of the commonwealth's non-textile-manufacturing companies were in sound condition in the early 1950s. Furthermore, the general tendency throughout the country in this period was for the level of unemployment insurance benefits to increase, and keeping pace with gains elsewhere was a priority for Massachusetts unionists. On the good condition of most commonwealth industries and the impulse to match social gains in other states, see MA AFL DOCS, Joint Report of the Executive Council and Officers, 1952, 38.
48. Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1951 (House, No. 2570), quotation on p. 4.
49. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1951, chap. 763, pp. 758–60.
50. Wilkie and Tager, Historical Atlas of Massachusetts, 69.
51. “Elect Christian A. Herter,” 1952 campaign flier, in Christian A. Herter Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge [hereafter CAH], folder 905;
52. “Record of Achievement of Governor Christian A. Herter. 1953-1954,” 31, in Sinclair Weeks papers, Dartmouth College Library Special Collections, Hanover, New Hampshire [hereafter SW], box 37
53. “Christian A. Herter” folder;
54. Time, 17 August 1953, 13–16;
55. New Republic, 6 February 1956, 8–10;
56. U.S. News & World Report, 27 January 1956, 90–93 (quotation on p. 90)
57. Nation, 11 February 1956, 111–13;
58. Herter entry, American National Biography, vol. 10. Herter distinguished himself in Congress as a leading Republican internationalist at a time when isolationist sentiments remained strong in GOP ranks. He returned to Washington in 1957 as Undersecretary of State, moving up to the Secretary position in
59. Herter inaugural address, 8 January 1953, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1951 (Senate, No. 1), 31;
60. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1951, chap. 763, p. 758 and
61. Acts and Resolves 1953, chap. 397, p. 284.
62. See 21 May 1953 press release, 1, in CAH, folder 932; “Record of Achievement of Governor Christian A. Herter. 1953-1954,” 6;
63. Greater Boston Business, December 1955, 15.
64. The enormously talented Herter brought a successful first-term record and an attractive public image into the 1954 gubernatorial race, yet he prevailed against a secondstring Democratic candidate by the relatively narrow margin of 985,000 to 910,000 votes. The year 1954 was a Democratic one in the commonwealth, with the party winning back control of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and gaining seats in the state Senate. See New York Times, 9 May 1954, 61; 31 October 1954, 47; and 7 December 1954, 49; and Wilkie and Tager, Historical Atlas, 69, on electoral races and results. See sources on Herter cited above and “American Public Service Bureau,” 1 August 1953 issue, 2-4, CAH, folder 935, on his record as governor.
65. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1951, chap. 763, p. 760, and
66. Acts and Resolves 1953, chap. 397, p. 286;
67. Raphaelson, Massachusetts Unemployment Compensation, 30, 32
68. MA AFL DOCS, Officers Reports and Proceedings, 1953, 183, 187.
69. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1953, chap. 401, pp. 289–90;
70. Massachusetts Federation of Labor, Official Labor Record of the Massachusetts Legislature, 1953-1954 Session, “Analysis of House Roll Calls,” item 4.
71. “Preliminary Report of the Special Commission on Taxation: A Tax Inquiry for Massachusetts,” March 1949, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1949 (House, No. 2280), 10–13;
72. Boston Business, July 1951, 24, and April 1953, 12.
73. “Report of the Special Commission on Taxation, Part V: The Taxation of Business and Manufacturing Corporations,” February 1952, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1952 (House, No. 2114), 7, 76–80;
74. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Addresses and Messages to the General Court. of His Excellency Governor Christian A. Herter. (Boston, 1956), 1954 income tax cut on 17, 151-52.
75. Massachusetts Federation of Taxpayers Associations, Inc. Proposal for the Establishment of a Department of Commerce and Development in Massachusetts (Boston, 1945)
76. “Report of the Special Commission Relative to Establishment of a State Department of Commerce,” December 1945, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1946 (House, No. 300)
77. Koistinen, “Dealing,” 254–58;
78. Industry, February 1946, 36, 72–75.
79. I intend to publish a paper that will further illuminate industrialists' opposition to economic development efforts in postwar Massachusetts. Included will be added information on the resistance of manufacturers to the formation of the Department of Commerce, as well as their apparent opposition to the efforts of the department, once it was set up, to bring new employers into Massachusetts from out of state. The paper will also discuss manufacturers' antagonism to an early 1950s proposal for a state entity that would finance the construction of new factory space, as well as industrialists' lukewarm support for the private organization that was eventually established (the MBDC) to provide long-term capital to small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. If the paper goes ahead, it will appear as David Koistinen, “The Political Economy of Regional Redevelopment: Business and Area Government in the Regeneration of the New England Economy,” Business and Economic History On-Line: Papers Presented at the BHC Annual Meeting, vol. 4 (2006), at the Web site of the Business History Conference.
80. Boston Globe, 12 June 1946, 1, 12; 12 June (evening edition), 18; 13 June, 16; 13 June (evening edition), 11; and 14 June 1946, 1, 12. On Gibbons's voting record, see Massachusetts Federation of Labor, Official Labor Record of the Massachusetts Legislature, 1951-1952 Session.
81. Statistics from Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1945, chap. 404, p. 396, and Acts and Resolves 1951, chap. 490, p. 414. Mimeographed annual reports of the Development and Industrial Commission from this era are at the Massachusetts State Library, Boston.
82. Herter inaugural address, 8 January 1953, 32–35, quotation on pp. 32-33;
83. Herter message to the state legislature and accompanying bill, 10 February 1953, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1953 (House, No. 2274). Herter's quoted statement was exaggerated, especially given the expansion of the Development and Industrial Commission in preceding years. But he was correct in claiming that the commonwealth could create a still larger and more effective promotional agency.
84. Boston Globe, 11 March 1953 (evening edition), 4 (quotations), and 12 March 1953, 3.
85. MA AFL DOCS, Officers Reports and Proceedings, 1953, 179.
86. Boston Globe, 5 May 1953, 1, 10; 22 May 1953, 8; 27 May 1953, 1, 3.
87. The growth of the Commerce Department came about in part from absorption of the State Planning Board, which in the 1951-52 fiscal year had received an appropriation of #x0024;66,000, with thirteen permanent positions. Once within Commerce, the work of planning personnel seems to have been redirected to more explicitly support development goals. All statistics from Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Acts and Resolves 1955, chap. 706, p. 684;
88. Acts and Resolves 1951, chap. 490, p. 397.
89. On the formation of the MBDC, see New England News Letter, January-February 1950, 15;
90. Monthly Review (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston), January 1951, 1–3; July 1954, 1-4; August 1954, 1-6;
91. Boston Globe, 18 May 1953 (evening edition), 9;
92. Herter message to the state legislature and accompanying bill, 19 June 1953, Massachusetts Legislative Documents 1953 (House, No. 2827); Industry, June 1953, 5; Boston Business, June 1953, 44.
93. On the department's work, see The Massachusetts Department of Commerce: Its Mission, Its Organization, Its Operations (Boston, 1954) and (Boston, 1956), at Loeb Design Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, and Massachusetts Department of Commerce, Activity Report, July 1, 1957-March 1, 1959 (Boston, 1959) and Activity Report, January 1, 1961-July 31, 1962 (Boston, 1962) at the Massachusetts State Library, Boston.
94. On the Lawrence experience, see Credit Needs of Small Business, 101–2.
95. A Commerce publication from the early 1960s listed a number of out-of-state companies that its industrial development division had recently “assisted” in setting up Massachusetts plants. See the department's Activity Report, January 1, 1961-July 31, 1962, 35–36.
96. For a detailed treatment of this question in the 1920s, see David Koistinen, “Public Relations as Redevelopment Tool: Accentuating the Positive in Deindustrializing New England,” Business and Economic History On-Line: Papers Presented at the BHC Annual Meeting, vol. 3 (2005), at the Web site of the Business History Conference.
97. Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries, Census of Manufactures in Massachusetts–1960–Summary by Industries, 1. The figure is for production workers.
98. Other historians similarly document at least some success in campaigns of this era to promote growth in deindustrializing municipalities. See Heathcott and Murphy, “Corridors”
99. McKee, “Urban Deindustrialization”
100. O'Mara, Cities, chap. 4.
101. Republican State Committee, “Rebuilding Massachusetts,” 1 (“Creating”)
102. Herter press release, 18 November 1953, CAH, folder 937, 1 (quotations), 2.
103. “Legislators Told Rush.” 31 July 1956 Boston Globe clipping in SW, box 35, “Kurtz M. Hanson” folder.
104. Thus, in arguing against the 1946 proposal for a state Department of Commerce, the general counsel of AIM asserted that Massachusetts could best aid its industries through retrenchment in social legislation and taxes, and that such steps must precede the establishment of an economic development agency. See Industry, February 1946, 36, 72–75.
105. Rep. J. Robert Ayers, “Golden Dome: Entire Herter Program Geared to Job Security,” 7 July 1953 Waltham News-Tribune clipping, in CAH, folder 946. Later in the piece the author did discuss the accelerated return to merit rating; a reorganization of the state tax department, which brought in increased revenue and might make possible future reductions in levies; and cuts in overall state spending.
106. Bluestone and Harrison, Deindustrialization of America, 180–88.
107. On at least one occasion, Herter used that very term to describe what had been done, claiming that the establishment of the Department of Commerce and MBDC had produced “improvements to the business climate.” See “Jobs and Industry,” undated statement, probably from mid-1953, in CAH, folder 927a.
108. Lockard, New England State Politics, 184, 193–95. The Republican won the 1958 rematch between the two men.
109. Arthur D. Little, Inc. Strengthening Industrial Development in Rhode Island: A Report to the State of Rhode Island and the Industrial Foundation of Rhode Island (Cambridge, etc. 1960), 34 (quotation).
110. Inaugural Message of the Governor 1951 (Providence, 1951), 7-9;
111. Rhode Island Development Council, Annual Report, 1970-1971 (mimeograph), first page. The new agency was the Rhode Island Development Council.
112. Annual Message of the Governor to the General Assembly 1952 (Providence, 1952), 10-11;
113. Inaugural Message of the Governor 1953 (Providence, 1953), 6;
114. correspondence from December 1952 and January 1953 in DJR, box 14, folder 3; Inaugural Message of the Governor 1955 (Providence, 1955), 6.
115. New York Times, 12 January 1959, 135.
116. New York Times, 21 May 1950, F1, and 21 December 1950, 43.
117. New York Times, 5 September 1954, 31; 7 January 1955, 42; 21 August 1955, 54;
118. Lockard, New England State Politics, 104, 105 (quotation).
119. New York Times, 4 January 1957, 12, and 7 June 1957, 33;
120. Development Corporations and Authorities, 21–22.
121. “Report of the Special Commission Relative to Establishment of a State Department of Commerce,” December 1945, 55–61;
122. Development Corporations and Authorities, 5.
123. The Massachusetts legislative commission considering the establishment of a Department of Commerce in 1945 reported the existence of economic development agencies in thirty other states (see “Report of the Special Commission,” December 1945, 54–55).
124. See, for example, Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920 (New York, 1982).
125. Ronald F. Ferguson and Helen F. Ladd, “Massachusetts” chapters, in R. Scott Fosler, ed. The New Economic Role of American States: Strategies in a Competitive World Economy (New York, 1988), especially 41, 44–45, 77.
126. “Sell Massachusetts,” 26 August 1980 Boston Globe clipping, in “New England Economy” folder, in the on-site archives of what was at the time the Bank of Boston, Boston.