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Along Life’s Way
The Company Store and More
By Lois E. Wilson
In our country’s history, the need to have a reliable supply of
laborers prompted various solutions. One of these the “company town”
developed in mining areas, around steel mills, and later other business
enterprises. Some towns started as groups of camps or shacks with
primitive conditions.
In 1880, George Pullman established a town near Chicago for this firm’s
palace car workers. After WWI, the textile industry located primarily
in the South had company towns. Kannapolis, N.C. owned by the
Cannon Mills in the 1960’s had a population of more than 34,000.
Conditions varied from town to town—but most companies owned the
housing and controlled the towns.
Some company towns had independent stores nearby; but in remote areas
before workers had automobiles, company stores provided the
necessities. Some companies gave workers non-cash vouchers and easy
store credit. These stores gained a negative reputation in song and
society for drawing the workers down into debt.
Tennessee Ernie Ford and Johnny Cash made the song “Sixteen Tons”
famous. Its lyrics describe the plight of many workers in these towns:
“You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.”
Company stores have disappeared along with most company towns. Some
towns died when the business or industry which created them died or
sold out their interests to private owners. Some resident workers voted
to become independent and incorporated their towns. There are still
towns dominated by certain companies but that is not as common as in
the past when people were not as able to relocate.
The questions are: Is the U.S. government becoming our parent company?
Is it trying to provide housing and other benefits to all workers? Is
it the new company store? Are candidates for office promising more and
more day-to-day necessities without regard to financial cost? Can
the government finance medical insurance for all and an advanced
education for every citizen and undocumented person living within its
borders who wants one?
Citizens, to protect the freedoms they treasure, have always been
willing to sacrifice and pay taxes on money they earned doing hard
work. However, is it time to pause and ask what liberties and personal
choices are we giving up to government for its “free” handouts?
We don’t want to plea to St. Peter, “We can’t go—we owe our souls to
the company store.”
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