December 1978 RAIN Pa e 11 Alice Veilleux, conon-spinner in Lewiston, Maine particularly the development of a steam-based economy, forced rapid adjustments on itself and spread its competitive advantages to other regions, where raw materials were abundant and labor was unorganized and cheap. As mills moved into the South and even overseas, the textile industry turned quickly to exploiting the region that had first nurtured it. Corporate mergers and consolidations reigned over the steady decline of the New England textile economy. The liquidation of an increasing number of marginally successful facilities followed, providing the capital for corporate diversification into whole new markets and different regions altogether. To the New England mill, the price of progress, so defined, was obsolescence and ultimately abandonment. Much more than an economic history, '{he Run of th e Mill explores the skeletal remnants of New England's textile industry today. Its intimate view of the tenacious people- sons and daughters of immigrants- who still work the mills, and the hard-pressed mill towns scattered across the region is poignant. These are the heroes of this first cycle of American capitalist expansion and decay, now nearly complete. They are the survivors. And as this cycle is only the first, they are perhaps the bellwether for what confronts other industrial economies and regions down the road. Their story makes us ask more precisely what economy it is that enriches a region and its people, rather than impoverishing them-what economy it is that can be sustained indefinitely, rather than used as an expendable route to expansion elsewhere. This vast, sensitive portrait is the kind of regional history we need more of: a prelude to assessing the prior conditions our localities must deal with in restructuring their economies with the long term future in mind. -SA North Grossvenordale, 100 years later '" fJ .... o c "~ '" ..c f0E o .t: terials, veh icles, electronics, clothi ng and other man ufactured goods from locally available material. And it means the use of locally available, renewable forms of energy. For a local economy it means as well innovative ways of providing public services, expansion of service industries such as appliance and automotive repair, localized rather than franchised restaurants and retail stores, as well as more locally owned bakeries, breweries, wineries and dairies. Sel f-reliance for the household means less dependence upon full-time jobs to purchase store-bought things, and instead, more homemade and homerepaired goods. It means more limited and careful use of credit; owner-huilt, -remodeled, and -repaired housing, more gardening and home food processing, and use of solar or wood heat. As with soft energy paths, the details of self-rel iance differ for each locale, but determining the feasibility for one specific case can both test ou t the general concepts and, if feasible, give support to other regions to develop specific programs tied to their own different needs. I'm interested in demonstrating for a particular area (Oregon) the comparative merits of these ideas-laying out new assumptions, social, economic and environmental im pacts of a 50 percent and 100 percent shift toward self-reliance, and laying out a framework for institutional and technological changes to accomplish it. We want to examine our "economics" through three major cuts: Household Expenditures (food, shelter, transportation, clothing . .. ), Public Services (health, education, utilities, government . . . ), and Major Industries (timber, agriculture, tourism, banking . .. ) to see their effect on both people individually and the region as a whole. It is likely that the real issues in economics revolve around scale and institutionalization, control, the effects upon people and the goals served- not around questions of free enterprise vs. socialism, profit maximization, or industrial growth. And there's reason to believe we're at a time when major change is possible in these patterns. • -
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