An Industrialist Speaks:

The town in which we want to build a plant doesn't exist and probably never will exist unless we create it ourselves—and even then I doubt if it would completely match our ideal. Nevertheless, we do seek for certain things and the degree to which we find them determines the selection.

Now, of course, there are certain things that are essential, and no place without them can be considered, no matter how ideal it might be in all other ways.

For most of our operations we must have an adequate supply of intelligent female labor. Likewise, we must have an ample supply of good low-cost gas.

Third, we must have good transportation that brings us close in point of time to our source of supply and to our market.

After these fundamental considerations have been satisfied, and strangely enough they are the ones for the most part that can be determined the quickest, we come to a great many which are less tangible, but which in the end are really the determining factors.

Choosing a town is in some ways a lot like choosing a college for a youngster (that is, if the youngster hasn't already made up your mind for you). You may know of half a dozen or more colleges where the book-learning would be about equally good, but where there would be a wide difference in extracurricular activities. For instance, if the youngster were a girl, you would in all probability want a place that was fairly close to a boy's college.

It's these "extra-curricular" offerings that can make one place more attractive than another as a plant location.

The things we look for—the things we hope to find—have been broken down into three classifications: economic, political, and social. Because there is some overlapping, some factors may have been put in one category when someone else would have put them elsewhere. That, however, is but a matter of personal preference and a detail which does not alter the over-all problem.

Much of what I shall have to say will of necessity be old stuff but I feel it is necessary, in order to give you a reasonably complete picture of our approach to the selection of a plant town. At least I can assure that a selection is not something that is made hastily. We may make a mistake, but it won't be because we haven't tried to prevent an error.

Size of Town —While we operate mostly in small plants in small towns, there is a limit in smallness below which, experience has taught us, one should not go. The operation, for instance, should be of such a size that it can afford the advantages of efficient and modern equipment because its output must be competitive. Obviously, the size would vary with the product and the method of manufacture. A high component of hand labor as against automatic machine operations would weigh heavily in size of community.

Ordinarily for Sylvania's operations we would consider a community with a population of between 15,000 and 25,000 as about right for our small plants. (This is not to say smaller municipalities would not suit other industrial operations — editor's note.) Such a community, generally speaking, would be able to supply an adequate labor force without placing an undue burden of employment responsibility upon us.

While, of course, there are exceptions, we feel that a town of this size is about as small an industrial community as will give us a balanced population and service facilities. It is important, moreover, that we have certain skills available without robbing the rest of the community of them.

It is important also that the community be of a size that our wage scale would not be an upsetting factor to community economy or equilibrium. We are careful always to investigate wage rates, wage policies, holidays, vacations, working conditions, benefit programs and general labor relations. We have our own standards elsewhere to protect.

Let me say, that our program of decentralization is not based on seeking places with low labor rates. We have no intention of exploiting small town labor. Exploitation of such a nature, we feel, would sooner or later boomerang.

Facilities—We use a lot of gas so it must be readily available at all times and at a low cost. In an emergency we can use bottled gas, but this is not as satisfactory as having an uninterrupted supply and maintained btu's and pressure.

Electric service must be steady with good voltage and the lines so built that the chance of shortages from sleet or lightning storms is minimized.

Railroads and other forms of transportation with good service must be available. It should not be necessary to make frequent trans-shipments to take goods to market. Highways should be important links and kept open under all weather conditions.

Taxes—Considerable emphasis has been placed on low taxes and upon tax inducements for a period of years. We feel that taxes are the only way a community has of raising money to pay for necessary municipal expenses. We want to pay our share the same as anybody else, but we want to be sure that the taxes are fair. If we don't pay our share someone else has to pay it. Perhaps at a later date we too would be paying a part of someone's else taxes, and that we wouldn't like.

Safety— It is important that the town have a good record as regards floods, fire, and health. Having been through a very expensive flood in Pennsylvania not so many years ago, we are not anxious to have a repetition. A good fire department with good equipment is essential, because while we can insure ourselves against loss in buildings and facilities, we cannot insure against lost employment for our people.

While we provide plant medical and nurse service, we like to be sure that our employees have a good hospital available for themselves and their families. And because nothing is more important than community health, we investigate the sewage disposal conditions.

Housing—Since we always have to bring in a number of technicians and their families, we make sure that suitable housing is available at costs which they can afford. That is the economic consideration of availability, but a little later on I shall touch on the social impact of desirability.

Weather—In certain of our operations high humidity slows down production and increases the shrinkage loss. We do not want to be put to the extra expense of installing air-conditioning for a few days a year service, so for those operations, we look for places with low maximum relative humidity.

Site Economics—Delivery costs can eat up all the profits on low margin lines, which many of ours are. It is, therefore, necessary for us to investigate carefully delivery costs, not only of our finished product, but of our raw materials and components as well. For instance, is the site on a railroad siding? Is it on a good highway?

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*Reprinted from Colorado Municipalities

Also we frequently use a plant site for a warehouse as well. In those instances we must make certain that this would be economical and practical. Is it close enough to gas and power supply to warrant extension by the local utility?

While the local government is an important factor in selecting a plant community, it is not something that you can measure or classify in the same way as economic considerations. We want a local government that is alert, progressive, understanding, clean, and businesslike. We like to see balanced budgets and a comparative low debt per capita, yet with a reputation for good municipal facilities.

Our investigations, therefore, lead us to making an appraisal of the kind of people who are in the city government either by election or by appointment. If the men running the local government have the reputation of being businesslike, then we would expect taxes to be low by comparison. We would also expect to find good schools, streets, sewers, water systems, and police and tire departments.

As I said earlier, we expect to pay our share of the taxes on the same basis as any other citizen of the community. Nevertheless, we cannot afford to pay for waste. There is no reason, in our opinion, why the customer who lives in one state should have to pay for the high taxes caused by municipal incompetence in some other state.

We are favorably impressed with places that have planning boards because they connote an orderliness to the growth of the community in terms of its facilities. We don't accept them, however, until we have made an investigation because we have found city planning that was keeping the community's nose too close to the grindstone. School expenditures, for instance, for buildings, grounds and athletic fields at the expense of a teaching budget, or streets too far in advance of growth or requirement.

Here is where we come to some of those extra-curricular activities that I mentioned earlier. If we are going to put up a new building, we consider first the purpose for which it is to be used and we design it functionally. If communities are going to house industry, they likewise must have a functional design not only from the standpoint of services, but from the character of living they afford the people. Here are some of the things we look for:

Caliber of People—Some towns have a specialized occupational background that may or may not fit our needs. Just because a community has an ample supply of female labor is no criterion that we would find enough operatives of the type we want. We have had experiences in both textile and leather mill towns that were not to our liking. Both work habits and character of work had built up a work background that was not acceptable to us.

Of greatest importance, however, is the potential intelligence of the community. Do the people possess the ability to grow in terms of added responsibility? While there will always be certain technical skills that we will import, we expect the community to provide not only the hourly-wage group, but eventually the line supervisory group as well. We, therefore, must have people whom we can upgrade.

There are communities where for one reason or another, the people have no initiative or ambition. We try to avoid such communities. It is not good to operate in any community where all or most of the supervisory force is imported.

Depth of Labor Market—It is also important that the area provide a wide variety of talent, or at least people who can be trained in various skills. If the market is shallow, we would be forever handicapped or at the mercy of a few people.

Culture—A community must have a solid cultural core. It must be alert and interested even if handicapped by distance from large centers. If the cultural growth is static, or if it is largely in the past, we find that the people are dissatisfied in an unhealthy way. They are frustrated and lack ambition and initiative.

Recreational Facilities — Employees, we feel, should have wholesome recreation available for their leisure time, such as golf, tennis, baseball, softball, swimming, skating, bowling, fishing, and hunting. The more they can enjoy at a cost they can afford, the less time will they spend in undesirable places. In this same category is the opportunity to grow things. After all, forty hours a week allows for considerable leisure time that can be put to good use, especially by men with families.

Places of Congregation—We find there is value to community centers, Y.M.C.A.'s, parks and similar places where people can play, or visit together, or take part in community life. We encourage civic spirit. We want our employees to feel that they are a part of the place in which they work and live.

Hotels—Does the community have a good hotel where visitors and sales people can comfortably stay? Does it have one or more good restaurants? In some places we have had to provide our own facilities of this nature but it is costly with a very uneven load factor. Towns without such accommodations, however, are shunned by outsiders and even by company people from other places. Executives spend as little time there as they possibly can.

Schools —Most of our people are high school graduates. While the work isn't exacting for the most part, we expect a high level of intelligence. Unless there is a good school system, and a fairly large percentage of the children go to high school, we find our available labor less satisfactory.

Stores—Good stores are a sign of the kind of living standards that we want our employees to enjoy. The supervisory and technical help that we take to a new place would be unhappy with poor shopping places and we would not be able to hold them.

Newspapers—One of the first things we study is the local paper. Does it appear to do a fair job of keeping people informed, especially on local and nearby news? If it does then we know the people are interested in their community. A newspaper frequently is a pretty good barometer of public spirit and morale. Is the newspaper progressive or is it against, industrial expansion? Since it has an important effect upon public opinion, we like to know what the climate is, because we cannot do our best except in a place where we enjoy good public acceptance.

Housing—What are the standards? Are the houses new or very old? Are houses available for technical people we need to bring in? Are they, the kind that young well-educated people would want to live in? Are there real estate developments that would attract such people?

Houses that lack modern conveniences, that are hard to make attractive, that take a lot of work with little to show for it, that lack charm, are not conducive to good employee morale.

Library—These same people need certain cultural facilities, particularly books. Is the library as well-equipped as could be expected for a town of that size? Is it well patronized? Does it or the schools provide for adult education?

Cleanliness, Police Record and Health Record—I have grouped these three because they are a measure of the character of the people. A clean city with a good police and health record is attractive to employees with families. Better skills and more ambition are apt to be found there. The record of job absenteeism can be expected to be lower. A better neighborhood spirit will exist. The plants and grounds will be better maintained and have better housekeeping.

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THE COMMUNITY IN WHICH WE WANT TO BUILD A PLANT
(Continued from page 219)

Local Spirit—We want to settle in places where the townspeople are aggressive in doing things for their community. The atmosphere is much more healthy when the town is not forever holding back waiting for the company to provide for this or that. People appreciate and treasure more the things they do for themselves than they do the things they receive as a gift from "Lady Bountiful." We want always to do our part, but only the part that any good citizen would take.

Family—Finally is the town a good place in which to bring up a family? That's the really important social question. When employees feel that the children have a healthy place in which to grow up—good schools, plenty of opportunity for the right kind of play, safe streets, good health record, good playmates, good moral record, right outlook on life—they feel little inclination to move on. They themselves become better and more steady at their jobs.

Thus, there is an important social aspect to city planning which will be of equal importance with facilities planning on enticing outside industry to any community. A place that is socially healthy generally offers an employer better workmanship, greater productivity, better understanding, greater mutuality of interest.

This is the town, other things being equal, in which we want to build and extend our operations.