140 YEARS
PAGE 8I ■ SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI DAILY JOURNAL
■ The history of working together came into full fruition during the Depression Era.
viable through the 1950s and 1960s, but that economic era transitioned into manufacturing, including textile and apparel makers. But furniture manufacturing blossomed. The furniture industry today continues to employ some 20,000 people directly and thousands more indirectly. It has grown to a $5 billion industry, according to the Franklin Furniture Institute at Mississippi State University. But like the dairy industry before it, the furniture industry is going through a transition of its own. With globalization comes the realization that cheap labor can be found far off the shores of the U.S., and manufacturers of all types, including furniture, have followed that route. “If you look at the sheer raw numbers, furniture manufacturing and employment reached its peak in the late 1990s,” said Rumbarger, who followed Martin at the helm of the CDF 10 years ago. “It’s been a windingdown effort since then. However, I think furniture will sustain and survive in the region, and depending on how the national economy recovers, there will be some strong furniture compaCOURTESY PHOTO nies that will remain here.”
BY DENNIS SEID Daily Journal
The region in the past has adapted to change – not always willingly, not always easily – but its people have learned to work together. That sense of regionalism was never more evident than in the formation of the Pontotoc, Union and Lee Alliance, or PUL Alliance, which set the stage for the recruitment of Toyota to Northeast Mississippi in 2007. But having landed what many referred to as the “crown jewel of economic development” more than three years ago, much work remains. “Landing Toyota was just a first step,” said Randy Kelley, executive director of Three Rivers Planning and Development District, which is the administrative overseer of PUL Alliance. “We have to be prepared to take advantage of this opportunity.” The opportunities – and challenges – are many, and they are both long term and short term. But Northeast Mississippi leaders say they are prepared to work together as the region stands at the threshold of a new economic era. In a difficult economic environment already, the region will be facing issues in transportation, water, work force, education, land use, social and cultural changes and future economic development. And what brought together PUL Alliance – a spirit of cooperation and a common idea – must continue, all the principal players agree. “The beauty of PUL was that there was a definite goal and objective to be obtained, and people bought into that idea as a strategy,” said David Rumbarger, president of the Tupelo-based Community Development Foundation. “I remember talking to the state Legislature and asking, ‘If not this strategy, then what?’ Nobody could give me a better strategy than what PUL was doing for the region.
The groundbreaking for the Carnation plant on Carnation Street took place on Jan. 31, 1927. Its opening is considered a milestone in the evolution of Tupelo’s economy. “But now that we’ve landed Toyota, the goals aren’t quite as clear, except in the recruitment of suppliers. I think the biggest challenge is maintaining the existing industry and the generation of new jobs in existing industry, along with maintaining the quality of life in all of our communities. And to do that, we have to maximize our cooperation and coordination.” Cooperation was the key more than 60 years ago, when the economy of Northeast Mississippi was transformed. Slammed by the Great Depression and the devastating tornado of 1936, the region had held the unenviable tag of being one of the poorest areas in the poorest state in the nation. Then came the dairy cow. In the aftermath of the Great
Depression, cotton was still king. Corn and soybeans were in the mix, too. And it wasn’t uncommon to see farmers have dairy cows, too. The nascent dairy industry got a boost when longtime Daily Journal publisher George McLean and other business leaders went on an extended trip to several university schools of agriculture. What they learned, wrote University of Mississippi sociologist and Tupelo historian Vaughn Grisham, is that switching to dairy farming would give farmers a constant stream of income. McLean and those business leaders – including 16 who went into debt – pooled their money together to buy a prize bull from England. They also hired a dairy expert and began a program to
We congratulate you on your
140th Anniversary as we celebrate our
25th Anniversary in Tupelo.
We Appreciate You!
Tupelo Plant Dedication September 19, 1985
inseminate cows within a 33mile radius of Tupelo, Grisham wrote. Their goal was to introduce the bull to Northeast Mississippi dairy farmers, who would breed better dairy cows than they had. They did just that. In fact, the region became known as the “Jersey Cattle Capital” of the world in the 1940s as the industry boomed. Without question, agriculture got a boost from dairy. And with it, the economy in the region slowly but surely improved. “Cotton paid the mortgage,” said Harry Martin, who led the Community Development Foundation from 1948 to 2000. “But with dairy, you got paid every two weeks ... it was supplemental income.” About the same time that
farmers literally were developing a cash cow, the region got another boost from an unlikely source – a Ukrainian immigrant named Morris Futorian. Frustrated in his difficulty to find workers in his Chicago furniture plant, Futorian looked for a better way to assemble furniture. Hand-built furniture was standard operation, but was labor-intensive. He found inspiration in mass production, a la the auto industry. Futorian then found his way – with some prodding – to the South. And on Sept. 13, 1948, Futorian opened a furniture plant in New Albany, ushering in an industry that would turn the region into the “upholstered furniture capital of the world.” The dairy industry remained
Diversified economy
Cheap labor in the South has long been the drawing card for businesses. With organized labor having little foothold in the South, and cheap, unskilled workers readily available in the agriculture-heavy economy of the mid-20th century, companies flocked here. Manufacturing found a place in the South, and still hangs on to it. However, the post-World War II effort in Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi, while touting the area’s non-union work force, sought a different path from many communities in the South by staying away from companies with reputations for running “sweatshops.” McLean and others wanted to attract industry that treated employees decently and that con-
Turn to ECONOMY on Page 9I
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ECONOMY GROWS THROUGH COOPERATIVE SPIRIT