nine nations of north america to succeed

8/14/2019 Nine Nations of North America to Succeed'

1/24

48 The Nine Nations of North America

Why should we be in such desperate-haste to succeed' and in suchd;;;"'.;" enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companion5'

;;il;;t";,-i;-L"'.u.,," he hears a different dmmmer'Let him step to the

'-"t1. which he hears, however measured or far away'

on a warm Summer day, when children ride in the swan.shape4

p.alft Uout. in Bostonis Public Garden' and' in the evening'trr.rjr"a, gather on the Esplanade to hear a free Boston Pops

symphony concert, this New Englander'swords echo across the

i".u?"r. thi, i, also true next 6 a salt marsh near Brunswick'il;;;"t;-man tho*t "ff the house he

built himself' cheaplv

il ;rh great beautv, out of n]1|


2/24

5rTHE FOUNDRY5o

was the envy of the world - the gritty cities ofNorth America's

industrial Ntrtheast. Now, the pier needs a lot of work'"At the twilight's last gleaming . ' '"The Continental soldiers march with great precision, in their

blue swallowtailed coats with red trim and gold buttons. T6.i.pants and leggings are as white as the George Washington qi*,r.r.rd". their ttrree-cornered hats. Pennants are layered as thick ispalm fronds over one of the flags they carry' The pennants sn,ihirrg. like ceNrml BURMA, 1945. Where and why, exactly, was thebattle for central Burma? The wool costumes look hot in thebright June sun. The fireboat for the inner harbor fires tall jets ofhigh-pressure water into the cloudless sky. Tarnished-red-and sil-vei tiailer boxes lie nearby like so many building blocks for ncolossus, stacked and waiting for the containerized oceanfreighter that is riding high in the water of the chesapeake Bayas it heaves to.

"Oh say does tha-hat Star Spangled '"The crowd in the park listening to the contralto belt it out is an

extremely diverse l,ot. Orientals. Blacks. Surprising number ofredheads. Uncommon quantities of adults under five and a halffeet tall, with pinched smiles and gnarled hands. virtually theentire history o1 the migrations that have made up North Amer-ica is writt"n o.r their fices. The neighborhood just behind FortMcHenry is Locust Point' Surrounding the Locust Point MarineTerminal, it is the classic northeastern ethnic enclave' The frontstoops of the row houses are polished white, gleaming from re-p"ut.d scrubbings on hands and knees with soapy water and astiff brush. "These Germans and Polacks here in Locust Point"'the mayor of Baltimore had said earlier, "they think they're in-dependlnt of the city. They're not poor' They have a lot of pride'

you do.t't do anything down here without asking them' It'sa pain

in the ass.""Ba-NER-herye-hetwa-ha-ha-have ."Over the star-shaped old squat brick fort' a replica of an old

flag was being raised. In the Indian summer of r8r4, in retaliationfor North Americans torching Toronto, British imperial forceshad burned the White House in Washington, forty miles south othere, and were then zeroing in on the.t-,i.iuin.agling industry ofthe port city of Baltimore. th" .o--.ndant of th"e foit that stoodbetween the fleet and the city was casting about for a very spe-cific symbol of defiance. "It is my desirei-' he wrote, archly' "tohuu. a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty in

-i n e itf-T 11,1":T;; ;,ir: l;[ffi"*,htfi,lx;'"$ Jll'i:I:"i11%it,ûv f"1-v.-i:.r"ss, and fifteen stripes' Its exact

duplicate'feet ,'"'- ^, two teet a-. eacrr r"--. ,^-., is one huge flag''Ji**:;"i,)i,li,ifliinienni ',' '" r ,,rree,, rt arways does" ':!::":;:t;; ;;"eches on tn" *-l'X,.a" tt'",'.." deal with

#x!5"H'{':"+

"' ;ff,

i :ffiii*"ni;:,*m "', ;n:ii;; *t li*':ffi;.,n"' N". i* 'l:-::'Pfi'i1il"'l;l,li, ,n";'i' ftii;;ili,'it" t,"lians' the Jamaicans' the Lithuaniansi;{{*#:';,n:*itq*. *dti *r ff.:ft'#this fine l'1n^,"ît) c"tti.-s.u"dina'ian ethey are ho,lorllts

o io. the yellow cross on the blue field'of Swe--^-n.,ins there -

llurrr -Lr!! r - c .rr^r^- r- fqct the harbor was,.Le '\r'"'7t^^ Gorcet"j1;;;;;ôf wul"'' In fact' the^harborden, tg '1"-lll)-'^.i, u"i?rrir time it was bv for.tv.fgot

serpent-

"t"ilP"i19^t"n1::. their Vikine t'"*'-brundishing

.paddedt ^Â'A long DU4L'""i:;: "."Ia"r, N;t*;;i;"t'

uti ethnic Finns attacked; scots''Y?'1"' :,;;.;

^:il;;?;.'wh;;

the warriors got thirstv' thevrrl^l.h qn.l lIt5lr uwerslr,

'lll^^.^l^ra. Dotent pearwine i-fort"a fiom England'

o'rh; :#T;;;' ".''."o'i''i""' B M A Âr4v E'"Bravery, u, lt r'uppJ'li'y^:n1::pit of aitt"ssion

later in the

dav, as William po'rt'ufa Schaefer touredhis city in the long green

Fleetwood *ith th; ii;ri* oi"l"t thut ti*pfy said uevon"In ad-

;i;b" to h is driv e,: il i;;;"i; ;r1 1. 9i'J,Y:;*'i;t*i:'H::uia. *no looked like an administrattvfunctioned as one, but who really *ut if'"t" on special

detach-

ment from Baltimore's Tac Squad - int "q"lvalentof a SWAT

team. Form"rtv *'iif it" "rit" i-liit"tt"iit"pt"r branch' in which

he had thrown ,o"ritri,L-'"it Li""t"ii;ttitomth" safetv of the

air, he to* t.uu"l"a 'i'itf' a '38 under hls'plaid-jacketedshoulder'and the knowledge that the mayor o[ a northeastern

city wades

into some fairly s-trange crowds'Actually, tft" .on'u"r-ration was not about bravery

per se' It wasabout windows.

In the Union Square neighborhood' where H' L' Mencken'"the

sage of eultimo#i';;;i;;;, th"t" is a "shop-steading"pro-

gram. Shopr,"ual'ng r,'"'rpr"-tif "f Bti;;o'"''i'ho'nesteading"

pr"". l.'""t.'tir?istern urban homesieading' gutted. a-ged town-houses, which are in no conditio" tcl *o3rt"decent human

life

but whose sturdv i;t;k ;;ii;-ut" 'tiit-- structurallv.sound that

it seems u ,hu-J j;r;: ;;lilot" ,t'"*, "re sold bvthe citv for a

The Nine Nations of North America


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THE FOUNDRY55

in the51 The Nine Nations of North Americaexecutive. A copy is retained by an old Prussian, who

's a retiredutility engineer. His job, for which he is paid next to nothing,l,largeiy to make sure that if an action memo demands. a responsein two days, by the beard of St. Nicholas, a response is producg4in two days. The habits this kind of system instills in city *o.k..ican be awesome to behold. At ten o'clock one Saturday morninga mayor's aide received a call from the organizers of a dedicatiJnceremony at a neighborhood "multiservice" center. More peoplewere showing up at the festivities than had been anticipated, an4there were not enough fblding chairs. The aide made one call. Atro: 56, one yellow truck, number 2737, Department of PublicWorks, Bureau of Operations, showed up at that center on NorthDukeland Street, two miles west of city hall, in the predomi-nantly black Rosemont neighborhood. It had two workers in or-ange and yellow reflector vests, who worked with a will to unloadand set up a hundred more blue folding chairs.

In some northeastern cities on a weekend morning, you can'tcall 9rr and get the police to show up in fifty-six minutes flat,

much lessget a hundred folding chairs and a work crew' And,

unlike some of the old-line mayors and Maryland politicians headmires, Schaefer has never been accused of corruption; more-over, he seems to exercise his capacity for repressive totalitari-anism only on political allies, opponents, and newspaper re-porters - all of whom

probably can be considered fair game'A.ror. the pillars of the rehabbed Rosemont neighborhood cen-ter marked by clean new plate glass, sandblasted and repointedturn-of-the-century brick, and marvelous old turrets, hung abanner whose -"ir.g" seemed to be heartfelt (in 1979, Schaeferran without signi{rca-nt opposition). In the city's colors of blackand yellow (not very diffiient from the black and orange of the

city's beloved baseball team, the Orioles), it read: wELcoME MAYoRSCHAEFER.Anyway, this Saturday afternoon - after attending

the neigh-borhood multipurpose center dedication, the Celtic-Scandinavianfestival, the Flag Duy ."."*onies at Fort McHenry, and yet otheractivities, such is the French ethnic festival, a rummage sale atthe rz5-year-old Light Street Presbyterian Church, and a southBaltimore street faii in which he responded to a man who wantedto help keep the city clean by issuing an Executive Action Memodirecting a city department to deliver the fellow a broom -Schaefei had thoroughly exhausted the men twenty years hisjunior who had tried to keep up with his pace. Now, the mayor'

'*nm**tjTr""T["J"#:?i"il;;" 4"' Yes' within the last rew vearsthis all happened' i"-futt' when wei"i-Uo"gnt

it' one day I

walked toward 'h;;;tk ;'th" but uta'iit"t" t*6 gt'yt *"re

firing

up right o.'t'id" tr'Jl;;;;,v"'' 't'ooiingup' Heroin'' In fact'

the liquor board *cr"ra t"t allow us ;;t;th;name New Deal

Two. Thev i,,'t *i-tli*tt'";t*"Nt* ;J tompletelvgone from

the memory tf J;;;;;i" eutti"'otJ; *"'t"goit'g to call it

Heathen D"vr, .f;;;:;JJ tvr""tten's books'"whitely pro,'ati''t'owed the *u'o'"ii"'io'tg

otk' bar she and

her husband had discovered uta -*ou"ain' Inf the fine brass

rails on which the future would pr..l"'i",i r"",.srt" discussed the

oak ice box with beveled mirrors *t n:"::"TX"-lliijlS'.Xi;r ;x;n,:"* ; ;:: f;,"il:"i'*"til;:"' 3r'" p o i " t" d out the"amenities," Iike the fiieplace nutf*uu lp the wail'

and the care-

fully carved wooden detail ulo''g 'hl""tini""liwh"t" else could

*i,:'J*::':l t*"**I;;t?t"#5t,reet r was.s\1d I #as traver-ing not alone, but with the mayor-;;JMitchltl'

with his con-

cealed .18. There was a faded t',o- ;;"-iJ1;Bddi"'t. L'nch'"An

old barber .nJ I[] il;;;;ii "rr i;' hi''g"'' itstwirling glass


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56 The Nine Nations of North America THE FOUNDRY 57

comp_letely smashed. Al's Billiard Supply was boardedsign^flaking. ciiywid. TV Sales & service sat there *itt-, itlY.^it,covered by grilles of steel. M. Hess Luncheonette was

"b";;.;:1,rifters ambled past with no particular place to go."*"*'

"Doesn't this neighborhood ever scare you?,, I laterWhitely. v Jvu: r rater asked"Not really.""Aren't you afraid of being

raped?,,"No' I can't explain it, but-I r""t u.to."ness to this entire neigr.orhood. Union Square jr,y"ry .p".iui ,o me, becaus" *tr"r t *u,rowing up I saw a neighboihood _ W.rt fuy"it"-S""", -- al.,nd I think within-^me t'1r.,*ur u psychological-""Jw".u*ueighborhood go from a solid one to a'ghettol e i"i-"iirr. familiesoved out after the war. tt became a tenant area. It integratedtoo quicklv; then the.srate and the city started .ond"-,rlnL o.oo-rries for rhe exoans.ion of the univer'sirv-ri r*a"rvil"i.'""ira,"r,

i":f: to be boarded up. A"J;;it'ut ,tu.t"a ih"r" *u. .,o.._"The crime rate increased. Everything started to falr apart. Myather

died on wesr Fayetre st.eei, ihe six hundred block, in nine-een sixry-six. The dlv --v father ai"a, it *", ;;b"h"i"fi", U"-ause here was this liitle ho.r." trrui *u, set back with fie treesnd roses in the front yard. e"a trr"" irr" ,*""."i;;'""-o .*Ll.,,and

today the new dentat ,.r,t"r ,;;;r;;r";;'ho_.And now whiterv is in the middle of the west Baltimore streethopsteading u."u, attacking trr. *"^t bar in Baltimore with arowbar' She paid considerJblv -"ri"irt"n the token g roo to theity for her building, b".u.rr",'u;';;.; as rhe cops might haveished it, the New Deal h"J

";;L";;llou.,do.,.d. But a'arounder, up and down ,rr" ui".[ ."i;;;., andmasons who hadade such a dear were at work restoring storefionts that wourdoon become an ice cream parlor, u .rrrir"* hair salon, a ouickierinting shop, a self_service iaundry,

" ;ik_;;;;;;il;; r".ironr,terer's operation, a delicatessen l" i..frir".t,s office, a tax con_ultant's, a constructions firm,s.In the course of c,u,,.gru.i",,;#,"::'=:'JJi:l;T,J"ffn::'Tff:::."X"i,:Time to time on West Balilm;; d.;.;. ,,I,m not afraid to liveere," she said. "A lot of p"opl" .r" i ""a*stand that, but Balti_ore Street is the last frontie. ," t" .orqr"."a out here. Untilaltimore Street is turned around l; ;;._, of physical appear-

-*."?i"li"f!1fi,::tl1*i*ftd*t*f,:1ifi$;i:#

m'#F#*$,:*rT{ff*ll-r,!"*f+'$**r:#"i{l'r":,,s*"'H[:',:,truiAmori's Party Store on Eist Jefferson in Detroit'

several miles

south. Amori's it ut'o" the street from RenaissanceFord' a deal-

ership that is, in turn' practically in the shadowof the new down-

town Renaissance t-enier' which is supposed totypify the resur-

sence of downtown Detroit' Amori's ttui u lot of glass' too'only

r#;;i;""'i".t,

und u half thick and bulletproof and inside

the liquor store, separating the operators from the customers'iifi"'Jg.*a that he''d ,r"r,"i ,""r i bank with that kind of secu-;;;;;|h;";h he allowed that he,d seen a bar outfitted similarly.His Second P..cirr.iiounge had been burglarized just the.weekb.fo.., and they'd gotten ,iot only his cash but the guns he-keepsftu"av. The day b.io.e that, his iottage up by the lake had beenburned. Arson. And a lot of bars were closing around himin Ham-tramck, now that tn" Cntytt"r Dodge Main plant next door hadbeen shut down permarre.ttly, throwing thousands out.of,work'But OIko wasn't pessimistic Lbor'tt his future, and he said he felthe knew where Wttit"ty was coming from. "Yeah," he said' "Youjust gotta be tough."

An-d tough is wiat defines North America's nation of northeast-ern gritty cities in a multitude of ways.

Gary. South Bend. Flint. Toledo. Cleveland' Akron' Canton'Youngstown. Wheeling. Sudbury. London' Hamilton' Buffalo'SyraJuse. Schenectad"y. Pittsburgh. Bethlehem' Harrisburg'Wlkes-Barre. Wilmingion. Camden. Trenton. Newark'

The litany of .ra-ef bring clear associations even to the mostinsulated residents of other iegions. These names mean one thing:heavy work with heavy -a.hir.r. Hard work for those with jobs;hard times for those without.

When columnists speak of managing decline, this is the region

*


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THE FOUNDRY 59

58 The Nine Nationsof North Ameica

thev mean. wtren they speak-ofthe seminal battles of tIuO.

H;t";;:;'h "y ptu.. tieiimarkers here' When they write of lfii

iir""pp."it"g b"mocratic city political juggernauts, not for noth-t;e; they call them machines, for this is where they humrned,then rusted.

When television presents the concept "Archie Bunker," i1 1*cates his neighborhood here, for the four boroughs of New 1,q1trthat are not Manhattan are part of this nation.

In a4 ironic way, this place is the real New South, for it re-ceived fhe vast internal migration of job-hungry blacks fleeing theonce-overworked land of Dixie, and now it is the warehouse oftheir discontent. North America's Gulag Archipelago, it's beencalled; the continent's chain of urban prison camps'

Its capital must be Detroit, the birthplace of the assembly line,but its spiritual center is bankrupt Cleveland. Its hope may beBaltimore, but its shame is Cicero, the northern town whosehatred broke the heart of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is the nation of the Foundry.A foundry, in which molten metal is cast into forms, histori-

callyrepresents one of the most basic and ancient technologies

known to man. "If you want to use your imagination a bit," saysSheldon Wesson, of the American Iron and Steel Institute, "onewould guess that the first foundry was born when primitive mansaw this reddish crud melting around his campfire, and this hotstuff trickled down into the sand, and when it cooled, it assumedthe shape of the area in the sand where it had trickled. It didn'ttake much of a leap for him to realize that he could produce aform to his own specifications. I've seen foundries today so prim-itive that yor, *orldn't believe it. Just wet sand on the floor ofthe factory.A guy comes along with a hand ladle and pours hotmetal pretty much as it was done a million years ago."

Well, not a million years ago, but in the case of copper, at leastthree millennia before the birth of Christ. Iron is mentioned inthe Old Testament eighty-six times, and steel, three.

And historically, the nation of the Foundry served as basic andtime-honored a role in the development of North America as thefacilities after which it is named. In fact, especially for thehundred years ending during World War II, North American in-dustrial history and the history of the Foundry were close tobeing the same thing. But eve{ before that, during the r77os.'uro.r.rd the eastern Pennsylvania iron deposits, "iron plantations"were formed, the largest at Hopewell, Pennsylvania, with twelve

#if i#tri'ff ?ti tr: ifr ;;;;i :*""""'t:T#a*t?

****rmm*uW?lr, ,, was also. important because it freed the industry geo-oraohically fto- "t i"penden^ce

on locations next to East Coast

i**:ru'"9TT"1'.';.,T,"ff t,:i".i::*TllX1i;f:#X;':;tated its move closet t'.t:i- "T::::,:.iirrtJr,-*"t" in' or.west of' the mountains'

Itwasirrthemrdl8oosthatasystemwasinventedthatwould,#;';;.;roduction of steel so cheap that the

much stronger ma-

terial could compet; *ith ito"- the Bessemer process'In I864'

;;fi;il;;t., rvri.nigu",""

th"_netroit River less than ten miles

from rhe Dearborn ,fi;;H";.y Ford would put on the map half ai."i"tif*";,ih" nrrt North American commercial pour of Bes-semer steel was made. From these ingots, North America's

first

steel railroad track was made in 1865' at the North Chicago Roll-ing Mill.

Steel from the nation of the Foundry changed the face of the

continent. Barbed *i." utto*"d the buiiding of felces in-the tree-less Breadbasket, ,.u"tio.-i"g it from rangeland into farmlandand promoting the creation oito*ttt' On May ro' 1869 at Prom-ontory Point, Utah,-steJ.uit. ti"t"a the Central Pacific and theUnion Pacific ..il;;;d;, and thus the coasts' The "Chicagoschool " of architecttrr" .f"tu"g"d the ways cities would look andf"""tio" Uv ffn."tittg the stJel skyscraper in the r88os and r89os'

Meanwhile, ,t."t *-u, fhanging"the geography of the Foundryitself, the inierior of which Ior.ta ltself ideally situated in themiddle of a triangle of the three resources basic to both iron andsteel:

' High-quality iron ore from northern Michigan -and' after thecompletion of the Su.,tt Sui"te Marie locks linking Lake Superiorand iake Huron in 1855, the Mesabi Range of Minnesota'

' Bituminous coal, io U" Uut"a into the high-heat-value coke otalmost pure carbon, found in virtually the entire eastern moun-

"""


6/24

6o The Nine Nations of North Americatain range, but mainly in the valleys of pennsylvania, Westginia, and Kentucky. V1 - ,Âq- ln the lasl

tw'"'; r-:- ' ' v vou can find presum-. _r^ of c?rta-- An, Toronto' and to t?tt :1hrrp Y'--,t Founor'.,'1.ri, who view 'rt" ""u*uy

as nothing but an-^ inl2rr* - ' -r 6rreL)eC1o !"'-ôrvnoid w';:. ;;'r.;;; the French-sDeakers once agarn'-ru oa,*- r^ nlnr ro scre.w,'i:.;:;';h"se cities would not have2I{"'""T?l',Jui, ih" point '"li'.'l::'d;i:';;i in"y ,,o, u""n"'T;",ff 'oTui""".1,","^"'J;3,1T";,?nft?;;;i.omrr'"vervdirt"l?]lii."ilvlog.ateo :?,;;;";"- well position"d to have the

var-

:'i?;::;-'#:#i""T,?:'.;#i;'':',i,,lin?3lXtX?:il:lTlf'1"ious eartns ''l:i:-. There, they would.oe.'- -- ^- +'a I localru"o-' I n:*^'tt:':'^- t"",.,''t "l " basic nineteenth-centuryi'#ifil#:;:*l:if :iH' ;li::I-"' il!;" ;, i,u., "a wave a *erl',iJrrrtriul ptodYl]î"runi'iuU".- first t-h" *uu. of Europeans'

U*i*f:,,iil1ffiuL.1,, ."."ntru'ih" Hispanics Notror

rrrcrr '-- r:r r,.prr rall it the Melting pot-how -uttyp"ople have

nothing did tncv -iitr f.ti.nl"l Tiut', a Foundry term and con-ii-"ttirtg pots" rn tr

'"ooi;u',*,-:i:'1"^:;:""uff :,Hii::tffJlJl'j;'Ti?::l'lil'iiexPlicitlY in the t-ralnit,

ia"uti,tic Marxist and cham^pionof the working class who

believed i,t indiuia'iai; iiliin; ffr th" sood ofall ' Rivera was

fascinated uv "to'''l?',it';;iidutt'iui E"u"lopm"t't' when' in

California in r93o' i""*t-iit' Witiiu- Valentiner'then the cura-

tor of that u.t i,t"il']'"':h;;*d to h"ut allthat I knew about

industry in Detroit,i i'alent iner *roa".îtr" -rtagg"rit"tg cap i tal i st

achievement of "the R;;;;;;- th5 Rguee RiY:'' inairillilcom-

plex of Henry F*i'-l;;:tg""d t'i*' He"re' within onetwo-thou-

sand-acre industrial "city"' raw iron-laden earthcame in one

end, and Model Ar;;;";;t the other' *ith uittttullv everyother

industrial process ;;J!i *i*'1n" uttio-olir" (the makingof

glass, for"*.r"pr*ii,i'"J*t"a

i" between' "In all the construc-tions of man's past," *rot" Rivera' ''pyramids' R"Ti"^::.ids

and

aqueducts, cathedrals and palaces' tt'""" it nothing to equalthese

fskyscrapers, ,tp.;ig;;";'' u"d *"itti""tt ' ]th" bestmod-

ern architects of our tg" u," finding tn# ""ttft"tfc-and functional

inspiration in iNortn-emericanl i"att'ttiut buildin^gs"machine-

design, and engineering, the greatest expressionsof the ' ' ge-

THE FOUNDRY

. Limestone, which is the shells of prehistoric cruslsqueezed into rock, used to ."-ot" impurities in the i.,rlllun,steel' It can be found in deposits miles rong ."Jtn."r."i."lrlodeep all over the N_ortheast, especialiy in New yo.k, p".rrtt J.urnia,Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, urra O.riu.io. nsylva.- -But best of all, the waGr_rich Foundry was laced with rble waterways ranging from the G;;;; Lakes to the

o6ro *iuuisaff*?:.#,t;il#*lis duv';;;;is st'r th" 'h"upo; il"'Jl:So industrial tol

U n i t e d s t a r es, ;":i:::" ;'l,nHfl ]li {' [ilH-i; h' i,i."tl$greatest headquarters city in the Jnited States, i, i".ut"J*r,...the Monongahela and Allegh""y .i""., merge to create the OhioRiver. (It's no accident that tne footbalr s;*I".r -il; i.,'rr,.*Rivers Stadium.)cleveland is located,where the cuyahoga River-famous foronce being so polluted that it bu.si into flames - meets LakeErie-also famous for.once-being so polluted that it was inca.pable of sustaining

marine life.Detroit is on the western edge of Lake Erie,ts is Toledo.Buffalo is on its eastern edgJ.You can still get from Buffalo to Albany via the rgz5 Erie Canal,and from there to New york City on the Hudson River. It wasthat barge canal,linking New yori -iiy u'a the Great Lakes, andalong which the cities-of Utica, at;".", and Rochester werebuilt, which was the beginni"g'"iih;-end for Boston and New

l"g]"ll as the primary induJrial region. It transformed NewYork city from a second-clas, ,"upo.,'ro the East coast,s com-mercial center. It helped make New york the E_pi* Sr"i". f*dafs. Interstate 9o roughly parallels thut .u.rul.Chicago, Gary, and lrtil*urrk"" u.. on Lake Michigan.Toronto is on Lake Ontario, and as recently as ,"qSS, that wasmaking an enormous politicaL urra ".orro,'ic difference in NorthAmerica. Nineteen fifty-pine was the year that the st. ru*.".r..Seaway was completed..As noted ubo.,r", it,s not that the Seawayconnected the Lakes and the Atrantic for the fi.rt ti-". whlt tn"Seaway did rvas allow, all but- the largest oceangoing traffic (fbrexample, supertankers) into the Lakels. prior tJ ,qis, O;6t".,,Montr6al was functionally the end of the line for f"igJ..iii

""a,ot coincidentally, Montr6al was the financial and commercial

nius of this New World."[il: J'X; il:: #:U" are y ard, wh ich "11* :t, ::":i,?,? :'1T:JT;i*.Tf !T:"|T"',T ffilffi "iu";*";r ^1"# *i

-

qrt patron bctsel -Forq Qzu,oov- * ^'*,"" panelS on the foUrDepression- Rivera painted

twenty-se\


7/24

636z The Nine Nations of'North America THE FOUNDRY

of far more concern to Rivera were the basic raw materials .-en and earth. Looming ou". ih" b.rry ,.,o.th urrd ;;; panelshat depict the guts oT the pi;;;. ire four qri"tl r".rinUgnudes - Caucasian,-Oriental, a_".i.u., Indian, urra N"g.o. fnheir hands, they on"r, ,.rf".ii;;l;, l"-;, ;i'ii_"L""",, ,"r0,ron ore' and coar, the races and substances Rivera saw as anaro_ous "in their . . quality"f ."fo. u"a fo._,u, *"ti ur*Uv tt,.i.istoric lNorth Americanj functions.ii

conventionar thinking ubo.,t th"'r'or.rd.y today combines andd combina ti on of me"mory ;"d ;;;;ri;,.";;"1;;"rliiu r rr,.oundry once meant to Norih Americans.On the one hand, it,s possibl" i, i..go that to artists like Ri_era and Charlie Chaplin, who, in ttre ntm Modern Times (rn6),showed man becoming merely " .rg-i" a societal machine, theoundry was a metapior of tfr" f,,rt-trre. a world i, *t i.fr .u".y_hing that moved was measured in tons, and humans werewarfed by their inventions, was the uttimate statement of bothope and despair. Detroit u.ra t'" .iii r'.. it were to their timehat Houston, Los. Angeles, u"a tfr"'.ities of the MexAmericansouthwest are to this lenerario"

--^

"iri"ns of wonder that bothmaze and appall.on the other hand, especially to residents of the Foundry itself,ho, like ail North l1*i."^. "i'.rilur. J;;; Ji,"*or"...rr,_alism' sometimes memories or *hut ri^ are confused with whats. In the days of Ri1e1a,-the. F;;;;;as the linchpin of Northmerican development. In fact, to irost, the Foundry _ ,,backeast" - was North America. Th" u;;;J' a;;r* ;;;;iro,, of th"oundry was the united stut"r. tiir oigur,,,',ore that the unitedtates national anthem sings. H"rrry fora, who had his own airorce of Ford Tri-molors, fi;;;';'j;"ot

"."u,Lakes freighters,and certainly his own army of tens of'thorrr.rds of workers, was

walls of the museum,s skylit, bungalow_sized Garden Courthe ancient Roman water_iolor_o.r_f?"rt _praster fiesco t".h^,t, i\,'"'il'ff11"*rum::::i,::-:i:*li*:i-r.li"lil[;lll' '',l.#;ff xtrl:;:i""t:;; i:s *:rlt*ili+i1'ilxt::r"ii'J'fl y,"l'ffi ff T:f lli"l;rt:;;l*i#1,:-:ili;lf the Rouge, Fo- po*.. House N;. 'i, ';lt #"lTJoiJ:J,*foundry operations, and open-hearth .t""t milt nr.-^_-_, lace,ir#,:;::ili;i;i.1"1*'J":*#*"'i::'.Trl;iffiyd"ih::ffi:ili.Tlff'Lli;,#"1i,J1#::?,T*.9:l;.#l"ilii,ll:

;fjJff:::,r'f:#ffi"jlk*:"-'"'"T:r:,"*;fi

Til:jl,ll;:Tff ff*,T:""*';:Tri:'::"Til*i:','""TiJ:#:::?"|'ifij::r speck, way in the distanc" ", ,f* ""i'"filffi;;:::ffi,T

,"{ii''tt,i**ff***f:;i*f*$**t*#-#'+f*t*[,ft"'r'i"Ti::ff]TFffi ;*:;

#**fi*,*-:l$*n*ti***uu**millX"*i';"l::'::Tilffi', Indiana, oh io, Pennsvl v an ia' Mi chi-"'i;,, fgt :*uTl^|",, oroduced sixty-tour million tons of n1e ironsun' und T::I::":;';;""; 'i ti'" united

States-Canadian to-

in rsl7, which wasl'"ri,ia,F,,',,''j jtff ',:*:Tiiimffifili-fii:,:}'};::virginiu'

Dtl'ut*'ult,dustry'sstatistics p"it""ty

make difficult toduction the iron trASSCSS.

Similarly, if you take the abovesix states and this time throw

in Ontario, yo'' ai'Jti"t tft"t that 'portionof the Foundry pro-

duced ro6 million to#; 'u*-'t""t ii ,i977'which *lt zs percent

of the United "u':::'i;;;;;totur' e"A'ihat's again not count-

ing leviatha,t' liktT"-s;;;;;;;t rtl*^"rt* inMarvlan-{' whose

production i' to"'iiJt"i-'o*"tt'i"g-or'u*itude seciet'Nor does

that include New Jersey's Roeblingw;iftt' ptta"ter of the steel

;;;;;'.J i" building the Brooklvn Bridse'If you .*u*"'"''Ji? t*"*d4 u"""iurv numbers for the

ap-

propriate portio"'"oitl"'"1*"rt"

"ut"tu"d provinces' I'ou dis-

cover thar i,,e7J, ;:;iii:.s "l*;5 m ffil;l.i,i::for 64percent oi the United States-La'-*;r:;" factories thatthat dtesn't reflect the component Inproduce ,n" o"r,l',n"i il;;;; ""a C*pu"v

bolts together'

In a walk alons the vast assembrii# "i theRouge Works in

the summe''r' i'i"i"'i

^;"*; *i**:"1"#,:i:',f:t'l;ili:;lill':::fi HIJiT;'illil;'ffi;i*h";k' or grav me'|arcome togeth", l;';;;i; *^rt'

'inli',rtii*ut"ty resulted in

gleaming, strongly hued Musta"gt u"J CaprisbEing spit out once


8/24


I

I

l

l

every forty_eight seconds. And I got a lesson in industr.raphy. ---- ^ b"L q rvorurr r'tr rnqustriat *eog.For sure, the car doors hung in racks labeled ,,ReturnBordeaux." France..The piecE

"i-*.aur^J-h.;;;.'fr to Forcl

transmissions was labeled ,,Lanfkarte. pallet T'u*. a"iil^tfr.euse.".And carpets were labeled ,,Troy Mills, 1.ror, 1q 11 fl" Sui.

: fT "iii ilJ "J,!$li

ili il?i;*.Tj[:

i*: ;#y, y;t*p e c es

placed on rhe srowry pu.ring t rilr, n"a .rr*'i"irr.;.j:::\:r;hese: __--.D 'qr,\J, r,du Lrucs ro tnetr origin lik,e"Return to Warner Gear Division, Muncie, Indiana.,,Kalamazoo Sra.mping and Die Co- Kulurnurooldi.hlgun, pro.:fl'^

1i, c1{ity di"' u,iJ -","i riJioir*r.,,..-rne ARro Corp., Canton, Ohio.,,"Midwest Rubber, Deckerville, Michigan.,,"Federal Screw -k.|r, R.;"1;;, tdichigan.,,"Yale Rubber Manufacturi"g ;;.,';""dusky, Michigan.,,RB & W Metal Forming oiirr-","rrrrentor, ohio.,,"Jim Robbins co., Blacfco;ii,;;"t, Troy, Michigan.,,"Manchester

plas ti cs, Mu".h;;;;ior.r,irur,.,,"Rockwell Interna tion^l, Ch;i;;, nni.higu.,.,,"Rockwell International, Logansport, Indiana.,,"s&s products, wheet a;;;;il;bly, wyandotte, Michigan.,,American Hose Corp., W_.h;r;;.,iraiu.,u.,,,,5"y ptastics, st.'ctur.na;j;;;.,,bashaban products, Clarkston, i4i.higu.r.,,"Stant, a purolator Co., Connersuitt-", frraiurru.,,"Huron Tool & Manufacturtnj;;;: Industries company, andhat makes a world of aiff"."rr.8,'i"ii.rgrorr, Michigan.,,Unqueslionabtv. the, rgr"arf ir;i;ii " formidable place, onethar can make a"worrd of ;lfr;'.";;".'il

i;;ili,""r.,X,11, ."r-inuing to view it as 1 metaphor of the f.uture _ seeing it as theonly place in which North A-".i*,r'rrmorrows are being ham_mered out. By the turn of tn" .".rt".r, ,, may not even be themost important segment of North a-ir.r. That role may well beassumed by the MexAmeric"" S.;;i;;est, all by itself. Already,*:,::,1]l'.:nral poputation ir'srr]ir;;';; a southern and wesrernmaJonty' lrom northern and eastern] The largest uu.rt -in xorthAmerica is not in ,New y".k i;k

'in'California_ the gar.k ofAmerica. If energy deposits

"." a*ir"v, the Foundry,s future is byno means assured. Although its coal'."."*", are f.antast ic, theyare deep beneath th".-oi.rJi";,;"J are mined uv _"r, ,ililscarred by battleswith exploir";; ;t; occurred harf a century

f;'Tif,l"#ffi

THE FOUNDRY 65

Mine Worker is an emotional allegiance,Auto Worker, a Rubber Worker, a Steel

gfi dfl;**uuuH*:tgfi,':,,ffividor! '"''"Ji?" Foundry is zol North America, despite what the conti-"J"i"l-news

medi3.- most of which are headquartered there -j,],.l"ud you to believe. The Foundry is the only one of the Nine'*iii"",that can be said to be on the decline. The other eight are,"iLrrt, economically stable

(for example, Qu6bec and New Eng-La), in the sense that a plausible balance between quality ofiif" urra modest growth rate make for stability. And others areeenerating wealth and growth so fast that their biggest problemIs controlling the boom.

This is not to say that other nations do not have problems. Theydo. Water is as crucial to Tucson's future as race relations are toBaltimore's. It is not even to say that the rest of the continentdoes not share some of the Foundry's problems. Many of Dixie'scities are at least as old as the Foundry's. Refitting steel mills andassembly lines to meet the challenges of Japan are concerns inthe Breadbasket - even in Ecotopia - not just in the Foundry.The error, as this continent matures, is in our unquestioninglyequating the igevitable decline in the Foundry's dominance withan inevitable decline in the world position of the United States orCanada. What's happening in the Foundry today is perhaps com-Parable to the wrenching realizations Europeans were subjectedto ovel the last five centuries: not only doei the sun not revolvearound the earth; the earth does not revolve around London. yet,to}"!o*, Western civilization survives - even prospers.-^P,"fit1ng the borders of the Foundry is an exerciie in human,rather than geophysical distinctions. Each of the nations of the"n::a.db,asket,

thi Foundry, and Dixie is a mixture of agricultureattq tndustry. There is significant corn production in Oh]o, just as;l:: i: significant automobile production in Oklahoma. The viewllllflth:.Uew Jersey Turnpike is so appalling that Dixie plannersifl1,"-'l.ullt mention that itate u, *irut they don't *u.rt to ,""ill'"1t,*?.tl become. Yet the largest stretch of wilderness in the

;Tt"l:.itNew Jersey

-the pinJBarrens of the southern part of

"rc Stote . The Delaware River, along its west, is the biggeit wild


9/24

6,-


river in the East. The rural scenery twenty minutes north of Tr -- --- ". r l0[.ton is breathtaking, and, by the same token, there 41s portions

^rifi'"3'Elll'iii':li'1;i'"i"i#'il#ffi'#:l:';ff?ll"i[:lwretched

Olett)

But this hardly means these nations are the same. Theresharp differences in history, attitudes toward ttt" tuna, p..]l'dicei, economics, and futures among these nations, and it's ho,rvthese differences come together that defines their boundaries.Thus, the Foundry, for example, is a place that is thoroughly 4..scribed by man and what he's done to the mountains and riversand plains in the course of trying to get ahead, more than it is bymountains or rivers themselves.

Cities are the Foundry's dominant physical characteristic.There are lots of them. They're not terribly far apart, by thestandards of most of the continent, and they are crowded places.As a result, there is no trouble pointing to the Foundry's heart'land- its megalopolises. The boundaries are less distinct wherethe area is less urban. A tour around the border of the Foundryhelps explain.

,q,s noted in the chapter on New England, the southwestern thirdof connecticut is part of the Foundry, because it is tied by tele-vision stations, commuting highways, and suburban values toNew York.

Manhattan itself is so unusual on this continent that it is dealtwith separately in the next chapter. But its suburbs are not, andthus the border town betwe..t ih. Foundry and New England isNew Haven.

To the west of New Haven is Fairfield County, with its bedroomcommunities like Bridgeport, Darien, and New Canaan, whichwould shrivel up and die without New York. To its east is New

London, which ii clearly part of New England. An importantpart

of the New London-Grotbn-Uystic area is its relationship to theopen Atlantic. Nuclear submarines, built at the Electric Boat-works, the Coast Guard's training vessels attached to its acad-emy, and historic whaling tall ships all call eastern Connecticuthome.

The line, therefore, must be drawn between these two differentworlds, and New Haven is inviting. On the one hand, it has adistinguished institution, Yale, on which to base its claim as acivilized place. On the otirer hand, it has very little else on whichto base a claim as a civilized place. Providence is more charniingthan New Haven.

V THE FOUNDRY

-f *,lj"rqitI#***.-#*iW

i'?n ",,,h : ry' 1'" i'.*: !,q; :::j hi :.{ll:iil*ii"""frl,''Ha.adY needs to P-.".1,".f."a up on the soutno-


10/24


blue from a distance? They're so covered with trees that, in t6.course of photosynthesis, they exhale resinous hydrocarbons thatcreate thelr own natural haze) is the Shenandoah Valley'

Songwriter John Denver has it wrong when he sings about 16.Shenandoah Valley being in West Virginia, rather than Virginiu,but he was right about its being almost heaven, and it is not partof the Foundry. The pace of affairs at the Southern States Farry1-ers Co-op is the tip-off : if you wish to buy a screwdriver, for e1-ample, you first pause, mention the weather, remark on the priceof seed, Soke with the girl behind the counter , and then ask for thetool . Brusquely and impersonally attempting to slap down moneyand leave with your merchandise marks you as an outsider' Eventhe industrialization is not what you'll find in the Foundry. Thispicturesque sheep-and-orchard valley is the sort of place that isoffered clean, lucrative factories, like the Adolph Coors Com-pany's eastern beer-brewing plant. This is the sort of job creationthat planners will killfor, and it is a plum that is reserved onlyfor places with a high quality of life. But this happened in farnorthern Dixie, and was received by the valley people with askepticism unusual for the South. Being near the border of theFoundry, they have seen so much industrial devastation in Penn-sylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia that even the value of jobslike these are questioned, because of the change they'd bring.

Northern West Virginia - Morgantown, Parkersburg, Wheel-ing - especially its northern panhandle, which follows theOhio

River south from Pittsburgh, is clearly part of the Foundry. TheMonongahela and the Ohio are loaded with industry that turnswater strange colors and brings texture to the air. Coal-fired elec-tric plants split the hills with high-tension lines. Steel, glass, andindustrial chemical plants bring worrisorne jobs - jobs that arenot only dangerous and difficult, but are hit first in a slackeningeconomy.

Southeastern West Virginia is problematic. It is at all times iso-lated by its mountains. Similar terrain in the Empty Quarter atleast has the good grace not to be populated. Charleston, WestVirginia, is by no means the most rugged part, yet its airport caninspire respect in good weather. In search of enough horizontalspace for a runway, its planners sheared off the peak of a moun-tiin. that leaves no mirgin for pilot error. The grandly namedWest Virginia Turnpike, meanwhile, is two lanes, undivided'West Virginians typically have a very limited spacial horizon.It'scommon to find some who have never been to a town fifty miles

*E*id-fuq***tri+ii*'Hliril''il*

nlg**i*r*wirnd expensive- 1o, ourn without causing pollution' It is often inil;o;"*, which requires the. w.ork of a lot of high-priced

men

l;i:1,ru'*ilT::;i#'*:fft?l;l?1il?ll::'llff;,ff i;rffo;;i;;."Where the coal is near the surface, and can be

strip-

iririi,-ir't generally on a slope so steep that the operation de-,ir"Vr'rfr. eirvironment. There's a theory that holds that an in-;;; in the severity of spring floods in these parts is connectedi" ,irip--i"ing praciice.. hh" hills lust can't hold the rain as well

;t;t"; used to. with Washington pushing coal as an export itemt" g".rpt, coal may soon again be king here, despite all this' Butif it is, ii will almost undoubtedly be accompanied by an increasein labor unrest. The UMW started off as a cause, dissolved into aracket offering its leaders cushy lives, and now, pathetically' theunion's reformers seem incapable of leadership '

So much bad blood was tuilt up during this process' and somuch good blood spilled, that unionization is a fiercely polarizingtopic liere yet, long after labor and management in other parts ofNorth America hire -a.ruged to confront the issues with otherthan a quasi-religious, gunfiie-punctuated fanaticism' This is whyin "good" times this area is part of the Foundry

In really bad times, when ihere isn't much work at all, the wayfolk hunker down i.r ih"i. hollows for the long haul is pure Dixie'After all the years of infusion of antipoverty money, the opportu-nities for education, health care, adequate diet, and having one'shorizons expanded are better than they were. But it's still notsomething that has caused abandonment of a century-old pessi-mism about the inevitability of progress. There is still a devotionto the land here, no matter hourunyielding it is (and there is vir-tually no commercial farming in West Virginia)., From Huntington, West Viiginia, to Cincinnati, the border fol-lows the Kentu"ckv side of th; ohio River. Some scholars have

THE FOUNDRY


11/24

71

contended that U.S. Route 4o- the old "national road" --.- i.dividing line between Dixie and the Foundry,' It runs,from t'ii''j|iir,g, W""t, Virginia, to Ohio's capital' Columbus' and on to Rich.

-3"a, tndiuni. They traced subitantial differencesin fbod' a1.6t.

i".,r-r.", the layout of towns, and music to either side of ti1i,

r THE FOUNDRY

lffi #,}#'ffi

,+*fi***',.n.*i't":oii'ffiarea is flsturr*^ :^ r-Aion2oolis, the largest city rn

section of more interstatehighways' :X:;ileplace else'

il;;.]i it u ptu." to be in "n {o"l,y:in-"*rr lndiana between"'rni-';;, ii,"", a*. one draw the I'neJ;i;;;i';. ..'T':;1#tn.'tr""a" and Dixie? Perhaps t"-t:t:"i;JJdry und th"i"it"""otiit'And the line betweel-t-t".tt, and Gary'basket? Interstare 6s

between t"9l"tlP"jt.ffius,iiis

imPortant;;;;.i;ll;in the u'"u ""'o"ld'npli;';;." of a-majc

liii, :{tfitff# l#ffil fr" **ffittqi -:'.',Tffi:l* i:lL :u*:: #:"** i *1 ;: :::i'Jl?:: *: l;llllII'**fl:'a+t**+i+-th'ti:r't#'li*was ProPosed, were interests

who

The Nine Nations of North America7o

highway.-^il^,probably was once a useful distinction. There is still u

taste of the culiure of old Dixie in southern Ohio. But the fnqlitu, i, is referred to as the U.S. 4o line, instead of the Interstate7o line (7o now parallels 4o), tells you how old

the idea is' Bot\ifrr po.rnarv u.rd Di*i"have gone through a lot of shanges in thglast fifty years.

Be that as it may, the Ruhr-like industrialization and pollutiolof ttr" upper Ohio River Valley now is the fact that controls' Cin-cinnati and layton are definiiely part of the Foundry'- p"V,"", ln fact, was referred io-in Richard Scammon and BenWuti""U"tg's The Real Majority as "the typical American city"'While this chapter contenis that the Foundry is typical of noth-

i"g .-c , itseli, lt'sinteresting to note thatThe Almanac of-Amer-

ican Politic.s tells us that Day6n is the home of Richard Nixon's

"irio" "f thetypical United btut"' voter: a housewife whose hus-

UunJ *ort t i" u factory and whose brother-in-law is a cop' Day-ton is middle-sized ar,i middle class' It is losing population andhas a black mayor. ft" "'U'tuntial

growth has been in the sub-urbs. And it has gi; Uirth to suci phenomena as the Wrightbrothers, Erma e"*i".k (th" srrb.r.ban muse), and "The PhilDonahue Show."

Cincinnati, meanwhile, is so Germanic that it is beyond imagt-nation that some fan would become so undisciplined at a Redsg^-" ifr"i fre might throw a beer cup into the ou1field. Cincinnati

is the home of Frocter and Gamble, which is certainly nextto

Teutonic godliness. Cincinnati is so straight that you us,ed to have

to cross the river into ientucky to have I good time' The BeveriyijiffrSrrpp". Club, until it burned in a tragic fire in ry^77' at'tracted first-rate Las Vegas talent' It was in' of all places' Coving-ton, Kentucky, just ,o,,ii' of Cincinnati' In fact' that part of Ken-tucky had long b".n considered a mini-Vegas' in whichitr"tl"gftfv illegil prostitution, gambling' and vice had also flour-ished.

As the Ohio River flows into Indiana' the national boundariesget complicated. Here are the f'acts:" Northlrn Indiana

-Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Gary

-are unques-


12/24

72 The Nine Nations of North Americaright were other interests with similar, if conflictins ;.t^final location of the highway was an extraordina.ir"-.^"1-".u'cision that balanced force" liLp +L,i- ^^^:.^^+ ^^^t- '.,t""tlcalision thar balanced forces like this against

"u.rr "iri"i'lllulgainst the forces that wished to get i direct .o"t" T".,lttl ullr,l,;r1"

interstate can be an eloquent statemenr ;iO;,U":lilIn northwestern Indiana, the spoor of the Foundry is not su

,1HY1::YlI:;Y",y."fee m;salo.nolis, rar ronger than thefrom Boston to washinston, t"rz' ifi"l";;;;;:;a"il'J^'ll oou3ffi .-#tllfH':'::#,1',11".:*:'::l1yL"::i"{d"'i:'*iries of Garv. The smell is the same u. rrrui ;i'^d;"il *tin.Jersev. The iarticurate matter belched f;";;"".;.tTlill. N'-mills r.vas once so great thar it affectJ ,i;:.*;d;;.;:::,r,fi1laden clouds comini in from trt" *..i-*ould pick up;ii, ,,rffover Gary and become so heavy that they *orid- p."Jipiiui" uu,whatever they held a few doi.n -itl, "..t, which il ."rgfrfywhere LaPorte lies. Laport" *u, ."g,rlu.rv trr. .ui"i".i * ."ii",.uplace in Indiana.

Welcome to Chicago. Richard J. Daley, Mayor. I know. He,sgone' But it will be a generation befor" irr. uiituou.ir^lqrutrngfhe,gitV with his prg f*. fade from the mind. tts sloga.,J uboutitself -th-e City of Broad Shoulders, tf," Wi"Jy"b;7;':r,..r,Foundry themes, like toughness.

Chicago, "The Second City,,,a fundamentally eastern city com-pared to the real West, like Salt Lake City, is, in its relationshipto New York, the Foundry model for the urban .o_p"iitio.r, on,sees all over North America. Tulsa-okrarr"-. ciivlT..^*r-prr.Dallas-Houston. Anchorage-Fairbanks. Montr6al_Toronto. Thefirst city claims to be the '.-N"* yo.k;-of *h"."rr.. i, irln" -"*lamorous pacesetter. The other, p."rr"d, Urrt ,roi .uplfi, ,f air-missing the claim,_responds

byiuggesting it is more down toearth, more "real." N,Iore i"to -ut i"!?oney than making trends,perhaps. It will be a long time before-Ct i.ugo lives down its fameas the "city that works.;

. west of "chicagoland," as the radio stations like to call it,asifit were a.theme park, is the Breadbasket, where distances be-tween major population centers begin to get excessive. Convet-iently, and not coincidentaily, chicaio is Nolth America,s grearesttransportation hub, linking the greai "out There" to its wJst withthe industrial heartland tJits"Irt,u.rJuoth to trr" *orri ty'rair,

1oad.,pipeline,-ship,.and air (Chicago,s O,Hare,+irpori is tfr" Uuyiest in the world). The spider webs"of trade router

""ar"gi" crti-cago

are dense and impressive.

THE FOUNDRY 73

!,q;"a':;[i"ilHi{#*li:h::*Ti,*iJi t\":",j,-: H;;;;';-pu"t.'' coach' vince Lombardi'#"l,*fi*ffiT*3i#ii::.ii,.i:i+tT,tii*':'.H

#tdf .'t':xf ''l"'iili:ffli::"H3;ii|f;t+-ll,t;*?*r"','rtm*1;59*1;11rv is tne sla66v^^'.:;# trought so that they could geti*:il5;iffi:?it"";;;""i;'r.';Jril'., +L^ r ^La r{r,rnnl; fj[: *:*:*t";;;#.:xft.]l3;+::"1?5".lJtlT#f"il:"i#;'i' ; qr'!'tio"". that southern ottawa is

dry. It is the *o't a"t"Jty populated' most industrialized'[,i,ir^'"*",ry, the ao'"i"#i p'Jt { c^il|: ]l'-.Y:y^1r"t.t:nrfl i"'.;'*lt"""n*"uJl;,'ff?jjil':."{:".:"il;ii;ili;;Jy "onf"J"rated western democracv' ottawl lu"-;;ht;g like tlhe int"*ut power Washington Ut::lJn:.1tlj*;;;g North,q*"ri.u't nations can be seen with the great-a.ritil;h;f th" 4eth pu'allel' Not onlv does 91"Yi li':'itiri O,reU"., but ihe Jnergy-rich environs of Alberta in theQuarter show repeated determination to, set their.own

r, refusing to be treateJ like a colony with oil reserves to beted. TheJe provinces are separated by the. Breadb?tk:: |]-

, which includes *,r.h of Saslatchewan and all of Manitoba'which resents being rriai*ir"d by high-priced energy-and in-

[al goods from its-partnersto ttre east and west' And Ecoto-

Brit-ish Columbia, iike the New England-ish Maritime Prov-, are so different i** ttt" cential provinces that theylically and seriously debate whether confederation was aidea, Lfter uti- itrir is the implied threat behind Qu6bec sep-

ism: Why stop there?eanwhile, southern Ottawa is so commingled with the Unitedes portion of the Foundry that Windsor, for example' is ac-lV to"tft of Detroit. The

"most direct route between DetroitB"ff.i; " *"iiv ittrough this

portion of Canada' over ther shote of Lake nrie, riot the ltng way around, by way of

nd. C.nua.b auto industry, which is centered in southern


13/24

74 The Nine Nations of North America THE FOUNDRY75

n" t' Rodsers'' ul,'-":l:J :lyfi""Hl

Despite extensive cariadian attempts to exert sovereionr..its economy, according toThe Finaicial pori ;",""* *f'lryqoone corporation in saresin canada *as G"r,e.aL irjr"a^ lTTboada., Ltd., headquartered in Oshawa, ;; il';;;; ;i;;i:,*perhaps eighty miles across Lake o",".i"-r-_ "s"f;ii""":,,{

snow flies. One hundred percent of it is o*rr;d ;; ;ilT;".:: .hln*,*ii:: ff:Tt :'_Tffi Hf;H j*r,m::;l'" *ilion was Ford Motor companv

"r cu"uJu, i" ci"r.trii", t.li',iTan hour west of Toronto ind- even croser to the u"tt"Jt,llllEighty-eight percent of it is owned by fo.a i' n"u.bo.".ii*U,,*::;l',Jff T:?i :il, Ltd., ro.o,,to. s"*,".,ty percent owned by

;#';:lit'il::::li to this experience that whenpeople are

rug$#,*ff**ff*"'ffiTfi.::Xfi""*TI#m' es' +s4'u'Ii,,.,0"., and 648 homicides';;iK;;t"ndant to alcoholisT: e'o ?""r';;ii""ng from automo-;,It.,ffi S''"S?;'il!:!lili{:H":il',':Jff l:,:xl:.'f ""1;;;;;;, ;# highest rate rePorted

stnc

kept. Six n"ror"i "rra^-,*-"'',,y-fiu",rr""r""a p"rprg .*,":: ""t "f

work. ( An d,n" "'i"ilt ; ;i;i, " "'llo;i U::' fi'"T fJii::

t Hi';::::n;*tl':ii;,*rriji:riJ:dti"?';m:1,tru:llf,:? "ff I'f ?ff . H :i. "#l lii'.'! iT l;-; ;ffi ;;

J' i' i d"'' r 2 4 m or e

ontario, is inextricably linked to that of Detroit via the A,,n^ Iwhich is, in effect, a common market agreement tr,.i--ilt\United States-Canadian boundary tranJp"r;;;;;;;;"rl5q;:i"#tJr":ts

and finished prodlcts i"''*'hu.,g" i;;ui:,il

conversely, canadian firms are the rargest foreign investors inU's' metals and machine manufact,r.ing. canadian investmentinthe United States ol.I{l h frieh.., p.; capita, than the oth.. *uyaround. The New york Times Jstimated ,i. ,g791o,.i, #.., *Aindirect, to be gzo billion.

Foundry, then, finally ends north of Ottawa, at the O*awaRiver, on the other side of which i, unoth.r industrialized nation,but one that is unique in North America, in that most of its pop."i1io.l does not spiak English: ttr.-.-".girrg and defianr narionof Quebec.

The central issues in the Oorr"O.r, U.,f, i" humanand financialterms, revolve around questions ;f investment. Enormous quan-tities of time, sweat, and money hu.r" U""r, invested in makingthis region what it is, and,fr.'f"""a.y,s future will be deter-

ryined by the extent to which North Americans decide thelshould, or will, walk away f.o- tt ui.-^'

Questions of reindustriulirirrg aged facilities, revitali zing crurnbled cities, and recommitting political will to ease the ..r,rtrl^ofracism, are all intertwined.For openers, the whole point of living in the Foundry is work.It has been argued that the protestu"l *o.t ethic never reallycaught on in North America to the "*r.", that its p... *o.rld ,,rg-gest.

murders, and so on. ^.. o^.L,I said to me in SolidarityAnd sure enough, as Oscar Paskal saHouse,theDetroitt'1'^o"o*,";:":l*",r"1;""-irlllr?J#;:';;#T:[j"|?J :'n i?ii'"}: :"TJ'Tffil ;il ; * n o *515' al:u i " saround and, appare"iiv, ?**g random ;i t;;tt at

children' "ltwon't be lons before vlu get the standar["-ll-g""t-bcrserk'

bar-

ricades-self-i-nsi de-hous",-op"ns-fi r"- * i t r-tl#"?-tin " "'

putttul sai d'

"titffl':i:,*fi,?jlTT$;,", on the rront page "r ll:. Detroit

**T, i""ii,tli"' ;;#iJ

i' J.iii""a slu MP'*"uo' ME NrALrLLs'


14/24

THE FOUNDRY 7776 The Nine Nations of North America

"Some stare silently for hours at walls," it read' "Others o,,--^ ^ f^^l r i-^l ^^--r^*r1., o',o- rl-^, , "vtl.eat or drink heavily. Some feel tired constantly, even thoug[ 1L'^r

,--^-- ^t^^- L^,,-- All ^f fLo"o are cnmmrrn swrnntoho ^.''\)

may sleep hours. All of these are common slmptoms o1 "\Jrr. I :, -,-,^ --^-.,:-^ '^,,-L^- ^r thedepression among Michigan's growing number of und:

-r"r had grown to r6 pe^rcent' But more important'--r Bv 1975'tl1:.t':;;" of "*porti

fto* less than 5 percent in-rcel' -J -^-pd ll5 Jt)'^l^n in"'"at':,-':"..;d's leading exporter' shipping over 35 per-ItPa" ,^^.nm tfle w', o1o to tY""*;'t -.eventies'illitv 'l:,T':::;;.'#ii-r."""ties, the United States

had begun

'"'ni*;*n11";:l#;T;;;;;;;, of its steel - more than Europe'to'irnPort,":#"#,,imunist bloc' ln manv ways' what had hap-Ho.r'tttun

ttt"olli""a,. textile industry d".udlr earlier has been^onedlo New

!rr''-rs;d"/;steel. It was being tran^sferred tof,^ipenine t". :l:.i#i;;;n.re the costs were lower' Steel-mak-'oii"t put"--T;":;;r;-" 1".nnotogv. It doesn't begin to com-

ine is. no^ to;fi;il ;l ;";i'; -u,,.,ru.i."" u n"d assemb I v. o[ semi -pate \rt t"'1':::,;- j"ti."t. And that manufacturs' in 1u1n' will|o'-1l."t'ff 'I,?;j ei ;;' ; ;; "; _n ed gl i n e eene t i

c -en g i n eer i n g i n -totll"il'."1,r.' its indusirial creation of "iti forms

of life-littledustry' *':l'- :-"-;-;r", tttut are custom-designed to eat copper oretnicrobes, tof utstau'una tpit out refined copper' '.-^lnsv of zs6K sem'

It's going to be.a. *nii"U"f"te the technologyof z56K semtcon-

ductor memory tn'pt u"a genetically alteredmicrobes are com-

monplace in nulgail 'U"t in" manufacturine of steel is no mys-

tery there now' The*poi"t i' thai s.ome of.-the

Foundry's steel

industry,s overseas ;;rk.i. were drying up - being.le.tterserved

il; ho;'";;.*n l''at"tty' And those newlv industrializing nationshad an advantage ""i7tft"'.f;"t

tt"a centers' in that they fre-quently started t,"*-"tuittt' so they could invest in the mostefficient n"* -"trrod. 1rt*-a"""rop"d' Th" Foundry'

meanwhile'

had an enormous iJu"'-*""t in' ior example' antiquated open'hearth furnaces ,h#;:rh.p;'J;"lJ hurr" b""tt rapidlv scrappedbut weren't.

Moreover, a Foundry location was -becomingless important for

steel. Steel toduy ir".i"J"l" trtilV;n'"" U'S'itates' Some o[ the

Iargest post-Worli w".-ri tl"eljacilities

builtin the United

States, such as th; F;li; works of U'S' Steel' built in t953'were not built insiie ,tt. C."ut Lakes resources triangle' Fairlessis in the Fo,r.td.''r. t"tliit ".tth of Philadelphia'

with a straight;*;T",#liiljiit..At Fairless, vou can see whv: great moundsof uu;i"; ;rii."r "i'irt. J"""i ii" about'

in their characteristiccolors. Venezuelan iron-laden dirt is more reddish-brown thani.""-i"a"" O"Z[J atr,, which is more a glinting metallic grav'

As

,ft" *i"i"T;;;;ir.'r,*f-i"a"stry has" gro*ri, it has respondedby rethinking its locations. :- -^ .L^-Th" ."il;?; t;;;i *itt ," open in North America in more tnan

ployed- "Itr recent weeks, several newly unemployed p-ersons have bar.ricaded themselves with shotguns inside their homes. One

side Detroiter, who lost his joi and his wife within ,h" ias1:ltlyears, shot at two of his neighbors and then killed himself . ." 'These are not mild cases of the blues,' " said Mel Ravitz,41.

rector of the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Hsn115Board in a colossal understatement. " 'Unemployment for a pro.longed period of time attacks the very core of a person's identityund r.li-p"rception. Their fmstration and feelings of worthlesi-ness in turn threaten the entire fabric of the f-amily' These peoplecan't deal with all the problems and complications

The very core of a person's identity and self-perception'Ask these people who they are, and before they say man,

woman, Methodist, Catholic, American, Canadian, Democrat, Re-

publican, black, white, or brown, they'll say, for example: steel-worker.

It,s this which brings the dry abstractions of the steel industry'sbleats about foreign competition down to human scale'

At the end of World War II, North America produced the ma'jority of the world's steel. The united States' share alone was 48perclnt in the ry48_ t952 period, and its share of exports was 25percent. By the -id-t"u".tties, the U.S. share of world productionwas down to a mere I8 percent, and its exports down to less than

5 percent.What was happening during that period was that every part of

the worldwas recognling stJel proiuction as basic to its devel-

opment. Today, one-of the-first things an emerging nation does isgt looking foi a., international loan to build a steel mill' It's an!lr"n -o.i" basic drive than that toward energy independence'And appropriate, too. The world's second largest iron-ore re-r"*"t, fot example, after the Soviet Union, are in Brazil'

Furthermore, war-ravaged industrialized countries, notably -Ja-pan, were creating a vasiinternal market for new steel needed to

rebuild themselves. And they met that demand with the Jatest'most efficient technology. There are obvious advantages to bein9forced to start again from scratch. .1,-

In r948-r952, Japan produced less than 3 percent of the world s


15/24


16/24

lltTrIE FOUNDRY

8o

Lordstown, a few miles west. (Lordstown once achieved a dtof notoriety as a result of studies that demonstrated "*,."*;*,liuels of boredom and alienation among its young workers' Lq.4,.town also served as the model for Fernwood in TV's "Mary gn.iman, Mary Hartman." But I digress.)

Starting in ry77, three major steel mills in a row folded inYoungstown, starting with the Campbell Works of Youngstoqn

Sheeiand Tube, foliowed by U.S' Steel's ohio Works, and i6McDonald Works.They were just a few of the hundreds of major plants that have

closed in the Foundry in the past decade as industries movedsouth or west, or were unable to meet foreign competition, s1phased out obsolete facilities'

Shortly before Youngstown's Black Monday, September i7,,g77, *i"n the first miil closed, throwing four thousand out of*oit , Bethlehem Steel laid off thirty-five hundred workers inLackawanna, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, and another thirty-five hundred in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem also haltedwork on a new steel mill in Johnstown. Three thousand workerswere out of a job in conshohocken, New York, when another steeicompany deciared bankruptcy. In Akron, Ohio, twenty-one thou-ruttd iob. in the rubber industry have disappeared since I95o'twenty-five hundred of them in 1978 alone. New York state lostthree iundred and twenty-seven thousand jobs in the first sevenyears of the seventies. Michigan figured that plant relocationsulon" .ort thirty thousand jobs in thut tt.t" between ry7o andry74, and Ohio figures that plant closings alone cost it fifty thou-

sand jobs between ry7o and ry77. '.The Bureau of Labor Statistics, gathering numbers that coVer

what is basically the United States portions of the Foundry and

New England, siys I.4 million industrialjobs have been lost there

in the tf,irteen years'from ry66 to tg7g,-and clearly, the bulk ofthat impact has to have been in the Foundry.

Youngstown's triple closings - the elimination of nearlyten^

thousani high-skill, high-pay, high-status jobs, the holders ofwhich have known .ro oth"r lfe - alone produced a ripple

effectthat has ended up costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions ofdollars.

The closings, in effect, were a manmade disaster equivalent toa killer hurricane or a tornado. The "ripples," in fact, were mon-strous waves, touching every resident, from the department storeclerk to the gas station attendant.

ffiffis,*fi

return'

Actuallv, it can be argued tl* tn:19::"ril:1"fft?1""t:i::i ;l:.oni.*uiiu"' For one thing' t\erj \e,1:':;i;i;;; '"it' rhen'

too';;;;;;"', before the second "":1.:l';t,h's"r;nr,"r'. estimates of

H*T.:X1 T :3 l'f l':::l'ff ;n:1 :T'li :':"#;

"r i x " wh a'l do

;'ffi '#i.|i:;rn'5ffff l"::::'*::::r:riii"":"ff:tmentinurban facilities that Youngstown *nt;;;;; No

o"" has ever cal-

culated exactly *nut u cit! that 'i'" "iotoii"'i" ttt*s'of capital

investment. But Youngstown has dt';;;I;thools,'endlessmiles

of sewers, roads and itreet lamps' municipal buildings' art mu-seums and sports fields-.not to m"niio'i'tindt"at

of thousands

*H";::?:llf'ffi:'3'g*?n;?"'i

u r'"e r.^'Yl*ms actto

maximizer-n,J,tH1r":.tli;i,#il3i1,:tH:,H;;:,.:lTlisteel mills, Iike Youngstown t, :ili;r';;o-,.,g ,"gio,-ts for invest-

Hlxil:i S.T",i:," "' ;iln";' *;;';i;;-;?

cr 6s in g ren e ct s an

"'i{:H:::;ttt:?t:::HiJ the Foundrv has priceditserr out or


83


17/24

83

8z The Nine Nations of North America

the market, with high-priced unionized labor, high land",high energy costs, high pollution-control costs, und ,o f*i'o,,r,

The liberal National Center for Economic AlternatiVes j1'oc"asks cerlain questions, however: Are we really going to J"',tl*,Are we,_really going to walk away from ,h; i';;;;"y ."tfirt"',,we really goi"! to iry to build them all over again i.r itl"*G, A,uand Dixiel Dolou have any idea of what thatis g"id;;'il;rt*,

The center and its ideological soulmates have carried errlmore extensive studies thatihow that Youngstown, t". ";;J;:hould be an excellent place for heavy investment in certain kindsof steel facilities. In order to gain support for^1he granting of gov.ernment seed money for the revitalization of Youngstown's steelindustry, they've trotted out analyses purporting to show thaiYoungstown's location is an advantage, not a disadvantage. ensof the more technologically sophisticated ways of making steel _the electric-furnace method - requires enormous quantities qfscrap as a basic item. Where would be a better place to put anelectric-furnace mill, this argument goes, than on a rail line inthe middle of more junkyards than any in the dreams of a meandog: Youngstown? This analysis states

thatrelatively cheap

power can be generated from the region's coal, and that a savingsof perhaps $4o a ton could ensue.

Yet the reports have done little save give rise to a few headlinesand then gather dust. One analyst cynically suggested thatYoungstown will have to wait until the Japanese read these fig-ures and locate a North American plant there.

Meanwhile, the Foundry continues to decline.In Hamtramck, Michigan, an incorporated city completely sur-

rounded by Detroit, United Auto Workers Local 3 is preparing toshut down.

In r9ro, Hamtramck was a sleepy, German-American village ofless than four thousand. But Chrysler changed all that. Dodge be-gan car production in Hamtramck in ryr4, and thousands ofworkers moved into the sparsely settled town. Many were youngmen without families, living in overcrowded rooming houses anddingy hotels, where each bed did twenty-four-hour service. Byr9zo, Hamtramck's population had bulged to forty-five thousand,making it the state's fastest-growing boom town. It became thePolish "capital" of Michigan, absorbing wave after wave of east-ern Europeans and Ukrainians hungry for work. By r93o, 58 per-cent of Hamtramck's population was Polish-speaking.

Ethnic pride found expression in organizations like the Polish

F THE FOUNDRY

. -- Locat-'", T:.:l 'li';f,:':T:'YiY'H*!'^il'i1[i;::

{"rli',;t 9ti": J,'ff :,1,': ffi i};.*t* ir ; f":ff 'l:"? ";,bit^;;;r"r eolrsf^"i.iv" b{ ?" ll:-:',': iiir".i."egts1 lather_.,nfluv'-, ^- A ltr4r"{li.-rt hu'^j."'utthough t' l?[f,;::.-Ju"u-"atu lini up next tot;tlJr"a pft{ir",rrf rooprool, lJ"*"j"."'lUou" th" rows of liquor$:li:i:t'"T ti'.ryt,;5*":1Ti:'llii'l' """ "''n; bar - sir

t-

#?; "|:::$'ifr I"I'i:: i,';'t;:',sf i{.'s ;'ii:'":i

mru#*T:l';1 :;;:"f,"tiu' "^pluined'to.1e' ;"i"*i',,"'tvrried meatY*'2::;' oft",r, pi'rogiz migsem "-*"'";;:; roast pork dinner,T*Sil: -- i; gz'6o' Pieczen wteyr'1u1T"*-"rthe menu' Nales'*T"tilt"";r,J i' tr't most expenlS;it;?, e's. Mai;lanka is but-costs $l'Ju' '"-.-i.rrn out to be prunt-iki

z powidtami lutn(rLrL Lv v- r

. ,nRo?:fr 'fu ;:i : il,r' "?,?nJ"'"sii"ffi *xf :i{-:'ffiithout much warntii'i"'n;*tramck' l"oot" our of worK' a fac-[:#,lt:r ffi Jlfiil'',' it''o* i n e' n' : :;; "n;oiJ,. ou",.,' i: :':::iJ;:i iu" *lrion '0"1:"i::l; :l ."J:,::. irl-""rr' Vorarewhich used to prodttce ?S lrrdrt) -" I -ands derelict' . ,Dodse Aspen automobiles a

year"no\v::"i:;; tnly a trickle of""ff;h:"5;."luurtti.,n union hall ' thereol:,fi:;; ;id retraining

|*:f"xtl'l-,r;Ir" J,'J:"lf,g'"is*n

in his earry sixties, rersJames S. BrYant' a heavYset 9t^:!J:

about coming to Del;l't'ii"tnou' rightafter the war'

I was born and raised in Arabama'': ":':l::liil:llli:: ii't;;"tlii:just outside of Birmingham' \r\hen

I g?t, t:.t^:'r-]rrti.g .."aitions Backhad come up here. t, ..i,u, a queslion "',oj:l'"rt ffi;t.iJidn't g" 9.1tu t"ffitr.*';cil*,-t nua u lou in rt'"'i"ilT']'l',l;;'t.'Jdvanc" mv'"I[' Iit. I had a better opportlnitv here' I it:l;ffi;."r,'in them times' voucouldn't advance in Birmingham' see?

I cot

*-


18/24

87


19/24

87

ft6 The Nine Nations of North America

:xilff:x:ffiT:5i&:""to other than Detroit was New y

When I asked him whether he'd thought of looking for ,,,^ ,Houston or some other town much bett511ff_eco""*i.ufjilfdepressed Detroit, he answered the question vaguely, wltlL"".mistakable lack of clarity about where Houston was. 1 w;sside his world, at any rate.

we build all the electrical parts for the chrysler corporation down there.Electrical ignition, the Icomputer-controlled],lean-burn engines, startingright from scratch. When I go down there, they're going to send rng 1qschool for soldering. I figured in the Detroit area, I wasn't going any.where. I figure, you know, they're all going to move south. And to be ina newer plant there'd be more chance of the plant sticking around. Idon't know a soul in Alabama. But after the first week, I really started

liking it, and that was the turning point. The people are friendly. Thework is a lot more interesting. There's more to it. More of a challenge. Ifyou go to school you can really make a career down there. Move yourselfup. They got a few trouble-shooter jobs there, and you gotta have twoyears of electronics. As soon as I get settled down there, I want to getinto school, and, because it's job related, Chrysler will pay for part of it.I'll go to college at night . Couple more years and I'll at least beeligible for some kind of pension. I can just go down there and wait forthe right job to open up.I don't think I'm going to miss Detroit. The onlyhard part is like my parents and my in-laws maybe. My whole family isup here. But when it comes down to missing Detroit .

Gulock said that the Chrysler Corporation had offered much ofthe Dodge Main work force the opportunity to move out of stateto other Chrysler plants, but that many of his buddies hadn't evensigned up for transfer. They were lookitrg for other jobs in theDetroit area, "in steel mills, in meat-packing plants, whatever'and some had taken big pay slrfs - "fiue, si*-dollars an hour'""Everybody gets set irtheir old ways,'; Gulock said. "Even theyoung guys, although for some, it may have been their wives saY'i"g "6lrtt"y

got fairily here, and they don't want to uproot theirkids. But I think I've teen thinking ubo.rt the future more thartthey have. I have to make a living f.; ;Gi.

-ih;;;;that if.

Chrysler makes it, they're going to shut ii*; a b; of the oldplants up here and move south."

W THE FOUNDRY

t:t*^i,ry;rii::lli,";fj:sH.:i:;:*:;TI:

ux*lt*l;g'P***t*t**ffi+,rru*11**{u*H",-*tl?* t*'n'

$ffffi*ffi

ffi ,'t:t*-"i:ffii{i#';*."rtiii;.t'*";il;i]iritJ'i; what I'm thinking':i

m:il*ffitiuu*]Ii}fltt#,,'ffiilili:T;t"ilr;t,'the 'xPlained'

in rerus

i i,, ;' 1", it' s i ellenar ti:t |,mli S;:,Hl :"th " soon-t o-b e

Pid losePh P. Elliott

'otf 'Hun:tlxl,?,i;.)'"l.l"il:.i[+ili:fr iffin;l'"i.'#

#fii*i$fit$**tt#$'ffi:tu*

Douglas Gulock, twenty-five, however, had discovered H' iville; lie had already rp".ri ro-. time there. He was 0..";ilil::grown up in Detroit, but he and his wife were gearing up to rnoveto Alabama.

People in a house.


20/24


I've seen cases down here when the wife doesn't even want r^husband retire at sixty-two, sixty-five. Thely don't.want them h";:ticall, see if we can't keep the old man in the plant longer. Th" "::;'Iem is with the poor guy who had to retire when Dodge Lgi"

"i"llOlad had a lot of kids, a lot of sickness, and never was ubl" tn *.1"\thing up. He doesn't have a pot to piss t",îl:.y1"":'^::ltl"d. \i;ican't do nothing. Health probably gone. Soon he starts boo.in'jmuch.

Elliott himself wasn't sure what he wanted to $o.. He'd thougfuabout writing a book about the union. "The politics, you krjust putting -do*r, my thoughts." He also mentio""d,"J;"dt:that he still had his papers as an able-bodied

^seaman, from whJnhe worked on freighters, starting at the age of sixteen. "Freshwa-ter and saltwater. They're almost forty years old now, but I Iikethe sea. I used to go San Francisco to the [Hawaiian] Islands onthe freighters. That's not hard work. Four hours on, four hoursoff." But he thought he was probably getting too old for that life.He wouldn't want long voyages away from his family.

Meanwhile, across the street, David Olko, the part-owner of theSecond Precinct Lounge mentioned earlier in this chapter, wassurveying the traffic.

"Last Friday night, we played ball outside. And at eleveno'clock on a Friday night, there were two cars that went by infifteen minutes. Two cars in that period of time. It's like a ghosttown. Then a bus went by with only two people in it. Listen now'You can hear what traffic there is. None. There used to be trafficall the time, and there were people walking by. It's a scary feel'ing."

At some point in working on this chapter, I began to wonder howmuch of ihe Foundry's d-ecline was sirictly log-ical, as opposed toemotional. One premise I start from is that hlistorical trends arefinally realized ty millions of small, individual decisions takenover time. No corporation wakes up one morning and says, okaY'we're going to abandon South gend; San Diego, here we cofle'InsteaJ, individual decisions are made as questlons come up con-cerning markets, replacement costs, t"d ;;;;;;t*""lii"t

"stua-es are-made of possible answers to narrow questions' andpre'

sumably a logical decision is made .s to *h.i-the corporation'sself-interest lies.Individuals operate the same way. Theie rnaybea few people who just decide that they u.. tot going to live

89THE FOUNDRY

ffit:l''m*'t*il#+i**qi3:T$:ff';'fl

****fi+*m*$*l,.tm,ffilt*;l#'jia*i*:*;.;:fil:i"ff:i'tT:ff;:[iru:;t**g;;'sff :i,",'*,:*JT::]ii*l?;'"T.ltl}?fff ilf i;;; decline

represents more than an unso-

icatedeconomrcu"'i;J';1"i"'ni;31,t1i:'-t:::;":5;;ted economlc arlarysrr rtrsr rv+*--- ted neighborhood;il";;6 and energY even a dilaPida'k row houses r"o'"'""ii''"i;;;i l;," e b een -a n ^"^Tt:tl:Tlw hOuSeS reptsssurD. rL trrer ---' .at conffOntedio stubborn, interrelated prob-lems th

saviors of the for,,tatv' nuther than g:114"^:t:1:T-X-De Savror-s ur Lrrs rvurrerJ, the planners sim_[t*.1""a possibly be defeated by them

ecided to t.y to obliterate them' Lf rrnrrno;;::ili:î:'-';;;';;;;;;iv seventies a sroup qr voungitects facetio.rrly .u-'i' ;; ;;ii in "luuot"'"^tli: lT"lfi;t,;' i; ituolv"d setting-bonl*: :":t', -lorders to sele

.' ;;; ;;;;i, I o' u o'"Cu'-alrs. insi de";

1'-i : -11 ?.,;*fl Ii :fi t:l"J;tl; ff ;T;HYj :t'"'" "i it'"' w ar

b Lnus"'

whi ch w as

nsed to b. fortr,.omi;;h; washington nPly :l3'l*money on Vietnam u"iî*t"ua turied to the "problems

cities," that is, the FoundrY.rt would be left .r,". iri"'i.lio"g"a air raid' lhese arcfi^tê-cj;ted, would b" u ,,"*''ir!",""'?*tored to the way Georgengton knew it when tt"Î"i"tt"dthe Hessians there on

tmas Eve, r776.course, as Freud pointed out-, there l: ": t"*11:"-t :t,:.]"f:i;""iii;lX"l?hiiJ;;;me architectsr idea is ihe rever or'ration it reflects.I" r;;;;;;;"nt', th"t" men were the ones


21/24

90 The N ine Nations of North Americawho labored mightily to restore beautiful old Vi"t^-:^that had seen better days, and tried to revive tfr"--rl'-'jn h,

;;::r*downtown. What does this "plan" tell you il,'ili

There are frequent newspaper headlines that susseqt -.that the Foundry has had first crack at some .f ,h-":;;"i'American mistakes - but the question is wheth". ""'"L11-N9,his news would help shed

urrylight on the a".li"" o] ffiintnd investment in the region.There are almost a hundred nuclear reactors on this cont.for example, but only one went haywire, raising . o.iij]".tt,emotional response fiom the *o.t,ilL.rd i, *". ii ,rr;'il:H*lS:T:i,.":n:.

Edi son's rhree Mi le Is land, jus t outsi d.- H;tril;;There are an estimated fifty thousand chemical dump sites inNorth America, and some of the worst of them u." i"^6i*r", Uu,the continental symbol of the revolt of the -.rtarir-ir'in tr,,Fourrdry: Hooker Chemical's Love Canal, near Buffalo.There are an untold number of flashy, .,stunt,,_architecture

high-rise buildings.in North America, but tire *"rt t;ili;;-"*ur-ples "of fortress architecture, with no windows, or windo"ws thatare mere slits, are in the Foundry. Even Detroit's RenaissanceCenter, with its all-glass cylindrical and hexagorrut to,"r.r, i,built behind thirty-foot-tali medieval earth embankments. It,snot easy to walk to the Renaissance Center. It clearly was meantto be arrived at by car, through checkpoints.

All of North America has pollutio., p'-bl.-r, the Houston ShipChannel among the worst. But only t^he Cuyahoga River actuallyburst into flames; only Lake Erie ioyed -iif, afi"gl ir is mainlyin^the Foundry that acid rain has rnud. dramatic iiroads, killingoff mountain-stream fish populations.

All of North America is confronting the energy crisis, but someof the most trenchant continental m6mories oidepr ivation camein $9_win-ters of '77 and'7g, when much of Ohi", p.rrrrryluuniaand New York was immobilized by cold; the Ohio River was.-l"gg"d by ice, thwarting coal-barge shipments; and, on top 9tthat, factories closed forlack of nJtural gas. How many peopleare there who wouldn't respond in a thought-association quiztothe challenge "snow," withlhe city ,,Buffal,o.',

And, of course, if racism is bred of fear, with what part of thecontinent does North America associate black ghettosi

The question is how much of this is in the sli"ghtest rational? Ift

Tr{EFOUNDRY .. ^^:, - ; 'olline iournalistic cotteieiel'^li|;^-cwer, I starteo.fj'*""rli *rrettos in North Amencat " artt"'--- -^ aq trr,-e- ,-noestlorr> *- "'::-^t. ^ Ilo.", look

at' l ended up

"f"l??i"ntpick ore-t",J;"iv;;;"n B.o*n, who u'orKs

r thutl^]ffi ,ugg"stton, t'Il^ r.^. Ueen around. "Academl', !"',"l,2irripo'1, is bla;'11iffi;;;;; lot or slums that areglashmt*",, he insisteu. ""i - ', --* L,,t Academy Street

'rrjll',h;; ;" p ff

":'fi,Tl

i*;:.:a

l" ::,:

t,

#;:ind sorr'" '., .t^"sn't

frf.f:"* f ff;; r"a'onublv 'ul"\|:t'',nn, come up to*'l;4il'"q';jl;ry ;J*T::,nli:lt"n*g;It :tH;: ;;i ;?i,:*;5J*ffi11;i::it',nJ -o., a".::t""'i; anvthing I - ,- "

l-'"''d+l#lni;*i*i+t+r*'n';tlff:tt if:il"m:T:;#;; co'"" on uP

I'u show You

Street." ..eak, pasta, and. good . *i"".^L'excellent pliT" - t] ^, +he F.asr Coast's Juperior restau-r excellent Pi']T'"* Jin"East Coast's superlor rcsta.u-,o',-to my -ttl'rlo* the Trenton tratn station' and per-

- u.aottthe street tr . cr-^^+ Inf{ee explained his view- acrossthe street T'i"r;"t;;;,'"ff"" explained his

vreweight blocks from Aci

Street.

interested me, what I wanted to do"-wasf"*U^l;tLXl"il"t::tJ":;rl're a foreign country' expose *,tttlf^tl-ill,1tn" *" paper to let meere a foreign country-,.expose rtrysrrr 'e the paper to let me

l;***l::::',".::iffin;:h::!:.,,'*[i*illn'n:: is that the issues I deal wrtn on Lrrar uee! *- irrr"*"rr"in the livesiit*i.i"v. What does the government {o to.,poor, and does it *"*'i;;;';''itittry'humanistic

point of viewi

are individuals, lots tt'i'#' lri"ti"a'!'*l^t sovernment does?

I think I've found t. ;:;1h;jiu"t'r. intentlon"not"*itLtiftl?tffilI think I've found is lhat the ltoetat "'"'"i'iurg", a harmful im-rl government programs tend to t'tl":'blui,lon the peopte rh"y ur"' i;i;;-,;-n"' t ?':: il ":",*;:"il:rtr..1:ith some aoat of academic training' are b,ell( r-^ +r^an nof ouite sorth SOme SOrt ol academlc lrarrrrr,6, s.' - rke them not qUite Sorene somehow in the lives of the poor and mrDo the feds hand .', ,ilii]Jr'""'i,iJ-a"uu'-u?"i: 1:];Ti:'jl:::1o the feds hand out three-thousancl-oorrar-a-r;;i ih; child care of,itar"n oi*orking *o*"n? Yes, thev d3 o,"o"t;:,li"ji^-tir o1a. fo. -ort ;;;kG *o*"n turns out to be.th-eturns out that the f"d.':;; -t'*"t "r seeing' 3t" 1i11,',":^:l\::i:urns out that the feds. to mV way is a useful social ser-ey without any compelling argument that thr:with a broad impact on society.


22/24


Or, for example, look at foster care. Foster care is what n,,.*^

:,'"T::T:"'::*;:l*i::;1':^t",:.:*::Y'?:l"Xl:l:^:tuo"'il:J:ate homes, subsidized by the government. It has evolved".*;;u

t'pal nreans by which government intercedes l"^:-..:::. *iil:T iiceives to be in danger, because they've b"".t ubatdon"alneglected, or abused.

But what's commonly perceived as neglect is simply some middl"social worker labeling poverty as somehow a manifestatl"" of pu,irresponsibility.

Okay, say I'm a.social worker. I walk into a home because there,. ^in the hospital who's severely injured. The doctor t.^;;.;:;ilbeen parental abuse. I go to the apartment. It turns out the t ia f.fl'*'qthe window.I call it paintal neglect, because,I'm tft" hvp,oth.t;"ff$worker. After all, a decen! parent wouldn't allow his kid to be.*porudto the incredible danger of a rusted-through iron.railing five storieabove the pavement, or whatever. But any practical person would say,"That's simply what slum housing is like, you stupid -lr;k>t*rc'xrr***."riWhat the social-welfare industry likes to call parental neglect is just afancy new way of justifiiing intervention by the state in the lives of thepoor. What happens is that it is a way for a bunch of middle-class peoplewith degrees in the social sciences to end up finding work.

What happens to the poor? Their families live under the additionalstress of having their families divided, and children shipped off to fosterhomes. What my examination of abuse and neglect in New Jersey hasled me to, politically, is that it's turned me into an anarchist. I think thatif we shut down the state agencies that intervene in cases of allegedabuse and neglect, infant-moitality rates in New Jersey would not beperceptibly *6..". The problem would be that the social workers wouldbe out of work.

I mean, I've been looking at specific cases. There's this one woman Imet on Academy Street, when I-was trying to see what life was like inthe slums. Over a period of some three years,I saw how her life and thelives of her children were really affected or unaffected by the interven'

tion of all these agencies. And on balance I can see no changewhatever'

They're still living in a lousy slum apartment; the children aie still doingpoorly in school, are still subject to the a."g*t "f sexual

molestation

that accompany any situation where childr"r,"u." unsupervised 1n.,1

lum'

penproletaiiat neighborhood. The p.ognori, ]". I "'tpi.t"a j:??t:tjtJ;self-sufficiency is just as bad as it ever was. I mean, one cannot rtl^tangible improvement in the life of this f.-ii;;;';"s,r1t or att tttit o1fcan see that intervention has led the woman io be completelY distn, ,'.":;ir''#:i;; *,::1'#threat to her has been all along that if you don't cooperate yttl l".^"inrlveners, we will ship your kids off to ftster homes. And what Ylnrity.Sometimes these kids end up in foster care for the rest of their -'lj UutIt can be argued that growing up in a slum is fraught with danger' -

93F rHE Fou NDRr{ . .-:;;;,"d Private hom:"::l,x?"Jl;.*:#;i _ .,,., in u rlar:::Ilo^ -,,.h. because *. :'ir";;;n raise kidsryfl:it;; -but lfrl*

'".rt"."'".'^".:"'J:""tI ".",,have a littre

iit'^li$i"[',*"*'j:"f,:Til-,,:t:::::]lJ,liil."I"Ti.n&"o i]^"1 *"t*u '!':l ,"i^t th" kid is neSv ":*i*';;0",,"?f:i,'#: ],j.,^,n* , :X?^l"T [T::,i::l"t."tt1-ii*"ntion "r f',:;:;;i;ion by rh"i,*"U",i'f?t:'1 ": :: #l"l,U, " ir, ".' r,.",

tiJ :T Tfi :"J: J I ;:jthe t'l--,t

e balance 1""-'-*t,rat"-class

peopbeen or' "'-o- e, and,a;,:"il

; ";l"".iing'r k "

poo..

f"oil??n5t;;enot corn

rn ^ere(

ffg,ltW##ffi*f ;n."'r':i:';*'ili"1";i'''':;'*[;nl;?;i"""tX';;ffi"::$?"f ;:ilffilffi:il"'xli};,*"HTf:rr*l:b, h? i;Tt[ :w'$ff:': i'"-'"\'x llY*lt*6 ;:H i*'il"":#*t*r'ru:. *l{:#*ri;*'T;ll*bfussional manner, they say' by pegpter::::'".t;" o[ slumsnal manner, they tr?,;"J.i"r."Jdiscussion of slums

lili?'XTitiY;"Tl*"i:f;1'^;L;:1ol'iifll"l"i'ijiii:* |""ti';::3l'fff# :'#t il;i A direction

that

kedly unproductive' r ._^^^lr rr" knocks on a door and,", *"un*hile, is enjoying himsell 1111,.u. family. Theyme into the tidy apaitment of a Puerto T"?"f",ir;"servedlme the velvet map of Vietnam.' *h,"I"^ro], onnrher son, anct;#:iH:ll;'.T::.:i':'ff :?fr Jiii:|"*"n*mmtrpl o"i riiJttlly-out-of-focus lnanlhoJ?^^ *tth the monevli:r'T':"flt"tJ#'fi."l'il,"*li."nt*-""n;1".S'l;l

' *ukirrg workiniin the States'and shot

,rPF-


23/24

94The Nine Nations of North America

gown another kid will be wearing to fiftlZiii:"r_^^ _,""' '".*:u'ns to htth-grade *tu6qation

iu

At the-vestpocket park, which used to have an inflated don3l,il"l*l*:,1"11 courts,.until the vandals put a fifteen_foot, ireparable hole into its side, ."orf,". ..i"iil;;'#;:;*,'l*'l^r_:^.:1red by arsorr..rh;,;;-;;ting it. rt,s a groupneighborhood peopie *r,", tn"v Ju;;##''ffi irl'r',Jo3'"r, o',:;1,+t1l"Tot{.:i1' "r

put"iio ii, r"-"re

the park jnlo some

rHE FOUNDRY ^:t

;#'#fl t:'"'::+1':Tii#i;H11'',"1n,Joffee drags me out of that apartm -'rqp['pis*ri*l'i+l-*,***'***+U '##;;rn"ai;ib:,-*:{Fi:*ji:'1r-:i

's horne'

H;*"jffiffiqHqili*j;?'lffi.ffi rrfi+*;[firiht'$.t:i::i-ii*s1erthe..";h;i;';ffi ;il;J*;,.i_:l,il,i,LXT:i?^,.!J.iTfollow him. Ir's blocking tr," door'iJ il"':;j#"io^"ll:",*;bath. They are, he savs urith dra^+ --:r^ _- r ,- -- -wuroolfl e, f**:lt't'91 if":.tn :',iffiI i;; i' iii? ::',':l:jl tn"r are, he,uy,, *ith g."u, p.ij":;#'JH"'i,ff1.il1 ffi :l*t+lJ,t*'w;ill{Jirfu'3i'#:t'rgif r*xxT$::i,"l"":nip{n'"{i.*

f:frtti?ltif;"t?'oX"fi""'ttti*t"u'o"i"elorthegradua-

;::"'s;*-t"fl :.q:*xtlf'*Tll-::.,:,,'trli#

' leaves speckle *"9":.'J*r';:*.a .r,i.t"n, iried chicken'5."'l;Jtln*.",il"ffi;,.fi *^i1, l'l;I ilH,:"S';'ps and nsn \:u1L-:'

""a-.1t""r", collard greens' corn

if n:":';.'T:H:1"ii::^$F-3'z'::k:'k.BreakrastRfl ffi 'ffi ;;;':;;; pratetuI, or -111i.1" above',er lunch, Joffee *"t:t"L"#*ittt,*vown racism'

"You

thing. No, the li tu r,uJ i.,h;;,; d;;.,il; :'iiJili,i'iil.*",can the city do? lt i, too p;;;",";;;ce the nylon dome. As thesalsa music plays, they show". ;h;-;;g

puerto Rican ilag rheyhave painted on one wall, and ,fr" -.p they,ve made with paintand stones in the circle *f,"." . ,."" ,ir"j ;. ;;;; J'faitld.Itis clearly labeled: ARECTBo. cERoNrMo. puERro Rrco.we stop by ,La Larefla caf6, which, l"if"l-is-delighted to see,someone is rebuilding- It used ,. fr"a".. terrific iork, roastedright out back on u rfit, urrtit tfr" f,*"Jp."ua from the pig rc theba;k3f th.e building one night.I ask who lives ii tfr. *fri1"-fraired lady,s rooming house, ar,d

'.d;;;ii';;e, weren't You?" he asks'tl* ililng it, "I was scared"' . - say' meanrng rL' t *-i"^;;^.,L, .^,"." in a white Appa-

,d yoo have bein as scared if you were llslum? They're :rrrt "t t"pable

of violence there as any-

1".1i:ttrii:i!1.'l', mean, look, how .orten 1':'*i :T:;u, I Dllrster-. r ure4rrr _ :S, WhO iS he?up on Academy Street? And r'l'hen he dotor a social worker *';.ii;g; ttia "vi"g tt,d""l-1iL::ili.] ffi"J;i;#;;;';;?ilo the PeoPle who rive

"v'Jt"-"o*pi"i"lt :"t,ii!f i" doinga number on my

st, and asking questions later.the reverse f.rt,. of fi'.r'J''". i ,, perfectly reasonable for

short answer is:


24/24

Earlier in the day, Dave Hankins arld Jack Thompson liiit*irys# ,:1::.1'"-1", ignorant Tlo't"...?l ,n".uJii..making steel. They were good teachers. Tirey still rr"iJrrr"i'iJ^":l il awe, and rightly so. At the coke ovens, tt"." -igtiVtfull of roaring hot coal being purified, they pointed "";;li";,ffalled "Fairless rain." The coke is so hot thit when lt i. .,,,L^t^,in a valley of water, a cloud of steam erupts;_as it cools, ,.*.Athousand yards downwind, it turns into dloplets on a .". *ina.

*hly-lut?i.in"humm"t, on rns Y*-i::- cooled to gray butlfrtt' i-:i:"?', ;; srabs came Pv niT',;::; un'a-*""g"a

lrg"r;;;,,:l:^tlT:,:i,"::i*i:if,:X",1}:fff""1:

r;ri]l,l":m:,*:ll*;1i,:l':,'fil:*i:*jT'il:lJl;,dcs of mlsi'*-rr*.rrrr", r,','hich, tt. T"-,U is actually a_veryn sides t ll'l'^*, r-,ie it reallv is. A steer T]tl]: :;ff;i J oui-ts" ffi :3 i"J*'-ilffii*-qi x; +.{ t"Ti:,i

l i :::iate matter t"tl':::i-ru"aur"a scrubbers.

re cubisr. The work_I th" envrrofirrrsrrrr"*"uJo*a and lines rf-I? ;i;e skv' rh e shadon"s' .1::-:i' :;";'"i ur "'t' sp ri nkle d

H fftl'fitll-i"'id"

air-conditioned con


could have only seen thisMuch farther down the line is the forty-inch

Tr{E FOUNDRY97

ft##HE{it[1,*'H,fuil"'lT'{'-:ii'-H

$:'ltt,'" exclaims the reportel''*i'lsrveat pouring off

Fetv helmet, '"to n".'JJ#lf i""t"'.T'" i:Tig:tJi:"l ffil:r"iv t'"rm"'' ll:: i':#::5,;"'i;i;; t"* a",* reet aborefoeavy green satetv*;;#;h"ii ,tau. ^ r r^_ +r'ah,v_radiating z too deg-reerck rhomp so,,, *no' iliiF;:9 :r'r,Y i; io'J."],H I X"E lho-ptott, 'who has \'t'orKeu ru' "'"'.a"4, turns to the

r;;;.;il;;,v-t*o of them as a roll griof steer and smires' ;'i=l';';;: ;;:l lt:jl?3;t"l,ii'nll-i steel and smiles. He tnrowb uov^ tropical sun, and

snreads his arms, as if basking in a1

airt"r"." the catwalk, in crucifor"illt-l;t^-o -.,' navcheckls there on the.catwalK'ln crucrltlr" t"-Juh"r" my paycheck

i"t" ,nrt-iteat," he says' "I love it' It's'

shield. It creates small ponds. The guides say they're clean. Theyare, in fact, being enjoyed by a host of wild water birds. A womanstands by the business end of the coke oven. At least, Hankinssays it's a woman. There was enough roll to the hips of theworker's walk to make his statement plausible. But with theworker's helmet, face mask, heavy heat-resistant jacket andpants, and Li'l Abner steel-lined safety boots, it,s an open ques-tion. streams of yellow sulfur escape before the refractory bricksexpand to seal the coke oven doors tight.

At the blast furnace, where manmade winds of four-hundredmiles an hour hold the ore, coke, and limestone being worked inmidair, in defiance of gravity, flaming red molten iron pours outof the bottom constantly, like milk from a jug.

_The soul of the primitive open-hearth

steel-makingfurnace can

be viewed only through dari{ green smoked glass, "Hankins andThompson say, as they hand oi". u rectangleif it. It's like look'ing into the sun. You'll sear your eyes from a hundred feet awatif you glance at it directly. As ove"rhead cranes maneuver gianthooks the size of battleship anchors, which hold

nine nations of north america to succeed

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