ABSTRACT
South Carolina, in the south-eastern United States, has a score of communities derived from the location of a textile mill and provision for worker housing. Failure to modernize coupled with severe competition from abroad has resulted in numerous plant closings. Unlike communities with industrial diversification, the traditional mill town frequently has only this industry. Textile manufacturing has dominated the Southern Piedmont’s industrial base for all of this century. The number of jobs in these older industries is shrinking. It is not enough to say that worker retooling is the golden elixir and the solution to the post-industrial society faced with plentiful and well paid information technology jobs on the hand and minimum paying service employment on the other hand. Redundant workers, especially those seeking meaningful employment, were obliged to go farther afield for jobs.
