Locally Produced Furniture
http://distributism.blogspot.com/2009/09/locally-produced-furniture.html

As distributists, of course, we're strongly supportive of local production; at least, as localized production as possible. The Review has argued in favor of such production as opposed to remote production many times. In light of Bill Powell's revealing post regarding the conditions of many foreign factories, support for local production becomes even more important.

As it happens, I live in what was once a stronghold of local production (though the products produced here were sold all over the world). American of Martinsville; Bassett Furniture of Bassett, only twenty miles distant; Stanley Furniture; Hooker Furniture; Tultex (textiles); and many other manufacturing industries sustained an extremely industrious and prosperous populace. Alas, as in most parts of America, most of these companies have left. Hooker now sells only Chinese-made furniture; even American has resorted to doing so, exclusively, apparently oblivious to the oxymoron that they've become. Bassett Furniture is struggling mightily, buying more and more of its products from China. Tultex is long gone, no longer having any presence at all in this community. Every year, it seems, more and more of our industries are "outsourced," employing other peoples in faraway lands. Our people are told that they must simply accept this, and "train" for new industries like "food service," meaning that a once-proud people making useful goods must now resort to dropping fries at McDonald's, and are told that this is simply the unavoidable march of progress.

Now, these industries were far from perfect from a distributist perspective. But they had one thing going for them: they were local. Most of them are no longer so.

However, one company, Stanley Furniture, is courageously bucking the trend. Stanleytown, a small community not far from Martinsville, was literally built up around Stanley; for a change, this company is not abandoning the community which made it strong. Stanley has hired many new employees and intends to hire more; indeed, well over half of its employees are local Virginians and Carolinians, working in Stanleytown or nearby Robbinsville, North Carolina. Given that the local unemployment rate is 16.6% (22.1% in the City of Martinsville itself), even with the new fudged way of counting, this is extremely important for our community. Their whole "Young America" line of youth furniture will be made entirely in America. Stanley is, indeed, banking on its local production, and as such it deserves local support.

I, for one, will be buying any furniture I need to buy from this day forward from Stanley furniture, particularly any youth furniture, which Stanley hopes to produce entirely at its local plants. I ask all Virginians and Carolinians* to put their support behind Stanley, as well. It's bucking the trend, taking a hit on profit margins in order to support the communities that made it strong. While it's not a distributist company, it deserves recognition and support for that.

In the abstract, it would behoove all distributists to learn the companies in their area which produce goods locally, and to patronize them in preference to other merchants and manufacturers. Often this will mean paying more; but it is worth paying a bit more to support our neighbors rather than assist the corporate exploitation of virtual slaves far away. Further, it provides a strong incentive to producers to produce locally, when they see that people are willing to purchase local products even when paying a living wage to local employees requires a higher price.

In these trying economic times, contributing to the living wage of local workers and supporting those companies that rely on and support them is akin to charity. All distributists should prayerfully consider how they can contribute to this cause.

Praise be to Christ the King!

* I consider Carolinians close to Virginians, particularly in southern Virginia. Despite our friendly joshing during the regrettable war between the states (Virginians called the Carolinians "tarheels," because they'd have to tar the Carolinians' heels to keep them from running away; while the Carolinians called the Virginians "scrape-backs," because the Carolinians would scrape up their backs running over them to get at the Yankees), North Carolinians and Southern Virginians have a lot in common. We have a very similar climate and agricultural economy; we eat the same foods, particularly our particular brands of barbecue; and we even share the same accent, noticeably different from Northern Virginian (traditional, not modern DC-conquered) and South Carolinian. So I consider production in North Carolina, particularly the Piedmont and mountain regions, to be local relative to my own region, Piedmont Virginia, although Robbinsville is a goodly distance away physically.
Posted by Donald Goodman