For more than 50 years in picture-postcard North Dighton, Mass. (pop. 1,500), Mount Hope Finishing Co. has been the town's only employer. Its 17½-acre, ivy-covered plant, largest textile-finishing mill under one roof in the world, is ringed with a park and the pleasant, trim houses of its 800 workers. Under 76-year-old President Joseph K. Milliken, Mount Hope never had a union, but paid its workers the going wages for the industry. It practiced the kind of old-style, New England paternalism that made "J.K." a popular boss. If sickness struck, he always tided...
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