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In the new company towns that are still going up in the U.S., community planning is considered a vital factor in attracting a stable, skilled work force. The modern company town is usually a model community with broad, tree-lined streets, spacious shopping centers (which invariably are leased to local merchants) and well-built housing designed to encourage home ownership.
In Silver Bay and Babbitt, two five-year-old taconite mining communities built by Reserve Mining Co. in remote northeastern Minnesota, company-built homes are sold to employees on longterm, no-cash-down mortgages held by the company. Says Reserve President W. M. Kelley: "Good communities are essential to our operation. If we are to compete successfully, we must continue to attract skilled, high-type men who want to own their own homes and run their own communities."
One of the best-run towns in the U.S. is Midland, Mich., a trim, 50-year-old company town (pop. 24,000) where 86% of the houses are owned by employees of Dow Chemical and Dow Corning. In the 1952 presidential election, Midland boasted the highest voter turnout (81%) of any similar-sized U.S. community.
Ski Tows, Scholarships & Woods for Scouts
Since most company communities exist to exploit oil or ore discoveries in remote areas, management generally invests lavishly in recreational facilities to attract and keep a high-caliber work force. In Colorado, Climax Molybdenum Co. has equipped the inaccessible Rockies settlement of Climax (where it operates the country's largest underground mine) with ski tows, a $31,700 youth center, a $106,000 recreation hall with bowling alleys, library, target range and gymnasium, a $128,000 skating rink and a TV booster to bring in programs from distant stations. Crown Zellerbach Corp., which runs three lumber company towns in Washington and Oregon, concentrates on youth activities, allots timberland tracts to Boy Scout troops, awards college scholarships to company town children.
Most companies nowadays work many months in advance when they plan to move into small towns which have had no previous experience with big payrolls. Executive teams go in to discuss economic and social problems with civic officials and community leaders, show films to familiarize residents with their operations.
Before building a new smelting plant that subsequently trebled the 2,000 population of Rockdale, Texas, Alcoa in 1953 paid an estimated $30,000 advance taxes to finance new road and school construction. To pave the way for a new jet test flight center in Palmdale, Calif., Lockheed Aircraft Corp. hired a professional city manager, who spent two years helping city officials plan for expansion, lured three other aircraft companies to Palmdale.