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Truth with Wisdom. Fantus' blue-chip client list includes such names as Ford, General Electric, General Foods, Westinghouse and Anaconda. The company found Hershey Chocolate a suitable Canadian site ("I even went out and counted cows to make sure there was enough milk for their candy," says Fulton) and eliminated 45 locations before setting Sara Lee Bakeries down just a few miles from where it had been. When Fulton brought Rockwell Manufacturing Co. to Tupelo. Miss., the town was so grateful that it named a street after him. In recent years Fantus has expanded into surveying areas to see what sort of industry they can use. When Cambridge, Md., proved to have nearly everything needed to make chop suey, Fantus found it a new resident in Chun King Corp. The Fantus report on Evansville, Ind., so strongly criticized the town's attitude ("Evansville people resent anyone in power . . . politics is a dirty word") that it inspired civic reform and later enabled the city to attract new plants.
For the $80,000 study of the Loire Valley, Fantus will only recommend the types of industries that should be located at various spots, and the French will find the companies. But for worried tourists who picture factory smokestacks raining soot on scenic châteaus, Yaseen has a word of comfort. "It might make economic sense to put a steel factory next to a château," he says, "but it would not make sociological sense. We will have to balance truth with wisdom."