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To make small loans, Hodges' administration established a Business Development Corp. Hodges stumped the state, selling stock in the corporation at $10 a share and raising $1,000,000; he later got an $8,000,000 line of credit from banks, insurance companies, savings and loan associations. To date, the corporation has lent about $4,000,000 to 70 homegrown small businesses and industries in lumps from $2,000 to $300,000.
Even more important was the job of encouraging major industries to expand and recruiting new ones from outstate. They had long been scared off by an outdated and complicated patchwork of tax laws. Hodges called for a major tax reform to help business. Though opponents howled that he wanted to hand businessmen a $7,000,000-a-year tax windfall, Hodges got his bill passed in 1957. While it trimmed state revenues by $2,000,000 the first year, it also brought in new companies. The day the tax bill passed, Allied-Kennecott Titanium Corp. announced a new $40 million, soo-man plant for Wilmington. Fortnight later R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camel, Winston, Salem) announced a $35 million, 1,800-man plant at Winston-Salem.
Hodges scouted for plants that would buy and process North Carolina agri-ultural products. The deal that he made with Gerber Products was typical: if jerber would come in, the state's agricultural extension service would send out agents to teach farmers how to grow7 the foods that Gerber wanted. Result: a Gerber plant is abuilding near Asheville, will buy $10 million worth of North Caro-ina fruits and vegetables yearly. Furthermore, Swift & Co., following the opening of an Armour & Co. plant at Charlotte, in a few months will complete a $17 million plant at Wilson, will spur the state's production of meat.
From almost nothing when Hodges became Governor, investment in electronics in North Carolina has grown beyond $100 million. By next spring, electronics firms will employ 25,500, boost the state's payrolls by $75.5 million a year.
Progress in Integration. There is another reason for North Carolina's popularity among Northern-based industries: it has kept integration troubles at a minimum. A strong Stevensonite in '52 and '56, Hodges is an avowed segregationist, but he has pledged that North Carolina will not defy any federal court rulings. The state legislature adopted legislation that provides for token integration now, more later; five schools in three cities now have a total of eleven Negro pupils.
But school integration may well be hastened by industrial integration. In Winston-Salem, Western Electric has hired Negro machinists. In Charlotte, Douglas Aircraft employs Negro engineers and draftsmen. In Greensboro, where Burlington Industries (textiles) recently took on a Negro chemist, a survey of 402 firms showed that 53 intend to hire strictly on the basis of merit, regardless of race; another 114 said they will hire on merit alone for some jobs. For the Deep South this represents progress. Said one industrialist: "No, I do not have an integrated plant. But check me in a year—the answer may be different then."