Cannon Mills: A case study of Southern industrialization (North Carolina)

This work is the first scholarly treatment of the Cannon Mills Company of Kannapolis, North Carolina. The firm was the largest producer of towels in the world during most of its history and made an important contribution to the growth of the textile industry in the New South. Research for this work utilized both company records and papers of the Cannon family. Cannon Mills was something of an aberration in that paternalism persisted longer at the firm than it did in other textile companies in the South.; Textile firms in the South typically passed through a paternalistic stage of development before becoming modern corporations. During this paternalistic stage, textile mills provided necessary services for workers while exerting a high degree of control over them. Most southern textile firms abandoned industrial paternalism between the 1940s and 1960s, however, Cannon Mills Company of Kannapolis, North Carolina, continued to practice paternalism decades later.; The longevity of the paternalism at Cannon Mills was a result of the family control of the firm. The Cannon family controlled the textile company from its inception in 1887 until 1971. Before the death of the son of the founder, Charles Cannon, paternalism at Cannon Mills had begun to weaken because of intrusion from the federal government. New Deal legislation and later civil rights legislation interfered with the firm's paternalistic practices.; The rapid demise of paternalism at Cannon Mills came with the purchase of the firm by David Murdock of Pacific Holding Company in 1982. Believing that industrial paternalism was an economic drain on the firm, Murdock sold the mill village. He also modernized some plants while closing others and made the firm a modern corporation. Murdock sold the firm to Fieldcrest Mills in 1986 and in the absence of paternalism, many workers turned to unionization for protection. The new firm, Fieldcrest Cannon, won union elections in 1991 and 1997, but struggled to remain profitable. Pillowtex Corporation acquired the firm in 1997. The union won a federally mandated election in 1999 and the last vestiges of paternalism were swept away.