Company Town

In Kyle’s wiki the company town is the historical pattern exemplified by George F. Johnson and His Industrial Democracy, William Inglis’s history of Endicott-Johnson — the shoe company that built out the Susquehanna valley towns of Endicott, Johnson City, and West Endicott for its workers. The book documents the planned company-town form as Welfare Capitalism: company-built homes, markets, hospitals, and recreation provided as good business rather than charity, under George F. Johnson’s “Square Deal” and “Live and Help Live” philosophy. The highlights describe Johnson driving his “dark green roadster” through West Endicott each morning past “neat, well painted homes” and “green lawns,” and contrast his workers’ houses with the cramped lots an earlier owner (Lester) sold “at fancy prices” — a “less enlightened” old order. (source: George F. Johnson and His Industrial Democracy)

The page anchors the city-building thread of the book: Johnson’s Round Top “20 year hill” vision of factories, homes, gardens, and a golf course built across the valley for workers (see City Building). It is also tied to Johnson’s belief that “no man can own a business” — that it belongs to its customers, workers, and community — and to the “no union, but premium pay” middle path that even Sam Gompers conceded outpaced what a union could ask. (source: George F. Johnson and His Industrial Democracy)

Context: A company town is a settlement whose housing, stores, and services are owned and operated by a single dominant employer. Historically the form ranged from exploitative (debt to the company store) to paternalistic welfare-capitalist experiments like Pullman, Hershey, and Endicott-Johnson, where the firm provided amenities to attract and retain labor.

Where this appears

• George F. Johnson and His Industrial Democracy — Endicott-Johnson as the planned welfare-capitalist company town (Endicott, Johnson City, West Endicott) and the model for the book’s city-building and owner-mentality threads.