The [textile] baron knew thesenworkmen familiarly as Bill andnSam and George and Dick, ornas Lil and Sal and Jane andnLucy. More, he knew theirnpedigrees and their histories.nMore still, with that innocentnlove of personal detail native tonSoutherners, he kept himselfnposted as to their lives as theynwere lived under his wing; knewntheir little adventures andnscandals and hopes .and lovesnand griefs and joys.nThis particular description goes on, andnon, and it’s easy to make fun of it, butnsurely we can allow Cash some licensenin describing the human face of paternalism,nsince he was unsparing in hisntreatment of its defects. In any case, thisnis not just a flight of romanticism,ngrotesquely applied to the textile mill.nCash was onto something important.nI won’t soon forget what a Mississippinbuddy said one time, when he stoppednoff to see us on his way home from ansociological convention in the Northeast.nOver bourbon he said that he’dnnoticed something interesting aboutnhow some sociologists dealt with thenstaff of the convention hotel. “DamnnMarxists,” he said, “go on and on aboutnthe workers — and they treat the helpnlike dirt.”nPartly, of course, this is just thenordinary arrogance of Yankee intellectualsnwho, deep down, really don’t buyninto all that dignity of labor stuff. Onenday at lunch I was talking educationalnpolicy with one of the breed, whonclinched his argument by saying, “Ifnkids don’t get a good education, they’llnwind up like him” — nodding scornfullynin the direction of a cafeteria worker.nI didn’t know what to say. We bothnsaw this man almost every day. He didnhis undemanding job cheerfully andnwell, and he was making an honestnliving, which is more than can be saidnfor some tenured professors. It hadnnever occurred to me that he was a badnexample, but obviously my colleaguendespised the man for his insignificance.nBut even if he hadn’t, his mannersnmight have suggested that he did. Fromna Southern point of view, many Yankees,nMarxist or otherwise, treat everyonenlike dirt. And if you’re working fornone, those manners rub your face innthe fact of your subordination.n38/CHRONICLESnNot long ago, my hometown wasnbuzzing with the story of the Yankeennewcomer who took a work crew tontask for some fault with their work.nThe workers simply packed up theirntools and left him sputtering in midcriticism.n”Sonofabitch wants to bossnyou around like he owns you” wasnthought to be sufficient explanation.nThat’s a significant phrase, isn’t it?n”Like he owns you.” As legatees of anslave society — whether our ancestorsnwere on the top, bottom, or side —nSoutherners may have a special understandingnof the importance of independence,ndignity, and pride. It makesnsense that the fictive equality amongnwhite men should have been embodiednin manners that didn’t bring intonquestion the other’s worth or selfrespect.nThose manners seem to be outlastingnthe conditions that gave rise tonthem — indeed, they’re usually extendednnow to Southern blacks, mostnof whom seem willing to return thenfavor—but they are threatened, andnnot just by northern newcomers. Innfact, they were already threatened inn1940, as Cash recognized. He wasndeadly on the imported “Yankee cultnof the Great Executive,” which appealednto “the vanity especially of thenyoung men who had been educated innthe Northern business schools.” Well,nwe have our own business schools now.nBut there are still Southern enterprisesnrun on the old principles, andnthose principles still shape the expectationsnof many Southern workers. Anwhile back I took a class on a field tripnto one of the few remaining familyownedntextile mills in North Carolina.nThe trip had been arranged far innadvance, but we arrived to find thenplace virtually shut down. The entirenmanagerial staff and all but a skeletonncrew of workers had gone to the funeralnof a retired weave-room worker.nDon’t look for that mill to be unionizednany time soon.nA stone’s throw away, in Winston-nSalem, we recently witnessed an instructivencultural conflict, when ReynoldsnTobacco merged with Nabisco andnacquired a new management team.nBarbarians at the Gate, the best-sellernabout the RJR Nabisco leveraged buyout,ntells the story of Ross Johnson, thennew Canadian CEO. Compared to thenjunk-bond sharks who eventuallynnnstripped him of his company and hisnjob, Johnson comes off as a rathernamiable buccaneer, just a guy out ofnthe Nabisco sales division who liked tonfly around the country in private jetsnand hang out with professional athletes,nbut his Great Executive style wasna striking change for RJR.nMr. R.J. Reynolds and his heirsnhadn’t exactly led lives of asceticismnand self-denial, but they had beennmanagers of the old-fashioned Southernnvariety. It was understood, forninstance, that Reynolds executivesndrove nothing bigger than a Buick.nWhen David Rockefeller came tonWinston-Salem for a speech and askednfor a limousine, there was none to benfound in the entire city. In the I950’s,none worker recalled, “I remembernsome mornings pulling up beside Mr.nWhitaker [the president] in his littlenbrown Studebaker. He’d give me anwave and I’d give him a wave back. Wenwere going in to work together. Wenwere all after the same thing.”nWell, Ross Johnson came to work bynhelicopter. Do you wonder whynWinston-Salem never took to him?nFolks were especially cruel tonJohnson’s trophy wife Laurie, a Californiangirl widely known as “Cupcake.”n(After she and her husbandnwere given honorary degrees by anneedy Florida college, she was knownnas “Dr. Cupcake.”) When Johnsonngot even by moving his corporatenheadquarters to Atlanta, observing asnhe left that Winston-Salem was toon”bucolic,” bumpers blossomed withnstickers saying “Proud to be Bucolic.”nSure, there is deference in the Southnto men of high standing, but it can’t bentaken for granted, and it depends on anmeasure of self-deprecation. Cash gotnthat exactly right. Southerners usuallyntreat each other as equals, whatever ournprivate opinions.nThat is, unless we want to insultnsomeone. Like Ross Johnson. Butnthat’s another story.nJohn Shelton Reed writes from ChapelnHill, North Carolina. Parts of thisnletter are adapted from a lecture onn”The Mind of the South andnSouthern Distinctiveness” at thenChancellor’s Symposium onnSouthern History at thenUniversity of Mississippi lastnOctober.n