Letter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednLocally Owned and OperatednHow about three news items from antypical week in a Southern universityntown (Chapel Hill, May 1990), just tonget the old motor warmed up after lastnmonth’s absence?nA new law against urinating onnthe sidewalks resulted in andozen arrests, nearly all of themnbeer-drinking students toonpressed to wait or too drunk toncare. Formerly such revelersnwere charged with “littering” —na nice euphemism, I alwaysnthought, but I guess the Age ofnEuphemism is over.nThe School Board lowered thenrequired grade average fornadmission to the high schoolnHonor Society, to provide “anlevel playing field” for allnstudents. One board membernobserved that “black studentsnmight not have an equal chancenat society membership becausenof peer pressure to do poorly innschool.”nA new yuppie muffin shopnopened—a chain operation.nUnless I grossly underestimatenthe local muffin hunger itnshould drive the old, locallyownednyuppie muffinnshop out of business. That’snwhat happened with thenpremium ice cream shops andnthe frozen yogurt places. And anlocally-owned book shop wasnrecently kicked out of the mallnto make space for B. Dalton,nwhich (we were told) wouldnmake the mall more easilynCORRESPONDENCEnvalued when the owner wants tonsell. Thus, man, born free, isnfound everywhere in chains.n(Sorry.)nAbout that last item: it turns out that thenmall’s present owner is the pensionnfiind of KLM Royal Dutch Airfines —nwhich gives me a theme for thisnmonth’s tirade. It’s no secret that somenof my colleagues at Chronicles arengiven to ranting about foreign ownershipnof U.S. enterprises; let’s take thatnlogic one step farther.nFirst of all, though, let me make itnclear that I’m not knocking outsideninvestment in underdeveloped economies.nI grew up in what amounted to anbranch-factory company town in EastnTennessee, and our Eastman Kodaknplant was certainly good for local pocketbooks.nIf it didn’t contribute a hell ofna lot to the community other thannsome noxious fumes and several thousandnjobs — well, the people who hadnthose jobs contributed greatly, andnwithout Eastman there wouldn’t havenbeen much of a community in the firstnplace.nBut Eastman built that factory andncreated those jobs. That’s a differentnproposition from what has been goingnon lately in North Carolina, wherenoutside corporations have been grabbingnup existing enterprises, more oftennthan not destroying jobs, or at leastnmoving them somewhere else, in thenprocess. Recently Morgan Stanleynlooted Budington Industries so shamelesslynthat even the Wall Street journalnwas shocked. Once-proud Liggett andnMyers is now owned by a British outfitnthat runs it almost as an afterthoughtn— and ghost factories in downtownnDurham are the result. After RJRnmerged with Nabisco the insufferablenCEO of the new enterprise moved itsnheadquarters from bucolic Winston-nSalem to the fleshpots of Atlanta, allegedlynbecause his wife found us TarnHeels insufficiently urbane. Andnhomely old Piedmont Airlines, alsonnnformerly of Winston-Salem, got itselfnbought by USAir; now its headquartersnare in Pittsburgh, its flight attendantsnall sound as if they grew up in Cleveland,nand its in-flight magazine nonlonger carries inspirational articles bynMethodist bishops.nI’m agnostic on the economic aspectsnof these deals — although I can’tnbelieve they’re good for North Carolina.nBut the cultural and civic consequencesnare surely dismal. Private philanthropistsnand middle-sized corporationsnwith local ties tend to spendntheir money near to home, and oftennin admirable ways. No citizen of NorthnCarolina can be indifferent to the benefactionsnof the state’s great textile andntobacco families. When their moneyngot old enough, these folks showed asnmuch noblesse oblige as anyone couldnask. Besides, they lived in the state andnhad an interest in North Carolina’snwelfare and its reputation. But doesnanyone suppose that the managementsnof Morgan Stanley or RJR Nabiscongive a damn about North Carolina’snchurches and hospitals and universitiesnand public libraries? How can we relynon private philanthropy — and restrictnthe Arts Endowment to commissioningnequestrian statues of dead generalsn— when all the philanthropists havenleft town?nThe problem with these megaconglomeratesnis that they tend to replacenthe community-oriented philanthropynof provincial corporations and privatencapitalists with centrally determinedndo-good policies that address whatevernthe fashionable cause du jour may be.nFor example, I’ve got a copy here ofnsomething called “Making a Difference,”na “Social Responsibility Report”nfor Time Warner, the corporatenresult of the recent takeover of Time,nInc. by Warner Communications. Thenpamphlet seems to define social responsibilitynas a matter of trendy environmentalnconcern and sensitivity tonpolitically correct pressure groups.nProminently listed among the compa-nMARCH 1991/45n