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TMCNet: John Kostrzewa: Home-based strengths key to Rhode Island's prosperity

[August 01, 2010]

John Kostrzewa: Home-based strengths key to Rhode Island's prosperity

ADAMS, Mass., Aug 01, 2010 (The Providence Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- William McKinley stands in the traffic circle and points with his left hand toward the Hoosic, the river that gave economic life to the village. He knows his way around because the former president came here often to visit industrialist William Plunkett. In 1899, he helped lay the cornerstone for one of Plunkett's mills, the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Co.


During a vacation, I followed McKinley's directions and found the four-story brick factory in Adams that has been converted to offices and apartments.

I also rediscovered an old axiom: no matter where you travel, it's not hard to find a Rhode Island connection.

Here's the link.

The Chace family, with deep roots in Providence, consolidated Plunkett's mill with several others in New England in 1929 to create Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. That operation later merged with Hathaway Manufacturing to form Berkshire Hathaway.

In 1965, Malcolm G. Chace Jr. sold a controlling interest to Warren Buffet, who used the company as an investment vehicle to build an international reputation as a savvy investor. With the wealth accumulated from the deals, Chace family members became prominent business leaders and philanthropists, helping to shape Rhode Island for years.

While I was driving home, I thought about the Berkshire connection and how the decline of the mills reflected Rhode Island's fading reputation as a center of commerce.

At one time, the state was a costume jewelry capital. Monet, Trifari and Napier -- all designed and made here -- were worn by fashion plates around the country. Brown & Sharpe made the best machine tools in America. School kids learned that the industrial revolution began at the Slater Mill in Pawtucket.

All that, however, is history.

So how can Rhode Island's leaders learn from the past to create jobs, prosperity and a new reputation? This summer, most of their time, energy and resources have been focused on luring a video-game company here from Massachusetts with a $75-million state loan guarantee in return for a promise of future jobs and the development of a new industry.

But there are better ways to develop a new economy to replace the old-age industrial work we've lost.

History teaches that places like Providence or Adams built industries on home-based assets and strengths.

There were rivers and water power to run the mills. There were plenty of skilled workers and laborers to make the products. They were on key supply routes to bring in raw materials and ship out finished goods.

And they had local risk takers who had a stake in the community, experimented and developed new technologies, and came up with big ideas that attracted private money to build and expand companies.

Why not use that proven model to develop emerging industries, rather than trying to import businesses, workers and entrepreneurs from the outside? Here's one area to focus on -- life sciences. It's growing here from a core of start-up businesses and entrepreneurs who are doing world-class research while inventing, designing and creating medical devices, products, treatments and drugs.

Already, there's a lengthening list of companies, such as Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals, Cytosolv, Cardiorobits and NABsys, that are attracting financing from private venture capitalists and public seed funds.

Entrepreneurs like Annie DeGroot and her colleagues at EpiVax Inc, are developing an international reputation for their research in the development of vaccines against malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.

There's a network of hospitals attracting federal research dollars and committed to collaborating with private and public schools to create centers of innovation. There are young people who stay after college or are attracted here to build a life while doing exciting work in the labs and offices.

And all of it is located on a major route for interstate commerce on the East Coast.

Some argue that's all well and good. But isn't the Boston/Cambridge area, or Baltimore or Pittsburgh well ahead of Rhode Island in developing a life sciences industry. Maybe, but so what.

Manufacturers in the industrial age set up on every river and city in the Northeast. But Rhode Island became known as a center for commerce. Rhode Island stood out for attracting the best brains and for creating quality products.

Wouldn't it be something if our kids, traveling somewhere in the world, would come across a medical device, turn it over, and learn that it was researched, designed and made in Rhode Island.

That's an idea all Rhode Islanders, and their money, can get behind.

John Kostrzewa is assistant managing editor/commerce & consumer issues. Reach him at 277-7330, or at jkostrze@projo.com To see more of The Providence Journal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Providence Journal, R.I.

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