October 22, 2004, 11:24 (-0500Z)

            They called them buggy whips. They were long, wooden and leather sticks which had little tufts of fabric or leather at the end. The idea was to "tickle" the horse without scaring it and causing the beast to bolt. It paid to have a good buggy whip. A bad one could get you killed.

      Then, something dramatic happened: The automobile came along. It was a technological wonder. It made traveling more than 20 miles in a day, a reality. It was a blessing to those who had to defend America and break from the monopoly of the railroads. It literally changed the face of the world. It will eventually, itself, be replaced, but not in the way that it replaced the horse-drawn buggy.

      But it was an infernal disaster for those who made buggy whips. It didn't end four centuries of craftsmanship. It just made it unprofitable to make a lot of them. The buggy whip "industry," by 1932, was dead. A few small shops in horse country still make them today. They are fine and beautiful pieces of art. But they don't employ 10,000 American workers, either.

      Now comes the 21st century. We've known for over 40 years that textiles was a dying industry - a "buggy-whip" industry.

      Yet politicians, forced by old-line textile brahmans in the Palmetto and Tarheel States who refused to change with the technology, began to beat the horse to death, so to speak. The brahmans liked paying their people nothing and making millions. Heck, they could even pay them a little more when the unions came in. What they couldn't do was change technology. But they could buy politicians. And many fine politicians they did buy.

      But, as Gandhi said,".. the simple world belongs to little brown men, now." He was speaking of his beloved India, but almost any emerging country could have been his subject. They could not make the complicated stuff. The American brahmans refused to make new stuff. And textiles are very, very simple to make.

      One of two things had to happen: Either wages in America would outstrip the cost of making textiles, or Americans would have to take less wages. Now, in the 21st century, there is no competitive textile manufacturer of the old style left. Even the old mills are being bought up by "niche" textile manufacturers. The future is in "high tech"-stiles, and niche.

      All this on the day that over 300 Delta Woodside textile workers loose their jobs. It is seriously, very, very sad. Had someone bothered to tell them the truth, they could have been educated in another line of work and be out of that mess altogether. But it was easier to lie to them and keep them there, until they didn't need them, anymore. Maybe they were lying to themselves, too. Maybe they believed the lies, the brahmans had told them. But lies they were, and now 300 more workers will not be making "buggy whips."