You probably say; "Not Much". One happens to be an urban major city while Baileyville is a rural town in Maine's down east area. Both had industrial bases that were a beacon for workers from near and far. One is in auto-making and the latter in paper-making. They share a heyday of over a hundred years ago. Why did these industries go into decline? Was it the cause of poor planning or a loss of new ideas? As the automobile transformed the country, Detroit quadrupled in population in those early days. The booming economy thrived, skyscrapers were built, retail districts flourished and expansion continued for a number of years. Detroiter's became prosperous and Baileyville inhabitants were living the good life and providing for their families.

Detroit's first auto plants were small but Ford Motor Co. pioneered mass production and utilized cutting-edge techniques in those days. Baileyville was producing newsprint paper with record production to satisfy newspapers in Boston and New York. There was much demand for their products. They became unionized with organized labor and improved working conditions as well as rates of pay for their workers. Where did they go wrong? Did they become too greedy or too complacent with their industries and techniques?

In Motown, Dodge built the enormous Main Plant in Hamtramck, just a short distance from Ford. The River Rouge plant was a wholly self-contained center of production. It included a man-made deep harbor, the world's largest steel foundry, ninety-four miles of railroad track, and stamping, glass making, and auto assembly factories. At its peak, over 90,000 workers were employed at the Rouge. The huge plant became an international showcase. In Baileyville, giant dams were built, mill houses were built, railroad tracks laid, paper machines added and the newspapermen to the south were satisfied.

American industrial might was in its prime. Were they so busy that they didn't see the erosion of their industries? In the early days, there was much ingenuity and care to produce the best output possible. In 1906, St. Croix Paper Company opened the Baileyville mill, later sold to Georgia Pacific, who invested in a state of the art kraft mill and still later sold to the current owner, Domtar Industries. With this growth, Maine surpassed Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the volume of paper produced, becoming the third leading papermaking state, behind Massachusetts and New York. In the early part of the 20th century, Maine's mills grew, primarily by adding new machines, although existing machines were also made to run faster. But new factories continued to be built further west, as Wisconsin became an increasingly important player. Competition also came from Canada, where shipments of paper to the U.S. increased. Some Maine mills could not compete and closed; others converted to other kinds of paper production.
From 1930 to the early 1960s, no new mills were built in Maine, but many changes at the existing mills propelled Maine to be the nation's leading paper producing state.

Once a top producer, you have to keep looking over your shoulder as it is a competitive world out there. When any industry stops improving, decline begins. There must be constant improvement in infrastructure, cutting-edge techniques, technical research and long range planning or competitors will overtake your market share. All these improvements and changes require investment almost constantly if you want to stay in the lead.

Today, foreign competition, coupled with relaxed regulation and different rules, have hurt our industries and forced them into decline. Detroit suffers and so do places like Baileyville, when competition is allowed to overtake their industries by either their own mistakes or poor representation. Our legislative leaders have further hurt our companies at home by agreeing to unfair trading practices with other countries who rarely ever buy our products.