Author's disclosure: I do not belong to and have never belonged to out-of-state corporations. Yes, I have used their products and services - occasionally. Okay, I can't live without them.
I confess. Call me one of their biggest fans.
Lately, if you hear or see the words "out-of-state corporations" it is because you are on the receiving end of (a) the secret blood oath sworn by inductees of your local chamber of commerce; (b) a 1940s Hank Williams song including the lyric "Being out of state has made me hate that you're not home with me"; or (c) the progressive/labor campaign against right-to-work legislation under debate in the West Virginia Legislature.
If you picked (c) then you may claim one of the following prizes: a Dodge clothespin that used to be made in Richwood, a Fenton amberina vase that used to be made in Williamstown or a Gravely motor plow that used to be made in Dunbar.
The manufacturers of these storied products all shared a common point of pride. They were founded on West Virginia soil. They innovated and quickly grew here. They were known the world over. In the mid-20th century, the Gravely motor plow was hailed for increasing crop yields and decreasing poverty in Africa while Dodge clothespins fastened billions of unmentionables flapping in the wind.
These in-state corporations employed thousands of West Virginians.
Today, they and the jobs they offered are completely gone, nearly obliterated from our state's collective memory. In the cases of Dodge and Fenton, they shuttered their mills because their times and fortunes ended with shifting consumer tastes and wants.
In the case of Gravely, Studebaker Corp. bought up its lines and its West Virginia factory in the 1960s and moved them to North Carolina.
Mylan N.V., one of the world's largest generic pharmaceuticals companies, has Greenbrier County roots and now is headquartered in the Netherlands. It is thus an out-of-state corporation that continues to employ hundreds of West Virginians.
We hope there are budding West Virginia-based businesses that also aspire to global recognition. For the next Mylan to rise, there needs to be - simply must be - an economic, tax, legal and regulatory environment that allows them to freely invest, borrow, hire, fire and enter into contracts that will lead to sales and profits and then to rising wages.
But we were talking about out-of-state corporations, weren't we?
The little secret of the progressive/labor joint venture is that out-of-state corporations are just like the in-state ones. They want and need precisely the same conditions in which to thrive. In all fairness, they should have them. Yet, equal protection sometimes does not make for incitement to dissent and division.
When the progressive/labor alliance harangues out-of-state corporations they want us to imagine a fat, gnashing Dickensian gob clutching at gold coins with one hand and a roasted leg of baby lamb with the other.
Don't you know that the Wisconsin or Texas tycoon's greatest life's wish is to deprive West Virginians of their long-suppressed claims on prosperity, happiness and Heaven's eternal glory? His every fiber throbs with this desire. You had thought that he would rather want to be sailing his yacht on the sunny bay of Biscayne, quaffing jeroboams of Chateau Lafite and puffing away at Cohiba cigars. I did, too. But I guess everyone needs a hobby.
Here's the good news. The progressive/labor shibboleth against out-of-state corporations, once appealing to fear and loathe, has gone kaput. To the credit of West Virginians, it no longer inveigles our baser instincts. It has run its course in the public discourse or what passes for it.
The reasons for the demise of its potency are familiarity and knowledge. It is largely the modern experience of thousands of West Virginians to happily (or relatively so) work for out-of-state corporations that provide them good, safe and stable jobs. They know that the boss from Indiana generally isn't always trying to put it to them. They are more knowledgeable about the challenges and pitfalls of running a business because they see them every day.
The poster child for the positive face of out-of-state corporations is Toyota Motor Corp., which runs one of the most productive and worker-friendly factories in all of West Virginia. At the time, I was so impressed about Toyota's out-of-state commitment in state that I bought one of its excellent products and drove it for more than a decade.
It is ever the plain fact that out-of-state corporations provide thousands of jobs in West Virginia and invest, when they choose, billions of dollars here.
Most of us West Virginians know or are coming to know that they can also choose to divest from West Virginia or invest anywhere else in the world, including Africa, North Carolina and the Netherlands.
These days, to our credit, when we West Virginians see or hear "out-of-state corporations" our impulse no longer is to shout, "Get out!" Instead, we say, "Welcome, stranger. May I offer you a cup of coffee?"
Mark Sadd, a Charleston lawyer, is a former Daily Mail business editor.