Horse? What Horse?

 

Most of the mail this month came in response to our December issue, which featured our annual listing of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in America. For many of you, however, the article that struck closest to home was Jay Finegan's Washington column on the dangers posed by Japanese direct investment in the American automobile industry ("Beware the Trojan Horse")_. Finegan took out after the Reagan Administration for standing by while state and local governments spend millions in tax dollars to lure Japanese manufacturers. Most of our letter writers took out after Finegan -- for all kinds of reasons.

I don't know why you're so worried about Japanese investments in the United States. At a time when there was little or no interest in expanding industry in our area -- one of the most economically depressed in the nation -- Honda Motor Co. came in with more than a billion dollars in plants and jobs. Honda's newest plant in Marysville, Ohio, has dramatically improved the employment situation here. The Japanese have helped many small American companies get started as well. Far from fearing the Trojan horse, we welcome the Japanese with open arms, as friends who have breathed new economic life into Ohio.