WHEN FACTORIES CLOSE

The last two Missouri factories of Brown Shoe Co. will close this month. And Tri-Con Industries Ltd. has announced it is moving its operations to Mexico after a dozen years of making automobile seat covers in Cape Girardeau.

There have been any number of reasons given for the closings. Some blame unions. Others blame the North American Free Trade Agreement. For the most part, it is a matter of simple arithmetic. Companies that have long relied on relatively cheap labor in rural areas of the country are finding they can no longer pay wages and provide benefits at a level that will contribute to a profit for the products they make.

That isn't the case for every product, however. A good many manufacturers still rely on the high productivity and quality output of workers in this area. The Florsheim Factory in Cape Girardeau, for example, continues to make top-of-the-line footwear that competes successfully against cheaper imports that usually are made with lower-quality raw materials.

The loss of the factory jobs at Brown Shoe and Tri-Con are a blow, of course. But Brown Shoe has been closing factories for several years now, and in most affected communities there have been new jobs created to replace the shoe-factory work. Jobs continue to expand in this area, with some employers saying there is still a shortage of workers for come categories of employment.

For Brown Shoe and Tri-Con workers, the blow of losing a job will only be eased by finding work elsewhere. For some employers, the availability of good workers will be welcome news.