.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} TPI Composites Inc. of Rhode Island already has factories in the usual places – China and Mexico – but chose to locate another one right here in Iowa. That’s great, and now we need to understand why it happened.

Newton is not the typical Iowa town. TPI probably chose to build a wind turbine blade factory there because of the pool of willing, able and available factory workers left idle by the Maytag Corp. plant closing. That plus a sufficient windfall of financial incentives.

But there’s more to this than one piece of very good news for one of Iowa’s hundreds of towns. How can it help us make other matches between towns and companies?

Most Iowa communities have relatively few people looking for work. But they need to grow to survive, and new businesses are a key. Would people move to those towns from other states just for a good job? The smaller the town, the less likely this would seem to be. But we don’t know. We should find out.

It’s possible to convince ourselves that more and more Americans have had it with the big cities and are ready to move to a Midwestern town. Even if that’s true, they’ll still need some nudging and persuading, and we probably can find a more efficient way to do that.

As for the companies, how much should we spend to reel them in? The answer might not be “whatever it takes.”

As for the towns, are we going to try to keep all of them thriving? Most of them came into existence as trade and social centers about eight miles apart, surrounded by farmsteads, and those farmsteads are disappearing rapidly. Do we want a job-creation system that takes a scattershot approach, or one that spreads state financial support evenly and logically across Iowa?

It’s a big problem, but there’s always a solution. Look at it this way: We’ve been feeling sorry for Newton, seeing it as a symbol of the death throes of American manufacturing. Suddenly, it’s a role model.