As Wilmington business leaders danced in the DuPont Hotel’s ballroom, the Company was underperforming in the chemical peer group and lying about hazardous waste. Uncle Dupey was not the rich and good uncle after all.
For over one hundred years, Wilmington, Delaware, and DuPont had tightly intertwined histories. The story of DuPont is also closely imprinted in Joe Biden’s views on corporate oversight. Within Wilmington, DuPont was called Uncle Dupey. As Vice President, Biden watched DuPont struggle to drive growth and attempt to thwart an activist shareholder. They lost, resulting in Dupont’s merger with Dow Chemical and cutting the Delaware workforce by 25%. Biden frequently cites the restructuring and downsizing of DuPont as modern capitalism gown awry. Before we get lured to sleep with Biden’s narrative, let’s face reality. Uncle Dupey was a bad guy. He was dishonest, hiding some dark and ugly secrets. The patronizing relationship between a wealthy Company and a small town blinded the city to the facts. The polluted waters—full of a chemical named “GenX” a precursor of Teflon—in the Kanawha River in West Virginia and the Cape Fear River in North Carolina will outlast the DuPont name on all of the tall buildings in downtown Wilmington. As Wilmington business leaders danced in the DuPont Hotel’s ballroom, the Company was underperforming the chemical peer group and lying about hazardous waste. Shareholder activism was the best thing that could have happened to DuPont. Wilmington, Delaware, is a company town. With DuPont as the largest employer, the city enjoyed its benefits by investing in numerous schools, libraries, and theatres. Hotel DuPont and the DuPont Country Club was the site for celebratory parties and dinners. Many DuPont employees staffed Biden’s first campaign. Biden often singled out the DuPont company as a “conscientious corporation” for paying a higher tax rate.
