ENOREE — Perry Emery has spent his entire adult life, 41 years, working in the factories of Inman Mills, but he sees his future hanging by a thin cotton thread.

At 58, Emery has seen Inman Mills shut down factories that for generations produced textiles used to make draperies, upholstery and home furnishings.

“We’ve got hope,” Emery said Friday, but they need someone to step up and fight the influx of cheap foreign goods, especially from China.

Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark visited Inman Mills’ plant here Friday to lay out an economic plan aimed at protecting manufacturing jobs and to listen to the concerns of textile workers.

Clark is one of nine Democrats seeking their party’s nomination to challenge President Bush in 2004.

South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary is Feb. 3, making it the first in the South and an important step in picking the nominee.

Clark stood surrounded by textile workers. Dressed in a white shirt, sleeves rolled to his forearms, and a maroon patterned tie, Clark spoke from the concrete floor of the plant’s warehouse. Plastic-bound bales of processed cotton stood stacked 20 feet high behind the laborers.

South Carolina, Clark said, has lost 55,000 manufacturing jobs since 2002, a problem the former NATO commander laid at the feet of Bush.

“The sad fact is, that under George W. Bush, America’s biggest exports have been American jobs,” he said.

Clark has proposed rolling back Bush’s tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year. That would generate $100 billion, he said.

He said Friday he would use that money to develop a job-creation tax credit that would give manufacturers up to $10,000 for each full-time employee they hire in 2004 and 2005.

“That will help us to ensure that American manufacturers can compete in the global economy,” Clark said.

This also would encourage American companies to keep jobs at home, rather than sending them to other countries where labor is often less expensive.

After his speech, Clark heard from some of the more than 200 mill workers and campaign supporters in attendance.

Sherry King, 39, of Duncan, worked for Inman Mills for 18 years before being laid off this year. She said she had to tell her daughter, who turns 18 on Thanksgiving, there wouldn’t be money for some of the things they had planned.

“How are you going to get more jobs to our area?” King asked Clark.

“There is a future out there,” Clark replied, but “companies have to have customers and they have to have products.”

“I don’t have all the answers,”Clark said, but he’s got a plan.

“This president hasn’t done anything about it,” Clark said.

South Carolina Republicans said Clark’s plan would hurt small business growth. More than two-thirds of those who benefited from the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans get income from small business, according to a state Republican Party news release.

State Rep. Harry Cato, R-Greenville, chairman of the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, said Clark’s tax rollback “would be a jobs killer.”

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com