ENOREE, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said the Bush administration's neglect of international trade has left U.S. textile workers suffering.

Clark pitched his manufacturing plan at Inman Mills in this rural town surrounded by anxious textile workers and bales of cotton that decades ago fueled the state's transition from farming to a factory economy.

"The sad fact is that under George W. Bush, America's biggest exports have been American jobs," Clark said. It's a familiar refrain from Democrats vying in the state's Feb. 3 first-in-the-South Democratic presidential primary.

Textile workers for years elected Democrats to statewide offices here and supported them in White House bids.

"'Republican' was a bad word years ago," said Danny Smith, who has spent 22 years keeping Inman Mills' machinery running. "Our biggest thing is just wondering whether we're going to have a job or not."

Workers are waiting to see whether Bush's new tariffs on some Chinese textile products will help. "We're hoping it will. We're hoping that is the little bit that saves us," said Smith, 49.

Clark told the crowd of nearly 200 that it wasn't good enough.

He said he couldn't understand why the administration "waited until just this week to enforce the law" that has cost thousands of textile workers their livelihoods. "It's too little, too late," Clark said. "Our workers deserve better."

He said his manufacturing and trade plan would protect jobs.

Clark said restoring the nation's manufacturing would involve:

_ Creating a $10,000 job tax credit for new hires in 2004-05. At the same time, Clark said he'd do more to protect jobs by rigorously enforcing and reviewing trade agreements.

_ Ending rewards for U.S. companies that move jobs overseas. While the trend may be unstoppable, Clark said, it can be slowed. He also called for companies to report more details of layoffs tied to moving work overseas and wants "buy American" requirements on Defense Department purchases.

_ Reining in health insurance costs and make health insurance universally available.

After talking about his plans, Clark took questions, including one from Lynn Bevill, a 43-year-old mill worker who wondered what should be done to politicians who promised to protect textile jobs. Bevill said she thinks Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. and a Senate candidate, campaigned on textile protection points but didn't deliver.

"You have to hold elected officials accountable," Clark told her.

A plant manager read a letter written by a middle school student about his father who lost his mill job and tried to find odd jobs to keep the family afloat. The boy said he heard jobs were going to China. "I don't want to move to China, my friends are here," the letter said.

"That letter just broke my heart," Clark said.

Clark put the nation's trade problems with China at a personal level. "They're trying to take our jobs. It's that simple because they need them for their people," Clark said.

He later said that he wasn't pushing trade protectionist policies but that nations have to live up to their trade agreements. "What I'm talking about is open trade," Clark said.

Inman Mills, which employed 1,350 people three years ago, now has about 500 workers after some plant closings and reduced operations.

Democrat for president John Edwards, a South Carolina native who often mentions that his father was a mill worker, accused the former NATO commander of parroting Edwards' ideas.

"Once again, we're pleased that General Clark has taken a look at our policies and found so much that is likable," said Edwards' spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen.