The annual Sports Banquet on
April 4 honors the winners in
Firestone’s recreational program.
Strangely enough, however, there
are no losers in this program.
There’s something to gain for
everyone who participates in rec
reation.
‘filre$tone
NEWS
GASTONIA
Winning safety awards is get
ting to be a habit with Firestone—
a habit each employee helped de
velop. (See articles on this page.)
VOLUME II
GASTONIA, N. C., MARCH 20, 1953
NO. 6
Will They Win Again?
State Labor Department Award
In Safety Won Again By Plant
the OVERSEER SAM GUFFEY, above right, receives
I’ecreational Supremacy Award from General Superin-
Kessell at last year’s Sports Banquet. Mr, Guffey
^ highly-sought-after award last year for the Spinning
establishing a 7-consecutive-yei:T' winning
year ' department. The announcement of the winner for this
eagerly awaited by sports minded employees, and the
The are asking is, “Will they (Spinning) do it again?”
will as usual, provide a highlight at the Sports Banquet,
i}*^’'t^ally obscured in the picture above, left to right
^heek^^ ^®ssrs. Kessell and Guffey, Recreation Director Paul
^an Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Akron; General
:s=:g^^^|£^aroId Mercer; and Comptroller E. J. Mechem.)
^ore Than 200 Champions To
Honored At Sports Banquet
The i7fu o
Win K annual Sports Banquet
4, event of Saturday, April
The k Dining Room.
hoDo^, which each year
^thler in the many
spoji recreational activities
Will Firestone Textiles,
Coach chief speaker
Povc 4. Greason of Wake
College.
I'ecenf?^ ^i"eason’s Demon Deacons
en^e p Southern Confer-
Ralr- ’ *^^^®tball Tournament
—.ors in the NCAA Tourna-
which followed a week later,
hkf*n’=-
^^Hieigh, and went on to win third
P^ace honf^""
wl
-^ewise in Raleigh. He has been
iftvited to bring several playei’S
fi'oin his basketball team, and also
Assistant Coach Bones McKinney.
The Sports Banquet, which start-
m 1937 with an attendance of
50 sports champions is expected to
tete more than 200 of same this
y^ar. Speakers over the past sev-
ei'al years include such outstand-
collegiate sports figures as
Suavely (1951), Swede Nelson
U950), Peahead Walker (1949),
Roy Clogston (1948). Last
^^ar’g speaker was Paul Sheek,
^Creational Director for The
. ^^^^tone Tire & Rubber Company
Akron.
Ii^cluded in the guest list for this
event are leading local
Ports personalities, members of
® local press, and plant manage-
and supervision. Heading the
2oa ^®^®ver, are the more than
^ employees who will receive one
^ore awards and honors for
Firestone Plants Awarded National Safety
Council Award Of Honor For Seventh Time
The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company has been awarded the highest honor in industrial safety for
the seventh time in eight years.
The Company has been given the Award of Honor of the National Safety Council, according to word
received this week from the Council. The award is again being given on a company-wide basis, which
means that all of the Company’s plants in the United States and in foreign countries share in the recogni
tion the Company receives for its outstanding safety records. Arrangements are being made by the
National Safety Council for a public presentation of the award.
According to the Safety Council, Firestone plants are among the safest in all industry. Firestone is
the only rubber company that has received the nation’s top award as many as seven times.
9 The record of the Company’s
plants in 1952 was the lowest it
has ever attained, the accident
frequency rate going down to 1.8
from the previous year’s all-time
record of 2.0. The frequency rate
of 1.8 lost-time accidents for each
million man-hours worked is well
below the latest available national
frequency average for the rubber
industry of 5.9 accidents per mil
lion man-hours worked.
Twenty-eight of the Company’s
30 plants throughout the world had
frequency rates for 1952 below the
national average.
In order to qualify for honor
awards, either on a company-wide
basis or for a single division, in
dustries are required to have re
cords far below a “par” set by
the National Safety Council—40
per cent below for frequency and
30 per cent below for severity. The
Firestone Company’s records were
69 per cent below par for frequency
and 39 per cent below for severity.
The award is given only to those
industrial organizations which have
done an outstanding job in im
proving their safety records. Fire
stone’s 1952 record represents an
improvement of .2 or 7 1/2 per cent
in frequency over the previous
year.
BILLIE DEAN TATE, twister
doffer, casts his vote in the Most
Popular Athlete election, the
winners of which will be honored
at the Sports Banquet, April 4,
Each participant in Firestone’s
recreation program was invited
to vote for the four men and
two women he thought most
deserving of the title Most Popu
lar Firestone Textiles Athletes.
IN ADDITION to having a part
in the winning of the plant-wide
safety award (announced elsewhere
in this issue). Firestone Textiles
has qualified for the 6th consecu
tive year for the North Carolina
Labor Department Safety Award,
The plant earned the state a-
ward on the basis of its record for
the year 1952 in the field of acci
dent prevention. Firestone’s aver
age accident frequency for the
year was 92 percent below the
average throughout the state for
comparable industries.
According to Safety Director L,
B, McAbee, there are three ways
a North Carolina Industry can
Tubeless Truck
Tire Introduced
their achievements in plant-spon
sored athletic and recreational
events.
Chief among the awards to be
presented at the banquet is the
Firestone Supremacy Award, pre
sented each year to the plant de
partment with the best over-all
record in competitive sports. This
award has been won by the Spin-
(Continued on Page 2)
A REVOLUTIONARY NEW
truck tire which is tubeless and
mounted on a one-piece, drop-
center rim has been developed by
The Firestone Tire & Rubber
Company, according to Raymond
C. Firestone, VJice-President in
Charge of Research and Develop
ment.
“This development will make
changes of truck tires as simple
and easy as the mounting and de
mounting of passenger car tires,”
according to Mr. Firestone.
“The greatest departure from
conventional truck tire design in
the new product,” Mr. Firestone
says, “is the new bead construc
tion.” A conventional tire is held
on the rim by flanges of substan
tial height. The new tire is sup
ported on the rim by a tapered fit
so that the customary high flanges
are no longer necessary. Lowering
of the rim flange permits the new
tire to be mounted on a one-piece
drop-center rim. The foi’ced taper
fit permits a lighter construction
bead. The combination of lowered
flange plus forced-taper fit radical
ly reduces the forces on the rim so
that a substantially lighter rim is
now possible.
To carry this simplification
further, that portion of the tire
normally back of the flange has
qualify for the Labor Depart
ment’s Safety Award. These are,
(1) have no accidents for the year,
(2) reduce accident frequency 40
percent as compared with the
plant’s previous record for one
year, and (3) have an accident
frequency of 75 percentage points
below the average for the state in
comparable industries.
Also, according to Mr. McAbee,
Firestone Textile has placed
fourth in the Textile Section
Safety Contest conducted on a na
tional level by the National Safety
Council.
Mr. McAbee will attend the
Gaston County Safety Banquet on
April 14, to receive from Forest
Shuford, Commissioner of Labor
for North Carolina, the Labor De
partment Award mentioned above.
This banquet, sponsored in the in
terest of industrial safety in the
county by the Chamber of Com
merce, will honor all other in
dustrial plants in the county that
have qualified for safety awards
from the state.
(Continued on Page 2)
Community Fund Aids Scouts
(Continued on Page 4)
QUALITY CONTROL SECOND HAND ALVIN RILEY is shown
above, left, presenting a check for $694.28 to Boy Scout Executive
R. M. Schiele at Piedmont Council Headquarters in Gastonia. Mr.
Riley, a Neighborhood Commissioner in local scouting, made the
presentation on behalf of plant employees who earmarked the
money for the Boy Scouts of America during the recently conducted
Community Fund Drive. The $694.28 did not include the Company’s
contribution to the Boy Scouts.