PAGE TWO
Tiretton* NEWS
FEBRUARY 25, 1954
Records Made And Broken
SAFETY DEPARTMENTS could probably justify their existence
in industry if they never did more than keep accidents down to some
acceptable, agreed to minimum. When, however, these departments
eliminate lost time accidents for millions of man-hours, enough to
establish a world record, and then proceed in short order to break their
own record it’s time to say, “Wonderful! How’d you do it?”
It was done first by one of Firestone's Akron tire plants in June,
1953, but the record wasn’t allowed to stand long. Firestone’s Memphis
plant set a new record last December when it completed 7,103,472
man-hours of work without a single lost-time accident. Thus, within
a 7-month period safety departments and employees in two Firestone
plants have outstripped the rest of the world’s rubber industry in
not merely “holding accidents down,” but in the realization of a
perfect record from the standpoint of lost-time accidents for a massive
7-million plus man-hours.
From these and other outstanding safety records which Firestone
plants are accustomed to setting, several conclusions could be drawn.
Among them:
1. Records in safety result from energetic and properly applied
effort on the part of an industrial group as a whole. Any one of the
Memphis or Akron plant employees could have spoiled the records those
plants set had that employee by his indifference for, or inattention
to, the Company’s safety program been involved in an accident serious
enough to have caused lost time.
2. By the same token safety records are not established by people
who consider accidents a matter of fate or bad luck—something one
can do little or nothing about. If such pessimism gripped industry there
would probably be some records broken—records for the most lost-time
accidents, etc.
3. Finally, it would appear, safety records are not established by
working groups who are obsessed with Utopian dreams of foolproof
places to work, places accidents couldn’t possibly take place. In other
words the impractical and indifferent don’t make industry—and
especially Firestone—the safe place to work in it has become. It is
the practical, interested and cooperative employee now, as always,
who makes safety a reality; a brand of safety that improves not just
with time, but with time and effort.
Firestone Textiles employees established a record of more than
9-million 200-thousand man-hours without a lost-time accident during
the period from July 1, 1938 to February 14, 1941. This stands today
as this plant’s all time high safety record. In a season when records
are breaking fast, our work is cut out for us.
Leaders In Life Saving
UNITED FUND GIFT—Captain Ernest Dow (second from left)
of the Gaston Life Saving Crew is shown above receiving a check
for $501.60 from Industrial Relations Director T. B. Ipock, Jr. The
gift was earmarked for this purpose by Firestone Textile employees
during the 1954 United Fund Drive. Others in the picture are Lt.
John Stepp, left, and Police Officer Charles Ferguson, Jr., both
regular members of the Life Saving Crew.
FIRESTONE NEWS
Volume III, No. 3, February 25, 1954
Published at Gastonia, North Carolina
By Firestone Textiles
A Division of
The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company
Department of Industrial Relations
R. H. HOOD, Editor
Department Reporters
CARDING—Edna Harris, Jessie Westmoreland.
SPINNING—Mary Turner, Maude Johnson.
SPOOLING—Nell Bolick, Helen Reel, Rosalee Burger.
TWISTING—Hazel Foy, Grace Stowe, Annie Cosey, Dean Haun,
Corrie Johnson.
SALES YARN TWISTING—Fannie Humphries.
SYC WEAVING—Sarah Davis, Nina Milton, Vivian Bumgardner.
CORD WEAVING—Margaret Rhyne, Irene Burroughs, Mary
Johnson.
QUALITY CONTROL—Dealva Jacobs, Leila Rape, Catherine Isham,
Margaret Tate.
WINDING—Mazelle Lewis, Ann Stevenson, Christine Stroupe.
CLOTH ROOM—Margie Waldrop.
SHOP—Cramer Little.
WAREHOUSE—George Harper, Albert Meeks.
PLASTIC DIP—Frances Huffman, Helen Guffey.
MAIN OFFICE—Mozelle Brockman.
SUPERINTENDENT’S OFFICE—Sue Van Dyke.
PERSONNEL OFFICE—Barbara Abernathy.
Publications Win
(Continued From Page 1)
at the ceremonies. Miss Kerrigan
also received this honor for 1952.
THE nine Firestone publications
are under the direction of the Fire
stone Department of Public Rela
tions. William D. Hines is Director
of Public Relations.
The publications in the various
plant cities and their editors are:
Firestone Non-Skid, home plants^
Akron, Ohio, Jean Sonnhalter;
Firestone Californian, Los Angeles,
California, Paul W. Neff; Fire
stone Southerner, Memphis, Ten
nessee, Nick Pinter; Firestone
News, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, D.
E. Story; Firestone News, Fall
River, Massachusetts, F. Bradley
Lynch; Firestone News, Gastonia,
North Carolina, Robert Hood; Ra
venna Arsenal News, Ravenna,
Ohio, Robert Fuehrer; Firestone
Hoosier, Noblesville, Indiana, Ken
neth M. Wright, and Firestone
Hawkeye, Des Moines, Iowa, Ralph
C. Darrow.
The object of the Foundation’s
annual awards program is to honor
outstanding efforts to improve
public understanding and apprecia
tion of our basic Constitutional
Rights and Freedoms inherent in
the American Way of Life.
* * *
THE Credo of the American Way
of Life of the Freedoms Founda
tion of Valley Forge is the basis
for selection of all awards. A
Distinguished Jury, composed of
Chief Justices of the State Su
preme Courts and heads of national
Patriotic, Service and Veterans
organizations, selects the award
recipients on this basis. The Rev.
Theodore M. Hesburgh, C. S. C.,
President of Notre Dame Univer
sity, served as non-voting Chair
man of the 1953 Distinguished
Awards Jury.
Freedoms Foundation at Val
ley Forge was founded in March,
1949. It is non-profit, non-political,
and non-sectarian. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower is Honorary
Chairman and the Hon. Herbert
Hoover is Honorary President. The
Foundation’s funds come from
widest national sources—individual,
corporate and foundation.
I 9n iltemortam |
The employees of the Cloth
Room extend their sympathy to
Mr. and Mrs. William McCarter,
Spinning and Cloth Departments
respectively, in the death of Mr.
McCarter’s brother, Bailey Mc
Carter.
John V. Farr, warehouse trucker,
died Wednesday, January 20, after
a brief illness. He lived at 709
South Weldon Street and is sur
vived by his wife, Mrs. Flossie
Farr. Mr. Farr, who was 30 years
of age, came to work at Firestone
Textiles in February, 1951. He was
buried in Gaffney, S. C.
Joseph Champion, died February
16, 1954. Funeral services were
conducted at the Loray Baptist
Church and burial in the Gaston
Memorial Park. Sympathy is ex
tended to the family.
Mrs. Bessie Morris, mother of
Mrs. Betty Martin, battery hand,
died Sunday, January 3. Our deep
est sympathy is extended to the
Martin family.
The News In Pictures
OFFICIALS VISIT—W. A. Karl, President of Firestone Tex
tiles (second from left) and Frank A. Austin, manager of Firestone
Textiles, Ltd., Woodstock, Ontario (second from right) look on
with Superintendent Francis Galligan as General Superintendent
Nelson Kessell explains a feature of the ply twisting operation in
the Rayon Division. Mr. Austin was a supervisor at this plant for
13 years prior to his being named manager of the Woodstock plant
in 1948. The Woodstock plant with its 225 employees manufactures
rayon tire cord, chafer fabric, and sales yarn.
YOUHINSlȣCTION
IS THte COm>AHTB
mPVTATWH
MAKE IT YOUR BEST
CLOTH BURLERS Helen McCarter and Inez Rhyne, left to
right, pose above beside a sign recently placed in the Cloth Room.
The message it bears serves as an ever present reminder of the
importance of the burlers’ inspection duties.
POLIO FUND GIFT FROM EMPLOYEES—Miss Betty Brad
shaw, daughter of Second Hand Coy Bradshaw and a victim
fantile paralysis since she was two, presents a check for $19^
to J. Mack Holland, county chairman for the 1954 March of Diiw^
campaign. The gift (a part of United Fund) will be used to
and perhaps some day cure—the dread disease. In
disability. Miss Bradshaw is an active student at Gastonia ,
school although her schooling has on several occasions been
rarily interrupted by treatment at the North Carolina Orthop
Hospital in Gastonia. General Superintendent Nelson KesseH, c
man of the 1954 United Fund Drive, looks on.