PAGE TWO
MARCH 25, 1954
A 5-WAY TIE developed for third place in the 1953 Suggestion
Week Contest between the smiling individuals shown here. Their
contest entries were considered equal in value and each was eligible
for third place, so five winners in that position were declared.
The winners, shown holding their prizes, steam irons, are, front
row left to right, Mrs. Christine Clark (Mail Room buzzer), Mrs.
Nell Pursley (hot water heater for Personnel Office). Back row:
Cramer Little (cover for ditch in front of Warehouse), Nick Samole
(locknuts for sprinkler pipe holders), and Cole Whitaker (style chart
for looms).
Company’s Suggestion System Has Best
Year In '53; 3,749 Ideas Net $82,872
FOR THEIR IDEAS on improvements in production, sales and
office operations, employees of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company
received a total of $82,872 from the Company during 1953—an increase
of nearly 40 per cent over the previous year.
The figure represents the high-0
est amount ever awarded to em
ployees during a one-year period
through the Company’s Suggestion
System. In addition, during the
year 1953 employees broke several
other previous records of partici
pation in the Suggestion System
and in percentage of ideas adopted.
The Company’s Suggestion Sys
tem now is in its 36th year of
operations. Through the System,
factory and sales and office em
ployees are encouraged to offer
ideas for improving working condi
tions and safety and economizing
on operations and material usage.
Amounts of awards for improved
operations are in proportion to
tangible yearly savings. Other a-
wards are based upon the intangi
ble benefits they bring in safety
and more pleasant working condi
tions.
DURING 1953 there were 3,749
ideas adopted by the suggestion
boards at the 25 plants where the
system has been operated. The
year’s highest award of $3,000
went to Frank B. Bowen at the Los
Angeles, California, plant for his
suggestion for improving the man-
ufactui-ing process for aircraft
fuel cells.
Second-highest award for the
year went to B. S. Compton, em
ployee of the Plant 2 Final Inspec
tion Department. Mr. Compton re
ceived $2,000 for his idea on an im
proved method of finishing tires.
Two $1,000 checks were also a-
mong the top awards. Michael
Bartone of the Akron Steel Pro
ducts plant and Leslie Dickens of
the St. Louis District were the re
cipients.
Akron Plant 3 was the outstand
ing plant from the standpoint of
participation in the Suggestion
System, having a rate of 724 per
1,000 employees.
Second place for participation
went to the Los Angeles, Cali
fornia, plant, followed by New
Castle, Indiana. Other plants with
high participation rates were: Des
Moines, Iowa; Akron Synthetic;
Wyandotte, Michigan; Akron Me-
(Continued in Col. 5)
FIRESTONE NEWS
Volume III, No. 5, March 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.
Speak For Democracy”
(Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Ellen Evans (Betsy) is 16 years old. She
is a junior at Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio, and is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Evans. Mr. Evans is assistant to Russell J.
Mitchell, Vice-President of Firestone Industrial Products.
Miss Evans was one of 52 winners from the 48 states and the
territories of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Alaska and the District of Co
lumbia and then went on to become one of the four national winners
in the “Voice of Democracy” contest sponsored by these three organi
zations: The National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters,
the Radio-Electronic-Television Manufacturers Association and th«
United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.)
By Elizabeth Ellen Evans
I AM AN AMERICAN.
Listen to my words, Fascist, Communist.
Listen well, for my country is a strong country, and my message is a
strong message.
I am an American, and I speak for democracy.
My ancestors have left their blood on the green at Lexington and the
snow at Valley Forge.
on the walls of Fort Sumter and the fields at Gettysburg
on the waters of the River Marne and in the shadows of the
Argonne Forest
on the beachheads of Salerno and Normandy and the sands
of Okinawa
on the bare, bleak hills called Pork Chop and Old
Baldy and Heartbreak Ridge.
A million and more of my countrymen have died for freedom.
My country is their eternal monument.
They live on in the laughter of a small boy as he watches a circus
clown’s antics
and in the sweet, delicious coldness of the first bite of peppermint
ice cream on the Fourth of July
in the little tenseness of a baseball crowd as the umpire calls,
“Batter Up!”
and in the high school band’s rendition of “Stars and Stripes
Forever” in the Memorial Day parade
in the clear, sharp ring of a school bell on a fall morning
and in the triumph of a six-year-old as he reads aloud for the
first time.
* * *
THEY LIVE ON in the eyes of an Ohio farmer surveying his acres of
corn and potatoes and pasture
and in the brilliant gold of hundreds of acres of wheat stretching
across the flat miles of Kansas
in the milling of cattle in the stockyards of Chicago
the precision of an assembly line in an automobile factory in Detroit
and the perpetual red glow of the nocturnal skylines of Pitts
burg and Birmingham and Gary.
They live on in the voice of a young Jewish boy saying the sacred words
from the Torah: “Hear 0 Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy might.”
and in the voice of a Catholic girl praying: “Hail, Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with thee . . .”
and in the voice of a Protestant boy singing: “A mighty For
tress is our God, A Bulwark never failing . . .”
An American named Carl Sandburg wrote these words:
“I know a Jew fishcrier down on Maxwell Street
With a voice like a north wind blowing over corn stubble in
January. . .
He dangles herring before prospective customers evincing a joy
identical with that of Pavlova Dancing.
His face is that of a man terribly glad to be selling fish, terribly
glad that God made fish, and customers to whom he may call
his wares from a pushcart.”
There is a voice in the soul of every human being that cries out to be
free. America has answered that voice.
America has offered freedom and opportunity such as no land before
her has ever known, to a Jew fishcrier down on Maxwell Street with
the face of a man terribly glad to be selling fish.
* * *
SHE HAS GIVEN him the right to own his pushcart, to sell his herring
on Maxwell Street,
she has given him an education for his children, and a tremendous
faith in the nation that has made these things his.
Multiply that fishcrier by 160,000,000 — 160,000,000 mechanics and
farmers and housewives and coal miners and truck drivers and chemists
and lawyers and plumbers and priests — all glad, terribly glad to be
what they are, terribly glad to be free to work and eat and sleep and
speak and love and pray and live as they desire, as they believe!
And those 160,000,000 Americans — those 160,000,000 free Americans
— have more roast beef and mashed potatoes,
the yield of American labor and land;
more automobiles and telephones,
more safety razors and bathtubs.
More orlon sweaters and aureomycin,
the fruits of American initiative and enterprise;
more public schools and life insurance policies,
the symbols of American security and faith in the future;
more laughter and song —
than any other people on earth!
This is my answer. Fascist, Communist!
Show me a country greater than our country,
show me a people more energetic, creative, progressive —
bigger-hearted and happier than our people,
not until then will I consider your way of life.
For I am an American, and I speak for democracy.
T. B. Ipock Named
Safety Instructor
INDUSTRIAL Relations Direc
tor T. B. Ipock, Jr., has been nam
ed instructor for the Industrial
Safety course being taught at the
Gaston Technical Institute as a
part of the Industrial Management
series which was started at the
school last fall.
Mr. Ipock, a student himself in
two of the courses already offered
in the series, is a graduate of Wake
Forest College and has completed
graduate and short courses at the
University of North Carolina,
North Carolina'State College, and
Purdue University.
Prior to coming to Firestone
Textiles he was teacher and coach,
and later principal, at a number of
North Carolina public schools. He
joined Firestone in 1943 as recrea
tion director, was made safety di
rector in 1946, and in 1951 became
industrial relations director.
He is a member of several pro
fessional organizations in the per
sonnel and safety fields. These in
clude: The Gaston Personnel Asso
ciation, The N. C. Society of
Safety Engineers, the Blue Ridge
Safety Council, and the National
Safety Council (member Executive
Committee, Textiles Section).
Thomas To Speak
(Continued From Page 1)
Khan Grotto in 1928. He is a mem
ber of the American Legion and
Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was
affiliated with Phi Delta Theta
and Acacia fraternities.
For many years he taught the
young peoples’ class at the First
Methodist Church.
He was married to Laura Grace
Sturdevant of Linesville, Pennsy
lvania, on May 25, 1918. They have
one son, Charles Grant Thomas, an
attorney. They reside at 2427
Covington Road, Akron.
Suggestion System
(Continued From Col. 2)
chanical Building, and Brentford,
England. Participation averaged
301 suggestions per 1,000 em
ployees.
* * *
OUT of the total of 12,191 ideas
submitted last year, 3,749 were
adopted—an adoption rate of more
than 30 per cent. Of the total,
11,455 were for factory operations,
with an adoption rate of 3,593, or
32.6 per cent. This is one of the
highest figures ever recorded
the history of the system.
Of the 736 sales and office sug
gestions submitted, 156 were a-
dopted, or 19.2 per cent.
The total awards of $82,872 rep
resented a $23,494 increase over
the previous year.
Participation in the suggestion
program at this plant was at t e
rate of 142.6 suggestion per 1,0«^
employees. Out of the 328 sugS®®
tions submitted in 1953 at t is
plant, 79 were adopted—an
tion rate of 24.09 per cent,
biggest month in 1953, from
standpoint of number of sugge
tions submitted, was
“Suggestion Week” held
month helped account for t e
suggestions received.