Looking for somewhere to go,
something to do? Some North
Carolina attractions are listed on
page 4.
Tire$lon«
GASTON I A
In this issue a women’s column
begins as a regular feature of the
Firestone News. See Page 2.
VOLUME IV
GASTONIA, N. C., MARCH 25, 1955
NUMBER 6
Village Ministers Will Lead
Easter Sunrise Service Here
The Rev. G. W. Bumgarner, pastor of West End Metho
dist Church, will deliver the resurrection message at the
i^nnual Easter Sunrise Service on the lawn of the Girls’ Club
7 a. m., April 10,
The Firestone Community sing-O'
ers will provide the Easter music
the program presided over by
Rev. W. C, Neel, minister of
West Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Other village ministers who will
participate in the service are the
C. E. Hedgepath, minister of
irestone Wesleyan Methodist
Chourch; Dr. Prank Malone, mini-
of Loray Baptist Church; and
Rev. Ronald Holland, minister
Beech Avenue Baptist Church.
The following is a tentative
^^^edule of the service:
Remarks of Welcome: Mr. Neel;
®ttg: The Firestone Community
Singers; Prayer: Mr. Hedgepath;
Reading of the Scripture Lesson:
Dr. Malone; Song: The Firestone
Community Singers; The Resurrec
tion Message: Mr. Bumgarner;
Benedictory Prayer: Mr. Holland,
At the conclusion of the service,
coffee and do-nuts will be served.
The annual service is sponsored
by the Firestone Recreation Coun
cil in cooperation with Loray Bap
tist Church, West Avenue Presby
terian Church, Firestone Wesleyan
Methodist Church, West End
Methodist Church, and Beech
Avenue Baptist Church.
City League Trophy Goes
To Firestone Basketeers
Victory in 26 successive o
Sanies in the City League
^uring the past two seasons
has won for the Firestone
Men’s Basketball Team the
^eted City League Trophy,
^his is the second year that
team has won the honor—
faking it holder of the tro
phy throughout the two-year
history of the League.
Enuring the past season the City
ague was made up of six teams,
Le
9.11
representing manufacturing
Establishments, with the exception
Gaston Technical Institute,
anaes were played at the Armory
at Groves Gymnasium.
The Firestone team established
^ I'ecord the past season of an av-
^^age of 70 points, and at several
Barnes piled up a score of more
100 points.
The trophy, approximately 28
^*iehes high, is plated bronze,
*^ounted on an ivory base. A per-
'^snent addition to the growing
||Uniber of departmental laurels, it
been placed in the case at the
ant’s main entrance.
Sports Banquet Set For April 9
use Coach Will Speak
Many To Be Honored
On Program
CITY LEAGUE TROPHY
Rex Enright, head football coach at the
University of South Carolina, will address
the 19th annual All-Sports Banquet of Fire
stone Textiles in the Recreation Center here,
April 9, at 7 p. m.
Included among those attending will be
eminent personalities of the sporting and rec
reation world.
An outstanding feature of the evening’s pro
gram will be the honoring of more than 200 sports
champions who have won distinction at the plant in
che sports and recreation program during 1954.
Of the sports awards, the Supremacy Trophy
will go to the department which has won the great
est number of honors during 1954, Included in the
Special Awards will be four men and four women
representing all three shifts at the plant, who will
be announced as the “Ideal Athletes of 1954.” These
individuals were elected by em- O
ployees of the plant by a secret
balloting held February 21-26,
The Johnson Award Cups will go
to the one man and one woman
adjudged the most competitive
athletes during 1954,
REX ENRIGHT
Successful Year Predicted For
Foamed Rubber Industry
RALPH .JOHNSON, Director of
Recreation here, and toastmaster
for the banquet, has announced the
following program highlights:
The dinner at 7 p. m.
Invocation: L, B, McAbee, Di
rector of Safety
Message of Welcome: Harold
Mercer, General Manager
Response: Miss Llew Adams,
secretary to F, B, Galligan, Super
intendent of the Cotton Division
Introduction of Guests and A-
warding of Departmental and In
dividual Trophies: Ralph Johnson
Awarding of Supremacy Tro
phies: Nelson Kessell, General Su
perintendent
Foamed rubber, which a few years ago was a new
‘miracle product’ has now come of age, P. P. Crisp, President
of Firestone Industrial Products Company, Fall River, Mass.,
noted recently. “Many furniture manufacturers no longer
identify their products as upholstered with foamed rubber.
The public has come to accept foamed rubber in medium and
high-grade furniture lines,” he said.
Total foamed rubber production®
from natural and synthetic latex
(Continued on Page 4)
^OUR
FRIEND IN NEED.
^RC Seeks 30 Million New Members In March
rp Employees of Firestone °
|,j^^tiles who contributed to
American Red Cross
0 u g h the Employees’
_^ited Fund for 1955, assum-
a vital role in helping to
on the great American
^.^dition of humanitarian ser-
to neighbors in distress.
^ Some 121 chapters covering
community in North Caro-
^ more than 14,000 volunteer
are giving consistently of
time, training, and talents
'''ard accomplishing this service,
Sg^ftionwide the Red Cross is
$85,000,000, and 30,000,000
members in its March em-
campaign, A total of $5,-
^^0 is budgeted for disaster
preparedness and relief. Besides
the traditional aid in natural dis
asters an intensified mass feeding
training program was begun re
cently, at the request of the Fed
eral Civil Defense Administration.
Persons so trained will serve in
regular Red Cross programs dur
ing natural disasters, and with
Civil Defense “during an enemy
action emergency.”
^ N* ^
TO HELP TRAIN Americans in
methods of health and safety to
protect themselves and others, the
Red Cross will spend an estimated
$6,135,000 through its first aid,
water safety, and nursing pro
grams.
Operation of the Red Cross
Blood Program, which supplies 40
per cent of the blood used in the
nation’s hospitals, will require an
estimated $14,287,000 to assure
prompt and certain delivery of
blood and its derivatives, to thous
ands of sick and injured.
Red Cross services to the arm
ed forces and veterans will again
claim a major portion of the Red
Cross budget, with $36,640,000
scheduled for that purpose,
Ht H= *
OF INTEREST TO employees
here who contributed to the Red
Cross during the plant’s United
Fund Drive, and who will welcome
(Continued on Page 2)
will exceed 205,000,000 pounds dur
ing 1955—approximately 12 per
cent more than in 1954, Mr. Crisp
noted. Besides mattresses, he point
ed out, those products that will
register greatest gains are trans
portation seat cushions and foamed
rubber stock that is used by do-it-
yourself homemakers, Mr, Crisp
expects that in 1955, for the first
time, half of the volume of pillows
sold in America will be made of
foamed rubber,
He He
COMMENTING further on the
foamed rubber industry outlook for
1955, Mr, Crisp said:
“Our market research studies
show greatly increased demand for
building and slab stock, transpor
tation seating, furniture cushions,
pillows and mattresses for the year
of 1955.
“These studies lead us to ex
pect that the industry can sell
more than 1,000,000 foamed rubber
mattresses during 1955,”
The Industrial Products Company
President noted that in 1954 con
sumption of rubber in the United
States was less than in the pre
ceding year, except for natural la
tex for foamed rubber which con
tinued its rapid growth and reach
ed an all-time record of 12,645,360
pounds used in last October.
Further signs that point toward
a successful year in the foamed
rubber industry for 1955, according
to Mr, Crisp, are:
A plentiful supply of natural
rubber, new and efficient produc
tion equipment, new uses for
foamed rubber that are being dis
covered almost every day, and the
public’s awareness that foamed
rubber is no longer a specialty pro
duct that is taken for granted in
fine furniture and mattresses.
TAX ASSISTANCE BEGINS APRIL 4
Do you need help on filing your income tax? If you do, take your
problems to the Special Income Tax Department. Trained personnel
will be on the job in the Girls Club, from 1 to 5 p. m,, Monday through
Friday, April 4-15—which is the new deadline for filing your returns.
Those persons who will operate the free service for employees
make this reminder:
Bring with you the W-2 Income Tax form and the tax return form
supplied you by the State and Federal Governments,
If you plan to fill in the long form, please have with you all
information necessary for completing the form. This will include all
allowable deductions such as interest, contributions, taxes, etc.