S400 MILLION FOR MATERIALS IN ONE YEAR
Many Suppliers Aid Firestone Production
As you carry out the duties of
your job, have you ever won
dered where all the material for
a tire or other product comes
from? Where did we get the rib
bon for the typewriter or the
pencil we use? Perhaps you
never gave it much thought, but
still all these supplies had to be
purchased so that we could do
our jobs.
In short, Firestone employees
must rely on someone else to
furnish us with necessary ma
terials.
Of ihe millions of dollars the
Company spent on the Gastonia
scene last year, approximately
$50 million went for the pur
chase of materials and supplies
vital to production of tire cord
and sales yarn products here. At
least $400,000 of this amount
went to buy these materials and
supplies from small business
concerns — those employing 250
persons or less.
School Of Textiles
Sets Open House
The semi-annual “Open
House” program at the School of
Textiles, North Carolina State
College at Raleigh, is scheduled
for Saturday, March 1.
Included on the program will
be conducted tours through the
school, during which all phases
of textile fabricating from yarn
preparation to weaving, knitting,
dying, and finishing will be ex
plained and demonstrated.
On display also will be ex
hibits from manufacturers in all
branches of the North Carolina
textile industry. A wide range
of colorful and useful items
made at the State College School
of Textiles and by North Caro
lina manufacturers will be pass
ed out as compliments during the
program.
Far from being self sufficient,
any business is dependent on
other firms—often times much
smaller businesses — to supply
the materials and services neces
sary for production and opera
tions.
It takes approximately 45,000
employees in our U. S. plants to
produce Firestone products and
operate the plants, but it takes
hundreds of thousands of people
working in other businesses
throughout the country to pro
vide vital materials for our fin
ished products. Directly or in
directly these people, too, help to
make Firestone tires, steel prod
ucts, plastics, Foamex or any of
our many other products.
During a recent fiscal year
our company spent more than
400 million dollars for outside
supplies . . . approximately 40
per cent of all the money taken
in by the company was paid out
for materials and services needed
for our production.
A recent survey shows that
13,423 suppliers scattered
throughout the country furnish
needed materials for company
plants.
For Akron operations alone
during this one year Firestone
purchases were in excess of $200
million. Materials were ordered
from nearly 10,000 suppliers. A
total of 7,205—72 per cent—of
these employ less than 500 peo
ple . . . 6,206—62 per cent—have
less than 250 employed.
By meeting delivery dates
with quality products at com
petitive prices, these suppliers
make an essential contribution
to our business and derive their
livelihood by supplying the
needs of larger companies.
However, this is a two-way
street. Without bigger companies
there would be no market for
many of the smaller suppliers to
serve. Research and technologi
cal advances made by Firestone
create new markets for sup
pliers, and in return Firestone
Davis Wins At Football Guesswork
McKinley E. Davis reigns as
the plant’s champion football
prophet, at least until the next
Bowl Winners Contest here at
year’s end. The clerk and check
er in Rayon Weaving received
the $15 payoff as first-place win
ner in the annual gridiron guess
ing rivalry of major games play-
Random answers paid off for
McKinley Davis.
ed in late December and on New
Year’s Day.
The competition, sponsored by
Plant Recreation, consists in at
tempts at predicting winning
teams and scores in all clashes of
major sports bowls in the United
States.
Davis picked all game winners
correctly and missed the scores
of all games by just five points.
A devoted football fan, he had
kept tab on the sport during the
past season. But when it came to
making his entry in the contest,
he relied entirely upon chance.
“I flipped a coin to determine
the team winners and then just
plain guessed at the scores in
each case,” he recalled.
In a second-place tie were
John Cotheran, Rayon Twisting
and Thomas Turner, Shop. Each
received $7.50 for picking all
game winners correctly and
guessing within eight points of
all the scores.
Also for a good degree of ac
curacy at guessing, these per
sons chalked up Honorable
Mention:
Bertha Dodgen, Rayon Twist
ing; R. B. Hull, Quality Control;
Glenna McGinnis, Main Office;
Harold Freeland, Spinning.
acquires ideas, methods and
processes from suppliers that
help to increase operating ef
ficiency.
In addition to the obvious
requirements such as rubber,
chemicals, fabric and wire.
Firestone buys hundreds of other
items. The list runs from abra
sives to wiping cloths and in
cludes: acids and alcohol, brooms
and Banburys, coal and cameras,
drills and dust collectors, ele
vators and electrical equipment,
flags and furnaces, gears and
gloves, hospital supplies and
hardware, ink and insulation,
jacks and kitchen utensils, lamps
and lift trucks, mops and
matches, nails and neon signs,
oils and drying ovens, paint and
picks, rags and reactors, soap
ARRIVALS...
Myretia Geretia Delgado,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesus
Delgado, arrived January 20.
The mother is a daughter of Mrs.
Katie Webster, battery hand in
SYC Weaving.
It was a boy, named James
Clinton, born to Mr. and Mrs.
James Cunningham of Stanley,
January 25. The mother is a
daughter of Mrs. Audrey Sey
mour, weaver in SYC Weaving,
and the late Roy S. Seymour.
Sharpshooter
This hawk, having a wing
spread of 46 inches, was killed
by Clayton Taylor, of second
shift. Rayon Twisting. Here, Mr.
Taylor exhibits the bird of prey,
brought earthward with a 12-
gauge shotgun.
and steel wool, tire building ma
chines and towels, uniforms,
valves, crushed walnut shells
and wax, and a host of other
items essential to various opera
tions.
The money which Firestone
spends for such materials is dis
tributed in turn among the peo
ple who took part in their pro
duction. New money flows into
the American cities where
smaller businesses are located,
giving work to millions of others.
These people, in a broad sense,
are employees of Firestone, too,
in that they earn their living by
supplying our needs.
People and Places
-From Page 7
Mr. and Mrs. Otis L. Todd are settled in their new home at
2505 Twin avenue, Gastonia.
Frame Hand Lee Sims and Mrs. Sims (Mildred), respooler, and
other members of the family were in Pontiac, Mich., recently where
they visited Mr. and Mrs. Junior Ellis and Mr. and Mrs. James
Hardin. Mrs. Ellis and Mr. Hardin are sister and brother of Mrs.
Sims. The Sims’ visited in Ontario, Canada before returning to
Gastonia.
Lena Bell McCarthy visited recently in the home of Freddie
Elkins, section hand, and Mrs. Elkins (Katie), tie-in-hand.
Alice Robinson, daughter of Edith Robinson, tie-in-hand, was
treated at Gaston Memorial Hospital in late January.
Carl Stewart, senior at Duke University on a Firestone Scholar
ship recently visited his parents Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stewart, Sr,
Newell Hardin is back on the job after a brief illness.
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Tino and son Travis were guests in the home
of Mr. and Mrs. G. K. Robinson in January. Mr. Tino and Mrs.
Robinson are brother and sister.
Mrs. Annie Cosey, reclaimer, and members of her family were
guests in the home of her sister, Mrs. J. E. Taylor, at Johnsonville,
S. C., January 18. The occasion was a birthday dinner honoring
Mrs. Taylor.
John Fender, twister tender, visited his brother, Leon Fender
January 18, who at that time was a patient in a Bennettsville, S. C.,
hospital.
The mother of Mrs. Corrie Johnson, splicer hand, was, in late
January, somewhat improved from an illness.
Mr. and Mrs. Claude Taylor visited Gaddy’s Wild Goose Refuge
near Ansonville, N. C., Januar^ 19. This wildlife preserve is the
home of some 10,000 Canada wild geese which take up their winter
residence in October and remain into early April. Mr. Taylor is
a second hand; Mrs. Taylor, a splicer in Twisting.
These employees are back at work after a short leave of ab
sence: Mildred Dodgen, change hand; Gertrude Sanders, battery
hand; and Grady Wiley and Paul Johnson, quill hands.
Mrs. Robert Mason, mother of Virginia Bridges, smash hand, un
derwent treatment in a local hospital in late January,
Edward Dodgen, Jr., son of Mrs. Ed Dodgen (Rose), battery
hand, underwent a tonsillectomy at Garrison General Hospital
recently.
TOMORROW...
A New Day And A New Beginning ...
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you
could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. Forget
them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it weU and
serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old
nonsense. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
FIRESTONE TEXTILES
P. O. BOX 551
GASTONIA. N. C.
SEC. 34.66 P. L. & R.
U. S. POSTAGE
PAID
GASTONIA, N. C.
PERMIT NO. 29
Form 3547 Requested