PAGE 2
MAY, 1959
Company A World Enterprise
Note; Harvey S. Firestone Jr., and the com
pany he heads, grew up with the rubber indus
try. He speaks as an expert in his field. At the
invitation of the Christian Science Monitor, Mr.
Firestone has written a series of five articles on
The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and the
rubber industry. Reprinted by permission of The
Christian Science Monitor.
☆
☆
My father founded The Firestone Tire & Rub
ber Company in Akron, Ohio, August 3, 1900. It
started as a sales organization with assets of
$20,000 and a tire-mounting patent, and began
selling tires made by other firms, because it
lacked capital to buy its own production equip
ment.
Firestone was a far cry from the internation
al enterprise it is today—the world’s largest
producer of rubber—manufacturing everything
from jet-engine components to guided missiles,
and tires five inches in diameter, to those weigh
ing 5,000 pounds and measuring nine feet tall.
My father soon realized the necessity of estab
lishing his own factory in order to control the
quality of our product.
Many "Firsts" at Firestone
Accordingly, he purchased a small, abandoned
foundry building, some second-hand tire-making
and rubber processing equipment, and hired 12
men to begin manufacturing Firestone tires. In
1903 he turned on the steam valves putting the
machinery into operation.
Many developments have come from our com
pany to make vehicular history. These include
the first mechanically fastened straight-side tire,
forerunner of the type now in universal use; the
first commercial demountable rim, now the de
mountable wheel; the first angular rubber non-
skid tread, a safety feature of all pneumatic tires
today; the first pneumatic tractor tire, which led
to “putting the farm on rubber”; and the first
balloon tire, developing into the present-day
tubeless tire.
My father’s pioneering leadership and creative
energy exercised considerable influence on trans
portation and industrial progress to the lasting
credit of the Firestone organization.
In 1918 he pioneered the “ship-by-truck”
movement which gave impetus to the trucking
industry. He was a leader in the “good roads”
movement which led to the construction of our
modern nationwide system of highways.
Company Founder Fought Monopolies
In order to bring benefits of American indus
trial production to as many people as possible, he
waged successful battles against tire and rim
monopolies in the United States. And taking as
his slogan “Americans should produce their own
rubber,” he fought international cartels which
attempted to control the output, distribution,
and price of rubber and rubber products to the
American consumer.
Firestone established rubber plantations in
Liberia, West Africa, in 1926 as a result of this
By Harvey S. Firestone Jr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company
campaign. As a fully integrated rubber company,
producing both synthetic and natural rubber, we
control the quality of what we make and sell
from the basic material to the finished product.
Tradition Of Progress, Integrity
Growth of our company over the last 58 years
can be measured to some extent financially. The
first profit-making year was 1903. Profit was
8,503 on sales of $230,000. Our latest annual re
port shows a profit of $53,751,650 on sales of
$1,061,590,801. Our company has paid dividends
to its thousands of stockholders at least every
three months continuously since 1924—and it has
paid dividends for 52 of the 58 years of its
existence.
From the beginning, service has motivated
Firestone’s growth and progress. We care about
the products we make and sell, as do our em
ployees.
We are one of the approximately 30 companies
in the world doing more than a billion dollars
worth of business annually. Apart from our size,
we take pride in our traditions of progress and
integrity both with reference to our corporate
whole and individual employees.
Although it is natural to think of our company
in terms of tires, because they have been and
are our principal product, we are a highly diver
sified organization.
Company Serves Defense Needs
We are the world’s largest manufacturer of
truck, tractor and bus rims, and a leading maker
of stainless steel beverage containers, milk cans,
metal stampings for automobile and appliance
companies, and jet engine components.
We are one of the nation’s most sizable manu
facturers of plastic material and of resins for use
in making plastics. We are a supplier of defense
products to the Army, Navy, and Air Force, in
cluding the Corporal intermediate range guided
missile; the launching mechanism for use on sub
marines with the Regulus II missile; components
of the Polaris missile; radomes for the protection
of distant radar stations; and the fuel cells for
jet airplanes.
In the field of rubber manufacturing other
than tires, we make thousands of products rang
ing from gaskets for baby food jars to mountings
for 320-horsepower engines. We make practical
ly all of the 600 different rubber products on a
single modern automobile.
We have thousands of independent Firestone
dealers, and more than 750 company-owned
stores in the United States, a larger number
than any similar chain. Within our home and
auto supply division and through our dealers
and stores, we sell a large variety of products re
lated to the home, farm, recreation and the auto
mobile.
—To be continued. Next article:
vests In Research."
'Firestone In-
SLOW DOWN —
BIKE RIDERS AHEAD
P
There are many bike riders who
have never been shown or who
have forgotten how to ride a
bike in safety. When you spot
children ahead of your car in
a local neighborhood or out
along a country road, assume
they know little about safe
riding and that their actions
may be unpredictable. Slow
down, give them as much room
as you can, and blow your
horn to let them know you
are coming. Be ready to come
to a sudden stop if necessary.
© AMERICAN MUTUAL LIAB. INS. CO
Employees’ Photos In SC Publication
Pictures of four employees of
the Gastonia Firestone plant
were featured in the March-
April issue of The Safety Jour
nal and Industrial Review, pub
lished at Anderson, S. C.
The photographs of Edgar Foy
and Donald Hoyle of the Me
chanical department, Maford
Sanders of Supply, and Marion
Burris of the Nylon Treating
unit were originally published
in the plant newspaper here sev
eral months ago. The employees
were featured on the job wear
ing safety shoes, protective gear,
and safety-styled clothing.
Editor Jimmy Young of the
Anderson publication selected
the Firestone photos to empha
size the theme: "The clothes you
wear at work could cause you to
lose your life—or save it."
world
Giants
machine
construction
airporls
4
Copies Of Two Books On Firestone
Go To County Library System
m Cotton Time USA’
Dates for the 29th annual celebration of National Cot
ton Week have been set for May 18-23. Cotton Week pays
tribute to the nation’s Number 1 fiber, accounting for 65
per cent of all textiles manufactured in the United States.
“It’s Cotton Time USA,” theme of the 1958 event, is be
ing repeated on 1959 Cotton Week posters.
Cotton Week is sponsored by the National Cotton Coun
cil on behalf of American cotton growers, ginners, ware
housemen, merchants, spinners and crushers.
Six volumes each of “The
Firestone Story” and “Harvey
Firestone; Free Man of Enter
prise” have been presented to
the Gaston County Public
Library system. General man
ager Harold Mercer had the
books delivered to Miss Bar
bara Heafner, librarian at the
Gastonia main branch of the
libraries.
Both volumes are authored by
Alfred Lief. “The Firestone
Story” tells of a modern indus
trial enterprise. It is an intimate
business history, presenting a
richer understanding of the
greatness and glory of our coun
try.
"THE STORY" was published
after the first 50 years of Fire
stone company history, and de
scribes the period of change from
the horse-and-buggy days to the
automotive era, and of the pace
the Founder set for the rubber
industry.
“Harvey Firestone: Free Man
of Enterprise” is the true story
of an Ohio farm boy who be
came one of the great industrial
leaders of the modern world. An
absorbing chronicle of an excit
ing period on our nation’s
growth, the book tells how
American business ingenuity
and imagination helped bring
about remarkable material
progress. It is the story of the
development of a small local
UCP Drive In May
The United Cerebral Palsy As
sociations Inc. will conduct
their 1959 “53-Minute March on
Cerebral Palsy” May 1-31. Home
solicitations will be made from
May 12-19, according to Roger
S. Firestone, national UCP
president. The campaign this
year seeks to raise $11 million.
In addition to direct aid and
medical assistance to persons
who have cerebral palsy, the
funds provide extensive medi
cal research, rehabilitation, and
clinical research into the causes
and eventual cure of this wide
spread affliction.
business into a national indus
try and then into an interna
tional structure with factories
and rubber plantations in many
parts of the world.
The book is not only an in
spiring saga of growth—it is the
inspiring personal history of a
great industrialist who consis
tently put the welfare of his fel
low citizens above private gain.
Wesleyan Church
Sets Homecoming
Addresses by visiting church
leaders and a mortgage-burning
ceremony will highlight Fire
stone Wesleyan Methodist
Church’s Homecoming-Dedica-
tion Day on Sunday, May 31.
Church pastor C. E. Hedge-
path has announced that B. H.
Phaup, North Carolina confer
ence president of the Wesleyan
Methodist Church, will deliver
the dedicatory sermon at H
a.m., and lead in the mortgage-
burning.
C. Wesley Lovin, a former
pastor here and now vice presi
dent of the W.M.C. State con
ference, will preach at 7 p.m.
Also participating in the day’s
program will be T. C. Harvey,
another former pastor at Fire
stone Wesleyan.
A picnic lunch is set for 1
p.m., in the church’s youth
building at 307 South Ransoii^
street.
Firestone Wesleyan Metho
dist Church was organized here
57 years ago. The present struc
ture at Second Avenue and
Liberty street was completed
1949 at an estimated cost of
$100,000. It is on land which
was a gift of the Firestone com
pany.
There is no otheri solution
man's progress but the day ^
honest work, the day's honest d®'
cisions, the day's generous utte^'
ances and the day's good deed.
—Clara Booth