Waste Control In Industry Is A 24-Hour Job
Summer's fun in Firestone
playground
—Page 2
Little League teams in all-star
playoff
—Page 3
History, progress meet in
Kings Mountain
—Page 4
GASTONIA
Company a good-will ambas
sador abroad
—Page 5
Summary report of auto safe
ty inspection
—Page 5
Output is chief aim of Russian
industry
—Page 7
VOLUME VIII
GASTONIA, N. C., JULY, 1959
NUMBER 8
SYMBOL OF VICTORY—Looking at the trophy now on dis
play in the plant's main entrance are (from left): A. V. Riley, safe
ty director; Nelson Kessell, general superintendent; and F. B. Galli-
gan, superintendent of the Cotton Division.
Gastonia Unit Running Well
In Interplant Safety Race
The Gastonia plant is off to a good start on its first-year
relay of a 12-year race in accident control, competing with
the two other North American textile plants of the com
pany. Other units involved in the rivalry are Firestone Tex
tiles, Bennettsville, S, C.; and Firestone Textiles Ltd., Wood-
stock, Ontario, Canada.
Symbol of victory is an award
plaque of polished walnut, sup
porting a gold-gilded figure hold
ing the green cross symbol for
safety. There are bronze tablets
to record the winners by years,
and the grand winner at the
windup of the contest.
THE PLAQUE will be on dis
play here until near the end of
July. Then it will go to Ben
nettsville and in turn, to Wood-
stock. After that it will be re
turned to the office of W. A.
Karl in Akron, Ohio. The presi
dent of the three competing
plants will keep it until a win
ner claims it at the end of this
year. President Karl will go to
the victorious plant for a formal
presentation of the trophy.
Object of the contest is to
strive for a safety performance
record with the least number of
lost-time accidents. For the pur
pose of scoring, safety director
A. V. Riley explains: “A dis
abling injury is any injury aris
ing out of and in the course of
employment, and resulting in
death, permanent impairment, or
loss of time beyond the day or
shift on which the accident oc
curs.”
3 NEW PLANTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
30-Month Expansion Program
Will Cost $55,000,000
The company has announc
ed a $55,000,000 expansion
program for its worldwide
production facilities. Total
Firestone investment in the
30-month program will ex
ceed $40,000,000 in the United
States. The remainder will go
for foreign projects.
On this, chairman Harvey S.
Firestone Jr., said: “We look
forward to a continuing rise in
the demand for our products,
so we are embarking on a pro
gram to increase our production
capacity, in order to meet our
anticipated needs at home and
abroad.”
Three More Plants Scheduled
Included in the company’s
plans are three plants, one in
Alcochete, Portugal, which is
now under construction and is
scheduled to go into operation
late this year.
Preliminary work on the sec
ond plant, at Orange, Texas, has
been completed. This unit, an
addition to the Firestone Petro
chemical Center there, will pro-
IN CASE of a tie in any sep
arate contest, the winning plant
will be determined by the low
est accident severity rate, that is,
the number of days lost per 1,-
000,000 manhours worked.
The contest will continue for
the next 12 years, with each
year a contest in itself. Should
one of the contesting plants win
the plaque three years in suc
cession, the rivalry would not be
extended to 12 years. Starting
in 1960 and each year after that,
the contest will date from Janu
ary 1 to December 31.
duce the company’s new man-
made rubber compounds, Coral
and Diene.
A new tire manufacturing
plant to be located in Western
Canada, has also been announc
ed.
Construction on the Canadian
plant will begin immediately. It
is expected that the new facility
will be ready for production in
late 1960.
—More on Page 2
Mrs. U. S. Savings Bonds
Saw Firestone At Work
Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds stopped here recently, for a
look at production operations and a visit with plant officials.
Mrs. Murray Severance Jr., symbol of thrift and patriotism
for America’s 50 million homemakers, placed her stop at
Firestone among her last official visits near the end of 15
tours for the Treasury Department.
Accompanying her here were chosen the Treasury Depart-
Raymond C. Barker, area rep
resentative of the Treasury De
partment, NC Savings Bonds
Division, and Charles D. Gray,
Gaston County Savings Bonds
chairman.
ON HER TOURS during the
past several months, Mrs. Sever
ance traveled in 36 states,
spreading the gospel of regular
savings as a vital force in suc
cessful family living. She made
television appearances, stopped
at military installations, and
presented the U.S. Treasury
flag to industries having an out
standing record of savings
through payroll deduction.
Mrs. Savings Bonds is the
former Dorothy Haworth of
Madison, Tenn. Her husband,
from Gastonia, is a producer of
documentary films for the South
ern Baptist Sunday School
Board of Nashville. His wife won
the title Mrs. Nashville and then
, Mrs. Tennessee before being
J
M
ment’s top woman volunteer to
promote the sale of U.S. Savings
Stamps and Bonds.
Mrs. Severance is a housewife
and homemaker. Besides caring
for the children—Marc, age 6;
and Marcia, 2, she teaches a Sun
day school class, is active in
garden club, YWCA work, par-
ent-teacher and women’s or
ganizations. She is author of two
books—one on teen-age prob
lems, the other directed to
parents of children ages 2 to 4.
A recent issue of Parent’s Mag
azine published her article, “A
Budget Is A Plan For Living.”
THE OFFICE of Mrs. U.S.
Savings Bonds, she explained,
was established primarily for
work with women. “But I have
had more contacts with bankers,
business men, industrialists, and
labor management than with
women’s groups. I have talked
—More on Page 6
☆
LEFT — Mrs. U.S. Savings
Bonds for 1959 had a lesson in
the weaving of; synthetic tire
cord from Clyde Moss, assistant
to the plant's general superin
tendent. At left in picture:
Charles D. Gray, Gaston County
Savings Bonds chairman.
RIGHT—Harold Mercer and
Mrs. Severance look over a
Treasury Department award,
presented recently to the plant
general manager "for patriotic
service to the community and
the nation." The citation recog
nizes Mr. Mercer for his contri
bution to the sale of U.S. Sav
ings Bonds through the payroll
savings plan.