PAGE 6
JULY, 1959
oil
Twenty persons attended a reunion of the Davis-Flack families
at Chimney Rock in Western North Carolina on Sunday, June 14.
In the afternoon the people ascended the top of the famed stone
formation, for a view of the Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure—
Chimney Rock country. Then they had a group picture made for
publication in area newspapers.
The Davis brothers—Grady (Carding), Roy (Weaving-syn
thetic), and Ben (Recreation Center), with their families, and an
other brother, Zang Davis, with Mrs. Davis, were among those
from Gastonia attending the annual gathering. Also from this area
were Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Pettus, Mrs. Helen Bolick; and Mr. and
Mrs. Buford Ware of Kings Mountain. Mrs. Pettus, Bolick and Ware
are sisters of the Davis brothers employed here.
Mrs. Paul Alexander, Main Office, Mr. Alexander and sons
Paul Jr., and Larry Bruce spent 10 days in late June visiting friends
and relatives, and having a look at places of historical interest
in Florida.
They traveled the entire length of the state, stopping at Home
stead, then Key West, famed sponge-fishing center and terminal
of the highway spanning the keys from the mainland. On the
homeward way, they stopped at Miami and Miami Beach; then at
St. Augustine, went on tours of well-known historic landmarks.
Among these were Castillo de San Marcos, oldest masonry fort in
the United States; the city gates, the old school house, and what
is reputed to be the oldest house in the U.S., possibly dating from
the late 1500s.
At Cape Canaveral, near Cocoa, the Alexanders got a long-
range view of the missile-launching grounds. “We went as far as
they allow unauthorized persons to go,” said Mrs. Alexander.
Leonard Saleeby is a new employee in the shipping depart
ment. He lives at 713 West Seventh Avenue.
A trip to the coast and recreation at Myrtle Beach, S. C., were
highlights of a recent week end away from home for Mrs. Max
Pearson, accounting; and Mr. Pearson, Quality Control laboratory.
Barbara Craig is a newcomer to the accounting department.
She and her husband, Larry E. Craig, live at 811 West Third
avenue.
Judy White of Lenoir visited in mid-June with her aunt and
uncle, Mrs. Howard McCarter of payroll, and Mr. McCarter of
Spinning.
—More on Page 8
Mower Wisdom In Verse
A power mower’s
lots of fun
It cuts the grass
and cuts it fast
But never mow
upon the run
You’ve ten toes only
—make them last
Sticks and stones
in a mower blade
Can deliver a lethal
blow
So rake your lawn
in sun and shade
Make safe preparations
to mow
It’s not a toy
for children made
That mowei with teeth
of steel
Keep them away
from purring blade
And motor-driven wheel
Don’t be nosy if the
mower should stop
Unless a skilled fixer
you are
Why ask for trouble?
, A good repair shop
Can fix it more safely
by far
©-1959 American Mutual Liability
Insurance Company
Two Employees
Finish Course
In Textiles
Two Firestone employees
were among the 151 persons who
received diplomas at the June
11 commencement exercises of
the North Carolina Vocational
Textile School at Belmont.
Jack E. Tino and Jarvis E.
Plemmons of Twisting (syn
thetic) completed the advanced
course in yarn manufacturing,
which covers processes from
opening room to spinning. The
advanced study and the first
course in yarn manufacturing
represented 32 hours of aca
demic work for each of the two
employees.
Mr. Tino, who works first
shift, attended classes from 3-
6:30 p.m., five days a week. Be
cause Mr. Plemmons works sec
ond shift, he attended school
from 8:20 a.m. to 1 p.m., five
days a week.
AT CLOSING exercises of the
winter-spring term of NCVTS,
the audience heard an address
by F. Sadler Love, secretary-
treasurer of the American Cot
ton Manufacturers Institute.
The speaker told the gradu
ates that in order to be success-
/
Jarvis H. Plemmons
ful, they must be technically
qualified for their jobs. Among
other qualities leading to suc
cess, Mr. Love listed: Enthusi
asm for the job, ability to follow
instructions, an understanding
Jack E. Tino
heart for people, and a sense of
fairness.
“You need to be loyal to your
company and to your superiors.
Most important, you must have
character,’' Mr. Love concluded.
Mrs. U. S. Bonds
—From Page 1
to bankers about stocks, to in
dustry on payroll savings, and
to PTA groups on the Savings
Stamps program for children.”
On her tour of the plant, she
left a word about household
economics:
“Thrift is the real maintainer
of family happiness. It isn’t only
the wife who is the homemaker
—husband and children are
homemakers, too. And it can be
a very rewarding partnership.”
LESSON IN ECONOMICS
When Profits Go—
The Business Dies
Profits are the sustenance of business, and of
employment. Without profits, funds would not be
available for additional plant or equipment to
care for an expanding labor force. Successful
companies producing what people want could not
grow ... If profits did not exist, they would
have to be invented, as Russia has learned. . . .
What happens is that business actually spends
more than its retained profits. Roughly 60 per
cent of its profits are paid out in good years
(59.9 per cent in the years 1950 to 1958). The
dividends go to stockholders, such as pension
funds, investment funds, insurance companies,
retired people and investors generally. The other
40 per cent of profits is generally invested in im
proving the facilities or expanding the capacity of
the companies making profits. . . .
Thin Margin of Safety for Profits
Even for good firms, profits represent what is
left after everybody else has had his hand in the
pocket. Sales of all manufacturing corporations
in 1957, for instance, totaled just less than $320
billion. Costs and expenses came to nearly $293
billion. This left about 8.4 cents profit per dollar
of sales before taxes. Taxes came to nearly 50 per
cent of this, leaving 4.8 cents in the profits after
taxes. Costs represented nearly 92 per cent of in
come. Had costs been only five per cent higher,
or 96 per cent of income, profits would have
been cut by more than half. The margin of safety
for profits is thin. It may rise appreciably in good
periods. Profits after taxes per dollar of sales
were 5.1 per cent in the first quarter of 1957.
They were 3.4 per cent in the first quarter of
1958. That was a drop of one third in a year. . . .
THE INVESTOR wants protection against such
fluctuation. When business is good, his profits
must protect him against times when business is
poor, just as an employee wants private and pub
lic protection against periods of unemployment
in the form of unemployment and other types of
insurance. Lacking such protection, investment
ceases . . . plant, equipment and other capital
outlays during the 1950-1958 period came to more
than $310 billion. If no dividends had been paid
and all capital funds from all accounts reinvested,
the amount available from total profits would still
have fallen short of the amount used during these
years. Because dividends were paid, investors
were willing to put new money into the firms.
For every dollar paid in dividends during these
years, more than $2 was invested in plant alone.
Dividends were the bait which attracted this
capital.
PROFITS dropped 11 per cent from 1953 to
1954 while total labor income dropped less than
one per cent. Labor income rose five per cent
from 1956 to 1957, but corporate profits fell again.
Profits are erratic over short periods. Labor will
not accept such an uncertain return. It insists on
security through public and private insurance
devices. The only insurance for the investor is
an occasional opportunity for an above-average
return to offset the times when returns are in
adequate.
—Robinson Newcomb in
Nation's Business
S3!1W^
Volume VIII, No. 8, July, 1959
Published by The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Firestone Textiles Division,
Gastonia, North Ceirolina. Department of Industrial Relations
DEPARTMENT REPORTERS
CARDING—Edna Harris, Jessie Ammons.
SPINNING—Lillie Brown, Mary Turner,
Maude Peeler.
SPOOLING—Nell Bolick, Ophelia Wallace,
Rosalie Burger.
TWISTING—Elease Cole, Vera Carswell,
Katie Elkins, Annie Cosey, Catherine
Fletcher.
SALES YARN TWISTING—Elmina Brad
shaw.
SYC WEAVING—M a X i e Carey, Ruth
Veitch.
CORD WEAVING — Irene Odell, Mary
Johnson, Samuel Hill.
QUALITY CONTROL — Sally Crawford,
Leila Rape, and Louella Queen.
WINDING—Mayzelle Lewis, Ruth Clon-
inger.
CLOTH ROOM—Margie Waldrep, Mildred
McLeymore
SHOP—Rosie Francum.
PLASTIC DIP—Jennie Bradley.
MAIN OFFICE—Doris McCready. '
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS—Flora Pence.
WAREHOUSE—George Harper, Albert
Meeks, Rosevelt Rainey, Marjorie Falls.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles A. Clark, Photographer