PAGE 4
Tire$fone MSWi
NOVEMBER, 1959
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This Doffer in Spinning Also A Song Weaver
MUSICAL FAMILY—Mr. and Mrs. Mervin Huffman with
children, Lona and Mervin N., at their 1006 West Rankin street
home. They like music with a Christian message.
Plants In France And India
In Vast Expansion Program
A multi - million - dollar
manufacturing operation in
France is the most-recently-
scheduled facility to be built
in the company’s world ex
pansion program. Plans for
the unit include a tire factory
and a plant for production of
synthetic latices and copoly
mers of butadiene and sty
rene.
Company chairman Harvey S.
Firestone Jr. said that a full
line of tires and tubes for pas
senger cars, trucks, buses, farm
equipment, motorcycles, and
scooters will be produced. This
will be Firestone’s 18th tire
plant outside the United States.
Location of the unit had not
been determined in mid-October,
but plans call for construction
to begin as soon as a site is
selected. The tire unit is expect
ed to be in production by late
next year.
In France: Opportunities
Mr. Firestone noted that many
raw materials for production are
available in France, and pur-
☆ ☆ ☆
Synthetic Rubber
Plant For India
In the company’s latest expan
sion program is a $30,000,000
project, which includes plans for
production of butadiene and
styrene, the main raw materials,
as well as a copolymer unit to
manufacture styrene rubber.
The operation in India will be
that country’s first synthetic
rubber project, with an annual
capacity of 30,000 tons, and an
initial production of 20,000 tons.
The plants, now being estab
lished in the heart of the sugar
cane and alcohol-producing area
in the United Province, are
scheduled for operation within a
year.
Butadiene, chief ingredient of
synthetic rubber, will be made
from the alcohol obtained from
sugar cane. This will utilize part
chases of supplies will be made
from sources within the country
as much as possible.
“This will result in indirect
employment for many people be
sides those directly employed in
our manufacturing cpsraticn,”
he said.
Of opportunities in France,
Mr. Firestone made these obser
vations:
The country is third largest
market for tires in the world.
France has a rapidly-growing
motor vehicle export business—
third in the world behind West
Germany and the United King
dom.
French industry has greatly
expanded since the end of World
War II, and the automotive in
dustry is the fourth largest in
the world—after the United
States, West Germany and the
United Kingdom.
Mr. Firestone added: “The
French people have an outstand
ing reputation for being effici
ent, hard-working, and adapt
able to the complexities of mod
ern manufacturing methods.”
of the large unused supply of
alcohol in India.
Employ Native Skills
Firestone, participating with
private banks in the United
States and the United Kingdom,
will provide half the initial capi
tal, and India will raise the re
mainder. The company plans to
train Indian technicians and op
erating personnel for the plants.
It is estimated that the project
will save India some $10,000,000
in foreign exchange each year.
Firestone has been established
in India for many years, first as
a distributor and since 1939 also
as a manufacturer. In Bombay
there are facilities for produc
tion of tires and tubes for pas
senger cars, trucks, buses, farm
equipment, off-highway ma
chines, and motor scooters. Re
cent expansion in the Bombay
facilities is meeting India’s
growing transportation needs.
Mervin Huffman’s skilled
hands doff yarn on first shift
Spinning. Off the job, you’ll find
those hands turned to another
kind of artistry which is con
stantly enriching the field of
popular gospel music.
The composer, whose songs
have been recorded by “big-
time” singing groups and widely
printed in sheet music form, has
a new release on the Bibletone
label. The song, “Do You Go To
Church to Worship?” featuring
the famous Cavaliers Quartet, is
currently being played on radio
stations and sung in churches
and gospel concerts across the
land.
Mr. Huffman’s interest in com
bining lyrics and melody for
songs with a Christian message
began several years ago. In
spired by hymns and gospel
tunes heard in church, he
learned to play the guitar at 14,
later took to the piano.
Then he began playing songs
of his own creation.
IN 1949 his work gained at
tention of publishers. This led to
a contract with a New York re
cording company, under which
agreement he and Mrs. Huffman
recorded “Finding Jesus Won
derful” and “Freedom and
Right.”
By the time he had added a
few other songs, including “He
Prayed ‘Forgive Them, Father’ ”
and “He’s My Saviour”, he had
signed them to Decca Records.
Another one, “Just A Little
More of Jesus”, was produced
about the time he entered a con-
i
Giant Potato
This Puerto Rico sweet potato
missed the area fairs by a few
days. But John P. Smith—the
man who cultivated it—is con
vinced that it would have com
manded a prize in anybody’s ex
hibit.
Here Mr. Smith, Cloth Room
clerk, suggests the enormity of
the choice tuber. With some of
the taproot lost in digging, it
still measured 'dVz inches long,
41/2 inches diameter at its widest
point, and I8V2 inches in circum
ference. It weighed 4% pounds.
Although the biggest speci
men, this was not the only hefty
potato in Mr. Smith’s crop this
year. From 50 plants there was
a five-bushel harvest. The gar
dener pampered the plants with
nitrate of soda, but hoed them
only twice.
tract with Lynn Publishers of
New York. Now, he has a con
tract with BMI (Broadcast Music
Inc.) which brings a royalty on
his songs when played over
radio and TV.
Among the more than 20
songs now in preparation are
“I’m Talking About Jesus”,
“Just A Few Days Away”, and
“What Would It Profit You
Then?”
Of his favorite singing groups
that are popular today the em-
ployee-composer lists the Rebels
Quartet, the Blue Ridge Quartet,
and the Blackwood Brothers.
WHENCE COME his ideas for
a song? Many sources — some
unsuspecting ones, such as while
driving down the highway, or
doing the chores at home. His
procedure is to write down some
words, review them with the
family, discover a fitting melody
on the guitar or piano, then
record it on tape.
At Gaston Avenue Church of
God, where he is a member, in
spiration came for “Do You Go
To Church To Worship?”
“Other songs have had their
origin while I was reading the
Bible, listening to a teacher at
Sunday school, or just recalling
memories,” he says.
And it may be while the spin
dles are whirring that a song is
born.
Miss Helen Spencer traveled by airplane to Greensboro recent
ly for a visit with Mrs. Walter Hiatt.
Leonard Saleeby of the shipping department went to Wake
Forest to attend the recent Wake Forest-Carolina football game.
Plant safety director A. V. Riley attended the 47th National
Safety Congress and Exposition in Chicago, October 19-23 at the
Conrad Hilton Hotel.
Mr. Riley appeared on the program of a section devoted to
accident prevention in the textile industry. In other sessions, he
met with several Firestone people from the company’s various
plants in the United States and Canada. Eugene S. Sweeney, plant
manager at the company’s Bennettsville, S. C. plant, was among
those attending from the South.
Mrs. Robert Pence, industrial relations, Mr. Pence and their
son Bobby spent a week in Akron, Ohio in late October. On their
motor trip north, they stopped in Harrisonburg, Va., and in Roanoke
on the return trip.
While in Akron they visited Mrs. Pence’s brother, S. F. Honey
cutt and his family. Mr. Honeycutt, employed at the Gastonia plant
for 20 years, was transferred to the textile division of the home
factories in 1956.
John Bryant, Shop; Arthur Moore, Boss Moore Jr., Callie B-
Moore, and Henry J. Moore went to Brooklyn, N. Y., in late Oc
tober for the funeral of Banks Moore. Mr. Moore, a brother of Mrs.
Bryant, was once an employee of the warehouse here.
Albert Meeks, warehouse, and Mrs. Meeks spent a late-October
week end in Winston-Salem, where they visited a niece, who is
a student there.
A Former Creeler
On USS Whetstone
SA Robert L. Ramsey has
completed preliminary training
at the San Diego, Calif. Naval
Base and is now assigned to the
USS Whetstone, with San Fran
cisco the home port.
Robert is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. M. L. Ramsey. The father
is second shift clerk at the Rec
reation Center. Robert himself
was employed here as a creeler
in Weaving (synthetics) for sev
eral months before joining the
Navy in early summer this year.
His address:
SA Robert Leon Ramsey, Di
vision X; USS Whetstone LSP'
27; San Francisco, Calif.