Retreading Operation
A tire builder applies a 19-foot-long
strip of rubber, in retreading a 2400-29
Firestone off-the-highway tire for use
on earthmoving equipment.
The rebuilding process—from buffing
the worn tire casing, through building
and curing the retread application—re
quires around 20 hours.
This same strip of tread rubber being
applied in the picture would be enough
material to retread 46 passenger car
tires, size 7:50-14.
THE HILLS BEYOND
Henry S. Richard: Racing Director
FROM GASTONIA PLANT
17 Applied For Scholarships
Seventeen applicants from Firestone Textiles (Gastonia)
households are among the 413 high school seniors through
out the United States who are hopefuls for winning Firestone
College Scholarships this year.
Applicalions—all in on March A Gastonia Winner
1—are being reviewed by the
scholarship committee. Names of
Scholarship and Certificate of
Merit winners will be announc
ed by early May.
The southeast division area
with 119 applications, and the
central division with 105 led the
list of applicants. Memphis,
Tenn., plants had 88; Akron,
Ohio, 86; Los Angeles, Calif.,
and Des Moines, Iowa, 28 each;
and Pottstown, Pa., 24.
Last year, 405 applications
were received for the highest
total to that time. Of this group,
29 received four-year college
scholarships and 104 others were
awarded Certificates of Merit
and U. S. Savings Bonds for
their outstanding records in high
Echool.
Included was Miss Betty Ann
McAbee of Gastonia, daughter
of L. B. McAbee, assistant di
vision manager of cotton, and
Mrs. McAbee. Betty is attending
Erskine College at Due West,
S. C.
Scholarships are awarded to
sons and daughters of Firestone
employees across the United
States on the basis of propor
tional company employment, so
that all applicants will have
equal opportunity regardless of
where they live. Scholarship
winners may attend any ac
credited college or university in
the United States. A scholarship
continues for four years, so long
as the student maintains a satis
factory scholastic and personal
record. .
IF YOU WRITE . . .
They’ll Do A Better Job
The persons who represent you in national government
are the two Senators from your state and the Representa
tive from your Congressional district. Your spokesman in
Washington can do the most effective job for you and the
other people back home when he knows and understands
the people’s views—and when the people understand the
Representative’s problems.
A Congressman’s first obliga- 5. Ask him to get the job done
tion is to the people he repre- you’re talking about. You’ve said
sents. Accurate and useful in- where you stand; ask him where
formation sent to him by a voter he stands,
in his district is appreciated.
Hearing from “back home” is a
pleasure, because it indicates
that the people know he is on
the job, and that they are in
terested in what he is doing.
So, don’t wait until you have
a complaint to write to your
Senators and Representatives.
They’re human too, and they
appreciate a pat on the back—
just like you do. But if you have
a complaint, don’t hesitate to
write, for part of the Repre
sentative’s job is to listen to the
people.
Let these guiding principles
help you in writing to your Rep
resentatives;
1. Make letters brief as pos
sible, but include essentials,
such as facts of yourself and
your business.
2. If you’re for something, or
against it, say so plainly. Prove
your case with facts and figures.
3. Be reasonable, seeking pos
sible things.
4. Use your personal station
ery and write in your own letter
style. Compliment him on a job
well done, thank him; recognize
members of his staff.
5^1
D
6. Write again. Keep your
representative informed of your
views on all important legisla
tion in the Congressional “mill”.
Forrns Of Address
U. S. SENATOR
Honorable John Smith
United States Senate
Washington, D. C.
U. S. REPRESENTATIVE
Honorable Sam Jones
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.
Awards include tuition, fees,
textbooks and a substantial con
tribution to room and board ex
penses.
In the current academic year
there are 96 students from 27
states attending college on Fire
stone scholarships.
Henry S. Richard, director of
racing for Firestone since 1959,
died at his home in Akron, Ohio,
March 9. Well known in auto
racing circles in this country
and Europe, he had worked with
major racing events since 1945.
1961 B-E Day
—From page 1
Chamber of Commerce here,
commented:
“During past generations it
was assumed that people didn’t
have to be convinced of the
worth of our American Free En
terprise system, and our price
less American heritage. In these
days it has become necessary for
us to explain our system, that
it not be misunderstood.”
Mr. Richard, 53, grew up in
Bloomsburg, Pa. He worked on
the Akron Beacon Journal in the
mid-1930s, before becoming edi
tor of the Firestone Non-Skid,
employee publication. In 1943
he became a public relations rep
resentative and was later placed
on assignment with special
events and racing.
He directed and coordinated
all phases of Firestone’s auto
mobile racing activities in the
United States and foreign coun
tries where Firestone tires were
used.
He is survived by his wife and
six children in Akron, a brother
in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; his
mother and a sister in Blooms
burg and a sister in Jim Thorpe,
Pa.
RELATED ARTICLE
ON PAGE 4
Facts On Group Insurance
Most employees are familiar with the com
pany’s group insurance program. It includes life
insurance, accidental death and dismemberment
insurance, hospital, in-hospital-medical and sur
gical expense insurance, and insurance to pro
vide for weekly accident and sickness benefits.
The insurance office gets frequent inquiries
concerning coverage which the program offers.
Since many of the inquiries are of interest to all
Firestone people, the plant newspaper here be
gins a question-answer column on the subject.
In this issue, we offer comments on weekly
accident and sickness benefit coverage under the
group insurance plan. We will deal with other
aspects of the program later.
Note to employees: You are invited to send
questions on the insurance plan to Firestone
News, P. O. Box 551, Gastonia.
Here are some frequently-asked questions:
Q. If I am absent from work because of illness,
and benefits are payable from the eighth day
of disability, isn't the waiting period de
termined from the last day I spent on the job?
A. Yes, providing you are treated by your phy
sician within three days from the last day you
worked. If not, the waiting period will start
on the day you place yourself under the care
of a physician.
Q. If I am sent home from work by the Com
pany's medical department because of illness,
am I required to see my own physician before
benefits are payable?
A. Yes. To be eligible for benefits, you must be
under the care of your own regular physician.
The physician must be licensed (M.D. or D.O.)
to practice medicine.
Q. Why were disability payments sometimes
stopped before I was able to return to work?
A. If the physician has indicated a date for you
to return to work, disability payments are
stopped as of that date. If you are not able
to return to work on that date, you ought to
request a new disability form and have your
physician complete it, showing a new return-
to-work date.
Q. If I am absent from work because of illness
and enter a hospital before the eighth day of
absence, when do weekly benefits become
payable?
A. Weekly benefits become payable on the eighth
day of disability, providing you have been
under care of a physician within three days
of the last day you were on the job. The fact
that you entered the hospital has no effect
on the date that benefits are payable.
Its More Than Telling
About Our Products
“An industry or business in a community is
pretty much like an individual citizen,” observ
ed a loom fixer, as he went about his task of
mechanics.
“That’s right,” agreed the weaver, “because
you can’t just set a factory down in the middle
of somewhere without being a part of the com
munity.”
It was their way of saying that public goodwill
is an essential part of any business today. After
all, it's nothing more than a company making
friends with the community and the world
around it.
For people who have dealings of any kind with
an industry or a company, goodwill represents
an appreciation of that company or industry’s
character—attitudes, integrity or lack of it, and
problems as an organization operates in its
community.
Public goodwill is much more than making a
company's products known. It increases sales, to
be sure, but it also establishes the kind of faith
in the company that forms a foundation for
growth and expansion and future job security.
What makes a company’s public goodwill pro
gram? A thousand things—and more. Everybody
in a company is a part of the program. Each
piece of quality work turned out . . . every letter
typed . . . every telephone call processed . . .
every meeting with plant visitors, all have their
effect on what the public thinks of the company.
Whenever you speak, write, or act as a com
pany employee—whether direct or indirect con
tact with the public—you influence the com
munity’s opinion of your company. To those
you meet and know, you are the company.
We'll find more of the milk of
human kindness on our doorstep
if we remember to return the
bottles.—Beam Hauler
April, 1961 Page 2
Volume X Number 5
☆ ☆ ☆
Published by The Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company,
Firestone Textiles Division,
Gastonia, North Carolina.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles A. Clark, Photographer
PLANT REPORTERS
Carding—Payton Lewis, Jessie
Ammons
Cloth Room—Margie Waldrep
Industrial Relation s—Flora
Pence
Main Office—Bea McCarter
Quality Control—Sallie Craw
ford, Louella Queen, Leila
Rape
Spinning—L illie A. Brown,
Maude Peeler, Mary Turner
Spooling—Nell Bolick, Rosalie
Burger, Ophelia Wallace
Mechanical Department — Rosie
Francum
Twisting—Vera Carswell, Elease
Cole, Annie Cosey, Katie El
kins, Catherine Fletcher
Twisting (Sales)—Elmina Brad
shaw
Warehouse—N a n c y Cloninger,
George Harper, Albert Meeks,
Rosevelt Rainey
Weaving (cotton)—Ruth Veitch
Weaving (synthetics)—Mary E*
Johnson, Irene Odell
Winding—Ruth Cloninger, May-
zelle Lewis