School Children And Study Material
They Ask And Firestone Helps Find Answers
Sometimes the misspellings
are on the humorous side:
“Kindly send me information
on tire and rober and a sample
for a school project. Thank you.”
Some are misdirected:
“We are having our annual
biology project and as my topic
i chose ‘Birds and Flowers of
Ohio.’ I would appreshate very
much if you have any informa
tion on this topic if you would
send it to me.”
Others are amusing:
“Number one son, Jeff (he’s a
six-year old) has once again put
his father (that’s me) to the task
of writing to you with a request.
Jeff is a real racing fan and
spends his father’s money at
tending racing events. His latest
scheme is to have a scrap book
that he can fill with pictures of
his (racing) friends. If there is a
matter of money involved, his
father, he says, will gladly ac
cept that responsibility.”
LETTERS to Firestone from
school children—or their parents
— are sometimes unusual, but
each is sincere and is typical of
the thousands of requests for
study information received each
year by the company from stu
dents in every state and several
foreign countries.
The requests, many scrawled
on the lined tablet paper of the
grade-school student, ultimate
ly arrive in the public relations
department of the company’s
Akron, Ohio, headquarters, and
many are channeled to the vari
ous plants for specific informa
tion. Sometimes the requests are
for information of a broad na
ture—for example, the textile
industry in general, material on
towns and states. These letters
are forwarded to the best sourc
es, such as chambers of com-
25’Year
People
Frank B. Ray
Industrial Reis.
Annie Hubbard Harry Parlon
Spinning Spinning
\
E. N. Bentley H. N. Freeland
Carding Spinning
OCTOBER, 1961 PAGE 4
merce, state news bureaus and
trade associations.
No matter what the requests,
each letter gets prompt atten
tion, and usually most of the re
quests can be complied with.
☆ ☆ ☆
Al the Gastonia plant, hands-
ful of requests have been an
swered during the past year,
with most of the inquiries from
students in grade school and
high school. In many of the
grade schools of the State there
is a standard project of prepar
ing a Scrapbook on North Caro
lina Industry. This is the source
of the majority of requests for
information during the school
year.
Public relations draws upon
many department-produced pub
lications on rubber, the building
of tires, racing, company history,
Liberia, plastics, petrochemicals,
company products and many
other topics relating to Fire
stone.
In addition, advertising bro
chures, reprints of articles on
Firestone from national publica
tions and dozens of miscellane
ous pieces of literature help to
answer the questions.
THOUSANDS of the publica
tions are mailed each year, with
the majority going to grade
school students and their teach
ers, and to college students pre
paring for a teaching career.
Nine motion pictures which
tell the Firestone story also have
a wide distribution. They can be
obtained free of charge by
schools, churches, clubs and
neighborhood groups.
Subjects range from racing
(“Circle of Confidence”) to an
tique autos (“Through a Rear
View Mirror”) to Africa (“A
Other Anniversaries
Five Here
Since 1936
Harry W. Parton of Spin
ning “pulled” his first shift
of work at Firestone in Gas
tonia September 1, 1936. And
before the month that year
was over, four others — all
still on the job here—joined
him. These quarter-century
people are presented in pho
tographs with this article.
A number of others with long
service records also marked
their work anniversaries in Sep
tember. The list:
Twenty Years
Roy Stiles and Leola Cham
bers, Twisting (synthetics);
Giles C. Emmett, Weaving (syn
thetics); Carolyn Sanders, Main
Office.
Fifteen Years
Ernest J. Jolly and Bernice
Me. Thomas, Weaving (syn
thetics); Geneva N. Ballenger,
Quality Control.
Ten Years
Charles E. Walker, Jerry Don
ald McMillan, Earl Owenby, Ot
to Davis and Harvie E. Hamil
ton, all Twisting (synthetics).
Benjamin F. Massey and May-
zelle W. Lewis, Weaving (syn
thetics) ; Ida Bell H. Stewart,
Weaving (cotton); N e a z e 1
Weathers, Shop.
Changing Liberia”). Copies of
the films are available through
the public relations office of the
company, and industrial rela
tions of the various plants, as
well as Association Films offices
throughout the United States.
Back to the young writer who
wanted information on birds and
flowers. It was explained to her
that Firestone currently has no
store of such information, but
maybe the Chamber of Com
merce in her home state could
help.
But a candidate for the prize
as the most unusual letter re
ceived recently from a Rocky
River, Ohio, youngster is re
produced here in its entirety:
Dear Sirs,
Will you
A Handful
of Pine Seed
. . . will cover the
hills with the
majesty of green
forest . . .
One Match
. . . carelessly used,
can destroy it all
Of The Passing Scene
The Statue of Liberty on Bed-
loe Island in New York Harbor
was dedicated October 28, 1886.
The French people presented it
to the United States as an act of
friendship between the two
countries. Americans raised
$300,000 to build a suitable ped
estal for the statue which, in
cluding the base, is one inch
less than 306 feet high above the
low water mark.
In 1936, on the 50th anni
versary of the statue, it was re
dedicated in ceremonies led by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
‘Nothing - - Nothing’
Average pay of one U. S.
Federal job-holder in a year
uses up all the Federal in
come taxes paid by 15 pro
duction workers in manufac
turing industries.
There are 6.2 million state
and local government em
ployees. Add their salary fig
ure to that of the one Federal
worker, and you have the
grand total of 8.6 million
government workers.
That’s one out of every
eight employed persons in
the United States.
How much to pay all these
salaries? $39 billion a year.
Since the people “foot the
bill” for all this government
doing, we ought to realize
that “nothing is for nothing”
and the more we allow gov
ernment to do for us the
more government will take
from us. Think on these
things.
New Champions
In Nylon, Rayon
The Firestone company has
developed a new Champion pas
senger tire that will be available
in a full range of sizes in both
nylon and rayon cord.
It will be the fir^'^cohomy'-^'
priced tire to incorporate a pre-
c i s i o n-b laded tread design.
“With addition of the new
Champion, Firestone becomes
the first major tire producer to
offer a truly modern tread de
sign in the low-price tire field
for increased driving safety,”
said E. B. Hathaway, vice pres
ident in charge of sales.
The design has four ribs of S-
shaped tread bars in a rope-like
pattern around the tire. It is
similar to the original-equip-
ment-tire tread design which
the company developed for new
autos.
Advantages of, the bladed
tread design? More non-skid
edges and skid resisters which
give improved road grip for
greater traction. It will run
much quieter because varying
lengths of tread bars cut out
whine and squeal.
The tire, to be built with the
same high-quality compound in
a full range of sizes in black or
white sidewalls, will be sold in
tubeless construction with a ny
lon cord body, or in a tube-type
with nylon or rayon cord.
When on the highways en
joying the glories of this au
tumn-blessed land, remember
this traffic-safety limerick from
the North Carolina Department
of Motor Vehicles:
The quickest way to spoil
your day.
Is just like this for instance:
You press the gas.
And iry to pass.
With insufficient distance.
Museum Hours
Visiting schedule for the
fall-and-winter season at
Gaston Museum of Natural
History is 2:30 to 5:30
p.m., daily except Monday.
Director R. M. Schiele
said a new feature of the
fall-and-winter season is
the scheduling of classes
from various county
schools to visit and inspect
the exhibits and other en
tries. Illustrated talks on
nature will also be offered
on certain nights.
According to Mr. Schiele,
Sunday is the most popu
lar day for visiting the mu
seum. Well over 2,000 per
sons have seen the ex
hibits from the time of the
museum dedication in late
July, to late September.
Gaston Museum of Nat
ural History is on East
Seventh avenue near Grier
School.
Suggestions
—From Page 1
Edward Tart Jr., Weaving
(synthetics), storage for slasher
splines.
P. R. Lewis, Carding, chocks
for parking boxes.
Frank Jolly, Nylon Treating,
additional lights in Nylon Treat
ing; Splash pans for dip barrels
in Weaving (synthetics).
Larry Sanders, Cloth Room,
added fabric on Hermas rolls.
Maude Jenkins, Twisting (syn
thetics), improved respooler op
eration.
Charles V. Cates, Weaving
(synthetics), covered refuse re
ceptacles; improvement in tire-
cord baling tables.
S. P. Bolding, Industrial Re
lations, traffic sign in shop yard.
Margaret Rhyne, Cloth Room,
improvement in cloth tables for
fabric letoff.
Ozell Neely, Weaving (syn
thetics), safety chain for quill-
stripper operation.
W. Arrett Johnson, Spinning,
heavy-duty guard rails to pro
tect spinning frames.
A Story Worth Telling
A lack of information about anything results
in a lot of misconceptions which people have.
There’s the textile industry, for example. Many
people think of it as outdated, lacking in ability
to compete in the production picture. And there
are those who think the industry is “dragging
its feet because it is controlled “by a few large
companies.”
All of this, of course, arises from a lack of
knowledge of the textile industry.
And that points up the fact that there is a tre
mendous educational job to be done by every
one in the industry.
Each of us talks with people every day who are
not directly associated with the textile industry.
Some of those people will never know much—if
anything about the textile industry, unless we
tell them.
Because of us and our fellow workers and
almost a million other employees in textile plants
across the country, this industry has been able
to forge ahead, even in the face of many prob
lems.
This is a story worth telling to our friends,
neighbors and others with whoni we talk. Ours is
a vital industry. We can proudly “put in a good
word” for it.