Fez-
GASTONIA • NORTH CAROLINA ^ ^ f O M ft
Your Symbol
VOIUME Xm-NUMBER 4 W W WW
of Quality
MARCH . 1964 W Jg W g
and Service
NJ s# VJr
^ive, Ten-Year
^departmental
f^ecords
Safety
Four framed commendation certificates acknowledging
five and ten-year records in departments free of a lost-time
injury were awarded at a February luncheon in the Recrea
tion Center. Certificates were accepted by department heads
Carl Rape, carding, 5-year record; W. G, Henson, shop, 5; O.
K, Forrester, warp preparation, 10; Pete McArver, cloth
room, 5. In photo from left: Mr. Rape, Raymond Mack, plant
safety manager; Mr. Henson, R. M. Sawyer, textiles division
president; Mr. Forrester and Mr. McArver.
Stereo’ Rubber Promising
^ is ifcr
^^Sfeoregulated types of synthet-
rubber which show great
I’omlse as either partial or com-
6te replacements for natural
,^bber. B. H. Larabee, vice pres-
in charge of Firestone’s
^ Dber operations, predicts that
^estic consumption of the
Sfeoregulated types of rubber
Polybutadiene and polyiso-
—will climb to about 150,-
^ long tons this year.
said free - world use of
ese new types of rubber will
■grease more than 50 per cent
year to some 235,000 long
Their domestic use will
expected record consumption of
all types of synthetic rubber in
1964, he said. Ratio throughout
the free world will be almost
10 per cent.
Stereoregulated types of rub
ber are expected to account for
20 to 25 per cent of domestic
synthetic-rubber consumption in
a few years.
MUCH of the polybutadiene
rubber used this year in the U.S.
and elsewhere will be produced
by Firestone as Diene rubber in
plants at Orange, Texas and
Port Jerome, France. Firestone
can produce either Diene or
Coral rubber (polyisoprene) in
its plants, but has concentrated
on the Diene types.
Consumption of all types of
S''^r)thetic rubber this year v/ill
increase by about 6,000 long
tons to 1,316,000 long tons. But
use of polybutadiene and polyi
soprene will increase by 40,000
long tons, indicating stereo rub
ber types are finding outlets in
a variety of products.
Mr. Larabee sees synthetic
rubber increasing its share of
domestic and foreign markets
again in 1964, that synthetic
rubber will account for about
75 per cent of the total rubber
consumption in the United
States this year, and almost 59
per cent of the rubber used in
the free world.
^01 Donors At February Bloodmobile Stop
the Red Cross bloodmo-
stop at Firestone Recrea-
Center in February, 201
|.^Peaters and many first-
among employees and
tv of the plant communi-
r 'made their gift from the
^eart”
th ■
e bloodmobile visit here
• s the first of two made dur-
^ each year. Donors, with last
*^es in alphabetical order;
. ^nnabelle Adams, David
* ^ms, Dr. Simeon Adams,
Aderholt Jr., Frede-
^ Anderson, Ernest Bagwell,
j^obie Baldwin, James Barker
q'’ J- C. Barnes, Betty Barton,
Beach, Nell Rose Beach,
^ *^68 Beddingfield, Arthur
^^chanan, Clemmer Bell,
^^lenn Henry Bell, Jennie
Opal Bradley, Coy
^^^dshaw, Dillard Bradshaw,
Briggs, Vernon Brockman,
^^rley Brooks, Luther Brown,
^ins Brunnemer, John Bry-
^nt
Sam Bunton, Sammy O.
Bunton, James Burr, Gladys
Butler, Ida Byers, William By-
rum, Raybon Calhoun, Mimmy
Cantrell, Frank Capps.
Gene Carson, Dena Champion,
Paul Chastain, Bob Chavis, Hen
ry Church, Virgil Collette, Ro
land Conrad, Jack Cook, Wil
liam Cosey, Guy Crain, Lloyd
Crain, Eva Nell Crawford, Sam
uel Crawford, Ralph Dalton,
Jennie Davidson, Coy Davis,
Fred Davis, Fred J. Davis, Grady
Davis, Lydia Davis.
Archie Deal, Harold Denton,
James Dixon Jr., Clarence Don
aldson, Johnny Ellis, Lottie J.
Ethridge, William Ethridge,
Jack Faile, C. H. Falls, John
Fletcher, George Floyd, Edgar
Foy, Ralph Franklin, Clarence
Free, Dolores Fritton, Francis
Galligan, Robert Garrett, Jackie
Gates, Evelyn Gibson, Thomas
Gibson, Don Gillespie, Joe
Givens, John Goff, Thomas
Grant, Clinton Guffey.
William Guffey, Robert Hager,
Charles Hamrick, Belon Hanna,
Gwynn Hardin, John Harris,
Frank Harrison, Keith Haygood,
James Hicks, George High,
George Hill, Theodore Hoff
man, William Hogan, Worth
Honeycutt, James Hord, Theron
Houser, Jack Howard, Jerry
Howie, Horace Hughes, Ernest
Hubbard, Warren Jackson,
Ralph Johnson.
Clarence Jolly, Frank Jolly,
Bobby Jones, Jesse Jones, Len-
nel Keenum, William Kendrick,
William Kennedy, Alfred Kes-
sell, James King, Melvin Knox,
Louise Lankford, Mary Lank
ford, J. M. Lasater, Glenn Leath-
erwood, Alvin Ledford, Jesse
Liles, Pearl Lindsay, Cramer
Little, Vernon Lovingood, Ger
trude Lowe, Gary Lyles.
Benjamin Massey, Margaret
Matthews, Ernest Mauney, Fran
ces McArver, A. D. McCarter,
Beatrice McCarter, Howard Mc
Carter, Gary McCaslin, Marvin
More on page 2
BiEDAY Textile Industry
Offers New Opportunities
Textiles—one of the world’s oldest industries—today of
fers our newest opportunity, especially for able and imagina
tive youth. It is a warmly-human industry, making products
that serve man’s basic and artistic needs. As such, it offers
promise to the young person with ambition and skill.
This was the core of what
plant general manager Harold
Mercer told 30 students of Hunt
er Huss High School, when they
were special guests of the Fire
stone Textiles plant one day in
February.
The students’ visit was part of
Business-Industry Day activities
sponsored in Gastonia by the In
dustrial Management Club in
cooperation with the Chamber
of Commerce.
BEFORE coming to the two-
hour session in the plant con
ference room, the students had
been invited to send in ques
tions related to opportunities,
jobs, products and processes in
the textile industry and at the
Gastonia Firestone plant in par
ticular.
At the meeting Mr. Mercer
dealt with the compiled ques
tions. He was assisted by Brice
T. Dickson Sr., retired executive
secretary of the local Chamber
of Commerce.
“The textile industry is no ex
ception when we say that it
looks more and more to educa
tion and increased technical
skills in the people it employs,”
the general manager said.
He pointed out that such fac
tors as America’s growing sys
tem of free enterprise, moderni
zation of production facilities
and development of new prod
ucts have brought almost un
limited opportunities to the tex
tile and allied industries, such
as the rubber industry, in the
case of the Firestone company.
The students got this added
reminder: Even with great op
portunities it doesn’t mean that
you can enter a textile mill and
move from bottom to top in a
job without effort. Business suc
cess is not usually simple and
easy.
There’s room at the top, but
there’s competition every step of
the way in getting there.
Company’s 21st Foreign Tire Plant
Thailand’s first tire plant and
the Firestone company’s 21st
foreign tire-producing facility
began operation in January at
Bangkok, capital and chief com
mercial center of the country.
Opening of this plant is anoth
er milestone in Firestone’s plan
of increased foreign production
to meet growing demands of
foreign markets.
And added tire plants natural
ly increase demand for tire fab
ric.
President Raymond C. Fire
stone said Thailand presently
has some 125,000 vehicles reg
istered, and the figure will
climb to 240,000 by 1970, a 92-
per cent increase.
The new plant is producing
—More on page 3
Juries
5T TIME 195
jDM
M. R. Batche, manager of safety in Fire
stone’s manufacturing plants, displays the
number of days without a lost-time injury at
the Gastonia plant as of mid-February. Mr,
Batche, visiting from Akron, stands before a
portion of the new safety board at the main
entrance to the mill. The rebuilt board, com
pleted last month, is done in the company
colors of red and white. ■■
Latest
Safety
Board