“Text
RALEIGH — Attacks on law
enforcement officers occur with
alarming frequency, but a textile
product can prevent many of
these incidents from involving
fatalities.
Concealable body armor, or
bullet-proof vests, can save an of-
ficer’s life. The vests, a textile
product made of DuPont’s
Kevlar, are not inexpensive,
however, and the budgets of
many local law enforcement
agencies lack funds to provide
the body armor for officers.
Members of the North Carolina
Textile Manufacturers Associa-
tion (NCTMA) decided last year
to purchase bullet-proof vests as
part of a “Textiles Saving Lives’’
program designed to educate the
public about the lifesaving pro-
perties of textiles.
The program was so success-
ful, with 57 vests purchased for
law enforcement officers in 12
North Carolina communities,
that the Association elected to
continue the project in 1988.
Since the program began last
year, 102 vests have been pur-
chased for the police depart-
ments in 23 communities
throughout the state.
The ‘Textiles Saving Lives”
project originated from a stark
radio report about a North
Carolina Highway Patrol officer
whose bullet-proof vest enabled
him to survive a firearm attack
in Western North Carolina.
Paul Baker, Jr., of Hadley-
Peoples Manufacturing Com-
pany in Siler City, an active
NCTMA member, heard the
report and remembered that the
vests are a textile product.
The Association investigated
the --octe and learned the follow-
Imports
Foreign trade and imports are
issues most Americans don’t
think of very much, but in this
election year there are some
trade issues, particularly in the
area of textile and apparel im-
ports, which will have profound
effects on the way millions of
Americans earn a living.
Textile and apparel imports,
according to the government’s
latest trade figures, continue to
flow into the U.S. at near last
year’s record levels.
Today, 55 percent of the textile
and apparel market is controlled
by imports. The U.S. textile in-
dustry is operating at only 83 per-
cent of capacity. Unemployment
in the textile and apparel in-
dustry is growing. In the last
decade 400,000 jobs were lost to
imports, and the very founda-
tions of a once healthy, basic in-
dustry have been shaken.
While the problem with textile
imports has been around for a
long time it has accelerated in
the last eight years.
From 1971 to 1981 the U.S. tex-
tile and apparel deficit grew
from $2.077 billion to $6.407
billion. From 1981 to 1983 it grew
as much as it had in the
receding 10 years to $10.585
illion. At the end of 1987 it
towered at a shocking $25.795
billion!
The response of the textile and
apparel industry has been to seek
import controls. Not import
bans, but control of the growth of
imports to match the expansion
of the U.S. market.
Critics of the industry position
have labeled it ‘protectionist’
and claimed that such action
J
“Buy the
Til-Mar
Textile
Zabric
Outlet
7101 East Suttle Street
SHELBY, NC
BEHIND 1st NATIONAL BANK
EAST MARION BRANCH
Buy the Yard”
104-482-2501
ing:
e The body armor protects
against assaults by firearms
and knives or other cutting
instruments, but cannot be
used again once it has
deflected a bullet.
» The vests are expensive — as
much as $300 each. While the
State of North Carolina pro-
vides the vests free to its law
enforcement personnel, local
law enforcement agencies
generally lack sufficient
funds in the budget to supply
their officers. Officers can
purchase the vests
themselves, but the high cost
is often prohibitive.
According to State records,
police officers were as-
saulted with firearms 143
times and with knives or
other cutting instruments 62
times in 1986. In addition,
from 1976-1986, 27 law en-
forcement officers were kill-
ed in the line of duty in North
Carolina.
“If just one officer is able to
walk away from a vicious
criminal attack because of this
body armor, our efforts will have
been fully rewarded,” said Keith
Norwood of National Spinning
Company in Washington, who
heads at the project through the
Association’s Textile Week Com-
mittee.
Norwood and NCTMA outlined
the program for textile com-
panies in the State, encouraging
them to purchase the vests for
their local law enforcement per-
sonnel.
“We are particularly gratified
that some non-textile companies
and the Town of Tarboro were
impressed enough to join in the
program,” said Norwood.
Textile and non-textile com-
panies in Tarboro purchased
nine of the bullet-proof vests for
the Tarboro Police Department.
The town government was so im-
pressed by the importance of the
program that it then authorized a
town expenditure to equip the
police force’s remaining 12
members with the concealable
body armor.
“Textiles are important to
everyone,’ said NCTMA Presi-
dent Marshall Y. Cooper, Jr., of
Harriet & Henderson Yarns in
Henderson. ‘“We felt that the
bullet-proof vest was an ex-
cellent way to make this point to
the public. This is a contem-
porary example of a textile pro-
duct which can save lives and
which has saved lives.”
Companies participating in the
“Textiles Saving Lives” project
to date are: WestPoint Pepperell
in Lumberton, Elizabethtown
and Martin County; Spray Cotton
Mills in Eden; American &
Efird, Inc., in Mount Holly;
Tuscarora Yarns in Mt. Pleasant
and China Grove; Hadley-
Peoples Manufacturing Com-
pany, Hart Furniture and Glen-
dale Hosiery, all in Siler City;
the Gaston County Textile Week
Committee in Gaston County;
the Alamance County Crafted
With Pride Committee, in
Alamance County; the City of
Burlington, Elon College, Gib-
sonville and Mebane.
_ Also participating are: Burl-
ington Industries in Mount Holly;
Dixie Yarns in Gastonia, Tar-
boro, China Grove, Mount Holly
Threaten Industry
would, in the long run, result in a
hopelessly inefficient industry.
Industry proponents say all
they want is a chance to compete
for a fair share of our own
market.
A vibrant textile and apparel
industry is important to America
for a number of reasons.
Jobs. The U.S. textile, fiber
and apparel industries employ
2.2 million workers, more than
the combined auto and steel in-
dustries.
A healthy U.S. economy. Eigh-
teen of the 20 U.S. manufacturing
industries are in trade deficit.
The Administration’s strategy of
letting the dollar fall in value
against foreign currencies has
not worked for textiles, largely
because foreign suppliers tie
their currencies to the dollar or
manipulate their exchange rates
to boost exports.
Better markets for U.S. agri-
culture. The U.S. textile industry
is the largest and most reliable
customer for U.S. cotton and the
only customer for U.S. wool.
Stemming foreign influence.
Vast amounts of money are be-
ing spent by foreign govern-
ments and industrialists to lobby
Congress. Countries from the
Asian rim, the major source of
low-wage textile and apparel im-
ports to the U.S., spent $100
million dollars to lobby Congress
in 1986. Japan alone spent $60
million.
A strong national defense.
Next to steel, the Pentagon ranks
textiles as the item most vital to
national defense. Tents, uni-
forms, helmets, shoes, tire
cords, etc. The Defense Depart-
N
Pound &
ment has over 10,000 items in its
textile and apparel inventory.
Jobs, defense, a healthy U.S.
economy, secure markets for
agricultural products, and the in-
tegrity of the Congressional deci-
sion making process are all in-
fluenced by a healthy textile in-
dustry.
Recognizing that there is no
free trade in the world, the tex-
tile industry is seeking fair trade.
This can only be accomplished if
the U.S. government makes ma-
jor adjustments in its textile
trade policies.
CLAUDE SUBER
Textile
Veto Hurt
Although textiles has long been
the bread and butter industry for
most Kings Mountain area peo-
ple and most plants are running
on normal schedules the recent
veto by President Reagan of the
textile bill hurt the Kings Moun-
tain section of the Piedmont.
This is the statement of Claude
Suber, president of Kings Moun-
tain Knit Fabrics, who said his
company, which has employed
as many as 110 people of three
shifts, has cut back to 55 on a four
day work week.
“I blame the presidential veto
for this,” said Suber, who admit-
ted he had at first had mixed
reactions to the textile bill. “I’m
not much of a protectionist but
textiles are my livelihood,” said
the past president of the Kings
Mountain Chamber of Com-
merce. ‘I can see that my
business has been affected and
most of the other industry in
town that manufactures outer-
wear has been hit hard.” Suber
said his business has been slow
since last Christmas but that
neighbors, Anvil and Dependable
Knit and Clevemont on York
Road are apparently doing well,
as most underwear manufac-
turers are.
The outerwear and fashion
market were hardest hit by the
“textile bill veto, said Suber.
“I can’t understand state-
ments by the media that the
quality of American goods is not
comparable to foreign imports,”
he quoted a recent broadcast in-
terview.
Kings Mountain Knit manufac-
tures velour, terry cloth, fleece
and fashion goods.
facturing in Elkin; Artee In-
dustries and Doran Textiles in
Cleveland County; National
Spinning in Washington and
Wednesday, October 19, 1988-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 7C
iles Saving Lives” Program Provides Body Armor
‘and Hope Mills; Chatham Manu-
Beaufort County; Wiscasset
Mills in Albemarle; Spindale
Mills in Spindale; and, in Tar-
boro, the Town of Tarboro, May
Knitting Mills, Edmont, Glenoit
Mills, Carolina Telephone Com-
pany, Runnymede Mills, Phoe-
nix Trimming, Polylok,
Edgecombe Manufacturing and
Black & Decker.
nee
E PUT
THE PRIDE
etd Dols
DICEY FABRICS, INC.
NEISLER STREET
SHELBY, N.C. 28150
704-484-8629
THE AMERICAN TEXTILE EMPLOYEES
North Carolina Textile Week
Hoechst Celanese
Hoechst
Shelby