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PAGE 2Tlr*$fon*MAY 16, 1955DINERS crowded the Recreation Center tor the banquet honoring employees wuh a total of 2,000 years' service. At the speakers table were, left to right, J. V. Darwin, David Q. Holton, state Director of Purchases; Frank W. Davis, James W. Maples, Firestone Director of Manufacturing for rubber products plants; Nelson Kessell, Mayor Leon Schmeder, Raymond C. Firestone, Ben E. Douglas, Harold Mercer, J. E. Trainer, F. B. Galligan, William A. Karl, T. B. Ipock, Jr., E. J. Mechem and E. F. Sweeney, Manager of the Benneiisvllle, S. C., plant.OFFICIALS of the Firestone Company and state and local officials were guests at an informal luncheon preceding a lour of the plant Thursday. Among the guests were, left to right: James W. Maples, Ben E. Douglas, J. E. Trainer, Raymond C. Firestone, Harold Mercer, Joe Bryan, President of Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, Charlotte, and William A. Karl.Firestone’s 1 wenty Years 1 n GastoimiaRaymond C Firestone, Executive Vice PresidentSOME of you might be a little surprised to know that, to me, it’s like coming back home to be here this evening. Even though I am a Northerner by birth— maybe I shouldn’t say I’m a Yankee—but even so, I still think I have a good claim to be classified as a Southerner by association as far as business training goes, because most of my business career has been devoted to company work below the Mason-Dixon Line.Not long after I got out of school, I worked in our stores in Florida, and some years later, I was District Manager in Richmond, Virginia. In fact, our older daughter was born in Richmond and grew up in the South. She says that qualifies her as a true Southerner, but if it doesn’t, I might add that she’s back in Virginia now, attending college.After my hitch of service m Richmond, I helped to build the Firestone plant in Memphis and spent the next fourteen years there. Our younger daughter was born in Memphis and grew up there, until we moved to Akron a few years ago. So, she proudly lays claim to being a Southerner too.In fact, I’m very glad to be back here this evening for iwo reasons— first, the celebration of our first twenty years in Gastonia is a very happy occasion; and secondly, it’s always good to get back to scenes of pleasant experiences and friendships. So, this 20th Anniversary celebration is really a big and happy evening for me and I would like to add, it’s a big occasion for Firestone as a company, too, because our organization is very proud of our Gastonia operation. We have had good production here and we’ve had fine relations with you people.One of ManyI'm not unmindful, of course, of the fact our plant here is one of our many factories and I realize that our Company is generally thought of, and referred to, as a large industrial corporation with plants all over the world. That's true. In terms of employees, volume production, world trade and manufacturing facilities, we are big.In addition to our fifteen plants in the United States and Canada, you will probably be interested in knowing that, we have plants in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, New Zealand and South Africa.All of these factories, together with our plantations in Liberia, naturally lead to our being referred to as an industrial empire. We are not an empire. In fact, we’re just an organization of people—all working together to serve the needs of a growing world population and a progressive civilization. Actually, that’s the only sound basis for the existence of any company.Firestone was started by one man, a young carriage salesman just a few years off the farm and at the time an unknown in the field of big industry and big business. 1 am quite sure that he and the ten or twelve men working with him in a dingy old foundry plant on Sweitzer Avenue in Akron, Ohio, did not consider themselves “big business” by any stretch of the imagination. It was just another little group of individuals pooling their efforts to build better products, and sell them when and where they could. That has always been the pattern of American enterprise. In fact, the basic pattern of democracy can be described simply as people working together to improve both their individual and collective welfares in proportion to the work fhey do and the service fhey render others.The Firestone Tire Rubber Company foday is siill just an organization of individuals pooling their efforts— but, of course, there are more of us now, and that's the big difference between Firestone today and Firestone of the early days—more people, more plants, more machines. engaged in building more and better products to sell to more people—quality products and better values.Ideal — Better ProductsI doubt very much that Dad, when he started our Company, could visualize it as it is today, but he knew even then, what we, who have followed him, have learned through his teaching and from our own experiences —namely, that by keeping the ideal of better products always before us, and by backing those better products with service equally good, we can be assured of growing success. Factories and people undergo the changes of time and conditions, but sound ideals and principles are constant. You people of the South have seen great changes in recent years. Those are changes brought about by conditions. You’re no longer the agricultural South—you’re the agricultural and industrial South.I don’t know whether some of you know about the “Ship By Truck” movement that Dad started back in 1918. During World War I when trucks were just beginning to come into their own as military vehicles, he realized that they could render a much needed service by linking together cities, towns and farm with short-haul transportation, and he felt that the day was not far away when truckers could operate successfully on long cross-country hauls. Accordingly, he worked with the truck owners and offered a service through our district offices to help them line up loads and exchange loads at terminal points. At the same time, he ran advertisements in national publications and local newspapers urging companies to ship by truck whenever practical. This was the first step ever taken to help truckers set, up an organized basis of operation. He especially emphasized the “Ship By Truck” movement throughout the South for two main reasons. First, he realized the fact that railway transportaion was inadequate in some of the southern states. Secondly, he foresaw great possibilities for industrial expansion in the South. Of course, he backed his appraisal of the South by building the plant here in Gastonia and the one in Memphis.Gastonia Met War ChallengeThe South has demonstrated its importance industrially and economically in many ways, for as we look back to World War II, it was just as fortunate that America did produce her own cotton as it was unfortunate that she did not produce her own rubber in large quantities. We can shrug it off now and say we squeezed through with a short supply of rubber, but it was deadly serious then. How much more serious it would have been had our supply of cotton been as desperately short as was our supply of rubber, we never will know. But again, I should mention right now that you people inour Gastonia plant met the challenge of war-time production with great credit. You filled in the vacant places at the machines when your sons and your daughters left to take up their patriotic duties in the armed services.Whether it be a time of war or peace, the Gastonia plant and the people of Gastonia occupy a key position in our industrial operation. When we say that we are in the rubber business, we are falling a way short of telling the complete story. It would be more factual to say that we are m the fabric and rubber business. For example, approximately seventy per cent of the cost of a cord truck tire is in the cord body. As you know# rubber is only a part of the tire. It's true that tires are only a part of our business, although they are by far the biggest part.While iires are a major part of our business, we are also in the steel business, the plastic business, and we manufacture many different products for the national defense.In connection with your plant here, I think you might be interested in know ing something about its importance in the highly competitive business of building and selling tires. I am speaking specifically of our new gum-dipping and safety-tensioning equipment.Growing ImporianceTo again point out the growing importance of your work here, let us once again go back several years—in fact, it was thirty-five years ago tnat we introduced gum-dipping—a process through which cotton cords for tires were coated and impregnated with liquid rubber. This insulated the individual cord, reduced friction and heat and increased the adhesion between cord plies. ASyou probably all know, for more than a quarter of a century, we gave car, truck and bus, and tractor owners the extra protection of a better built tire and a higher quality product through gum-dipping. All this time, no other company thought it of any value.Then, rayon and nylon came along. But, these cord materials when built into a tire, stretched and the tires grew to a point where tread cracking and tire failure presented a very serious problem to all tire builders-all, that is, but Firestone. We had thirty years’ exper1' ence in gum-dipping by then and we were ready to treat the rayon and nylon cords with the dipping and tensioU' ing process that licked tire growth. Today, all tire manr facturers have had to adopt a dipping program becau* you cannot build a rayon or nylon tire that will together while you build it without gum-dipping. Evf “ if you get it built, it won’t hold together on the road.Our gum-dipping, safety-tensioning equipment he1 n our Gastonia plant is not only the finest—but, the oTl! equipment of its kind in the world. And most portant of all, behind it are thirty-five years of experence.We have been very proud of our plant here the twenty years, and equally proud of you and your fami^eS who have been a part of Firestone all this time. *° have made a wonderful record and I congratulate y° * t I think all of you know that our policy in the past been to improve and progress, ana we are looking *0. ward to many more years of progress and pleasaassociations with you.
Newspaper Details
Gastonia Firestone News
Gastonia, North Carolina, US
Mon, May 16, 1955
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 29 Jan 2021
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