E.S.C. quarterly

              *,
The E. S. C Quarterly
VOLUME 16, NO. 3-4 SUMMER-FALL, 1958
Chambers of Commerce Use Pictures Like These To Draw Industry. (See Inside Cover.)
PUBLISHED BY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
PAGE 42 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1956
The E. S. C. Quarterly
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Vol. 16, No. 3-4 Summer-Fall, 1958
Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioner's: Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Maurice
Van Hecke, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton
Pipkin, Reidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C.
Efird, Albemarle.
State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A. Brid-ger,
Bladenboro, Chairman; Sherwood Roberson, Roberson-ville;
W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewellyn, Dob-son,
and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Payetteville; Employer repre-sentative:
A. L. Tait, Lincolnton; Employee representatives:
Melvin Ward, Spencer, AFL, and H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOSEPH W. BEACH Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
TED DAVIS . Editor
Public Information Officer
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E. S. C. Informational
Service, P. 0. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
INDEX APPEARS ON PAGE 135
ABOUT THE COVER PICTURES
TOP LEFT: Indian Craftsmen at the Cherokee Indian Fair in the Great
Smoky Mountains demonstrate their skills. The 1958 fair is being held
October 7-11 and visitors may watch the craftsmen at Oconaluftee Village,
recreated community of 200 years ago. It is located at Cherokee on the
50,000-acre Qualla Boundary—State of N. C. Photo.
TOP RIGHT: The "take it easy on the Coast" form of relaxation is made
inviting with this heated, lighted, fresh water pool of the Morehead Biltmore
Hotel at Morehead City. The convention hotel recently renovated by the
Taylor brothers overlooks Bogue Sound and is four minutes from the ocean
at Atlantic Beach.—State of N. C. Photo.
CENTER LEFT: Biltmore House and gardens at Asheville, is the most
fabulous private residence in America. It was built by the late George
Vanderbilt, who settled in western N. C. after traveling the world over and,
according to his own words, "Searching for the most beautiful spot in the
world." The gardens cover 12,000 landscaped acres, and the house is filled
with tapestries and antiquities. It was built in 1891 and has 365 rooms.
—
Lou Harshaw Photo.
CENTER RIGHT: When Skyland Textiles began its expansion at its Mor-ganton
plant, the site and plans were examined by W. R. Loftis, president
of Skyland Textile Co.; Governor of North Carolina Luther H. Hodges; Wil-liam
P. Saunders, Director of the Department of Conservation and Develop-ment;
and D. Holman Sigmon of the Morganton Industrial Development Or-ganization.
BOTTOM LEFT: "Miss Blue Marlin" (Barbara Jessup of Fremont) is
pictured in front of one day's catch of two charter sports fishing boats in
Morehead City. Although one or two marlin in a picture is not too unusual,
the sight of five of the huge bill fish racked in one place is enough to make
any big game fisherman pack his heavy tackle and head for the coast.
Lucky 7 Photo by Reginald Lewis.
BOTTOM RIGHT: William T. Davies and Captain Louis Guthrie inspect
a shrimp trawl just completed in the networks owned by Davies. After much
research up and down the eastern seaboard, he decided on Morehead City for
his business known as Morehead Shipping Company. The firm offers services as
Ship Agents, Freight Forwarders, Custom House Brokers, and Stevedores.
Photo Jerry Schumacher.
KENDALL
CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS
Henry E. Kendall, Chairman
Employment Security Commission
Chambers of commerce in America date back tc
1768, but the modern chamber with its professional
technical approach to business, community and la
bor problems, is largely a development of the las'
50 years.
Whether large or small, any chamber likes to thinl
of itself as a community-wide or
ganization, serving the entire
community—not one segment o:
it, either geographically, ecoj
nomically, politically, or socially!
To effectively serve the entir<|
community, the chamber musj
have the backing of the entir<
community. Just as it does no
promote any one member agains
his competitor, neither does i
promote one group against an
other. While it is supports
principally by employers, it i
not set up to represent employ
ers as against labor, but to work for those thing!
that will benefit the entire business, including em
ployer and labor, owner and manager, and buyej
and seller.
The typical North Carolina chamber is not polil
ical and it is not concerned with who holds any offic(
but only in the policies and programs of those office*
They do not avoid controversy—much of what the
do is in controversial fields—but in a controversy i
which the members or other elements of the con
munity are divided, they do not act without givin
interested and affected groups an opportunity to b
heard ; and before taking sides in a controversy th
chamber must be satisfied that the best interest i
the entire community will be served by its taking
stand.
Chamber secretary, manager, executive vice-pres
dent, whatever the title bestowed upon the execil
tive head of the chamber, it is inadequate to descritj
the job. The day of the fly-by-night press-agent oj
portunist has passed. He has been replaced by a
individual of good habits, interested in upgradin
his profession. He continually strives to learn moi »
about improving the economic, social and industri; it
health of the whole community. Indicative of this
the fact that while chamber managers used to chanj *
jobs every couple of years, the average today hv
risen to six years before a change. In North Carj »
lina this year, only one chamber has changed ma:
agers, acording to records of the N. C. Associatk
of Chamber of Commerce Executives. mk
.UMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 43
Chambers Spend Fulltime Building the Right Climate
By Ted Davis. PIO, ESC
The job of a chamber of commerce, on
ehalf of its members and its community,
5 a task of public relations. Every under-iking
of every chamber involves crystal-zing
the support
r winning the un-erstanding
of
ome segment of
tie public, some-where,
for some
lea, project, is-ue
or set of facts.
Building a di-late
that is con-ucive
to selling
lie community to
new industry, or
lie industry to
tie community. It
my be a continu-lg
process of ed-ucating
the tour-ig
public as to
lie advantages of
acationing in the chamber's area, or con-
'incing the home-town citizens that they
lould support a bond issue for city im-provement,
or should defeat a damaging
Irdinance.
Sometimes it is necessary to interpret
lisunderstood facts about the commun-y
to a nearby, or distant community,
iconcile differences between conflicting
ements within the community, or per-lading
a State or Federal Commission
lat it should make desired changes in
ighway, railroad, air line or other routes,
ites and rules—or it may be any of a
lousand things that will benefit the com-
DAVIS
'•fisfiing-fruisef
SSfifflF
pictures such as this of Dennis Davis holding
-pound Amberjack, Chambers of Commerce
to draw people, industries and more money into
economy of its community.—Schumacher Photo.
mity, and that one public must ask
other public to do.
It is strange that chambers must con-ice
people that if they want their com-mity
to stay in the lead in the com-tition
for trade and industry; if they
nt the community kept attractnve,
althy, orderly, its traffic free-flowing, its
ing and working zones kept in sound
ation; if they want business to have
an opportunity to prosper and provide
jobs, the people themselves must insist on
a strong chamber of commerce to work
for these things. Unfortunately, it isn't
as simple as that.
Must Be Sold Daily
The place of the chamber in modern
community life has to be told and inter-preted
and explained and sold, day after
day, to each new crop of citizens. The
well-being of each one depends on having
the other one on the roster. Dollars and
manpower of one member will more than
double if matched by those of an addi-tional
member.
Each chamber has all the public rela-tions
problems of a private business, in
addition to a few more of its own. It
must have the support and cooperation
of other organized groups as well as indi-viduals.
It must have the cooperation of
the press, radio and television media for
public expression. Above all, it must
have the understanding and support of
the general public in its community.
This is a big order for big chambers.
This is a fantastic order for small ones.
Yet, here in North Carolina where there
are more than 125 chambers of commerce,
90% of them are composed of a staff of
one person, or a manager and an office
secretary.
For years "secretary" has been a mis-nomer
applied as title of the chief execu-
WSSSSBBBBBNKKh.--
Washington-built "Sea Hawk" is a 70-foot staysail
schooner shown on the Pamlico River. Pictures
such as this often draw sportsmen into area. Oc-casionally
he will own an interest in an industry
and move into the territory with his family, and
sometimes a plant.
tive of a chamber. "Manager" seems to be
preferred today while some dress it up
a bit more with "general manager", "exec-utive
manager", or in some instances in
the larger chambers, "executive vice-presi-dent".
The average chamber manager has not
one or two bosses, but as many bosses as
there are members of his chamber. He
is directly accountable to the Board of Di-rectors
of his chamber, but his members
elect the Board and the board selects the
Manager . . . every year in most cases.
In many chambers, this is routine, because
a good manager may usually stay until
he resigns to go to a larger chamber.
However, in others, this spectre of unem-ployment
is very real and particularly so
when a few major industries pay the cost
of the chamber's operation.
Common to all chambers is the need
for basic research and information. The
necessity for assembling facts and figures
in a central place so that anyone any-
Pictures such as this of jets passing vhe Wright
Memorial at Kitty Hawk are sent out by Chambers
of Commerce to attract attention to the state and
section.—State of N. C. Photo.
where may have access to evidence of the
communities progressiveness. But if he
is to succeed the chamber manager must
go far beyond that.
Most managers today realize that a pic-ture
postcard of the city hall, or General
Southerngent posthumously riding his
horse toward the north will no longer
induce tourists or industry to set foot or
foundation in their communities. He
knows that the quarterly bank statement
mailed an industry seeking a location is
useless because the industry sometimes
knows far more about the financial possi-bilities
in the area than does the chamber
or the bank.
It isn't unusual for a chamber in a tour-ist
area to service 100 thousand inquiries
a year. General inquiries may be answer-ed
with a brochure or booklet while spe-cific
questions get a personal reply.
Must- Be Speaker
In addition to these duties, a manager
must make hundreds of speeches and
greetings each year, and answer ques-tions
by the thousand. One North Caro-lina
chamber won first place in the nation
with its brochure. When asked how he
went about winning the honor, the man-ager
replied, "I didn't go about winning
the honor, that was accidental. We wrote
down every question asked us over a two-year
period and put the answer in the
booklet so that it could be found easily".
"Did that answer all the questions, then?"
He grinned and replied, "Nope. The day
the booklet was published a woman walk-ed
in and asked where the nearest zoo
was located that had giraffes. The answer
was Washington, D. C, but we don't in-tend
to put that answer in the book. We
spend too much money getting tourists in
here, without sending them away. If
enough people want to see a giraffe, we'll
rent or buy one!"
Proof of the last statement is found
in the handling of a request from an Ohio
visitor to a beach resort. She sought out
the chamber manager during his dinner
and told him that she had brought her
children to the beach for their vacation.
The kids had wanted to go west where
they could see Indians. "In desperation
I showed them folders of North Carolina
with Indians running all about the hills
and the Lost Colony. The only trouble is,
I didn't realize how long your State
stretches to the west. Now, we leave by
plane tomorrow for home and the kids
PAGE 44 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
still haven't seen a single Indian. Can
you do anything to help me?"
The manager asked if one Indian would
turn the trick and assured that it would
be better than ncne; secured the lady's
beach cottage address and told her to
keep the kids awake and facing the beach.
About ten o'clock the kids saw two
shadowy figures stop on the sand in front
of their cottage. After a few moments a
camp fire had been started and the large
figure began beating a torn torn. As the
rhymth started an Indian hoop dancer
began to dance in the light of the fire. In
full chief's regalia the dancer put on a
magnificent exhibition. The dance finish-ed,
the two put out the fire and disappear-ed
into the night.
Sure to attract tourists who have cameras, this shot
of Greenfield Park in Wilmington with azaleas
blooming in the foreground has been seen in many
national publications. Most Chambers with suoh
scenic snots take full advantage of the publicity
afforded by numerous pictures of the area.
Next morning the Ohio visitor called
from the airport. "I couldn't leave with-out
telling you how wonderful the Indians
were last night. The children swear we'll
be back next year. The dancer looked
like a professional."
The manager thanked her and wished
her godspeed. Of course the dancer look-ed
like a professional, she was. The man-ager
had remembered that the champion
Indian dancer of the United States was a
14-year old girl whose father was station-ed
at a nearby military reservation. He
also remembered that she was performing
at a club celebration that was holding
forth at the beach. Rushing over to the
club he explained the situation to the
girl's father and the girl and they agreed
to do a free "command performance" for
the Buckeye visitors.
Nature, Too, Competes
Nature's exhibitions of might are some-times
the bane of chamber managers. The
same manager was confronted with five
hurricanes in a period of 18 months. To
say that these affected the resort tourist
business, is a masterpiece of understate-ment.
Reams of information on the damage,
and where possible, lack of damage were
released via all media. The fact that no
lives were lost was played up to show
that use of common sense could prevent
fatalities during the storms. But occa-sionally
problems came up for which there
were no apparent answers.
Such a problem was presented when
people refused to leave the beach which
is on an island and return to the pro-tection
of the mainland. Danger was
intensified when it was learned that the
hurricane's eye was scheduled to come
over the area. Fearing a panic if they
were told that the eye would hit the
beach, officers knocked at each door and
asked the people to leave the beach. All
refused because they had sat out a hur-ricane
only two weeks before which pass-ed
to the north of the section, and had
suffered no ill effects. Officials then as
diplomatically as possible informed the
visitors that the eye was supposed to
center on the beach. Even that failed to
perturb them. As the hurricane drew
nearer, county, state and city officials
held a hurried conference as to what
should be done. The group came up with
a simple, effective answer. The police
began knocking on doors, this time they
waved off the objections of the occupants.
"We are not asking you to leave this
time. Glad for you to stay. The only
thing we want is the name of your near-est
living relative and his telephone num-ber."
The tourists beat the officers off
the beach.
Must Be Opportunist, Too
While his plan of work is developed and
sold to his members, it usually consists, of
necessity, of long range projects requir-ing
two or three years. There is, there-fore,
particularly in a resort area, a neces-sity
to show his members results that
attract attention, and put more money in
the till.
Although opportunists who rush in
use up the chamber's funds, and go on tc
greener fields, are unwanted, the managei
must keep his eyes open for opportunities
that materialize quickly.
One manager wanted water skiing in
hi 3 area. There was no money for a full
scale water show, in fact there was noth-ing
in the budget for even one ski. H(
hied himself off to a friend who staged
water shows and offered him a week al
the resort in return for a little water ski
ing where people could see it. The agree
ment was made and the professional noi
only came himself, but arranged for twc
girls to be present over the weekend. Al
day Saturday and Sunday the three watei
skied. This in itself was good,, for i
These shrimp boats out of Southport bring the im
pact of the sea home to tourists. When publishe
out of state, they keep Southport's name before th
readers.—State of N, C. Photo.
showed an interest. However, when th
girls changed into different colored dii
ferent bathing suits before each sessioi
on the skis, visitors got the idea that th
place was loaded with girl water sprite!
Chances of Maximum Temperatures during
any three day period— Morehead City-
Beaufort, N.C.
For the three day period Aug 4, 5, & 6,
the chances are 80 in 100 (8 in 10) that
the Maximum Temperatures will be less fhat
Chances in 100 for rain on ony given
date— Morehead City- Beaufort, N. C
On July 15, the chances tar ram of any
amount are 56 in 100, or about 6 /»
The Morehead City and Carteret County Chamber of Commerce had this chart prepared to help conventii
committees plan their seashore meetings. The top chart shows chances of maximum temperatures Ju>
through September while the lower shows the chances in 100 of rain for any given date. While chano
of rain on July 15 are 56 in 100, weather records show that it has rained every July 15 except five sin-
1922. This chart is similar to long range forecasts which some industries are finding useful todav.
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 45
and the following weekend there wasn't
room for all the skiers who showed up.
(The number has remained constant and
while they don't buy their skis there, they
do spend a tidy sum each summer for
board and room.
Skin Divers, Too
Another enterprising manager ascer-tained
that there were plenty of fish for
jspearfishermen, but no one to spearfish.
placing small stories with the press and
(radio and television stations, he stated
that two girl spearfishers were trying
their luck at his town.
The girls showed up, so did many pho-tographers,
and two from TV stations.
The girls, with the simplest of gear, dived
and came up every time with two or
:hree fish on their spears. They fished
ill day and never failed to bring up
peared fish. Quite a bit of publicity
•esulted and spearfishing took an upswing
immediately.
Although some of the newsmen suspect-d
that the manager had placed a trap
lull of fish on the bottom where the girls
• . -. ,
^""O^l
1
This picture shows Bill and Margaret Davies with
>ome of the nets manufactured by their company in
Vlorehead City. This picture, with an article about
:he couple's "ship's agent", "ship's chandling com-iany",
"importing company", "boat ramp facili-ies",
and "net works" was sent to many publica-ions
throughout the States.—Schumacher Photo.
night open the door and spear as many
ish as they liked, nothing was mentioned
ibout it.
Tough, But They Love It
The average chamber manager in the
Jnited States earns less than $6,000 a
rear. Public relations men working for
:ompanies with a budget far smaller than
hat of the average small town, make two
aid three times the salaries of small cham-ber
managers. Naturally one wonders
vhy they stay with the chambers instead
if searching out a private concern with
vhich to work.
There is no exact answer, at least not
•ne worked out scientifically. The only
eason on which any degree of agreement
an be reached is that he loves his work.
The necessity of dealing day in and day
iut with people, of helping them solve
heir community-wide problems, and the
iride of seeing a new industry bring more
obs and dollars to his community seems
;reater than the remuneration.
Loses Sight of Self
Often the manager is so busy telling the
outside world about the accomplishments
of the community, that he fails to keep his
members aware of his operation. This
invariably shows up in the membership
collections.
Chambers never have enough money.
Professional fund raising organizations
make millions with drives and reorganiza-tions.
Reputable firms often raise the bud-get
of the chamber to four and five times
its previous anticipation. The cost is
spread over a three-year period, although
the organization gets its entire fee the
first year. By the end of the third year, the
chamber is suffering again, and another
drive is staged.
These campaigns are successful for the
same reason professional moneyraising
groups employed by YMCA's and churches
are successful. The local minister or the
chamber manager has to live with his
people. He cannot command the commit-tees
and workers to go out and "assess"
according to worth the members. The
professional fund-raisers can and do.
Frugal business men ( who are the cham-ber
of commerce) feel they can't afford
not to work in view of the big fee being
paid. So they give their time and the
time of their employees, something many
of them will not do freely when the Cham-ber
manager heads the drive, and he of
course cannot force them.
In defense of many chambers, the busi-ness
men take a look at the professional
plan and then formulate and put into ac-tion
one of their own and most of the
time, the money which would have been
paid to outside interests, is included in
the budget for local projects. These of
course are the more aggressive chambers.
Must Tell Members
Bearing out the fact that chamber man-agers
must keep their members informed
of the chamber's accomplishments is this
story-
One manager was faced by his treasurer
with the fact that the treasury had not a
penny therein. An emergency meeting of
the board of directors showed that even
they were not aware of the success of the
chamber.
The manager knew that emergency
meetings of the chamber were never well-attended,
so he sent letters to each group
of business men to the effect that a meeting
of special interest to that particular group
was scheduled. Thinking that only a small
group of their competitors would be pres-ent,
attendance was amazing.
The president thanked them for coming
and then read a list of more than 100
major accomplishments of the chamber
that year. Just as the members had
reached the peak of pride in accomplish-ment,
he hit them with, "Gentlemen, this
This old church has been camera-flogged hundreds
of thousands of times by native and visit ; ng pho-tographers.
It is St. Thomas Church in Bath, and
has had its part in bringing people to North
Carolina.—State of N. C. Photo.
is a wonderful record and if we want it
to continue the rest of the year, we must
raise $2,000 tonight. $2,500 was raised in
thirty minutes, not in pledges, but in
cash.
After that, a coffee hour was held each
week in which members were invited to
attend and give criticism and suggestions.
A chamber bulletin supplemented the cof-fee
breaks.
Pictures important
The value of pictures has never been
disputed and most chamber managers
either take their own, or have an arrange-ment
with a photographer member.
Scenic beauty is good, but most chamber
men find that pictures of girls, children
and animals seem to be published more
often than others. A picture of Betty Jo
Ring (a girl) astride a six-weeks-old
(baby) bull (animal), was published in
over 200 U. S. publications and graced
the covers of four. Miss Ring was Miss
North Carolina at the time. A picture
(Continued on page 49)
President of the N. C. Chamber Executives Asso-ciation
Dick Degenhart, Mgr. at Asheville, chats
with (L. to R.) Immediate Past President Bob
Moore, Mgr. Leaksville-Spray-Draper Area; we
failed to get this one's name; Bob Sanford, Ba-hama;
and Vestal Taylor, Albemarle. The picture
was snapped at Chapel Hill during the annual
Chamber of Commerce Executive Southeastern In-stitute
at which the managers try to upgrade their
profession each year. Hundreds of Chamber man-agers
have graduated from this class-room approach
to community problems.
PAGE 46 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
Friendly Rutherfordton is "Protected But Accessible"
By Luke J. Caebonetti, Secy-Mgr.
In a 20x24-foot office of the City Hall,
the Rutherfordton Chamber of Commerce
organized in 1955 holds forth. The Cham-ber
has no income other than from its 125
members who
have paid a fee of
$25 to join. There
is only one paid
employee and he
is Luke J. Car-bonetti,
the Secre-tary-
Manager.
President of the
organization is
Bob Edwards,
while the vice-president
is Gar-land
Cline, and
the treasurer is
Morris Go forth.
The manager has
been with the
Chamber for four
years and has five carbonett
years of experience in chamber work. He
has had fifteen years experience in Public
Relations and served as a Mill Superin-tendent
part of that time.
The Chamber has been instrumental in
town beautification and highway signs
"big enough to read" easily without in-terrupting
the view of the scenery. Uni-form
store fronts to prevent a hodge-podge
appearance of the city's business
section has been sponsored as well as the
planting of Japanese cherry trees. The
Chamber's highway safety program is one
of the most outstanding in the State.
The traditional "illustrated brochure"
goes a bit further than the average, ac-complishing
its purpose with as few
adjectives and high flown phrases as pos-sible.
The budget of the Chamber is
about $4,000 a year. There are three main
divisions under the chamber management:
Rutherfordton High Schoo
Norris Public Library
Industrial chairmaned by Dr. Beatt;
Bass; Agricultural with co-chairmen Ger
aid Cline and Reginald Toomey.
There is a Merchant's Bureau in th<
town but no separate Industrial Develop
ment group. A monthly bulletin is pub
lished for members and interested peopl
and a county-wide industrial commissioi
is in process of being formed utilizing th
services of the ESC office to greater ad
vantage.
Says the conservative folder: "No are;
of the United States is more advantage
ously located for 'accessible' isolatio
than Rutherfordton, N. C. Mountai:
ranges on three sides provide protectio
from severe weather and from potentis
enemy air attack. It is far enough fror
strategic military targets to be safe. Ye
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 47
it is within easy driving distance of three
metropolitan areas—Spartanburg, S. C,
Charlotte and Asheville, N. C. Convenient
airline connections are available at Spar-tanburg
(35 miles) and Asheville-Hender-sonville
Airport (40 miles).
North Carolina's superb highway sys-tem
leads north, south, east and west from
Rutherfordton. The drive to the "moun-tain
playground" or to the three metro-politan
areas is pleasant and easy. Train
and bus connections can be readily made
to any part of the country.
And neighbor, it wouldn't be fair to let
you go without reminding you that
NEED A BUILDING?
Rutherfordton has a group of public spirited
citizens who will finance the construction of a
building for new industry. They will put up
to half-a-million dollars in this structure for
the right firm. Write or telephone the Man-ager,
Luke Carbonetti, P. 0. Box 447, Ruther-fordton,
or phone ATwater 7-3090.
friendly Rutherfordton is one of North
Carolina's oldest communities. It is lo-cated
on the slopes of the Blue Ridge . . .
where the mountains meet the rolling
Piedmont. It is a town of progressive,
friendly people ... in the growing South-east
. . . offers a well-rounded community
life, ideal climate the year around . . .
the center of a highly productive diversi-fied
agricultural area, balanced with thriv-ing,
healthy industries and unequaled
recreation.
New W.ng of Rutherford County Hospital.
Fire house and trucks.
Rutherfordton swimming pool. Rutherford County Home.
PAGE 48 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1958
Rocky Mount Has Always Encouraged Agricultural Commercial,
By Graham Dozier
Executive Vice President
The Rocky Mount Chamber of Com-merce
was organized in 1904. The address
is 157 Northeast Main Street. Our offices
are located in the old City building which
is still owned by
DOZIER
the City and made
available to the
Chamber of Com-merce
rent free.
We have five of-fices,
lobby, and
restrooms totaling
about 1400 square
feet. We have a
very active mem-bership
of approx-imately
475 mem-bers
and our min-imum
dues rate is
$25.00 per year.
We do not have
multiple member-ships
but through
a Finance Com-mittee,
try to establish an equitable rate
for each member based on several factors.
Since Rocky Mount owns its own utilities,
they give the Chamber funds from this
source to advertise and promote Rocky
Mount as utility companies would do.
Our staff consists of three: an Assist-ant
Manager, Mr. Edward M. Stanfield,
Office Secretary, Mrs. Betsy Winstead, and
myself. The names of our officers are on
the stationery. To make a more active
Chamber operation, our officers and
Board members are those usually who
have previously served as Committee
members, Committee Chairmen, Directors,
then officers. In using this progressive
method, our officers are usually well ac-quainted
with the Chamber operation. It
has been somewhat customary that the
Second Vice President move up the ladder
to First Vice President then President,
again for a more effective administration.
Our by-laws, however, do not make this
mandatory nor that the President would
necessarily have to come from the Board
of Directors. However, the President can
not succeed himself.
I have been in my same capacity with
the Chamber since September, 1950 which
is the total of my Chamber experience.
Prior to coming with the Chamber, I was
public relations officer with one of the
banks (Peoples Bank and Trust Com-pany)
with whom I worked for ten years
(1933-41 and 1948-50). In addition, I was
Assistant Manager of the Pepsi-Cola Bot-tling
Company in Birmingham, Alabama
for several years during the "40s" with
two years out for military service. From
1930-33, I worked in the offices of the
Western Electric Company in New York
City.
Our Chamber budget runs around $30,-
000. We have about ten committees (List
attached). Most of these committees
carry on a very active program of work
which means that our staff of three peo-ple
are kept quite busy. Our basic econ-omy
is Agriculture and Livestock. How-ever,
we have a good diversity of rela-tively
small industries and we also enjoy
a nice tourist business with people travel-ing
back and forth to Florida and other
areas.
Since 1951, we have had the Rocky
Construction began this year on the North Carolina Wesleyan College as the cornerstone of the firsti
building was set. The architects' drawing above, shows how the college will appear when completed I
First buildings will be open to receive students in I960.
This aerial view of Rooky Mount's "downtown" area was made by Killbrew's Studios. The railroad tracl|
which splits the town into two counties (Nash, left and Edgecombe, right) may be seen diagonally across)
the picture top-left to bottom, right.
Mount Industrial Development Corpora-tion
which was instigated by the Chamber
but is a separate corporation set up espe-cially
to handle cases where an industrial
prospect wants someone to erect a build-ing
and lease to them or to handle any
other similar matters for which the Cham-ber
was not in the position to take care
of. This has been an active corporation,
has handled two cases and instrumental
in others. There are about 100 stockhold-ers
in the corporation which has only a
nominal amount of capital from common
stock sold and their basic plan usually
calls for erecting buildings at the going
commercial rate with the plan that leases
or agreements made by this Corporation
can be sold to private capital so the Cor-poration's
money will then be available
for another venture. We have not made
any "no interest" propositions or used any
"gimmys" in seeking industrial prospects.
The industries here take an active in-terest
in our community and in most
every case, have continued to expanc
which has accounted for our large indus
try growth. In fact, we encourage anc
work to help develop our local industries
and get any industries started using
basic commodity manufactured by exist
ing industries. We have an industria
district partially in the city and part out
side, through which the main line of tht
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad runs anc
to which water and sewer are availabh
as well as good highways and adjacent t<
our airport.
Our Chamber publishes a rather com
plete industrial brochure and severa
other pieces of literature for general dis
tribution. A newsletter is published pe
riodically.
The Chamber was very active in tin
campaign for a new college for Rock;
Mount, the construction of which is no^
under way. This will be the North Care
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 49
Industrial and Civic Growth Sinct
Una Wesleyan College located on U. S.
301 about 2V2 miles north of Rocky Mount.
Utilities are being carried to the college
and it is expected that Rocky Mount will
very rapidly go out to the college site.
The people of Rocky Mount primarily
with the assistance of the people in Nash
and Edgecombe counties pledged approxi-mately
$2,000,000 over a five year period
(10 years in a few cases) toward the con-struction
of the school. The balance of
the money will be put up by the North
Carolina Methodist Conference. This is
only one of the items in our future plan-ning.
We think our industrial district is
long range planning. The city about two
years ago, passed a $3,600,000 bond issue
to expand its utilities which is long range
planning. Most of this utility expansion
has been completed.
Rocky Mount's Fat Stock Show is famous through-out
the country and shown here is the Grand
Champ Steer of 1958.—Killebrew photo.
I
Rocky Mount's development has been
radual and continuous and has not de-fended
on military or any large industry
lettling in our midst. Our basic growth
ras been from within though in the past
'ew years, we have had several new in-lustries
of moderate size to come into our
:ommunity. In many respects, our growth
las been very impressive particularly res-dential
development and our city limits
lave been extended in several areas to
nclude these new developments. Accord-ng
to statistics, Rocky Mount is the fast-est
growing city in North Carolina during
he past 50 years, and continues to be the
tub of this section of northeastern North
Carolina. The combination of agriculture,
ivestock (by now a $11,000,000 industry),
aanufacturing, transportation, distribu-
Bili Murray and Kay Kyser were two of the prom-inent
personages at the Fifty-Fourth Annual Meet-ing
of the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce.
More than 200 people from all parts of the country
came for the "Home-coming".—Barringer Photo.
tion, financial, medical and professional
center give Rocky Mount a healthy eco-nomic
status.
Concerning the use of E. S. C. Services,
we work very closely with the local
offices located in Rocky Mount and they
have rendered us valuable information on
many occasions as well as the State of-fices
in preparing special labor surveys.
In spite of the fact that a County line
splits Rocky Mount which causes many
complications, we feel that Rocky Mount
will continue to retain its position and
its current population of approximately
34,000 people and will continue to grow.
We are also convinced that eastern North
Carolina will expand more rapidly than
any other section of the State in the next
25 years, because of our natural assets
and, more recently, a general inclination
on the part of our citizens for a better
economic future.
CHAMBERS SPEND FULL TIME
BUILDING RIGHT CLIMATE •
(Continued from page 45)
of two tuba players cooling their bare feet
in the surf as they practiced with four
majorettes in the background drew a 100
publications.
All of this is a part of the work of the
chamber of commerce manager. Pictures
call attention of the public to the town
from which they come. Sometimes they
help hold a chamber together.
Occasionally, if the chamber doesn't
have a strong industrial committee, an
pening ceremonies, U. S. 301 By-Pass around Rocky Mount. In the background are City, County and
ighway officials, while in the foreground (L. to R.) are Nash County Board of Commissioners Chairman
. L. Alford, Jr., Ginger Roney and Governor Luther H. Hodges.—Killebrew Photo.
unsatisfied segment will split off and form
a special industry-hunting unit. It may
call itself the "Industrial Corporation",
or "Industrial Committee", or any number
of names. Instances of success are num-erous,
but sometimes these groups are
upshots of a spurt of enthusiasm caused by
a rival town getting an industry. The
committee employs someone from "out of
town" to head the group, paying him
often more than the chamber manager is
receiving, and after a couple of years pass
and nothing in the way of industry comes
in, the group fizzles.
The same amount of money judiciously
used by a committee within the chamber
could in most instances have accomplish-ed
far more.
Many chamber managers have found
the services of the Employment Security
Commission invaluable. Much of the in-formation
sought by location-hunting in-dustries
is kept by the ESC as routine in-formation.
Labor pools of qualified workers may be
discovered quickly. These workers are
classified as to experience and if neces-sary,
aptitude test batteries may be used
to ascertain whether certain skills are
prevalent among them.
Local managers in the 55 local and 11
divisional offices of the ESC stand ready
to render service day and night if neces-sary.
Special assignments of interview-ers
to assist employers in peculiar cir-cumstances
are made, such as at Cherry
Point on a housing project and the Navy
base at Harvey Point.
Most managers should check with the
ESC first off for information regarding
pools of employees. This information
may be maintained current by a call to
the local office once it is obtained. And
of course, it precludes having to pay
some professional group for ferreting out
the same information.
Peddlers of Progress
Humorists look on the chamber man-ager
as a comic figure, he may in some
instances be, but more often he is the
man responsible for your town's better
street lights, honest traffic enforcement,
larger pay rolls, and . even the local col-lege.
Today he is a voracious reader studying
ways and means to better his community.
He is constantly striving to upgrade his
profession by attending institutes and
meetings and seminars. He is gradually
gaining his goal. Prom a few years ago
when managers changed jobs every year
or two at most, today's average chamber
manager stays six years in a town. Some
have remained to retire. The profession-al
organizations of chamber executives
both state and national number hundreds
on their rosters. Information and know-how
are exchanged on everything from
letter writing to pig chains, and from
drinking fountains to public speaking.
The chamber manager's merchandise
isn't stacked on shelves, packed in a sam-ple
case, or made in a factory. It's all
around him every day he lives. His line
is progress. His non-profit organization,
supported principally by employers does
not represent employers against labor,
owners against managers, or buyer
against seller. It represents the entire
community and the manager has his mas-ter
salesman's job cut out for him. Truly,
he must be a peddler of progress. Regard-less
of the weather, he has to continue
to build the right climate.
PAGE 50 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
NEW INDUSTRY OFFERS PUBLIC
By David Witherspoon, WRAL-TV
Director Promotion and Public Relations
An exciting new industry for Raleigh
and Eastern North Carolina began opera-tion
on December 15, 1956. WRAL-Tele-vision
made a modest start from tempo-rary
studios at the transmitter location
near Auburn, about 12 miles southeast of
Raleigh. From a tower 1170 feet high it
serves a radius of almost 100 miles on
Channel Five. Letters are received from
regular viewers farther away than 100
miles—from Laurinburg, Whiteville and
other points. Several letters have been
received from the Panhandle in Texas,
from Oklahoma, Iowa, upstate New York
and Nova Scotia, but unfortunately the
station cannot claim the people in these
areas in its regular viewing audience.
NOTE
Among new industries opening up in North
Carolina recently is that of Television Stat;on
WRAL-TV in Raleigh. The station, once it got
started, grew so fast that even the owners were
amazed. This is the story of one station which
could be duplicated by other TV stations in this
State and is contributing to the growth of the
North Carolina economy daily.
In the enormous "Golden Circle" of
Channel Five's radius live nearly two
million people with a buying power in
excess of two billion dollars, a populous
area of huge industrial plants, thriving
businesses, rich farm lands and numerous
educational institutions. With the geo-graphical
advantage of being located in
the Capital City, the station's viewers get
the news as it happens, as the majority
of the state news items "break" in Ral-eigh.
New Equipment
"The finest equipment available—that's
what you'll have!" So promised the Com-pany
President, Mr. A. J. Fletcher. The
promise was not an empty one, nor was
it wishful thinking. A stroll through the
production building discloses the facts.
All equipment, completely new, more than
meets the basic requirements for telecast-ing.
With such equipment as the video
tape recorder, the mobile unit and the
Houston Fearless motion picture film
processor, WRAL-Television can match
the physical production of any station in
the country. There are seven cameras
which may be used in either studio or in
the mobile unit. Each of these cameras
cost from $20,000—to $23,000.
By use of lantern slides, projected
through a translucent screen, a scene can
be set (with amazing reality) at a pic-turesque
sidewalk cafe in Paris or the
colorful midway of a carnival. With
drawings and paintings, Channel Five's
art department is busy turning out a
number of these scenes, as is the Pho-tography
Department by the use of photo-graphs.
Inside the two mammoth studios, one
of the most spectacular sights is the
equipment for lighting, which is a highly
important phase of television. If inade-quate,
a scene looks flat, lacks dimension.
The ceilings of the two studios are bank-ed
with lights of every variety; baby
spots, floods, scoops, each of which per-forms
a special function. The ceiling
With A. E. Rackley, contractor, (left), President A. J. Fletcher inspects the construction of the electric ]
full-color fountain which was completed the day before the "Open House".
lights are all hung from metal stretchers
which enable the lights to be focused on
many levels. The lights are controlled by
two Kleigl lighting panels which carry a
total of 140 circuits in Studio A and one
70-circuit board in Studio B. These
boards will handle enough current to lightU
eight average homes.
One of the items of equipment causing!
excitement around WRAL—Television!
since its arrival is the new $100,000 re-fl
mote mobile unit. The unit was designed!
WRAL Television photographer Owen Ballance hits jackpot in news shot as he gets ESC Chairman Henn
E. Kendall, Solicitor Robert D. Rouse of Farmville, Betty Lane Evans, Miss North Carolina, and with hi:
back to the camera. Wake County Solicitor Lester Chalmers. All were at the Morehead Biltmore Hote
for meetings.
IUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 51
MEW LOOK IN TELEVISION STATIONS
y Virgil Duncan, Chief Engineer, and
ras custom constructed by General Elec-
•ic. It may be used in bringing sporting
vents, store openings, fair festivities, pa-ides
and other distant events to the
ome viewers. The unit is ready to move
t a moment's notice to the site of some
ewsworthy happenings. With outlets for
rar television cameras, it is capable of
ansmitting a signal to the WRAL-TV
reduction building from a distance of
5 miles.
A revolutionary new facility was added
> the station's equipment with the pur-iase
of the Ampex Video Tape Recorder,
le first in operation in North Carolina,
his amazing machine not only records
jund, but picture as well . . . and with
loss of quality such as you experience
i film.
The tape recorder permits immediate
iayback of any spot announcement or
fogram without any form of processing,
ou merely have to re-wind the tape,
he machine is put to excellent use every
ly in WRAL-Television's program plans,
is ideal for recording interviews, etc.,
the convenience of the talent, for later
ayback when the talent's presence might
)t be available. During a recent polit-al
campaign, one candidate tape record-
1 a rally at a time convenient for the
owd. The playback was scheduled at
time to reach the greatest potential
idience while the candidate was making
ilitical hay in another area. P. C. He
on the election. Advertisers too are
iding that tape recorded spots eliminate
e danger of announcer's "fluffs" while
the same time retaining a "live" qual-y
in the announcement.
Facilities
When completed, the physical plant of
RAL-Television will rank with the fin-t
in the country. The production plant
s been in operation since March, 1958.
mstfuction is progressing on the admin-tration
building which should be occu-ed
in December. Next on the building
ogram is a studio-auditorium which will
at about 250, for live shows, beauty
geants and other productions. The last
iase of the building program will be
e construction of an amphitheater
"rich will seat around 1000 persons.
The two main buildings will have a
tal of 35,000 square feet. The two large
idios, already mentioned, are 60 x 60
and 60 x 40 ft. both with 20-foot ceil-
;s.
One of the most spectacular sights is
i electric fountain, located in front of
3 administration building and facing
i highway. The spraying jets of water
ange formation every few seconds. At
?ht, color lights playing on the spray
"nish an unforgettable effect.
Programming
The primary aim of the station is to
've the interest of the public. In order
better effect this purpose, the manage-nt
has gathered men and women who
i prominent in the fields of education,
riculture, religion, fine arts and discus-n
into program councils to examine the
•gram plans and policies.
\t called meetings these councils sug-it
ways and means of improving and
Architect's sketch of the completed building plans of WRAL-Television. Production building on right
and fountain have been completed and are in use.
implementing the station's service to those
interested in these particular fields.
A meeting of the Agriculture Council
resulted in the determination to carry
TODAY ON THE FARM, a week-day half
hour program that originates at the Uni-versity
of North Carolina State College
studios of WUNC-TV. The Religious
Council initiated the CHURCH OF OUR
FATHERS program. The Fine Arts
Council made suggestions that will result
in a program of music appreciation.
Following are the names of the mem-
Vice President and Gen. Mgr. Fred Fletcher inter-views
Andy Griffith, native North Carolinian and
star of radio, screen, TV, Broadway and famous for
his "What It Was Was Football" and "No Time for
Sergeants."
bers of the various councils: Agricultural
Council—D. W. Colvard, Dean State Col-lege
School of Agriculture; E. Y. Floyd,
Director Plant Food Institute of N. C.;
L. Y. Ballentine, State Commissioner of
Agriculture; David Weaver, N. C. Exten-sion
Service; Horace Godfrey, U. S. De-partment
of Agriculture. Fine Arts Coun-cil
—Mrs. Nancy Stamey, Director, Ral-eigh
Children's Theater; Mrs. Bernadette
Hoyle, journalist-photographer; Henry
L. Kamphoefner, Dean, N. C. State Col-lege
School of Design; Mrs. Joye E. Jor-don,
State Hall of History; Arnold E.
Hoffman, State Board of Education;
James B. Byrnes, Associate Director, N.
C. Museum of Art; J. H. Brendle, Jr.,
Recreational Director, State Hospital;
Foster Fitz-Simmons, UNC Department of
Dramatic Art; Roy L. Gussow, N. C. State
College School of Design. Educational
Council—E. W. Ruggles, Director, Exten-sion
Division, N. C. State College; Miss
Cora Bomar, State Board of Education;
Dr. Christopher Crittenden, Director,
State Department of Archives & History;
J. Warren Smith, State Board of Educa-tion;
Dr. Allen Hurlburt, Department of
Education, Duke University; Kenneth Mc-
Intyre, UNC Audio Visual Aids Depart-ment.
Religious Council—Rabbi Harry
Caplan, Temple Beth-Or; Father Richard
Allen, Sacred Heart Cathedral; Morton
R. Kurtz, N. C. Council of Churches; Dr.
Bernard H. Boyd, UNC Department of
Religion.
Public Service
In addition to the many scheduled pro-grams
and announcements on the part of
humane agencies, Channel Five is alert
to any worthy request for time by educa-tion
groups. On one occasion the station
interrupted its evening schedule for sev-eral
hours to carry a telethon in an effort
to raise money to send the high school
band to Florida for an appearance.
The station staff worked for hours as
production crew, talent, telephone opera-tors,
etc. to achieve the goal of $5,000.
The amount needed was pledged and the
grateful students signed a thank you let-ter,
over 100 feet long, addressed to the
manager.
Another off-the-air public service was
the sponsorship, in 1958, of six youth
baseball teams in five cities in the cover-age
area. WRAL-Television furnished
uniforms, balls, bats, etc. for over 100
youngsters who might not, otherwise,
have had an opportunity to play with an
organized team, The station carried its
PAGE 52 THE E. S„ C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1958
remote unit to most of these cities and
televised a closed-circuit report of the
game, with monitors set up for the spec-tators
to view.
Opera in English On The Air is another
public service planned by the station.
With the talent and facilities of the na-tional
touring Grass Roots Opera at its
disposal, WRAL-Television could well be-come
the opera station of the nation.
Several programs of opera excerpts have
already been presented, and have met
with widespread approval.
Personnel
Regardless of the fine facilities and
equipment, no station is better than the
personnel that heads it. WRAL-Televi-sion
is guided by people with extensive
broadcasting background. The President,
A. J. Fletcher, founded WRAL-Radio in
1939, later pioneered in the development
of FM radio. A leading attorney in Ral-eigh,
Mr. Fletcher is interested in several
successful business enterprises. In 1948
he founded the National Grass Roots
Opera Movement in America with the
mission of giving experience to young
singers and of giving the public an op-portunity
to hear opera performed in
English.
This has grown into a nation-wide
activity and Mr. Fletcher was presented
a citation by the President of the Na-tional
Federation of Music Clubs for his
efforts in the progress of good muic.
Fred Fletcher, Vice President and Gen-eral
Manager was active in radio as an-nouncer,
talent, program director and
station manager. Long interested in
youth welfare, he is a member of the
North Carolina Recreation Advisory Com-mittee.
His civic activities include an
award by the Jaycees in 1943 as the "Man
Of The Year", service in Raleigh Mer-chants
Bureau. Sales Executives Club,
Chamber of Commerce, Raleigh City Coun-cil,
Civitan Club and Chairman of Raleigh
Park and Recreation Commission. He is
a member of the board of deacons of
Ridge Road Baptist Church.
Program Director George Hall had
much radio experience in Virginia and
North Carolina before joining WRAL-Radio
as Program Director in 1950. He
is active in Little Theater productions
and has had several original plays per-formed
in North Carolina and Virginia.
Sports Director Ray Reeve needs no in-troduction
to followers of sports in the
Southeast. For years his play-by-plays of
football and basketball games have been
must listening on radio networks of as
many as 60 stations. Reeve's long experi-ence
gives a stamp of authority to his
pungent commentary on sports happen-ings.
Bill Armstrong, News Director, has the
ability to digest news stories into a lis-tenable
few words. A graduate in jour-nalism,
he brought newspaper and radio
news background to Channel Five.
Virgil Duncan, Chief Engineer, had the
responsibility for planning and installing
the equipment to put the station on the
air. So thorough is his knowledge that
he can quote the function of about any
tube you can name. Duncan, while in
charge of radar installations in the Pacific
during World War II, received a citation
for his modifications in electronic equip-ment.
A former instructor at Georgia
Tech, he joined the Capital Broadcasting
Company in 1946.
Raleigh native Fletcher Turner spent
General Manager Fred Fletcher checks the air conditioning on remote unit as Cameramen
James Barbot and William Gregory prepare for an evening closed circuit telecast of a
baseball game in Fayetteville.
(top L. to R.
midget leagu
In spite of the "Danger, Stay Off" sign, Fred Fletcher and David Witherspoon climb the TV tower to sprelj
out the lengthy letter of thanks signed by students of Needham Broughton High School. The letter W
in appreciation for the successful Band Telethon run by the station to raise money to send the Schi||
Band to Miami.
iUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 53
Engineer Durwood Neuse readies the video tape recorder for program taping.
5 years in sales with agencies and net-works
in New York before returning to
is home town as Sales Manager for
VRAL-Radio in 1953. He is now putting-is
experience to good use as National
ales Manager for WRAL-Television.
Local Sales Manager Bernie Whitaker
3 a graduate of the University of North
arolina. He has had varied retail sell-ag
experience and came to WRAL-Tele-ision
from the sales department of
ySJS-TV.
Louise Stephenson, Office Manager,
Dined WRAL-Radio in 1944 as reception-ist
and moved through almost every phase
of radio operation to assistant to the gen-eral
manager. Mrs. Stephenson is Secre-tary
of Capital Broadcasting Company.
David Witherspoon, Director of Promotion
and Public Relations gained promotion
experience in National Grass Roots Opera
and WRAL-Radio, which he joined in
1947. Other radio experience includes
purchasing, accounting and as a singer
on his own regional network program.
Other posts in the Art, Film, Produc-tion
and Engineering departments are
filled by young men and women with ex-
»«utiAjfe[a
!»^Q^
tensive television experience.
By operating at full power on Channel
Five, with full program service from
NBC-TV, color and black and white, with
superior local programming backed by
competent personnel and new equipment,
WRAL-Television promises to continue to
be an industry of service for its viewers
throughout central and eastern North
Carolina.
BRYSON CITY'S MANAGER
RECEIVES PAY TEN
WEEKS EACH YEAR
For five years Robert W. Gammon has
been Manager of the Bryson City Cham-ber
of Commerce. With fifteen unpaid Di-rectors,
Gammon who has served as a
department store clerk, a U. S. Marine,
librarian, hotel desk clerk, teacher and in
winter months (currently is a school
principal, helps to bring tourists and in-dustry
to the town.
"The budget varies," says Manager
Gammon, "according to the amount of
dues we can collect each year. Dues vary
from $5 to $100 according to the amount
of business each member does. Sometimes
its as small as $2,000 and has reached
$5,000. Our section is primarily farm and
tourist-type territory."
Committee chairmen of the mountain
chamber are: James Myers, Tourist; Le-roy
Sossaman, Industrial; R. L. Lyday,
Agricultural; William Bumbarner, Mer-chants;
and T. L. Woodard Recreational.
"We have used the ESC services several
times in labor surveys and find them use-ful.
If anyone will help us locate some in-dustry,
we'll tend to getting it to move
here," says Mr. Gammon.
ere are a few of the 6,000 visitors and part of the cars that brought them to the WRAL-TV "Open House"
|j|y 13, 1958. They were shown the production building and were ail "televised" and watched themselves
l monitors set up about the building.
WAKE FOREST HAS PROBLEMS
AND IS GOING ABOUT
SOLVING THEM
For four years J. A. Hartsfield has been
the Executive Secretary of the Wake For-est
Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's
budget is $1,000 a year, and a membership
drive is now underway to improve the
financial picture of the organization.
Wake Forest is faced with problems
that confront few towns its size. It has a
Baptist Seminary located there and is
hard-put to find employment for Students
and their wives (many of the minister-ial
students are married ) . This is one of
the main problems that the ESC is help-ing
solve.
During the past year the Chamber has
been directly instrumental in securing
new industry in the form of a Purina
Feed Mill and a poultry business. The
Chamber is being saluted in the local
newspaper "The Wake Weekly" with an
entire edition.
Employment problems also confront the
chamber in the case of its negro popula-tion.
Since many available positions in
the town require more training than ordi-narily
might be the case in a community
of like population, many of the older
Negroes are automatically eliminated
from the applicants because of education.
Many know only farm work or are un-skilled
in any craft. The Chamber is work-ing
on this particular problem in an at-tempt
to bring in industry to utilize these
willing workers.
PAGE 54 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 195
EDEMTOX CHAMBER'S REORGANIZATION THIS YEAF
By Martha Jackson
Secretary, PIO, E.8.C.
The Edenton, N. C. Chamber of Com-merce
was organized in 1918 under the
name of the Chowan County Chamber of
Commerce and Merchants Association.
For many years
the organization
rendered valuable
service to its mem-bers
and the com-munity,
but many
businessmen
thought the cham-ber
would be more
dynamic if a full-time
manager
could be employed
to supervise its
activities.
In October 1957
a group of leading
citizens finally
realized that the
Chamber should
be reorganized JACKSON
and refinanced and undertook a successful
membership campaign. The budget was
now sufficient to engage a full-time, expe-rienced
chamber of commerce executive
and in January 1958. Herry H. Smith,
Jr. of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, was
elected executive vice president. An at-tractive
office with new equipment and
furniture was opened in the Hotel Joseph
Hewes with a full-time office secretary,
Miss Anne Haiiess.
The membership total at January 1 was
156 companies and individuals. Seven
were added since, making 163. Member-ships
are based on $25 units with many
large companies and some individuals
purchasing several units. Both the Town
of Edenton and Chowan County are mem-bers.
However, the Chamber receives no
other income from government or from
other sources.
Board Formulates Program
The general pro-gram
of the Cham-ber
and its poli-cies
are formulat-ed
by the board
of directors and
carried out under
the supervision of
the executive vice
president, Mr.
Smith. He has
been associated
with chambers of
commerce and
trade associations
for over twenty
years in New
York, Connecticut
and Florida. He
had left Chamber
work to go into the printing business but
has now returned to the organization
field.
The Edenton Chamber of Commerce
operates through standing committees set
up to cover major recurring activities,
and special committees appointed to han-dle
projects of a non-recurring nature.
(Chairmen of standing committees are
given on page 55.)
Since the economy of the area is based
on agriculture, industry and tourism, the
SMITH
Chamber's major projects are devoted to
these categories. Of course, the mer-chants
committee is concerned with the
improvement and promotion of retail
trade and works closely with other cham-ber
committees in carrying out these ob
jectives.
Edenton has a lot to offer tourists.
First, its historic public buildings and
private homes are nationally known for
their charm and fine state of preservation.
Secondly, Albemarle Sound, Edenton Bay
and their tributaries are the largest coast-al
body of fresh water in the world, offer-ing
excellent fishing, boating and hunt-ing.
The Chamber is devoting much of
its efforts to bring these wonderful assets
to the attention of more people.
While the area's agriculture is healthy
and contributes in large measure to the
economic wellbeing of the community,
many leaders realize that there should
be greater industrial activity to balance
the economy. In 1954 the Edenton Devej
opment Corporation was incorporated t
promote, assist and develop a greater vo
ume of industry in the area. This orgaij
izations work closely with the Chamber
Industrial Committee in seeking new ii
dustry and assisting local industry. Ovc
150 local businessmen and women a>
stockholders in the development corpor,
tion.
ESC Closely Associated
In connection with industrial activit;
the Chamber works closely with Miltoj
Bass, manager of your Edenton office, il
obtain employment information and otlu
services. In passing, we would like 1
point out that Mr. Bass has been extreml
ly helpful and cooperative in supplyic
statistics and obtaining specific inform
tion for our use.
The Chamber has been extremely actn||
during the past six months in all of il
The Cupola House of Edenton was described by Thomas Waterman as "the outstanding house of t|
region." The actual date of its construction, based on its peculiar architectural features, would appro;
imate 1772.—N. C. Photo.
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 55
PROMISES HEIGHT FUTURE FOR COMMUNITY
" ;
Edenton's Teapot marking the spot where the resi-dence
of Mrs. Elizabeth King stood. In October of
1774 the ladies of Edenton met here for a most
unusual tea party. Picture above this depicts the
scene as printed in London soon after.—N. C.
Photos.
HISTORIC i IWagESSiVE
WELCOiE/
amm etmmm
divisions. We are endeavoring to build
an organization worthy of the members'
support and one which will be a credit
to the community. While many of the
organization's projects and services bring
immediate benefits to members, much of
the chamber's work is on long-term proj-ects.
This includes industrial develop-ment,
highway improvement, development
of the waterfront, developing tourist and
recreational trade, and the like.
Monthly Bulletin
The Advertising and Promotion Com-mittee
is planning to inaugurate a month-ly
news bulletin for members in October
at the start of the new fiscal year. The
Recreation and Tourist Committee pub-lishes
a semi-monthly Fishing News Bul-letin
which contains fishing information,
winners in the Chamber's weekly fishing
contest and other news of interest to
sportsmen. This has attracted wide at-tention
and now goes to over 300 news-papers,
sportsmen, sports dealers and
others in the state.
The officers and board of directors face
the future confident that the Chamber
is contributing to, and will promote, the
steady growth of Edenton and Chowan
County. There is a great deal to offer in
this area to anyone who would like to do
business, to work and live in a delightful
community.
Standing Committees 1958
Advertising and Promotion, Jim Earn-hardt,
Chairman; Agriculture, Lloyd E.
Bunch, Chairman; Education, Rev. George
Holmes, Chairman; Health and Safety,
Dr. R. N. Hardin, Chairman; Highways,
W. W. Byrum, Chairman; Industrial De-velopment,
Spec Jones, Chairman; Mer-chants,
Ralph Parrish, Chairman; Park-ing
and Traffic, J. R. Dulaney, Chairman;
State and -National Affairs, J. Clarence
Leary, Sr., Chairman; and Tourist and
Recreation, Scott Harrell, Chairman.
Some Chambers of Commerce erect elaborate signs,
other more conservative signs with less type mat-ter
such as the one above welcoming visitors to
Edenton.
CHAPEL HILl-CARRBORO
CHAMBER HOUSES
THREE ORGANIZATIONS
Organized in 193.1, the Chapel Hill-Carr-boro
Chamber of Commerce also includes
the Merchants Association and the Credit
Bureau. With "sliding-scale" dues from
$25 to $100, the organizations boast 150
current members. The income of the
Chamber is augmented with monies re-ceived
for collections of the Credit Bu-reau
and promotions of the Merchants As-sociation.
TIME magazine recently ran Chapel
Hill as one of the 24 nicest places to live.
In addition to the University of North
Carolina, the famed "Research Triangle"
and Research Park is just a short drive
from the city limits.
Anne Graham (L), and Rosemary Holmes of Eden-ton
look over the tobacco crop and decide that the
outlook for local farmers is good this year. The
ESC provides a recruiting service for farm workers
to harvest the farm crops of the area.
Edenton's bay and picturesque creeks offer excel-lent
fishing, boating, picture-taking, paintjng, and
recreation. Local marinas provide all supplies and
boat rentals.
Chowan County's famous Court House, widely
known for its fine Georgian design, has been in
constant use since its construction in 1767. Out-standing
feature of the structure is the beautiful
panelled assembly room on the second floor.
PAGE 56 THEE. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
STATESVILLE, NEW CENTER OF SMALL INDUSTRY
:M ¥
The Statesville Chamber of Commerce
was organized and chartered in 1927. It
operated several years on a full-time
basis. From about 1934 until 1947, it
m.—^Bmm operated on a part-time
basis with
the Secretary of
I the Merchants As-sociitt
inn (levol ing § ' time to Chamber
of CnimiirriT ac-tivities.
In 1947
the Chamber of
(' o in m e r co was
completely reor-uanized
and R. I).
"Shank" Warwick
I was brought in as
manager of the
new setup. He
has about 15 years
% of Chamber expe-rience.
WARWICK Shank had been
Assistant Manager of the Winston-Salem
Chamber and performed the reorganiza-tion
of the Statesville operation. Since
that time a 1,500 square foot building has
been built to house the offices and it is
owned outright by the Chamber. It is
located at 223 South Center Street, but
the mailing address is Post Office Box
1064, Statesville.
Without counting the property on
which the Chamber building rests, the
organization has an investment in its
building and furnishings of about $25,000.
The land which is occupied by the build-ing
was furnished by the City of States-ville
and because of its location on main
street, has quadrupled in value since the
chamber was organized.
$25 Membership
The unit membership of the organiza-tion
is about 350 and the base cost per
membership is $25. Many employers
carry multiple memberships. There are
two paid, full-time employees.
Names of the officers this year are:
Russell Hanson, President; Nathan Mc-
Elwee, 1st Vice President; Joe Sherrill,
2nd Vice President; W. W. Barnes, Treas-urer;
and General Manager R. D. "Shank"
Warwick.
The Chamber can proudly claim the
credit for being instrumental in bringing
over 20 industries to Statesville. None
of the industries were brought in by "but-ton-
holing" or "horse-collaring" members
of the Chamber for funds to buy land or
to build building's. Not one of the major
industries in Statesville leases or other-wise
rents the plant in which it operates.
This is a record of which Statesville
may be justly proud. Many communities
of necessity, have had to resort to build-ing
plants, or buying land, or subsidizing
taxes, but not Statesville. Every indus-try
that has gone to the city has financed
its own way in buying land and building
buildings. Because of the Chamber's fine
work in that respect it has received state-wide
and national recognition.
Many Accomplishments
And look at some of the other note-worthy
accomplishments. It has built its
own air-conditioned office building; estab-
Technical Furniture, top, is one of the new industries brought to Statesville by the Chamber of Com-merce;
next is the home of Empire Manufacturing Company; then the new J. C. Penney Company Ware-house,
beneath that is the new Southern Screw Company Plant. These are four of the twenty new in-dustries
recently brought to Iredell County.
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 57
ibove is the modern air-conditioned Chamber of Commerce building of Statesville.
the main-street property and the Chamber built the building.
The city furnished
ished a city-management form of govern-ient;
established the Iredell-Statesville
Inited Fund; Iredell Community Founda-ion;
instrumental in securing good high-rays
for the community including the
rossing of two big interstate highways
ear the city limits; Civic Club Council;
lus a number of other small but impor-int
activities, such as the Personnel Club,
ublishing a number of folders and bro-liures
on Statesville, attracting conven-iens,
and others too numerous to men-ion.
The Chamber is a separate organization
nd is not affiliated with the Merchant's
ssociation. The budget of the Chamber
$20,000 a year. There are several eom-littees
with chairmen such as: Execu-ve,
Russell Hanson; Industrial Develop-lent,
Paul Meech; Agricultural, Turner
age and W. W. Barnes (co-chairmen).
Statesville and Iredell County are well-alanced
between industry and farming.
owever, you could say Statesville and
"edell are primarily industrial due to
le recent addition of the 20 industries.
ews media refer to the area as a "Small,
iversified industrial community." There
re no large plants, all are small and
iried. The Chamber believes this to be
te secret of a sound economy.
Varied Money Crops
The County itself is far from a one-oney-
crop county. While it is the larg-it
milk producing county in the south-ist,
poultry is close behind dairying.
)rn, cotton and tobacco are about dollar-
(uals in farmer income.
B Nearby Mooresville with a Chamber
anaged by W. J. Haselden works in close
operation with Statesville in develop-ent
of that section of Iredell County.
Said Shank Warwick when asked if the
3C contributes to the expansion of the
unty's industries: "Hardly a week goes
that the local ESC office, under the
magership of Mr. Wade Wilson, is not
lied upon for some type of service,
ithout this excellent service and sup-rt
from Mr. Wilson's office, I feel sure
we could not have landed many of the
industries we have. Recently the local
ESC office conducted a city and area-wide
labor survey which played a great part
in landing the C. Howard Hunt Pen Com-pany
for Statesville, Iredell County and
the State.
"The C. Howard Hunt Pen Company is
a very fine firm which is today giving em-ployment
to approximately 275 people and
is manufacturing metal products such as
the Boston Pencil Sharpener, Speedball
pens, and other major items.
"Yes, we are most grateful for the sup-port
from our local and State ESC offices.
We have no suggestions at present as to
how the service might be improved. We
have yet to ask a question, or make a
request that hasn't been answered or
filled."
Whence Came Its Name?
STATESVILLE—One of the oldest cities in
North Carolina, Statesville can point to an im-pressive
and lusty past—-but no one can say
how it got its name.
The town was built in 1789 just outside the
stockade, Fort Dobbs, which at that time was
the most active outpost in this section against
the Cherokee Indians. (Daniel Boone helped
defend the fort twice).
Settled by Scotch-Irish and Germans from
Maryland and Pennsylvania, the community was
incorporated into a town in 1847 under the
name, Statesville.
The reason for selecting this name is not
recorded, but there are a couple of conjectures.
The first is that the early pioneers wanted to
honor the 13 states which only nine years earlier
had won their independence.
The second is that the community had be-come
a stop-over for travelers on the then
famous States Road.
In this area are at least two other historical
facts of special note: Here Kit Carson, the
famous Indian fighter and pioneer was born;
and here Marshal Ney, the hunted and matchless
lieutenant of Napoleon Bonaparte, died.
TEN REASONS WHY
INDUSTRY PICKS A CITY
One of the most successful areas in se-curing
industry without subsidizing it is
the Statesville, Iredell County area. The
town has lost some big ones like General
Electric to Hickory, and then turned
around and brought in three small ones
which would add more payroll to the
community.
Statesville's more than 60 industries
are engaged in furniture, wood-working,
textile, metal and food manufacturing.
Its manufactured products include furni-ture,
of all types, metal products such as
farm and brick machinery, table slides,
screws, soft and synthetic materials not
only manufactured but made into various
types of apparel; toys, paper products,
paint, flour and feeds and milk products.
W. D. "Shank" Warwick, general man-ager
of the Statesville Chamber of Com-merce
said the ten most important fac-tors
considered by new industries in their
decisions to move to Statesville were:
1. A cooperative Chamber of Commerce
which works tirelessly to the advantage
of all concerned.
2. Attractiveness of the city.
3. Spirit of cooperation and civic pride.
4. Good government as evidenced by
municipal foresight in extending city
utilities.
5. Ratio of bonded indebtedness to
taxes and progress in schools, recreational
and social facilities.
6. Highway development and location
of industrial property to transportation
facilities.
7. Proximity to scheduled air service.
8. Overall distribution of the commun-ity's
wealth.
9. A mayor-city manager type govern-ment
which officials here believe is the
most efficient, most progressive of munici-pal
governments.
10. Industrial planning with an eye to
attractive, protected industrial property.
ROSMAN'S 65 MEMBERS
ARE WIDE AWAKE GROUP
Without a paid secretary, the 65-member
Rosman Chamber of Commerce is as
active as any in the State. Individual dues
are $2.50 per person and business mem-berships
are $5 each.
Mrs. J. E. Osborne is the Secretary of
the Chamber and its President is W. S.
Sagar, Vice President is A. E. Hogsed,
and the Treasurer is B. E. Keisler. Mrs.
Osborne has been in Chamber work one
year.
The only Committee of the Chamber is
the Industrial Committee headed by the
President and it spends full time seeking
industry.
When asked what the ESC could do
to help the city of Rosman, the Secretary
replied, "Help us find some industry and
get a city water and sewage plant!"
PAGE 58 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 195?
GREENSBORO'S CHAMBER ACTIVE SINCE 1876
The Greensboro Chamber of Commerce
was organized in 1876 and has taken the
leadership in Greensboro's growth since
that date. The offices are now located at
225 North Greene Street and are leased
from a local real estate firm. The Cham-ber
occupies some 5,000 sq. ft. of space.
Memberships now total approximately
1,500, the highest in the Chamber's his-tory.
The minimum subscription is $50.00
and increases on a graduating scale ac-cording
to the size of the company. Mem-bership
subscriptions account for the en-tire
income of the organization and the
budget for the current calendar year is
$91,000.
The staff of the Greensboro Chamber of
Commerce is made up of nine employees,
including the executive vice-president,
William B. Little, three department heads,
a receptionist, two secretaries, and an
office manager. Officers in addition to
Mr. Little are Orton A. Boren, President;
Huger King, Vice-President; and L. I.
Swindell, Treasurer. Mr. Little has been
in Chamber of Commerce work for seven
years. Three years of that time have
been with the Greensboro Chamber and
he has been the executive vice-president
for the past year and a half. His pre-vious
Chamber of Commerce experience
included advertising and industrial work.
The program of work at Greensboro
Chamber of Commerce is carried out
through its seven divisions: Industrial,
Governmental, Civic Affairs, Agriculture,
Promotion, Trade Development, and Mem-bership.
These divisions are headed by
the chairmen who also serve as members
of the Board of Directors. They are J. A.
Doggett, Industrial; "William M. York,
Governmental; Carson Bain, Civic Affairs;
Greensboro bankers leave for industrial prospect trip to Cleveland, Ohio. I. to r. : W. V. Learning, Guiljl
ford National Bank; Herbert G. Bailey, Jr., Bank of Greensboro; M. L. Cuningham, Wachovia Bank an I
Trust Company; Paul L. Doster, Security National Bank; John B. Parramore, Jr., Manager, Industrie I
Department, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.
Yancey C. Hines, Agriculture; John B.
Hatfield, Membership; Miles H. Wolff, Pro-motion;
and Herbert G. Bailey, Trade
Development. Working with these dl
vision chairmen are the Department Mail
agers John B. Parramore, Industrial!
George E. Fisher, Trade Development!
and William S. Leinbach, Civic Affairs. I
GREENSBORO PAYROLL CALENDAR
JUNE, 1958
Day of Daily
Week Month Payroll
Mon 2 $ 516,334
Tue 3 208,767
Wed 4 185,521
Thu 5 761,158
Fri 6 3,109,073
Sat 7 44.762
T $4,825,615
Perce;
of Wei
10
i 15
64
Too
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
9.
10
II.
12
13.
14.
60,364
187,134
275,820
490,1 12
3,082,790
139,378
$4,235,598
I
4
6,
II
72
3
100
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
16
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
178,935
144,040
255,804
659,511
3,277,392
44,762
14
71
$4,560,444 I0G
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
23
24.
25.
26
27.
28.
60,364
96,563
794,470
503,932
3,157,363
43,426
2
1/
10
6/
$4,656,118
Mon 30 4,260,158
Tue July 1 476,426
Wed 2 190,355
Thu 3 3,746,246
Fri 4 88,567
Sat 5 119,749
Making plans for the Three-City Symphony Committee are these representatives from left: Herbert Hazel-man,
Chairman, Performing Arts Committee, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce; Frits Vandersteur, repre-senting
High Point; Mrs. J. C. Cowan, Jr., also representing the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce; and
John lule, Conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. Plans for the organization of the Three-.
City Symphonic group should be well along in the near future.
$8,881,501
J0C
48
5
'i
42
I
I
IOC
Trade Development Department
Greensboro Chamber of Commerce
Represents payrolls within the city limits only.
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 59
The Chamber's year-round program is
carried out through these divisions and
;he various committees that are neces-sary
to do the work. There are, for exam-lie,
five major committees in the Civic
Affairs Division, all of which require a
lumber of sub-committees. Active pro-grams
are carried out on both short range,
)ut primarily, long range programming.
Ml of these groups have projects under
vay that make the Chamber of Commerce
he most active and progressive in its
ntire history. By way of example, the
Agriculture Division, which is now con-lucting
some of the finest 4-H and FFA
ictivities in the State and works closely
vith the many State Farm Organizations
hat have headquarters in Greensboro, has
)lans underway that will make Greens-joro
an even more active agricultural
•enter with the establishment of grange
itorage facilities, a large wholesale pro-luce
market, and other operations. The
Chamber's Industrial Manager devotes
ull time to the acquisition of new indus-
|ry for the area and to working with
xisting industrial firms.
The Greensboro area is primarily in-lustrial,
manufacturing, and agricultural.
Some of the world's leading industrial
'irms have their headquarters in Greens-oro,
and the city has recently become a
igarette manufacturing community with
he recent opening of the P. Lorillard
'lant. The city itself now has 50 sq.
liles and has a population of 120,000
fithin its city limits.
There is a separate industrial organ-nation
that works with the industries
a both Greensboro and High Point. This
Piedmont Associated Industries which
ras organized some eight or ten years
go. Greensboro also has a Merchants
association.
The Chamber has a number of publica-ons:
A monthly bulletin, consisting of
"om four to eight pages and entitled
limpses of Greensboro, is prepared
lonthly for the Chamber's membership.
olders and brochures are available for
mrists, and the departments also have
leir own printed material, prepared from
me to time to fill existing and long-range
eeds. The Chamber does much of its
wn printing work and has excellent
ffice equipment and well-trained opera-
>rs. The organization, as an aid in its
ublic relations, has complete photog-
Awards to the supreme champion entry in the Aberdeen-Angus Futurity Show and Sale in March were
made by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and Bank of Greensboro. W. A. Short (left) manager of
the bank's Farm Department, presented F. B. Davis of Yemassee, S. C. (center), owner of the winning
animal, with a silver cup, and Yancey C. Hines, Chairman of the Chamber's Agriculture Division, awarded
Mr. Davis a silver tray and banner.
raphy equipment and a dark room to be
possibly the only large Chamber in North
Carolina to be so equipped.
ESC services are being used by the
Greensboro Chamber and will continue to
be of benefit. The Trade Development
Department, for example, has prepared a
Payroll Calendar made possible by in-formation
from ESC. The ESC office sup-plies
local information on the local em-ployment
situation and the Industrial De-partment
also makes wide use of ESC
information. The Chamber frequently
serves as a clearing house for out-of-state
firms looking for manufacturing repre-sentatives,
and ESC offers important aid
in this particular field. The ESC office,
H\$ part of the Greensboro Chamber's City Beautiful Program, Greensboro Rotary Club undertakes beauti-ition
of 0. Henry Boulevard. I. to r. : Paul Harrill. Miles H. Wolff, Greensboro Rotary Club; Mrs, Emily
:eyer, Chairman, City Beautiful Committee, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.
therefore, has a necessary part in the pro-gram
of the Greensboro Chamber of Com-merce.
The Agricultural Division, in coopera-tion
with the North Carolina Angus Asso-ciation
and the Bank of Greensboro con-ducted
the first Mid-Atlantic Futurity
Show and Sale in Greensboro this year.
This is the only event of its kind in the
southeastern part of the United States
and attracts pure bred breeders from five
states.
Civic Affairs plays an important part
in the Chamber's year-around program.
Among the Division's activities are civic
improvements. Shown here are Chamber
and Rotary Club representatives who have
combined efforts in the landscaping of a
four mile stretch of super highway by-pass.
This is only one of the many activ-ities
undertaken by the Chamber.
Among the many projects of the Pro-motion
Division this year is the organiza-tion
of a Three-City Symphony Orchestra
involving Greensboro, High Point and
Winston-Salem. Representatives from the
three cities meet in the Chamber office
to discuss plans. From this has come the
organization of Greensboro's first Fine
Arts Council, Inc.
Visits to cities throughout the United
States are an important part of the In-dustrial
Division's program. This pho-tograph
shows members of the Chamber's
"Industrial Team" which recently return-ed
from a week long stay in Cleveland.
From such trips come industrial pros-pects
for Greensboro, and in the fall the
Industrial Team will visit Detroit. The
Team is composed of members of the
Chamber of Commerce who work with
the organization's Industrial Department
Manager,
PAGE 60 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
New Bern's Air Conditioned Office Is Envy of Other Chambers
;;;?; ;:;::::::;
THOMPSON
By Bleeka C. Thompson, Director
Public Relations, New Bern C. of G.
"On May 17, 1899, the business men of
New Bern met this day for organization
at the City Hall which the authorities had
kindly tendered for the purpose. By the
time the meeting
was called to or-der
by the chair-man,
every seat
was occupied and
by an entirely dif-ferent
class of cit-izens
from that
which might be
supposed would
gather to perfect
an organization of
a Chamber of
Commerce. They
were your busi-ness
men whose
future is being
them ; those whose
capital is largely
energy, business
capacity and push". The above is from
the minutes of the first meeting of the
New Bern Chamber of Commerce.
Many changes have taken place in the
past fifty-nine years with the Chamber
having the usual ups and downs. In the
late twenties Mrs. Thomas Eaton, then
Helen Hawk, became the first official wo-man
secretary of a North Carolina Cham-ber
of Commerce and served in that ca-pacity
for fifteen years. She was followed
by Charles McCullers (now Manager of
Kinston Chamber ) , George Arrington, de-ceased,
and O. A. Wright, present man-ager.
Mr. Wright, a former business
owner, served on the Board of Directors
and as chairman of numerous committees
prior to becoming manager in 1955.
In September 1957, the Chamber moved
into a new air-conditioned building at 608
Broad Street. It is of colonial design,
brick veneered, has spacious lounge and
conference rooms, private offices, work
and rest rooms. The building has been
adequately furnished, decorated and land-scaped
through a special gift fund set up
by interested members. There are three
full time employees: O. A. Wright, Man-ager;
Mrs. Bleeka C. Thompson, Director
of Public Relations; Mrs. Ann B. Johnson,
Secretary.
The following are elected officials: H.
P. Edwards, President; Willis Marshall,
1st Vice President; Cliff McCotter, 2nd
Vice President; Rembert Rivenbark, 3rd
Vice President; W. D. Ferebee, Treasurer.
Directors serving three years are Wil-lis
Marshall, H. P. Edwards, C. G. King,
Dan Roberts, Charles McEnally and Cliff
McCotter. Directors serving two years
are W. D. Ferebee, Raymond Pollock, Dr.
Dale Millns, W. E. Swain, Joe Johnson,
and A. D. Ward. Directors serving one
year are John Whitty, R. L. Pugh, Donald
Paul, Ernest Smith, J. C. Ridoutt and R.
R. Rivenbark. By virtue of their various
offices these men also serve on the Board:
W. J. Edwards, past President of the
Chamber; Herbert Dowless, President of
the Junior Chamber of Commerce; R. L.
Stallings, Jr., Mayor; Craig Barnhardt,
City Manager; George Ipock, Chairman
Craven County Board of Commissioners;
T. A. Montgomery, President of the New
^«:?ts:»::
:V:::: :PS:S»iV^
Above appears a recent photo of the air-conditioned Chamber of Commerce Building of New Bern. —Wray Photo.
Bern Merchants Association.
A budget for $18,000 has been approved
by a membership of 360. A campaign for
new members is now in progress.
In a predominantly agricultural area,
New Bern, settled in 1710, has much to
atttract tourists and industry. Tryon's
Palace, home of a Royal Governor and
first Capitol of North Carolina, has been
restored to its original glory through the
generosity of Mrs. Maude Latham, former
New Bernian and will be opened to the
public early in 1959. Lovely old homes,
gardens, Fireman's Museum and other
historical points of interest add to the
attraction of tourists. Located at the con-fluence
of the Neuse and Trent Rivers on
U. S. Highways 17 and 70, New Bern is
served by three railroads, an intercoastal
waterway channel, two airlines and twelv
truck lines. Boat building, fertilizer mar
ufacturing, lumber and related products
chemicals, marl mining and needlewor'
trades are the principal industries. Nei
Bern Properties and New Bern Industrie,1
independent industrial corporations, arj
equipped to assist in the placement of ne1
industry. The Chamber office handles tbj
paper work and the Manager serves a|
secretary to the Merchants Association.
|
There are fifteen active committees i
the organization: Highway & Transport;
tion, Clarence Gault, Chairman; Indu:
trial, George Scott, Chairman; Tourisj
and Convention, Raymond Pollock, Chaij
man; Housing, Paul Crayton, Chairmani
(Continued on page 61)
r
With millions of gallons of fresh water all about, New Bern presents a formidable
answer to water-hungry industries.
SUMMER-FALL 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 61
Charlotte Chamber Slogan Says 'Create in '58'
CRAWFORD
Early records show that the first Char-lotte
Chamber of Commerce was conceiv-d
in 1879. It continued operation until
some time in the 1890's when, for reasons
mknown, it was
liisbanded. Then
m October 20,
L905 a small group
>f civic - minded
nen gathered in
i downtown office
Wilding and or-anized
the Great-er
Charlotte Club,
booster organ-ization
and parent
)f the present
I'harlotte Cham-ber
of Commerce
hat was organiz-
3d in 1915.
Today, the Char-otte
Chamber of
ommerce is a dy-lamic
force in the continued growth and
levelopment of Charlotte. More than 3,000
msiness and professional men and wo-nen
make up its membership. Some 31
itanding committees and innumerable
pecial committees and subcommittees
ire carrying out, this year, one of the
nost comprehensive programs in the his-ory
of the Chamber.
Thomas L. Robinson, owner and pub-isher
of the Charlotte Neivs is president
if the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce,
first vice president is Buell Duncan, pres-dent
of Piedmont Natural Gas Company.
). J. Miller, executive vice president of
Duke Power Company, is the Chamber's
econd vice president. Treasurer is Joe
I. Robinson, senior vice president of
Vaehovia Bank and Trust Company.
The modern offices of the Charlotte
Chamber of Commerce occupy approxi-aately
2,120 square feet of floor space in
he Addison Building, 222 South Church
Street, just two blocks from Inciepend-nce
Square. A professional staff of ten
aid employes performs administrative
uties for the organization. Charles
Crawford, executive vice president, is in
harge of the administrative staff. W. M.
"icklen is manager of the Industrial De-partment;
Frank Mueller is manager of
he Civic Affairs Department; and Sher-wood
Canada is public relations director,
bookkeeper and five stenographers
ound out the staff.
The Chamber's income comes from
lembership dues. Annual dues for a
ingle membership are $50. The current
udget is approximately $130,000.
The Chamber issues the news bulletin,
Charlotte," monthly. It carries no ad-ertising.
Its main circulation is the
lembership. The Chamber, from time
3 time, publishes various folders, bro-hures
and related materials.
Charlotte is a center of commerce and
adustry. While the textile industry has
een the backbone of the area's economy,
iversification has been the keynote for
ndustrial development in recent years.
Numerous manufacturers of food prod-cts,
electronics, furniture, paper prod-cts
and hard goods have established
lants, warehouses and offices in Char-
Dtte.
Also, Charlotte today is a shopping cen-sr,
medical center, wholesale center, en-
"NO-BUDGET" CHAMBER ONE OF
MOST ACTIVE IN STATE
By George E. Moray, Exec. Secy.
Organized and incorporated in 1923, the
Black Mountain Chamber of Commerce
has no budget on which to operate. The
address of the one-room office is "City
Hall" and there
are three paid em-ployees
in the or-ganization.
President is Wil-liam
H. McMur-ray,
Jr.; 1st Vice
President is Steve
C. Uzzell ; 2nd
Vice President is
Harry B. Hydner;
and Treasurer is
William A. Hick-ey.
George E. Mo-ray,
who retired
as a Lansing,
Michigan postman
after 37 years of
service has been moray
manager since April of 1957.
Committees and chairmen are: Mem-bership,
William S. Holcombe; Publicity,
Gordon H. Greenwood; Civic Improve-ment,
R. Worth Cook; Industrial Develop-ment,
Finley E. Stepp; Roads, Dr. F. H.
Richardson; Western Union, Frank H.
Cordtmeyer; Christmas Decorations, A.
M. McCoy; and Finance and Budget, Steve
C. Uzzell.
Minimum memberships are $15 and
minimum $50 and we have 90 members.
Tourists and Industry are our main in-terests,
but there are many retired people
now living in the area. There is an In-dustrial
Committee which is quite active
as a part of the Jaycee organization. We
publish no bulletin and the town has no
Merchants Association, this phase of com-munity
life being handled by the Cham-ber.
We are presently aiming toward more
industry. We have never used the ESC
services and are interested in learning
more about how we can make use of those
available.
Readers may wonder about our "West-ern
Union" committee, the Black Moun-tain
Chamber of Commerce operates
Western Union for the town.
tertainment center, transportation center —and financial center. At present, it has
the only Federal Reserve Bank (Fifth
District) in the Carolinas, is the home
of six banks, and has more member firms
of the New York Stock Exchange than
any other city in the Southeast except
Miami Beach.
The Greater Charlotte area is a part
of one of the important "Interurbian"
areas foreseen by 1975 in the study, "In-terurbia,
the Changing Face of America,"
by the J. Walter Thompson Co. Inclusion
of the area in this concept of "super-cities"
suggests it as one of the paceset-ters
in potential growth . . . and focuses
attention on Charlotte and the Piedmont
NEW BERN'S AIR CONDITIONED
OFFICE ENVY OF OTHER
CHAMBERS
(Continued from page 60)
Ports, R. R. Rivenbark, Chairman; Avia-tion,
Charles Hall, Chairman; Agricul-ture,
Lester Bray, Chairman; Member-ship,
Willis Marshall, Chairman; Con-gressional
Action, Glenn Mabe, Chairman;
Civic, Earl Finch, Chairman; Publicity,
Charles Midyette, Chairman; Military Af-fairs,
H. P. Edwards, Chairman; Classi-fication,
Clark Fitzgerald, Chairman;
Sports Fishing and Boating, Bryan Duffy,
Chairman; Education, Livingston Stal-lings,
Chairman.
A recently completed industrial bro-chure
of New Bern and Craven County
has brought considerable praise and sat-isfaction
from the Conservation and De-velopment
Department. This was accom-plished
with the cooperation of many
agencies, including the local office of the
Employment Security Commission, which
gave generously of their time and infor-mation.
We call on them frequently for
information and always received prompt
and courteous service.
Future plans of the Chamber include
the celebration of the opening of Tryon's
Palace in 1959; the 250th anniversary of
the founding of New Bern in 1960; the
promotion of increased tourist trade;
dual highways into and through the city;
additional recreational facilities; promo-tion
of agricultural and seafood packaged
industries; increased dairy production
and a broiler industry; further develop-ment
of industrial areas and deeper water
channels from the inland waterway; spon-soring
an area wide ground water survey,
control of stream pollution, hurricane
safety and rehabilitation; and the organ-ization
of an Economic Study Group and
a second Small Business Institute in co-operation
with the Distributive Education
Department of the North Carolina Depart-ment
of Education.
Carolinas as one of the areas of high
sales concentration.
Charlotte is fast becoming a convention
center, too. In 1957, Charlotte played
host to 138 conventions. (Only groups of
50 or more people were counted.) The
47,215 people attending these conventions
spent an estimated $5 million while in
Charlotte. This is equivalent to the an-nual
payroll of an industry employing
1,500 people!
Charlotte and the Charlotte Chamber
of Commerce are indebted to the Employ-ment
Security Commission of North Caro-lina
and especially to the local ESC office.
Many of the folders and brochures pre-pared
by the Chamber include labor and
employment data. Some contain quite de-tailed
accounts on the labor situation in
the Charlotte area. These data have been
compiled, in large part, by the ESC office
here. The Chamber also receives regular
reports on the many aspects of labor and
employment in Charlotte. The Chamber
publishes employment figures, furnished
by the ESC, in its monthly publication
"Charlotte." The interest and prompt-ness
with which the ESC handles the
Chamber's requests are to be commended.
In furnishing such labor and employment
information, the ESC is fulfilling a vital
need. * |H
PAGE 62 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
Thomasville Slogan Designed to Improve Thinking and Action
WARNER
By Tom Shaw
"The Thomasville Chamber of Commerce
desires to develop dynamic programs of
work to build an even better community."
The words are those of Jeff E. Warner,
energetic young
Manager of the i
Chamber here,
who has had that
position since Oc-tober
1, 1957. The
challenge of what
the Chamber here
can do is passed
right on down the
line to the 350
members of the
organization. The
division of labor
begins with Pres-ident
Robert C.
Huss and it is
shared by Vice
President Thomas
H. Burwell and
Vice President James W. Johnson, no less
by Treasurer Raymond V. Yokely and the
office secretary, Mrs. Enid Clodfelter.
Also confronted with the task of "build-ing
an even better community of 16,000
people are the committee chairmen. They
are Charles F. Lambeth, Jr., Program of
Work; J. C. Jerman, Membership; Hardy
Henry, Education; R. P. VanLandingham,
Governmental Affairs; Percy Craven,
Clean-Up and Beautiflcation; Harold Har-rison,
Nominations; Geo. L. Hundley,
New Industries; Mr. Burwell, Existing
Industries; and Mr. Yokely, Budget and
Finance, with a current budget of $12,-
500.00 drawn from annual memberships
at $35.00 each.
In August of this year the Brochure
Committee of the Chamber produced an
18 page booklet with 37 pictures. Chair-man
Homer W. Beck does not need to
explain the title: "Picture Your Future in
Thomasville, North Carolina". There are
ten thousand copies of that booklet. With
it the Chamber is stepping up its search
for new industry, and with it the Cham-ber
is ready to tell the story of Thomas-ville
to all seekers for information.
Thomasville's central location in the Tar
Heel Piedmont appeals to industrialists
who wish to settle in a small city with
an industrial background. But those who
desire information include travelers and
home-seekers from other states; and not
least school children who write from afar
wanting to know what the City with the
"Big Chair" is like. The present "Big
Chair" was a chamber project, completed
in 1950, during the managership of Ken-neth
J. Hoyle. Thomasville's Chamber of
Commerce was organized in January
1949, with Mr. Hoyle as its first manager.
He came here in April of that year from
Newton and served until December 1956,
when he resigned because of ill health.
The idea of erecting a new "Big Chair"
of Duncan Phyfe design to replace an
earlier wooden structure, was mentioned
in 1948 by the Junior Chamber of Com-merce,
prime moved in the organization
of Thomasville's Chamber of Commerce.
The new concrete chair on the Commons
at the Square was and is a symbol of the
city's chief industry, but it was also the
first major completed project of the new
senior Chamber.
The next major task of that organiza-tion
was also of a historical nature. In
1952 the Chamber and its members had
major roles in the celebration of the City
of Thomasville centennial. Included was
a "Centurama" pageant with a cast of
hundreds, very largely recruited through
the aid of the Chamber. Another develop-ment
during the earlier years of the
Chamber life was the completion of the
Thomasville by-pass. Visiting notables
included the then Gov. W. Kerr Scott, who
climbed atop of the "Big Chair" during
a part of the festivities. The Chamber
also during those years had a part in the
revival of a community festival known
as "Everybody's Day". The revival,, how-ever,
only lasted four or five years and
reached a climax with the centennial
celebration.
During the managership of Mr. Hoyle
the Chamber began a "new industry"
promotion which combined also a due at-tention
to or for the welfare of existing
industries. That program was stepped up
by Mr. Hoyle's successor, Macon P. Mil-ler,
Jr. Mr. Miller became manager on
January 1, 1956 and resigned to enter
private business here on June 30, 1957.
The managership was vacant until Octo-ber
of that year, when Mr. Warner was
named as manager. He is a native of
this city, a graduate of East Carolina Col-J
lege, Greenville, and was formerly a|
teacher in the public schools in Wilming-i
ton and this city. Briefly before he ac-j
cepted the position as Chamber Manager,
he was associated with a clothing firm I
here.
The "new industry" emphasis given to
the Chamber program by Mr. Miller isfl
being continued by Mr. Warner. Good;
use has already been made of the brochure!!
picture book in that connection. But the
Chamber is also concerned with telling||
the people of the community what their
community has to offer them. An exam-ple
was a "Business-Education Day" pro-jl
gram held here last Spring. Industrial-
1
ists joined with educators in a programs]
of mutual exchange and understanding,)!
climaxed with a banquet at night. The I
program was so successful that it is to bell
repeated annually.
The Chamber last year aided in the
establishment of an important country-
Thomasville's Largest Duncan Phyfe Chair in the World.
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 63
vide committee on public school educa-ion
and it also contributed information
vhich led to the holding of a successful
innexation vote which nearly doubled the
and area of the city and has increased
he population from 11,000 to 16,000.
during all of its history the Chamber has
ooperated with the Thomasville Mer-hant's
Association and with various civic
.roups.
The present Chamber of Commerce has
Lad the longest continuous history of any
uch organization with that name in this
ity, but it was not the first. Briefly,
here was a Chamber of Commerce here in
911, but it did not long endure. This
ne has, and chiefly because of careful
preliminary organization extending over
period of a year. Credit for the success-ul
establishment of today's Chamber be-angs
to many people who have worked
o make it work. To name them would be
ike calling the roll of civic leadership in
his community, and some from the out-ide,
including the late Frank Sizemore,
lanager of the High Point Chamber, a
peaker at the organizational meeting.
But the most typical booster at the or-anizational
level was the then Mayor
r. C. English, who contributed $200. of
is salary as mayor.
Those were the earlier days of 1949.
'homasville's Chamber now has two full-ime,
paid staff members, the Manager
nd his secretary. It has an office space
dth three rooms at 10 Salem Street. It
as an alert rotating Board of Directors
nd cooperative officers. It can and does
apply many types of service, some seem
lgly not connected with Chamber work.
i many respects the Chamber is a clear-g
house of information for facts drawn
om local and state sources, including
le Employment Security Commission. It
as learned to use these agencies to its
wn advantage and to theirs.
Fuquay-Varina Chamber Has $8,000 Budget
MOREHEAD CITY CHAMBER
HEADED BY BUD DIXON
The Morehead City Chamber of Com-lerce
was officially organized in 1946
ith Louis Gore and George Wallace,
long with many other leading citizens,
)earheading the drive for the Chamber,
or a good while it was housed in the
SO building which later became the
•creation building.
When the present Manager, Joe DuBois,
me back to Morehead after helping the
lylor Brothers out with their Sea Level
•oject some twenty miles east of More-iad
City, he prevailed upon the Board
Directors to move the office to a more
ntrally located point in the Fort Macon
otel. Prior to this move the Chamber
as hard for people not familiar with
e town to find.
Manager DuBois has been in Chamber
ork for eight years, and seven of it has
>en as manager of the Morehead City
lamber. He was a sales executive before
>ing with the Chamber. There are 175
lid up members of the organization and
les run $25 with multiple memberships
lowable.
President of the Chamber is Bud Dixon,
eminent Eastern N. C. Motel owner,
By Grace Senter, Exec. Secy.
The Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Com-merce
was organized in 1947. It is known
as the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Com-merce,
Fuquay Springs, N. C. It owns its
own building. We moved into it two
years ago this month. It consists of two
offices, a conference room, two rest rooms,
and a small room used to keep office sup-plies
in and the mimeograph machine, etc.
It is centrally heated and air-conditioned
throughout. (I am enclosing you a pic-ture
of the building and one of the con-ference
room and the directors and myself
that was made shortly after we moved
in the building in 1956.) We have 155
Legislative & Congressional, Woodrow
Johnson.
Our area is primarily agricultural.
However, we have two large industries
in our town. Cornell-Dubiler employs
around 500 women. Wake Manufacturing
Co. employs around 100 women. We
think in terms of our tobacco market as
our largest industry, however.
There is not a separate industrial group
in our area. Our town does not have a
separate merchant's bureau.
The only publications put out by the
Chamber are regular mimeographed bul-letins
that I get out to the members.
We used ESC service about eight years
ago to help take a labor survey for Cor-
Top photo is the Fuquay-Varina Chamber building while the bottom shows the present Board of Directors
who are identified in the main body of the article. Exec. Secy. Grace Senter is the lone woman in the group.
members and the minimum dues is $25.00.
We have no income other than that from
dues. I am the only paid employee and
there are no unpaid employees.
Executive Secy., Mrs. Grace Senter;
Pres., Leo Matthews; First Vice Pres.,
James Adams; Second Vice Pres., W. D.
Ashworth. I have been employed here
two years. Before working here, I was
a supervisor at the Cornell-Dubiler Elec-tric
Corporation in Fuquay Springs, and
after that I worked for Carolina Power &
Light Co., in Raleigh. Our budget is
$8,000.
The Chairmen of our Committees are
as follows: Agriculture, M. A. Stevens;
Building & Maintenance, A. Y. Hairr;
Budget and Finance, Leo Matthews; An-nual
Banquet, W. P. Wrenn; Education,
Robert Cotten; Industrial, S. T. Proctor;
nell-Dubiler, and we certainly hope they
can help us with a similar survey in the
future.
We are busy working on our annual
Farmer's Day at the present time. This
will be September 18. After that we will
have our annual banquet in October. At
Christmas time this office helps to co-ordinate
helping all the needy families. We
have Santa Claus to be in the stores and
on the streets for about two weeks. We
also have a small Christmas parade. In
January we will have a big membership
meeting at which we will be hosts to our
members at a dinner. At this time we
will present prizes to the winners of the
Farm Income contest that we are spon-soring
this year. In April we have our
annual Fat Calf Show & Sale, and of
course we are at all times trying to get
new industry for our town!
Walter Morris is Vice President and there
are two paid employees in the organiza-tion,
the Manager and his office secretary.
There are eight major divisions of the
Chamber, principal of which are the In-dustrial
Development Committee headed
by W. B. Chalk, and the Tourist and
Convention Committee headed by J. M.
Davis.
The Chamber publishes a monthly bul-letin
which keeps the members informed
and has worked closely with the Employ-ment
Security Office headed by Mrs. Julia
Tenney. "The ESC is one of our most re-liable
sources for dependable statistics,"
said Mr. DuBois.
PAGE 64 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1958
SPRUCE PINE CHAMBER LOOK-ING
FOR "MORE INDUSTRIES"
The Spruce Pine Chamber of Commerce,
which was organized in 1940, has an office
on Locust Avenue, next door to the Caro-lina
Theatre.
The only income
|| of the Spruce Pine
Chamber of Com-
I merce is from the«
; fees of the mem-bership,
at present
I 58. The fees range
I from $10 to $25.
Mrs. Sudie H.
English, manager,
• is the only paid
employee. Other
I officers are Har-old
Van Day, Pres-ident;
Dale Ban-ner,
Vice Presi-
Greater Jacksonville Chamber Dues
Based on "Fair Share" Plan!
ENGLISH
dent; Sudie H. English, Secretary-Treas-urer.
The present manager, employed
May 11, 1958, has no previous expe-rience
in Chamber of Commerce work.
Mrs. Sudie H. English has had wide
business experience. She is now lo-cal
agent for the Nationwide Insurance
Company and is in the real estate busi-ness.
Prior to her present business con-nections
she was branch manager for a
large heavy equipment and machinery
company. In civic affairs Mrs. English
has been very active, usually, as finance
chairman or head of fund raising for
community projects.
The Spruce Pine Chamber of Commerce
has three divisions: merchants, indus-trial
and tourist. Dale Banner is chair-man
of the merchants division, and C. M.
Watson, chairman of the industrial di-vision.
Peter Lowe and Ray Deal, chair-men
of the tourist division.
The Spruce Pine area is primarily en-gaged
in the mineral industries including
mining and processing, textile industry
and tourist.
The Chamber of Commerce does not
have a separate industrial group, but has
an Industrial Development Committee,
C. M. Watson, chairman.
No publications are put out by this
Chamber of Commerce at present.
Immediate plans include tourist and
travel service, with a long range plan of
industrial development.
The Junior Chamber of Commerce at
present uses the E.S.C. services in mak-ing
labor survey of this area, which is
now in progress.
The E.S.C. can help the Spruce Pine
Chamber of Commerce by furnishing accu-rate
tabulation of employment conditions,
number of people employed in local in-dustries
such as mining, textile, farming,
etc., showing average income therefrom.
By Roy A. Stevens, Mgr.
The Greater Jacksonville Chamber of
Commerce was originated February 14,
1944, and our present office is located at
823 Court Street, Jacksonville. We have
960 square feet of
floor space divid-ed
into three of-fices.
At the present
time we have 205
members with
minimum dues be-ing
$40 per year.
Our dues are on a
"fair-share" basis
with each member
paying what he
feels is his share
of our budget.
Our member dues
covers the major-ity
of our income
expense with cer-t
a i n collections STEVENS
made for special functions during the
year.
At the present time this Chamber has
two paid employees, which are myself
as Manager and Mrs. Carolyn Millice as
Secretary. W. E. Thompson, Manager of
the Sears, Roebuck Company, is our Pres-ident
during the year 1958, with W. R.
Page, Jr., as Vice-President and Lester
D. Lane as Treasurer. In addition to
these officers, we have Directors on our
Board.
I have been with the Jacksonville Cham-ber
of Commerce since February 15, 1957.
Prior to joining the Jacksonville Chamber
of Commerce, I was Assistant Manager of
the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce
from February 21, 1955, to February 15,
1956. Prior to entering Chamber of Com-merce
work, I was Office Manager for a
retail hardware and mining corporation.
At the present time the budget of this
Chamber is $12,500.00. During the year
1958 we are operating eleven committees
which we are listing below along with the
chairman of each. None of these are paid
employees:
Agriculture, Jack Pelletier; Better Bus-iness,
Dan Clark; Budget & Finance, Les-ter
Lane; Civic Affairs, Julian Bender;
Highways & Roads, H. E. Phillips; In-dustrial,
Stanley Wainwright; Member-ship,
Al Travis and Joe Bynum; Military
Affairs, T. W. Simmons; National Affairs,
Fred Harmon, Jr.; Retail, Pete McMillan;
Transportation, H. M. Eastwood.
Our primary industry in Jacksonville is
Camp Lejeune, the largest amphibious
training base in the world. At the pres-ent
time there are approximately 35,000
Marines stationed at this Base.
On June 6th of this year, the Industrial
Committee of the Chamber, formed the
Jacksonville Development Corporation to
assist in securing some type of industry
for this community.
We have three Merchants Associations
operating in the Jacksonville area which
cooperate with the Chamber and the
President of each of these Associations
along with certain other individuals make
up the Retail Committee of the Chamber
We have a monthly bulletin which wej
call the Greater Jacksonville Chamber oil
Commerce Progress Report which is mailj
ed out the last day of each month. Ir
this publication we hit the highlights oil
each program along with giving pay-days
scheduled for the Marine Corps Base anc
a schedule of all of our committee meet
ings during the coming month. If space
will provide, we would like to furnish yoi
with the project of each of our commit
tees.
The local Employment Security Office
assisted us recently in securing applica
tions for an industry that we were work
ing with. They have also furnished us
with secretarial help since I have been the
secretary of this Chamber. We have a verj
close relationship with the local office
which is located just two doors from oui
office and they are most anxious to assisl
us in any way possible .
FRANKLIN "3RV MEAN RUBIES]
RECREATION, AND REST
The Franklin Chamber of Commerce
owns its 50x50-foot building and has 20(
current members who have paid the $1(|
membership fee. Organized in 1940, the!
Chamber has shown much imagination ii
producing folders, leaflets, and informa
tional pieces about the area. Other thail
dues, the Chamber also receives a comj
mission on tickets it sells for the famou:
outdoor production "Unto These Hills".
Mrs. Lasca Horsley, Executive Secre
tary is the only paid employee of the or
ganization whose budget is $5,500 for th
year. She has been manager for eighjl
years and prior to that had experience a
purchasing agent for the Nantahal;
Power and Light Company.
Officers of the organization are: Di
G. R. McSween, president; Ermin PattorJI
vice president; and Victor Perry, treasurl
er. Directors are: Tom Angel, Jr., Stev I
Bundy, Bob Sloan, and J. P. Brady. Comjl
mittee chairmen are: Verlon Swaffordl
Industrial; Sam Gibson, Merchants; Sii}|
Carter, County Clean-Up; E. J. Whitmireil
Highway; J. P. Brady, Publicity and Ac I
vertising; and Roy Cunningham, MemJ
bership.
i
Says the neat folder on Franklin I
"Franklin, N. C, a bustling mountain rej
sort which wears a necklace of Nantahal.l
Forest, promises even the most discriml
nating visitor an unforgetable vacatioij
of rubies, rest and recreation. Rubiesjl
Franklin is a scant six miles from th||
famed Cowee Ruby Mines, where anyon I
with a penchant for digging can comj
up with a ruby, maybe just a chip, or on II
worth several thousand dollars. Rest!
Tranquility is Franklin's middle nam I
and no place, but no place, can give morll
carefree peace of mind than Franklirl
And talk about restful nights! . . . Frantl
lin is air conditioned by Mother Natur I
herself . . . Recreation: What kind do yo'l
want? Well, it's right here in Franklirl
whatever it is ... .
"Franklin, N. C.—a ruby on the fingeJ
of the Smokies, invites you to stop, frienc
I
and sit a spell."
SUMMER-FALL, 1958 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 65
The Employment Security Commission — Its Role in Civil Defense
By Edwakd Hyatt, Occupational Analyst
Industrial Services Section, ESC
Whether or not the United States ever
will be subjected to an attack with nu-clear
weapons is not known. There are
some people who consider such an attack
as a distinct pos-sibility.
Others
consider it unlike-ly
and some, with
tongue in cheek,
give it little
thought one way
or the other.
Because there is
additional possi-bility
of such an
attack, our Fede-ral
and State Gov-ernments
have
'proceeded to draw
! up "Survival
: Plans" for use in
the event of ene-
|my attack or nat-ural
disaster.
North Carolina's survival plans recently
have been completed and released for
public use. Making up the overall State
plan are the individual plans of such
groups or agencies as public health, food
supply, communications, transportation,
and others, including Manpower Services,
which will be the name of the E. S. C.
should an enemy attack take place.
Considerable time, money, and effort
have gone into making up the Survival
Plans for our agency. In the Statewide
plan, the emergency services of the Em-ployment
Security Commission are found
n Annex E—Manpower Services. Operat-ing
within the established framework
ind utilizing all local office personnel
ind a large number of central office per-onnel,
our agency probably is as well
prepared to face an emergency situation
is any agency in the State.
HYATT
Each local office has its own individual
survival plan based on a prototype plan
prepared by central office personnel. For
emergency operations, the State is divid-ed
into six Civil Defense Areas. Each
local office within each area is designated
as a "Control Center" with first and sec-ond
alternate relocation points. Organ-ization
of personnel and assignments of
duties have been made for the agency as
a whole, within each Civil Defense Area,
and in each local office.
Emergency operations are to be per-formed
through the facilities of three
operational branches. One of these
branches, the Requirement Branch, will
be responsible for receiving orders for
workers and for liaison with Civil De-fense
Officials to determine referral prior-ities.
The Requirement Branch will as-semble
and record information about such
factors as job locations, worker trans-portation,
workers needed, duration of
work, and related information.
Another branch, the Procurement
Branch, will receive orders for workers
from the Requirement Branch and will be
responsible for recruiting workers. The
functions of this branch, in many ways,
resemble the placement functions of nor-mal
operations.
A third unit, the Skills Analysis Branch,
will make surveys of manpower supply,
compiling information pertaining to the
location of workers and cataloging the
data according to worker skills by area.
These surveys will be made on a continu-ing
basis according to the movements of
workers with accumulated data being
submitted to the Procurement Branch as
often as necessary for the maintenance of
current information. These three opera-tional
branches have been established in
each local office, in each of the six Civil
Defense Areas, and at the State level,
providing a workable emergency organ-ization
of Employment Security Person-nel.
During any emergency period, the
maintenance of personal income becomes
strategically important in the prevention
of economic collapse. Consequently, the
Unemployment Insurance Division has
established and will maintain procedures
for the continuance of Unemployment In-surance
payments and of any other State
or Federal emergency income mainte-nance
or death benefits. Emergency Or-ganization
of the Unemployment Insur-ance
Division has been established at the
State, Area, and local levels with appro-priate
personnel assigned to the various
functions involved in the Unemployment
Insurance program.
Each local manager and his staff has
responded well to the installation of the
"Local Office Civil Defense Plan." The
need for a Survival Plan has been recog-nized
and the cooperation of all Employ-ment
Security Commission personnel can
be counted on when and if our nation is
attacked by an enemy employing either
nuclear or conventional weapons.
WINTER-SPRING EDITION
Articles are being prepared by hun-dreds
of Textile Firms throughout the
State for publication in the Winter-Spring
Edition fo the "E. S. C. Quarterly". For
some time the Textile edition of 1952 has
needed bringing up-to-date since the pic-ture
has changed considerably.
One of the most interesting articles is
one by Director of Research and Statistics
Hugh Raper, showing what has happened
personnel-wise in the North Carolina Tex-tiles
picture. He shows that while the
number of plants has been changed by
modern automation and chemical process-es
as well as other improvements, North
Carolina still has approximately the same
number of people employed in the textile
industry.
Read it and other valuable articles in
the Winter-Spring, 1959 "E. S. C. Quar-terly".
MAP OF CIVIL DEFENSE AREAS SHOWING DEFENSE CONTROL CENTERS AND MANPOWER LOCATIONS
~^^C
LV,i
—^.
J7~l
LCtEID
O .... H.
5 y-',/*-
PAGE 66 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1958
"Local Lever Determines Community Industrialization
LUCAS
By Wade Lucas, Information Officer
Dept. of Conservation and Development
Governor Luther H. Hodges has repeat-edly
said that at least 90 percent of the
efforts made successfully to obtain a new
industry must be made at the local level.
The Governor
has been consist-ently
supported in
this considered
statement by Di-rector
"William P.
Saunders of the
Department of
Conservation and
Development,
Walter W. Harp-er,
Industrial De-velopment
Admin-istrator
for the
C&D Department,
and the staff of
the department's
Division of Com-merce
and Indus-try.
The Department of Conservation and
Development is, after all, only a service
agency whose duties are prescribed by
law and whose efforts are to promote in-dustrial
development of North Carolina
and the conservation, development and
wiser use of its natural resources.
Staff members of the Division of Com-merce
and Industry do not take visiting
industrialists to any particular commun-ity
and suggest they locate a plant there
unless the industrialists indicate they
would like to visit such places.
Neither does Governor Hodges nor Di-rector
Saunders make personal recom-mendations
to visiting industrialists to
locate plants in any particular commun-ity
or communities.
State employees all, they supply all
possible information about the State or
any of its communities upon request.
Governor Hodges has said on numer-ous
occasions that new industries are
NOT stored in warehouses in Raleigh or
anywhere else in the State and can be
had for the asking. It's not that simple,
nor is it that easy.
With some 7,000 development agencies
scattered throughout the nation and all
engaged in efforts to land industries for
their respective communities, the compe-tition
for new industry is extremely keen.
Some offer what are known as "give-aways"
in their efforts to persuade in-dustrialists
to locate new plants in their
respective areas. North Carolina has
never resorted to such practices and Gov-ernor
Hodges has repeatedly asserted that
it never will.
Here in North Carolina there are more
than 100 privately operated development
organizations. The Department of Con-servation
and Development and its Divi-sion
of Commerce and Industry work
closely and harmoniously with them in
promoting industrial development. The
C&D group knows no boundaries insofar
as this State is concerned and it plays no
favorites in aiding visiting industrialists
to find what they want in North Carolina
regardless of where a suitable site may be
located.
These industrial development organiza-tions
have in the main proven their
worth to the communities and the areas
they represent and serve. They have
been of immeasurable worth in numerous
cases in helping to "sell" N. C. and the
many advantages it has to offer industry.
Chambers of Commerce throughout the
State have also proven their worth to the
communities they serve in helping to keep
North Carolina's industrial development
ever to the fore as a needed and necessary
part of the over-all program designed to
provide better tomorrows for the more
than four and one-half millions of people
who live in the State.
Before he became the State's chief exec-utive
in late 1954, Governor Hodges, then
Lieutenant-Governor and a man only re-cently
retired from the world of business,
repeatedly told industrial development
groups at meetings throughout North
Carolina that industries could not be ob-tained
by "the mere waving of a wand."
By that statement the Governor sought
to make it clear that industries could not
be had by wishful thinking or the waving
of a wand, but that it took hard work
and plenty of it, especially at the local
level.
Judged by the increasing number of in-dustrial
plants being located in North
Carolina in recent years, the words of
Governor Hodges apparently took root in
the minds of many North Carolinians
ready, anxious and willing to do every-thing
within their power to boost the
economy of their respective areas and
that of the State as well.
For Governor Hodges and the late Gov-ernor
William B. Umstead before him re-peatedly
asserted that "what helps one
section of North Carolina helps all North
Carolina."
It is on this basis that the Governor's
program to bring more industries into
North Carolina and thus help raise the
per capita income of its people is being
waged so successfully and so vigorously.
Railroads, motor truck operators, elec-tric
power companies, bankers, mer-chants,
and others have joined in the
endeavor to help promote the further