The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1950-05-24
Pilot Placement"
Proves Successful
With General Coble
Corporation

Two highly trained young men
now employed by the General Cable
Corporation in junior managerial
and assistant engineering posts
represent the latest extension of a
democratic hiring policy which
has been practiced by this COM
pany for many years. Charles M.
Crenchaw and Edward /. Thomp-
son are Negro college graduates
qualified for General Cables 1949-
so management training program.
These two men are typical ex-
amples of the applicants which the
National Urban League is seeking
to place through its pilot Place
ment Project, in professional and
highly skilled positions in Ameri-
can industry and commerce. This
program, with the cooperation of
industry, seeks to place the quail
fled Negro worker at his highest
skill in the right job. The place
ment is accomplished so as to
provide subsequent opportunities
for the greatest possible number of
Negro workers who will follow the
original success of the pilot" The
TTrhon Taon,.a se ,attox. ..,ida
i%nterracial social service organi-
cation which promotes equal eco
nomic opportunity for Negroes and
all minorities.
Through the cooperation of Gen.
eral Cable and the Urban League,
both Crenchaw and Thompson were
hired under this "Pilot Placement"
plan in July of 1949. Both were
qualified for training on the basis
of their college education and ex-
perience in the army during the
last war. Thompson was gradu-
ated from Howard University of
Washington. d. c., with a degree
in electrical engineering and had
been a radio operator with the
army. Crenchaw graduated in ac-
counting from Morehouse College,
Atlanta, Georgia, took an advanced
degree in business administration
from the University of Chicago,
and was a chief line mechanic for
a bomber squadron during the war
Both men spent several months
in on-the-job training at the Gen.
eral Gable plants, laboratories, and
production departments as mem.
bers of a selected group of manage.
nent trainees. They were then
assigned as permanent staff mem
bers of the organization. Mr.
Thompson is now an assistant
standards engineer on the staff OF
the Director of Manufacturing,
General Gable Corporation, at Perth
Amboy, N. j. Mr.. Crenchaw is a
junior industrial engineer serving
as assistant to the chief industrial
engineer of the Rome, N. Y, plant,
in rate setting, plant layout, job
methods and cast analysis. These
are duties for which each man be-
gan to prepare himself in college.
Both Crenchaw and Thompson
are optimistic about their future
with General Cable, and the cor
poration is pleased with their ap-
titude and proficiency. So pleased
in fact, that more Negroes with
similar experience have been en-
ployed by the corporation.
AS Mr.. Dwight R. G. Palmer,
President of the General Gable
states it, these men support the
wisdom of u continuing efforts
to help break down discriminatory
hiring practices in American in
dustry. Hired on their merits alone,
these men have proven themselves
efficient, loyal employees. They
have justified the Corporations
faith in them, and have further
paved the way for the hiring of adj
ditional qualified members of their
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