April i, 1903] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



243 



THE RUBBER TRADE AT AKRON. 



BY A RBSIDBN I CORR1 PONDI N I . 



TO the Editor of The India Rubber World : The 

 property of the Peop'e's Hard Rubber Co. was sold at 

 public aution on March 16, by J.imes W. HofFert, assignee, and 

 all the litigation growing out of the sale of the majority of the 

 stock to Fritz Achelis and the subsequent assignment has been 

 settled. There remains the filing in the probate court of the 

 assignee's final account to make the People's company only a 

 memory. After the hearing of the exceptions to the inventory 

 made by the appraisers appointed directlyafter the assignment, 

 which ce.'tain stockholders filed, had continued for three days 

 before Judge Pardee, a settlement was reached on March 2. 

 The exceptions were withdrawn and simultaneously the suits 

 brought by the minority stockholders claiming damages be- 

 cause of the assignment were dismissed. The papers are en- 

 dorsed : " Settled ; cost paid, no record." It is understood 

 that the minority stockholders received a little more than 55 

 cents on the dollar for their shares — approximately the same as 

 was paid to the majority holders when the transfer of control 

 was made in November last. There was but one bidder at the 

 assignee's sale and the only bid was acceped. The real estate, 

 appraised at $49,150, was sold for $80,000; the personal prop- 

 erty, appraised at $83,737.34, was sold for $85,000. James F. 

 Giles was the purchaser. No statement has been made as to 

 what will be done with the plant. A part of the machinery has 

 been removed to the Akron plant of the American Hard Rub- 

 ber Co. [A statement regarding the transfer of control of the 

 People's Hard Rubber Co. appeared in The India RUBBER 

 World of February 1, 1903— page 168.] 



* * * 



Some other litigation of interest to the rubber trade was set- 

 tled out of court here on March 18, in accordance, it is under- 

 stood, with an agreement made in New York on the preceding 

 day. Reference is made to three suits filed in May and June 

 1900, by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., against the Con- 

 solidated Rubber Tire Co., the suits being all alike except for 

 the amounts claimed, which aggregated about $60,000. The 

 Goodyear company's claims were for tires alleged to have been 

 made on contract for the Consolidated company and delivered 

 to them. The Consolidated company alleged that the tires 

 were not made according to specifications ; that they contained 

 rubber of an inferior quality; and that their trade had been 

 damaged by the marketing of these tires. They filed a cross 

 petition for $150,000 damages in consequence. The Goodyear 

 Tire and Rubber Co., partially to secure their claim, attached a 

 large quantity of tires which had been delivered to the Con- 

 solidated company at the latter's Akron establishment. Under 

 this attachment the tires were sold, the Goodyear company 

 purchasing them at 31 cents per pound, although the contract 

 price for their manufacture had been 65 cents per pound. Fur- 

 ther the Goodyear company garnisheed money due the Consoli- 

 dated company from several licensees of the latter, and this 

 case was carried through various steps to the supreme court of 

 Ohio. This case will now be dismissed, as the original cases 

 have been in the court of common pleas. The terms of the set- 

 tlement are not made public. The court calendar shows : " Set- 

 tled, each party to pay one half the costs ; no record." It is 

 understood from parties to both sides of the litigation, which 

 has been very expensive, that the settlement cannot be called 

 a victory for either side.=»=The litigation which has thus been 

 ended was entirely apart from the suit of the Rubber Tire 

 Wheel Co. against the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., for al- 

 leged infringement of the Grant solid tire patent, though the 



two suits have been confounded in the minds of some people. 

 Nothing has been done in this patent litigation since the United 

 States supreme court on October 27, 1902. denied the applica- 

 tion of the Rubber Tire Wheel Co. for a writ of certiorari, 

 which, if granted, would have carried the case from the circuit 



court of appeals to the supreme court. 



* * * 



The tire departments of the Akron rubber factories continue 

 to be exceedingly busy places, and the demand is unabated. 

 There is a slightly increasing call for cheaper automobile tires, 

 but manufacturers say there is no difficulty in maintaining 

 prices. For high grade automobiles only the best tires are 

 wanted, and to obtain them the difference in cost cannot be 

 taken into account. The demand for heavy, solid tires for fire 

 department trucks, engines, and the like is growing. The 

 greater number of such vehicles now manufactured are equipped 

 with rubber tires, and in some cities the municipal officers are 

 causing the steel tires now in use in their fire equipment to 

 be replaced with rubber. The cost, however, deters many 

 from making the change, as they question the advisability of 

 spending money on apparatus which may be more or less out 

 of date. In the purchase of new apparatus rubber tires are 

 now specified by nearly every city in the country. 



The proposal of a go-as-you-please automobile race from 

 New York to Chicago, is interesting tire manufacturers. The 

 reliability contests heretofore have been made to test the hill- 

 climbing capacities of different machines more than anything 

 else. The roads selected were generally good, save for the 

 hills. A run from New York to Chicago would encounter very 

 bad roads in places, and would probably prove the most severe 

 test to which tires could be put. " I would like to see the pro- 

 posed race run, though I doubt if any tire made would come 

 out of it unscathed," said one leading manufacturer. 



* * » 



The organization of a manufacturers' association which in- 

 cludes nearly, if not quite, all the large employing concerns 

 of Akron and its vicinity, has been practically completed. The 

 idea is not a new one, such an institution having been in exist- 

 ence at Dayton, Ohio, for some time, and other such organiza- 

 tions having been formed in a number of other cities within a 

 few months past. The association is by no means confined to 

 the rubber manufacturers, although of necessity it would not be 

 a representative Akron organization if it did not include them. 

 The purposes of the association are mutual helpfulness, and it 

 is announced positively that worthy employes have nothing to 

 fear by reason of its organization. The reduction of wages or 

 oppression of labor in any manner is not contemplated, al- 

 though boycotts and such other methods of intimidation as 

 might be employed in case of difficulty between employers and 

 employes will be guarded against. A secretary, whose entire 

 time shall be given to the work of the organization, will be em- 

 ployed. The officers have not yet been chosen, but an Akron 

 man well acquainted with the needs of employers in general 

 will be the secretary. 



* * * 



The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. are busy night and day 

 in the factory which they equipped recently for the manufac- 

 ture of their solid sidewire automobile tires. They have placed 

 the solid tires on the drive wheels of a number of automobiles, 

 the front wheels of which were equipped with pneumatic tires 

 — a practice which is becoming common in this section. 



As nearly half of Akron's population is identified in some 

 way with rubber, it is not surprising that two men well known 

 in connection with the industry here should be candidates in 

 this spring's municipal election. Joseph Dangell, superintend- 



