March i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



211 



American and European Factory Policy. 



IT would be difficult to specify which one of a half dozen 

 rubber factories in the world produces the greatest variety 

 of goods. The two great factories at Milan and St. Peters- 

 burg naturally have a wide range of products, for the reason 

 that they were in their inception in the nature of monopolies, 

 with certain government concessions, and called upon to supply 

 any articles in rubber for which there might be a demand in 

 their respective countries. Other factories in this branch have 

 grown up in Italy and Russia, but not on such a scale as to 

 compete seriously with the original factory in each country. 



In other countries now important in the rubber industry no 

 such condition has obtained. In the United States, for example, 

 the rubber manufacture first came into existence in a practical 

 way under the patents of Charles Goodyear, who granted 

 licenses for the use of his vulcanization discovery — one or more 

 factories for footwear, another each for belting, waterproof 

 clothing, gloves, elastic bands, and so on. One important Amer- 

 ican rubber manufacturer made a beginning by obtaining a license 

 from Goodyear to make doorsprings alone. Similarly, when 

 hard rubber came into existence, the Goodyear family licensed 

 a limited number of persons to use their patent. The result of 

 this policy was to divide the rubber industry in America into 

 many branches, each entirely independent, so that large fac- 

 tories grew up, employing thousands of workers specialized to 

 the extent that, while one might spend a life time in a foot- 

 wear factory, the skill he acquired would hardly avail him in 

 a factory where rubber boots and shoes were not produced. An 

 illustration is the factory which was developed in the rubber 

 footwear line near Boston, under the management of the late 

 Hon. Elisha S. Converse, who lived until the corporation of 

 which he was treasurer disbursed more than $29,000,000 in divi- 

 dends, though the factory never produced a commercial article 

 other than boots and shoes. The Goodyear patents, of course, 

 expired long ago, but the effect of the Goodyear licensing policy 

 is still potent in the industry. 



In Great Britain, Germany and France, where the rubber in- 

 dustry was developed under different auspices, the conditions 

 of specialization here referred to never existed, so that while 

 there are factories in each of the countries named confining their 

 production within narrow lines, it is more usual for any estab- 

 lishment of importance in the industry to turn out a very wide 

 range of goods — mechanicals, clothing, surgical, tires, hard rub- 

 ber, and so on. 



The question has been much discussed as to the comparative 

 economy of the two systems, but what may be accepted as a 

 straw showing the prevailing current is the appearance of a 

 catalogue entitled "Automobile Tires of the United States Rub- 

 ber Co.," which company was described in its prospectus, is- 

 sued October 27, 1892, as "a corporation organized - - - 

 for the manufacture principally of rubber boots and shoes." 

 Throughout the prospectus mentioned there w'as no reference 

 to any other form of intended rubber goods production; the 

 initial list of directors embraced the leaders in the rubber shoe 

 industry, and included none interested in any other form of 

 rubber goods production except incidentally, as in the case of 

 two or three companies which made some waterproofed goods 

 or druggists' sundries. The United States Rubber Co. has since 

 figured in the public mind as a producer of rubber footwear, 

 and on the Stock Exchange quotations on its shares have been 

 influenced invariably by such weather conditions as were likely 

 to affect the popular demand for boots and shoes. 



Since the beginning until now the United States Rubber Co., 

 while distributing annually many hundreds of thousands of de- 

 scriptive catalogues and price lists of their products, have seldom 



attached their name to a list of any other form of rubber goods. 

 The appearance of a tire catalogue under the name of this 

 company, therefore, seems worth noting, and it is not unlikely 

 to be followed by lists of goods in other lines from the 

 same source. One indication in this direction may be found 

 in the fact that several branch houses of this important concern, 

 incorporated originally as the "Chicago Rubber Shoe Co.," 

 "Omaha Rubber Shoe Co.," and the like, lately have undergone 

 a change of firm style through the omission of the word "Shoe," 

 while the houses referred to are now advertising "everything in 

 rubber." 



The acquisition by the United States Rubber Co. within the 

 past year or two of the control of the $25,000,000 Rubber Goods 

 Manufacturing Co. makes the former company practically a 

 manufacturer of mechanical rubber goods of every type, tires to 

 a very important extent, waterproof clothing, druggists' sundries, 

 and insulated wire. The benefit to the shareholders of the 

 United States company is that whereas dividends formerly 

 were contingent upon a sufficient snowfall to induce the public to 

 buy rubber footwear freely, their organization to-day is in posi- 

 tion to market other goods on a large scale, thus offsetting a dull 

 season in the footwear trade such as is bound now and then to 

 occur in the United States. 



It might be suggested that during such a season as the pres- 

 ent, during the early part of which there was so little snow, 

 the same condition has largely favored motoring, and to that 

 extent promoted a demand for tires. The United States Rubber 

 Co. thus approaches the conditions of general rubber goods pro- 

 duction hitherto exemplified chiefly in Europe, though upon a 

 somewhat different basis. That is, the rubber footwear produc- 

 tion continues to be specialized in certain factories, including 

 that already mentioned in connection with the late Mr. Converse, 

 while certain other plants are devoted to tires alone, and still 

 others to mechanical goods, without any attention to tires. After 

 all, it would seem that these distinctions are only a matter 

 of degree. 



One large corporation controls in a broad way the production 

 of a number of factories, each turning out a distinct class of 

 goods, leaving to the trained experts in charge of each factory 

 the making of the particular kind of goods designated. The 

 principle is the same as in the management of such a concern as 

 The B. F. Goodrich Co., with its single plant of a score or 

 more of distinct departments, ranging from rubber toys to auto- 

 mobile tires, each in charge of a manager who is quite independent 

 of any other branch of the factory. The Goodrich house is 

 based more upon the lines existing in the principal British and 

 Continental factories in Europe, and it would seem that their 

 plan has at least one advantage over that of the United States 

 Rubber Co., who control widely separated factories, each highly 

 specialized. That is to say, where the total production of one 

 company is confined to a single establishment, there is possible a 

 certain interchange of workers, whereby those employed in a 

 given branch in dull times may be transferred to another branch 

 where the demand for goods is unusually large. 



To-day if a rubber shoe factory planned to turn out 50,000 

 pairs per day should be closed on account of a temporary de- 

 creased demand, all hands would have to cease work. But at 

 least those employed in treating rubber in the primary processes 

 might be employed with equal efficiency in preparing rubber for 

 other goods if these goods were being produced on the same 

 premises, instead of as now in factories a hundred miles distant. 



There was a time when the printed trade list of a rubber 

 works, in whatever country, was a simple affair — hardly more 

 than a leaflet being required in many cases to advise the 



