October 



1902.2 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



31 



THE RUBBER TRADE AT AKRON. 



BY OUR RESIDENT CORRESPONDENT. 



TO THE Editor of The India Rubber World: The ef- 

 forts of the labor leaders toward the organization of the 

 rubber workers of Al<ron into a union, spoken of in this column 

 of The India Rubber World last month, have been attract- 

 ing considerable attention locally in the meanwhile. A num- 

 ber of men carried banners in the Labor Day parade, urging 

 the rubber workers to organize, and an embryo union marched 

 with the other organized bodies. Since then the claim has been 

 made by certain of these men that a number of rubber shop 

 employes have been discharged for no reason but their affilia- 

 tion with the union movement. It was claimed that both The 

 Diamond Rubber Co. and The B. F. Goodrich Co. had thus 

 dismissed employes. The result was a meeting of the Rubber 

 Workers' Union on the night of September 12, when fiery 

 speeches were made by several local union leaders. James 

 Mahony, president of the Central Labor Union, however, coun- 

 selled the men to be more calm, to be respectful and self-re- 

 specting always, and wait until a committee named for the pur- 

 pose had investigated the claims made. His plea for modera- 

 tion had the approval of all the better element present, and the 

 more inflammatory talks of others were not heeded by the ma- 

 jority. A number of new members were afterward added. 



The claim of the union men is that the rubber workers are 

 not receiving wages commensurate with their work and hours, 

 and it is their plan to gain in strength and numbers sufficiently 

 to compel concessions. The manufacturers are not blind to 

 the movement, but it has occasioned them little uneasiness as 

 yet. Those who are most active in the union movement are not 

 of that class, either as men or as mechanics, who will naturally 

 draw others to them. The union now claims 1000 members, 

 and it is admitted that they may have 400 or 500. There are 

 3000 workers in the Akron rubber factories who might be put 

 in the class of those the promoters of the union hope to win. 

 The promoters are also undertaking to unite with their move- 

 ment the girls and women employed in the factories, of whom 

 there are 1 500. 



President Mulholland, of the National Rubber Workers' 

 Union, visited Akron during the latter part of September, and 

 claimed to be pleased with the progress of the local union. 

 Rumors of future trouble have been circulated, but there has 

 been no difficulty as yet. It is claimed by union men that a 

 book in which the names of their members were recorded has 

 disappeared. The rubber manufacturers deny that they have 

 discharged any one for having become affiliated with the 

 union, but state that at least some of the men who have lost 

 their places lately have declared their willingness to renounce 

 the union if they can secure their positions again. 



The secretary of a leading rubber company said to The 

 India Rubber World's correspondent that the work in the 

 average rubber factory is so diversified and the ability of em- 

 ployes so varied, that it is practically impossible to fix any cer- 

 tain price as a standard of wages in any given department, 

 " We take on hundreds of men," said he, " and to some of them 

 pay abnormally high wages ; but they are such as can do the 

 work well. Others we are obliged either to let go or allow 

 them to graduate into the positions which they are capable of 

 filling. This is why a union is impracticable among rubber 

 workers." 



" It is almost wholly the fellows who in other factories would 

 be classed only as laborers who are taking any interest in this 

 thing," said a rubber worker who has been in the business for 

 several years, to The India Rubber World correspondent. 



" While the union movement may gain enough ground to make 

 itself felt, I do not believe it will, and the material of which it 

 must be composed is not such that it will be more than annoy- 

 ing. While the present effort toward organizing the rubber 

 workers is the strongest that has been made, I do not think it 

 will attain such proportions as would make a strike a serious 

 matter for any length of time." 



At the annual meeting of The Whitman & Barnes Manufac- 

 turing Co., on September 3, C. I. Bruner and George C. Koh- 

 ler, of Akron, were chosen as directors to succeed J. O. Whit- 

 aker, of Cincinnati, and George A. Barnes, of Akron. The 

 former was, until recently, sales manager of the company, and 

 resigned. C. E. Sheldon, of Akron, vice president and general 

 manager, was chosen as president, to succeed George E. Dana, 

 of Syracuse, New York, who was made chairman of the board, 

 an honorary position filled by retiring presidents. W. W. Cox, 

 of St. Catharine's, Ontario, was elected vice president; F. H. 

 Hiskok, of Syracuse, second vice president ; William Stoye, of 

 Chicago, treasurer; Charles E. Caskey, of Akron, assistant 

 treasurer; H. B. Utley, of Chicago, general manager; the 

 Hon. Frank Hiskok, general counsel; James Barnes, of Syra- 

 cuse, secretary. Mr. Utley, the new general manager, was 

 until lately general manager of the McCormick Harvesting 

 Machine Co. It is the Akron factory of the company which is 

 devoted to rubber goods, and President Sheldon states that 

 the past year has been prosperous and that extensions of the 

 company's several lines will be made in the coming year. The 

 company contemplate removing their general offices to Chi- 

 cago. 



The Akron branch of The American Hard Rubber Co. is to 

 be enlarged by the addition of a two story brick building, 

 '37X40 feet, to the present premises, which, it is hoped, will be 

 in readiness by New Year. Manager C. B. Raymond states 

 that the object of the new building is to provide room for a 

 general extension of the company's business here. When the 

 local plant (formerly The Goodrich Hard Rubber Co.) was 

 merged into the American Hard Rubber Co., there was at first 

 a curtailment of its business, but it is said that more work is 

 being done now at this factory than ever before. 



The advent into the rubber business of Will Christy, re- 

 cently elected president of The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. 

 to succeed his brother, James Christy, who has removed from 

 Akron, is of more than passing interest. Mr. Christy is ex- 

 pected to give to the rubber business the same impetus that 

 has characterized the other large business enterprises with 

 which he has been identified hitherto. 



Vice President J. A. Swinehart, of the Firestone Tire and 

 Rubber Co., who spent the summer in Europe, reports bright 

 trade prospects there. 



Dr. L. E. Sisler, secretary and treasurer of the Firestone Tire 

 and Rubber Co., will soon remove to Port Huron, Michigan, to 

 devote his attention more exclusively to his work as supreme 

 finance keeper of the Knights of the Maccabees. 



W. O. Rutherford has been transferred from the Denver 

 branch to the Buffalo branch of The B. F. Goodrich Co. Mr. 

 Tullis, hitherto in charge in Buffalo, will represent the com- 

 pany on the road, and the Denver branch has been placed in 

 charge of Mr. Collins, from the New York office. 



Christopher Metzler, for twenty-seven years an employe of 

 The B. F. Goodrich Co., had never taken a vacation or lost a 

 day from work until this summer, when he asked for and was 

 granted a month's leave of absence. Upon his return he was 

 informed by the company that he need not again report for 

 duty, but that duriig his life his salary would go on, a check 

 being sent him every quarter. No formal announcement to 



