148 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Febkuakv I, 1903. 



. CANADIAN RUBBER TRADE BANQUET. 



THE successful annual meeting of the Rubber Footwear 

 Manufacturers' and Jobbers' Associations at Montreal 

 was fittingly terminated with a complimentary banquet ten- 

 dered to the visiting delegates by the Montreal rubber shoe 

 trade, at the Windsor Hotel, in that city, on the evening of 

 January 20. Forty-five guests were seated around a horseshoe 

 shaped table, in the " Ladies' Ordinary," which was tastefully 

 decorated for the occasion. The menu card was an appreciated 

 memento of the dinner. Appropriate proverbial couplets inter- 

 spersed the toast list, which was embellished with laughable 

 caricature sketches of prominent members of the manufactur- 

 ing concerns and officers of the jobbers' association. The chair 

 was occupied by Mr. James Robinson, with credit to himself 

 and to the satisfaction of the guests. 



The first toast — " Our King " — was responded to by a hearty 

 rendering of the national anthem. The next toast — "Our 

 Country" — was responded to by Mr. S. H. C. Miner, of the 

 Granby Rubber Co., who contrasted the favorable conditions 

 now existing in the rubber business in Canada with those of 

 five years ago, the change having been brought about by the 

 coming together in friendly discussion of competitors in busi- 

 ness. Going back further, he reviewed the history of progress 

 in the Dominion and gave expression to the most hopeful views 

 with regard to its future. Canada, he said, occupies the cen- 

 tral position o( the British empire, and indications justify Cana- 

 dians in thinking that in less than a century this country will 

 be the most important part of that empire. Speaking of the 

 United States, Mr. Miner said that formerly Canada had de- 

 sired reciprocity with the republic, and her representatives had 

 made many futile trips to Washington in this connection ; now 

 the States seem to be getting ready to ask for reciprocity. 



The toast to the Rubber Shoe Manufacturers' Association 

 was responded to by Messrs. H. D. Warren, of the Gutta Per- 

 cha and Rubber Manufacturing Co., D. L. McGibbon, the new 

 manager of the Canadian Rubber Co., and R. H. Greene of the 

 Maple Leaf Rubber Co. The toast to the Rubber Jobbers' As- 

 sociation was responded to by Messrs. Alexander MacPher- 

 son, Charles Bonnick, J. J. Kilgour, and Arthur Congdon. 



In response to the toast " American Rubber Interests" Mr. 

 Charles H. Arnold, of New York, was asked to speak. He re- 

 gretted the absence of Governor Bourn, whom he considered 

 one of the best informed of rubber men, and who was person- 

 ally associated with the late Charles Goodyear in some of his 

 rubber experiments. He also regretted that owing to a death 

 in Mr. Pearson's family, the editor of The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World found it impossible to be present. He agreed with 

 Mr. Miner in regard to the possibilities of this country, having 

 recently been across the continent with this gentleman, and 

 could realize the extent of the Dominion's heritage. 



Responding to the toast to the " Allied Trades," Mr. E. Tet- 

 rault, representing the shoe manufacturing trade, expressed 

 the hope that the rubber manufacturers at their session had 

 discussed the tariff question, and he thought that the rubber 

 and leather shoe branches should aid each other in having the 

 tariff on footwear raised. Responding to the same toast. Mr. 

 James Acton, editor of the Canadian Shoe and Leather Journal, 

 said that the retail shoe trade is now the only branch of the 

 business in Canada without an association, but that there is a 

 growing tendency among the retail trade to get into line in 

 this respect. He stated that the Journal management had 

 commenced in its columns an agitation for united action in the 

 matter of regulating prices, and other matters of interest to 

 the retailers. 



After a song by Mr. Woodley an anonymous contribution 

 was read by the Chairman, as follows: 



THE jobber's SOLILOIJUV. 

 To cut. or not to cut ; that is the question : 

 Whether it is better in the mind to suffer 

 The loss of orders and those old accounts. 

 Or to take arms against a sea of rumors 

 And by a discount end them. To cut, to break ; 

 No more ; and by that stroke to say we end 

 The heartache and the thousand daily shocks 

 Jobbers are heir to, 'tis a consummation 

 Devoutly to be wished. To cut, to break ; 

 To break that dread agreement ; aye. there's the rub. 

 For in that break what pangs may come 

 When we have forfeited our good hard cash 

 Must give us pause : There's the respect 

 That makes the plunge of so much danger rife. 

 Else who would bear the kicks of traveling men, 

 Retailers' taunts, competitors' crooked ways, 

 Punching of goods and other measly fakes 

 The Patient Jobber on small margin takes. 

 When he himself might a hiatus make 

 With but a discount: Who would swallow dirt 

 And grunt and swear under such dire restraint 

 But that the dread of something afterwards — 

 That lost five hundred — puzzles the will 

 And makes us rather bear loss those ills we have 

 Than fiy to others that we know not of. 

 Thus boodle does make memhtys of us all. 

 And thus the bend of natural inclination 

 To give an extra " Five " or punch good " firsts." 

 To date ahead or monkey with the terms 

 With this regard finds its strong currents turn awry 

 And lost in dumb paralysis. 

 The remaining toasts, to "The Press," the health of the 

 Chairman, and the " Wholesale Shoe Association," were appro- 

 priately responded to, after which the evening concluded with 

 the singing of " Auld Lang Syne." 



Among the letters of regret read at the banquet were two 

 from the United States, from Henry C. Pearson, of The India 

 Rubber World, and Augustus O. Bourn, president of the 

 New England Rubber Club. Governor Bourn wrote : " I feel 

 personally that I shall miss an opportunity which I may never 

 have again, of meeting so large a number of the rubber boot 

 and shoe jobbers of Canada. I feel a greater interest perhaps 

 in that association from the fact that the first boot and shoe 

 business of Canada was founded by my father, in Montreal, 

 about fifty years ago. The firm of Brown, Hibbard and Bourn 

 & Co. built the factory now owned by the Canadian Rubber 

 Co., and I myself spent a few months in Montreal assisting 

 my father, who had charee of establishing the business." 



AMONG THE INVENTORS. 



AN English patent (No. 15.058 — 1901; granted to J. E. Bax- 

 ter relates to the manufacture of seamless rubber arti- 

 cles, such as balls or syringe bulbs, and also tire tubes, by 

 dipping or building up rubber upon a core which may after- 

 ward be removed in a semi-liquid, plastic, or disintegrated 

 state. A core molded from a mixture of 95 parts of Paris 

 white and 5 parts of French chalk is mentioned, the same to 

 be softened after the vulcanization of the goods by placing the 

 whole in boiling water to soften the core. 



No. 15.621 — 1901, granted to J. Thame relates to waterproof 

 compositions for floor coverings or wall decorations, formed 

 by mixing in certain proportions and under heat Pontianak 

 gum (gutta-jelutong) with a binding material such as waste 

 cotton or jute fiber, with the addition of a hardening sub- 

 stance, like zinc oxide, or a filling material, such as wood meal. 

 To increase elasticity, Accra flake or oxidized oil may be 

 added. The hot mixture may be passed through rolls to pro- 

 duce a plain or ornamented sheet, which may be dyed when 

 cold, and a backing of paper or linen may be applied. 



