February i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER 'JVORLD 



167 



NEWS OF THE AMERICAN RUBBER TRADE. 



RUBBER SHOE JOBBERS IN CONVENTION. 

 ^ I " HE annual meeting of the Western Association of Shoe 

 I Jobbers in Chicago, on January 5, was well attended by 

 representatives of the rubber shoe selling agencies and 

 jobbing houses throughout the territory covered by the 

 association. The belief was expressed that selling prices would 

 be maintained and an exceptionally good year's trade was pre- 

 dicted. The old officers were reelected, Mr. Orlando C. Smith, 

 ol the Smith- Wallace Shoe Co. (Chicago), being chosen presi- 

 dent for the fourth term. At the banquet in the evening, at- 

 tended by 98 guests, the first toast was in honor of Mr. E. S. 

 Converse, president of the Boston Rubber Shoe Co.^=At a 

 meeting of the Eastern Association of Shoe Jobbers, in Boston, 

 on January 14, it was agreed to adopt the same selling discount 

 as prevailed last year, which means no cutting of prices. 



SWEET TIRE AND RUBBER CO. (BATAVIA, N. Y. ) 

 At a directors' meeting on January 3. Frank Richardson was 

 elected president, Ashton W. Caney vice president, John M. 

 Sweet secretary, and George E. Perrin treasurer. Mr. Richard- 

 son was until recently president of the Batavia Carriage Wheel 

 Co.; Mr. Sweet, superintendent of that company, and Mr. 

 Caney a traveling salesman for it; and Alderman Perrin lately 

 disposed of a cigar business, in which he had been engaged 

 for nineteen years, to accept his new position. Mr. Sweet is 

 the patentee of a solid rubber vehicle tire now on the market, 

 and has invented processes for making and applying tires. 

 Work is progressing on the company's factory, and all the ma- 

 chinery is reported to have been shipped by the makers. The 

 company will begin by making tires, with a view to adding 

 other lines of rubber manufacture. They obtained a New York 

 charter on August 21, 1902, with an authorized capital of 

 $80,000. 



MORGAN & WRIGHT (CHICAGO.) 



A STRIKE at the factory of this company was formally de- 

 clared at an end at midnight on January 3. The cause of the 

 strike involved no question of hours or wages, but it was 

 charged by the labor unions that when men were laid off, in 

 dull seasons, the highest priced were selected. A sympathetic 

 strike at the Chicago Rubber Works followed, and the team- 

 sters' union assisted by relusing to do any hauling lor either 

 factory. The end of the strike followed the adoption of an 

 agreement that in the laying off of employes in any department, 

 those longest in service in that department shall not lose any 

 time in preference of any new employe, providing that in all 

 cases they are competent and reliable. 



AMERICAN BICYCLE CO. 

 Referring to the plans for reorganization outlined in the 

 last India Rubber World [page 137] it may be added that 

 during January the reorganization committee announced that, 

 more than a majority of the outstanding debentures and a 

 large amount of stock of both classes having been deposted 

 with the committee, the plan had become operative. Under 

 date of December 30 a " debenture holders protective commit- 

 tee " issued a call for a deposit of securities under a plan in 

 opposition to that of the reorganization committee, but later 

 this call was withdrawn. A published report states ; " When 

 the committee took hold of the American Bicycle Co. they 

 found it in debt, with no working capital, and members of ihe 

 committee and Colonel Albert A. Pope have already loaned 



the company $750,000 for working capital, taking receivers' 

 certificates and notes of the company for collateral. "==It was 

 announced on January 26 that about 95 per cent, ol the de- 

 bentures had been deposited under the agreement, and that the 

 time for deposit had been extended to February 2, inclusive. 

 The reorganization plan has been modified by providing that 

 the second preferred stock shall be entitled to dividends at the 

 rate of 5 per cent, cumulative after February i, 1905, instead of 

 6 per cent, non cumulative. 



REMOVAL OF THE HODGMAN RUBBER STORE. 

 The Hodgman Rubber Co. (New York) will occupy from this 

 date a new location for their store and offices, at Nos. S06 808 

 Broadway. In the building immediately north of the grounds 

 attached to Grace church they have secured the entire ground 

 fijor, 50 X 230 feet, and extending from Broadway to Fourth 

 avenue. The course of Eleventh street across town is inter- 

 rupted by this block, so that the firm make prominent in their 

 announcements, as an indication of their location that will be 

 easy to remember, that they are "opposite Eleventh street." 

 The house of Hodgman, founded in New York by Daniel Hodg- 

 man in 1838, is the oldest rubber business in continuous exist- 

 ence in the United States. Be- 

 ginning at the intersection of 

 Nassau street and Maiden 

 lane, when that was a central 

 position in the mercantile 

 trade of New York, the Hodg- 

 man Rubber Co. have kept 

 pace with the gradual pro- 

 gress uptown ol the business 

 center. Finding themselves 

 recently compelled by the 

 growth of their business to 

 seek larger quarters, they have 

 not only met this condition 

 in the choice of their new lo- 

 cation, but have gained a 

 more desirable situation for 

 the carrying on, at the pres- 

 ent time, of the branch of business in which they are 

 engaged, besides securing a store more creditable to the 

 company. In addition to their new store being so spacious, 

 it is exceptionally well lighted, having the advantage of a 

 row of windows overlooking the churchyard. The Hodg- 

 man Rubber Co., during their long existence, have grad- 

 ually added to their lines of production until they now 

 embrace an unusually large nu-nber and varied character 

 of goods, a new catalogue of which is now being prepared 

 for the trade. The accompanying cut gives a good view 

 of the Broadway front as one looks northward. 



COAL SHORTAGE AT AKRON. 

 A CORRESPONDENT OF THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD writes: 



" The general shortage of fuel in Akron and elsewhere has 

 seriously inconvenienced all the local rubber manufacturers. 

 Through a great part of January they had a hand-to-mouth ex- 

 istence in this respect, buying coal in whitever quantities and 

 at whatever prices they could. One large concern had men in 

 the field all the time in search of fuel. The rubber companies 

 as well as other manufacturers have, as a rule, contracts with 

 mine operators, but the latter have been selling their output 



