MAy 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



395 





yerk 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 48. 



MAY I. 1913. 



No. 2 



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table of contents on last page of reading. 



official report on AKRON RUBBER STRIKE. 



T 



HE rubber strike at Akron, after an acute case of 

 what the doctors call progressive anemia, finally 

 dwindled down to nothing and expired of exhaustion, 

 the last of Alarch. Two weeks later the "Probe" Com- 

 mittee, appointed by the senate of the Ohio legislature, 

 to investigate the cause of the strike, brought in its re- 

 port. The essential features of this report are re- 

 produced in the letter from our Akron correspondent, 

 to be found on another page in this issue. The com- 

 mittee found that there were no conditions existing in 

 the rubber plants of Akron that could of themselves 

 have occasioned the labor demonstration that began in 

 February, and for a short time assumed rather threat- 

 ening proportions. They report that the strike was 

 almost entirely the work of professional agitators, con- 

 nected with the I. \\'. W., who went to Akron solely 

 for the purpose of making trouble. The conditions in 

 the rubber factories are reported to have been in the 

 main most excellent. The operatives are abundantly 

 supplied with light and ventilation, and surrounded 

 by the best conditions that modern sanitation has been 

 able to devise. Nor did they have an}' ground for 

 complaint in regard to the rate of wages, which in 

 some departments, particularly the tire making de- 

 j.*, partments, are reported as exceptionally high. The 

 5^ wages of the men employed in these factories range 

 """ from 17 cents an hour for unskilled labor to 60 cents 

 an hour for skilled labor. The wages paid the women 



range from 10 cents an hour for beginners to 30 cents 

 an hour for experienced operatives. 



There are practically but two paragraphs in the re- 

 I)ort which savor of criticism of the employers. One 

 refers to the incident which was seized upon as an 

 excuse to start the strike, where a new wage scale was 

 put into force in a certain department of one of the 

 factories. The committee reports that a greater length 

 of time sliould have been allowed to intervene, for 

 purposes of discussion, between the date of the an- 

 nouncement and the date when the new scale was to 

 go into effect. The other point of criticism refers to 

 the "speeding up'' system, which the committee dep- 

 recates. 



The majority of the committee could not refrain 

 from an attempt to make a little political capital out 

 of their investigation, by bringing in a supplementary 

 report containing certain tariff suggestions- — which 

 were quite out of place, as being entirely foreign to 

 the purpose for which the committee was appointed; 

 but the main report on the whole seems to be the re- 

 sult of painstaking and intelligent work. To the em- 

 ployer, it will emphasize the necessity of always keep- 

 ing an open ear to any properly expressed request the 

 employes may make : while to the workers in the 

 Akron factories, the lesson of the report must certainly 

 be a salutary one, as it shows them that compared 

 with factory operatives generally they are exceptional- 

 ly favored. This report ought certainly to serve as a 

 strong deterrent to any further labor demonstrations 

 in that city, as long as the present conditions continue. 



THE DROP IN TIRE PRICES AND WHY. 



ON the 31st of March The B. F. Goodrich Co. an- 

 nounced the reduction of price to the consumer 

 of five per cent, in its general line of automobile tires, 

 to take place on the first of April. Practically all the 

 other important tire manufacturing companies followed 

 with a similar reduction, although in some cases it did 

 not apply to the entire line; some specialties being ex- 

 cepted. It is hardly necessary to state that this reduc- 

 tion in the price of automobile tires was extremely wel- 

 come to the car owners, particularly in view of the as- 

 cending tendency noticeable of late in the price of 

 gasoline. 



But that this reduction should have been decided upon 

 so soon after the six weeks' strike in Akron, and when, 

 because of that strike, there would naturally be a much 

 smaller stock of tires on hand than would be the case 

 under normal conditions, came as a surprise to the trade. 



Two reasons are assigned by those who inaugurated 

 this reduction, both sound and substantial; first, the 

 marked drop in the cost of crude rubber during the last 

 few months ; and, second, the constant improvement in 

 the manufacturing facilities. 



It requires only a glance at crude rubber prices during 

 recent years to see how steadilv thev have gone down. 



