August 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



567 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN BOSTON. 



By a Resident Correspondent. 

 ■ I 'HE Boston market is in its usual midsummer condition. 

 •*■ Some branches are above normal, while others are 

 simply holding their own. The makers of automobile tires 

 continue to report good business, and most, if not all, are 

 prospering. Despite the fact that many concerns have in- 

 creased their output, there seems to be no great accumulation 

 of tires in the factories or salesrooms. The druggists' goods 

 business seems to be affected somewhat by the large con- 

 solidated interests in the retail drug trade. Those corpora- 

 tions which run chains of stores have formed a habit of 

 advertising fountain syringes, hot water bags and similar 

 lines at remarkable cuts from the usual drug store prices, 

 with the result that while these corporations are large buyers, 

 the smaller stores suffer, and jobbers find their sales of these 

 goods falling far below normal. As the large buyers are 

 probably enabled to secure as good as, or even better terms 

 than the jobbers, the result must be a falling off in the total 

 demand, unless these buyers purchase as much more in the 

 aggregate as the orders from jobbers fall short. 



* * * 



The clothing trade continues prosperous, with a demand 

 which keeps the factories busy. Few mills making these 

 goods are willing to extend vacations for longer periods 

 than the usual two weeks. Mechanical concerns have nad a 

 good trade in hose, which, however, is now falling off, while 

 the call for belting and packing is rather unsatisfactory. 

 There is but little doing in the boot and shoe business, and 

 many of the factories have shut down for a longer or shorter 

 term during the month just closed. 



* * * 



During the early part of the month, while the shoe buyers 

 were in Boston, according to their semi-annual custom, the 

 selling agencies of the United States Rubber Co. were well 

 represented in this city. W. H. Jones, Southern selling agent, 

 of Baltimore; Richard C. Hall, Western selling agent, and 

 A. F. Solberg, of Chicago; Wm. E. Barker, manager of sales, 

 of New York, and Homer E. Sawyer, general manager, were 

 — for different periods of time — at the Boston office. The 

 selling agents are here not so much for the purpose of sell- 

 ing goods as to meet their customers, who come here at 

 this time to purchase leather goods. 



* » * 



Will we ever hear the last of that case against Warren B. 

 Wheeler, Stillman Shaw and G. Alden Whittemore? They 

 have been indicted again in connection with the sale of stock 

 of the North American Rubber Co., makers of synthetic (?) 

 rubber, and are now claiming irregularity in the proceedings, 

 contending that, by reason of their books being seized before 

 the grand jury proceedings were started, they were forced 

 to give testimony which was later used against them; while 

 Whittemore further claims immunity on the ground that when 

 he testified before the grand jury he was not informed that 

 his testimony might be used against him. At present writing, 

 Judge Dodge, of the United States District Court, before 

 whom the hearing was held, has not rendered any decision. 



* * * 



Improvement is the order of the day at the B. & R. Rubber 

 Co.'s factory at North Brookfield, where a fine new engine 

 has just been installed, in place of the old Brown engine of 

 ancient type which has done excellent duty for many years. 

 The company is prospering, and the town (which for some 

 years went backward when the old Batcheller shoe business 

 was discontinued) is now more flourishing and gives employ- 

 ment to more workmen than at any previous time in its 

 more than two hundred years of existence. 



* * * 



A certificate of incorporation has been granted the Granite 



City Rubber Co., which will soon start manufacturing in the 

 neighboring city of Quincy, where the two principal incor- 

 porators reside. W. A. Prince was until recently manager of 

 the American Chemical Co., of Cambridge. George Rein- 

 halter was an assistant in the chemical laboratory of the 

 Hood Rubber Co. at East Watertown. The third incor- 

 porator is I. W. Pollard. It is an interesting fact that the 

 two first named gentlemen began their business careers in 

 the local drug store of C. C. Mearn, Quincy, an experience 

 which not only led them into scientific experimental work, 

 but also sealed a friendship and a mutuality of interests which 

 have led to this union in a business enterprise. 



* * * 



The .\etna Rubber Co. is the style of a concern which was 

 incorporated last month, with a capital stock of $2,500. The 

 incorporators are Abe Kosow, Philip Samack and Samuel 

 Goldstein. 



* * * 



A new industry somewhat allied with the rubber business 

 is the Bay State Felt Co., which will soon start manufac- 

 turing at Westboro, Massachusetts. This is a new Massa- 

 chusetts corporation, with a capital stock of $250,000. James 

 Whitaker is president and Benjamin Kendrick treasurer. 



* * * 



The American Rubber Co.'s clothing department has been 

 somewhat crippled the past month, through a strike of a 

 few of the cutters. Business has been good right along, and 

 the company has enough orders ahead to keep the factory 

 running to full ticket — which was the intention until this 

 trouble started. The management will, however, be likely to 

 shut down for a few weeks if the strike assumes sufficiently 

 large proportions to seriously interfere with the work. 



* * * 



The murder of one man, the wounding of another and the 

 suicide of the murderer served to raise a portion of the 

 Hood Rubber Co.'s employes to a high pitch of excitement one 

 day last month. The aggressor, having been nagged by his fel- 

 low workers until his patience was exhausted, assailed his tor- 

 mentors, then fled, and, being pursued, turned the pistol upon 

 himself with fatal result. 



» * * 



The newspapers have just become cognizant of the fact 

 that young Elisha S. Converse, son of Col. Harry E. Con- 

 verse, and namesake and grandson of the late Deacon Con- 

 verse, is working at the Edgeworth mill of the Boston Rubber 

 Shoe Co. The fact has been blazoned forth under such 

 scareheads as "Millionaire Converse Works at the Bench," 

 "Rich Man's Son Now a Worker" and similar sensational 

 titles. The report goes on to state that the young millionaire 

 drives over from Brookline in his automobile, dons overalls 

 and jumper at 7 a. m. and works until 5 p. m. in one of the 

 hottest rooms of the factory, where the thermometer is 

 never less than 100 degrees. "At present," this account says, 

 "he is clipping red-hot heels from the furnaces (sic) to be 

 placed on rubber boots. At 5 o'clock he enters his touring 

 car, which awaits him at the factory entrance, and speeds to 

 his home." 



While this may seem somewhat marvelous to the average 

 reader, it is nothing surprising to those who are familiar with 

 the policy of the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. Many a man who 

 afterwards became prominent in the rubber footwear busi- 

 ness began learning the rudiments of the trade in that Edge- 

 worth factory, or in the Fells factory of that company. Gen- 

 eral Manager Homer E. Sawyer served his apprenticeship 

 making boots; some of the men now in the factory were 

 his fellow workmen and today consider him a personal friend. 

 There are other men in the United States Rubber Co.'s plant 

 who can build a Boston short boot as well as any man now 



