20 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1910. 



THE RUBBER TRADE AT AKRON. 



1)V A KhMlitNT tORRESl'ONUENT. 



AKRON rubber manufacturers see in the very considerable 

 slnckoning in business that recently led to the reduction of 

 tlie working forces of several local factories and the shortening of 

 hours of employes in other shops nothing more serious than the 

 usual dullness in the automobile tire market, following a busy 

 spring and summer. The situation is felt more, perhaps, because 

 the season just past has been an unusually busy one. 



"We won't begin to stock up until November i," said Mr. A. 

 H. Marks, vice-president and superintendent of The Diamond 

 Rubber Co. "It isn't good policy to earn* tires in stock for a 

 long period. The trade during the summer was more active than 

 customary. That's what is making some folks think the present 

 lull is something more serious. We will keep only enough men 

 at work to take care of the current trade." 



Several hundred employes were laid ofi temporarily at the 

 Diamond. Every shop in the city is doing the same. 



.•\kron manufacturers declare an undercurrent of unrestlul 

 comment upon the automobile and the tire situation that has 

 been recently making itself felt locally isn't based upon fact. They 

 are emphatic in their statements that the automobile and the 

 rubber manufacturing industries are built upon solid foundations. 



"You can't stop the tire business," said Mr. H. S. Firestone, 

 president of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. "It has come to 

 stay. It may vary somewhat according as there are good times 

 or bad times, but in the main there will be a steady, healthy 

 development. In slack times, when business conditions through- 

 out the countr>' are disturbed, fewer tires will be sold than during 

 good times. The automobile owner, for instance, will be 

 more careful of his tires and of his machine than at other times. 

 He will make fewer pleasure trips and the tire industry will feel 

 the difference. Our company is confidently looking forward to 

 a good year of business." 



The high price of crude rubber is attributed in some sources 

 as one of the causes for the slowing down in the manufacturing 

 business. 



"Akron companies aren't going to stock up on tires and other 

 goods with material costing so much," said Mr. T. C. Marshall, 



cashier of the Buckeye Rubber Co. 



* * * 



The development of the Buckeye Rubber Co., one of .\kron's 

 newer rubber manufacturing concerns, has been rapid since the 

 fire, which so seriously damaged their plant n little more than a 

 year ago The plant now consists of five factory buildings. A 

 curing department and a machine room have been built this year, 

 and another for the manufacture of pneumatic tires was finished 

 last spring. The curing room is one of the finest in the country. 

 It is equipped entirely with modern apparatus. There are six 

 presses. The plant is so located that the city water pressure is 

 inadequate for fire protection, and $10,000 has been expended in 

 the installation of a sprinkler system throughout the premises. 

 Water is drawn from the Cuyahoga river. Until two years ago 

 the company's chief product was the Kelly-Springfield solid car- 

 riage tire. The manufacture of pneumatic tires was then taken 

 up, and with such splendid results that facilities for this branch 

 of the business were immediately increased. Two hundred men 

 are employed at the plant now, and the daily output is 200 pneu- 

 matics, of the regul.ttion clincher type. Inner tubes are also 



made. 



* * * 



The capital stock of the Rubber Products Co., of Barberton. 

 near .Akron, was increased from $150,000 to $300,000 at a recent 

 meeting of shareholders. Part of the increase will represent a 

 stock dividend out of the surplus earnings, and part of the new- 

 stock will be sold pro rata to the present owners of the com- 

 pany, of whom there are but few. The money is to ^e used for im- 

 provements, Mr. W. .\. Johnston, president and treasurer, said, 



The Rubber Products Co. make druggists' sundries and me- 

 chanical goods. 



» • * 



Mechanical equipment continues to be contributed by manu- 

 facturers of machinery and by the leading rubber goods firms 

 to Buchtel College, for the benefit of the students who have 

 taken up the new course in rubber chemistry. Some of the 

 rubber manufacturing companies have offered to cooperate with 

 the faculty in every way possible to render the new course of 

 benefit to the students. Dr. Charles M. Knight, professor of 

 chemistry, who has charge of the rubber class, is assisted by 

 Hazzleton Simmons, a Buchtel graduate in chemistry, who has 

 taken a doctor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania. 

 » • » 



The American Tire and Rubber Co., recently incorporated, 

 purpose the manufacture of automobile tires, inner tubes, and 

 solid tires; also the reclaiming of rubber by a new process, for 

 which much is claimed. Frank L. Krjder, one of the local in- 

 corporators, was for several years assistant treasurer of the 

 Peoria Rubber and Manufacturing Co., the factory of which was 

 closed after the company passed into the hands of the Rubber 

 Goods Manufacturing Co. The new company have not decided 

 whether to locate in .Akron, though several sites in this city are 

 under consideration. 



* * * 



A meeting of the shareholders of the Royal Rubber Co. has 

 been called for October 22, to take action upon a proposal to 

 increase the capital stock from $50,000 to $200,000. Extension 

 additions are being made to the company's plant. O. C. Ailing 

 has resigned as president and William M. Bleeker, of Mansfield, 



Ohio, was elected to succeed him. 



* * * 



E. A. Kranich, superintendent of the tire department of L. & 

 M. Rubber Co., (Carrollton, Ohio), has been in Akron recently 

 buying tire making equipment. This company succeeded the 

 Mitzel Rubber Co., and Mr. Kranich declares it to be in a thriving 

 condition. Harvey Miller, an Akron man, is superintendent of 



the druggists' sundries department. 



* * * 



Mr. Will Christy, vice president of the Firestone Tire and 

 Rubber Co., has authorized the publication of a notice of with- 

 drawal from participation in forming the proposed Portage 

 Rubber Co., of which mention was made in The India Rubber 

 World, September i, 1910 (page 448). It is stated that more than 

 half of the $1,000,000 capital desired has been subscribed. 



* * * 



The Diamond Rubber Co. have opened a branch in Paris, 

 under the management of Keith L. Goode, an American who has 

 resided for 15 years in France. He is a brother of the branch 

 manager in Paris of the Packard Motor Car Co. 



* * * 



J. W. Kellev, who started as a clerk in The B. F. Goodrich 

 Co. oflSces, at a very modest salary, w-hen he came to .Akron not 

 so many years ago from the east, has been entertaining .Akron 

 people recently at his splendid new home at West Farmington, 

 Massachusetts. As a clerk, all his spare earnings were invested 

 in rubber stock. He ventured to borrow money, and it, too, went 

 for stock. Four years ago he retired from active business and 

 traveled extensively abroad with his family for two years. He 

 is one of the many men whose fortunes have been made in 



-Akron's rubber factories. 



* * * 



During the latter part of September the yearly conference of 

 the officers, branch managers, and salesmen of the Firestone Tire 

 and Rubber Co. took place in this city. The branch managers in 

 attendance were D. C. Swander, New York ; T. J. Glenn, Boston ; 

 W. R. Walton, Philadelphia; F. H. Martin, Chicago; C. E. Jack- 

 son, Pittsburg; W^ A. Harshaw, Cleveland; J. V. Mowe, Detroit; 

 W. F. West, St. Louis ; E. U. Campion, Seattle ; and C. C. Eichel- 



