March l,-19n.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



211 



GROWTH OF THE RVBBEB HEEL BUSINESS. 



Humphrey O'Sullivan advises The India Rubber World 

 :that he is not connected in any official way with The O'Sullivan 

 Rubber Co., recently incorporated in Delaware, to take over the 

 business in rubber heels which he built up under the same name 

 at Lowell, Massachusetts. [See I. R. W., January 1, page 138.] 

 Mr. O'Sullivan retains his connection as treasurer with The 

 Merrimack Clothing Co., at Lowell. The Delaware company has 

 a capitalization of $1,600,000, of which $600,000 is preferred and 

 $1,000,000 common stock. The preferred is to pay 7 per cent, 

 per annum, and is to be retired from the surplus earnings so that 

 the conmion stock in time is expected to become very valuable. 

 GUGGENHEIM'S (!) RUBBER TRUST. 



It is not easy to see the utility of such information as appears 

 in this news item from the Lewiston (Maine) News, of January 

 14. To everybody in the rubber trade it will appear a very sur- 

 prising, original, and exclusive piece of news ; as for people out- 

 side the trade, all rubber news seems to look alike to them. 



GUGGENHEIM WINS THE RUBBER. 

 Guggenheim's rubber trust, reinforced by the Aldrich schedules, 

 has made $8,500,000 profit the last year, and has built a new plant in 

 Aldrich's city of Providence out of the odd change of $500,000, passing 

 over to millionaire promoters a trifling balance of eight millions. 

 Financing Aldrich's enterprises is easy. Aldrich does not need Mor* 

 gan's help. Aldrich improvidently promotes industries in his own 

 city, at the expense of the consumer. The rubber trust increased its 

 business in 1910 over 1909 about 20 per cent! Meantime gum shoes 

 cost more under the Aldrich tariff. 



If the Neu'S really wants to instruct the public, why doesn't 

 it print the name and location of any rubber company that 

 makes profits of $8,500,000 in a year? Also, the connection of 

 any of the persons mentioned in its article with the said rubber 

 -company. Furthermore, what does the tariff — or the musical 

 glasses, or the Tower of Babel — have to do with the matter? 

 Specific answers to these questions might afford The India 

 Rubber World information of importance which is wholly 

 unknown in the rubber trade. 



AN UP-TO-DATE RUBBER MILL. 



The accompanying cut shows the new factory of Parker- 

 Stearns & Co., located at Sheffield and Georgia avenues, Brook- 

 lyn, New York. The building is a substantial six-story struc- 





PARKER-STEARNS & CO.'S NEW FACTORY. 



ture of fireproof construction, and fitted throughout with an 

 automatic sprinkling system. The practical departments arc 

 equipped with up-to-date machinery and appliances best adapted 

 to the successful production of a complete line of drug and sta- 

 tioners' sundries, surgical and hospital appliances, automobile 

 accessories and a variety of rubber specialties. A recent ad- 

 jimct of the shipping department is the addition of several mo- 

 tor trucks. The company does a large domestic and foreign busi- 

 ness. 



It really does not seem as if our rubber manufacturers were 

 getting all the South American business they are entitled to. 

 Take Brazil for instance. One-half of the crude rubber exported 

 from Brazilian ports comes to the United States and it would 

 appear logical and reciprocal that half of the imports of manu- 

 factured rubber going into that country should be American 



goods. But the fact is that less than one-seventh of the rubber 

 goods imported into Brazil are American. Practically our only 

 rubber exports to that country are druggists' sundries. Ameri- 

 can tires, hose and footwear are almost unknown in Brazil. To 

 be sure their gross rubber imports are not large ; in fact, not 

 much over a half million a year ; still of that ainount we get only 

 about $75,000. We certainly ought to do much better than this. 



BUSINESS FAILURES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



.\x indication of interest in relation to business conditions in 

 the United States is derived from the yearly statistics of business 

 failures compiled by the New York journal, Bradslreet's. Fewer 

 failures than in l';09 or 1908, but more than in 1907 or 1906, with 

 larger liabilities than in 1909, but smaller than in 1908 or 1907, 

 were the features of the 1910 report to Bradslreet's. More fail- 

 ures occurred in the northwest, while the south showed the 

 largest decrease. More than one-sixth of all liabilities were due 

 to banking suspensions. A considerable part of the increase in 

 banking liabilities over 1909 is explained by the final shutting 

 down of banks which suspended in 1907, but resumed later. 

 Owing to the larger number of those in business and the lessened 

 number of failures, the commercial death rate was lower in 1910 

 than in all but two of the past 29 years. 



Bank clearings for 1910 aggregated $161,786,328,803, a loss of 

 1.5 per cent, from 1909, when the figures were of record volume. 

 Declining tendencies in the final six months of the year offset 

 gains made theretofore. 



TRADE NEWS NOTES. 



William H. Scheel (No. 159 Maiden lane. New York), is 

 sending out circulars descriptive of the merits of his imported 

 English terra alba, German black fillers, French oxide of 

 zinc, and Indian red and Italian talc. He stands ready to 

 fill all orders for this class of goods with the best possible 

 materials. 



The B. F. Goodrich Co. (Akron), is now sending out its 

 annual souvenir picture, a portrait by Carroll Beckwith. The 

 Goodrich girl of this year is named Beatrix, and the picture is 

 that of a very handsome woman, and is accompanied by a per- 

 sonal letter signed with that name. This is the twenty-third 

 annual souvenir issued by the company, the first having appeared 

 in 1889. 



The Amsterdam Rubber Co. (New York), whose head- 

 quarters have been at No. 107 Duane street for the last four 

 years, expects to remove on May 1 to a larger store at No. 

 142 Duane street. 



The jobbers handling the brands of rubber footwear sold 

 by the United States Rubber Co., are receiving framed pic- 

 tures of the various mills where their respective brands 

 are made. These pictures are about 20 x 34 ins., and give 

 very faithful representations of the different mills. They are 

 printed on tinted paper, and framed in Flemish oak, and 

 the result is not only a good picture of the mills repre- 

 sented, but something that is distinctly ornamental to any 

 wall. 



While the export business in rubber footwear from this 

 country has never assumed the proportions that it might 

 properly have been expected to reach, still it evidently covers 

 a very considerable territory, as will be seen from the fact 

 that the Candee Rubber Co. alone sends out advertising in 

 seven different languages, viz.: French, German, Armenian, 

 Turkish, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew. 



The net value of the rubber footwear produced in this 

 country last year is placed by those familiar with the sub- 

 ject at $45,000,000. The total value of the rubber footwear 

 in 1860 was $795,000. The industry was then eighteen years 

 old and it had not yet reached the million mark, while in 

 the last fifty years it has increased at an average of nearly 

 a million a year. 



