72 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1913. 



Working in a Rubber Factory. 



By Lucy Case Gowin. 



(The writer of this article is the wife of the Professor of Sociology in Weslcyan University. She entered a rubber footwear factory and learned to 

 make rubber shoes for the purpose of studying the conditions under which girls work in these factories, with a view to preparing a book on the subject. Her 

 conclusions will be found of interest by all those connected with rubber footwear factory management. Two of the ideas she suggests, viz., that publio 

 demonstrations of rubber shoe making be given at fairs and at other suitable places, and that shoe dealers make an occasional window display of rubber in 

 the various stages of its manufacture, from the crude biscuit to the finished shoe, have already been tried, in a limited way, and with excellent results, 

 by several manufacturers. — Editor. J 



TIE superintendent's face was a study. He knew that 1 was 

 the wife of a university professor. But he could not see why 

 I wanted to work in his factory ; nor did he see how, after 

 my insistence, he could very well refuse. Finally, however, in an 

 amusing, fatherly way he said to come to work if I wanted to, 

 adding as a mischievous after-thought that for the first few 

 days I was to be paid beginner's wages, "rather more than regu- 

 lar piece work rates," and that I need not follow the usual 

 time schedule. 



Regular work, however, was what I wanted, and seven o'clock 

 the following morning found me walking upstairs to the rubber- 

 shoe room. The foreman had come down "to do the honors," 

 as he said. Not that he knew who I was, for he seemed to treat 

 me as a "green hand" to be initiated. On the stairs he paused to 

 say, "You are going to see things very strange to you, Miss, but 

 just keep your self-confidence, and you will get along all right." 

 His advice proved helpful. Too much consideration cannot be 

 given the new employe, especially a girl. What seems so com- 

 monplace and usual to the rcgu4ar force is full of newness and 

 mystery to beginners. A kmdness to them will win their lasting 

 regard. 



A very strange scene indeed was before me — the pounding and 

 rolling and rattling, and the men and women, all strangers. 

 working on queer-looking objects, with flying fingers. Could I 

 fill one of these places and ever do work like this? I regretted 

 that I had come. 



•But the forelady came up just then — she had the faculty of 

 alvyays being in the right place at the right time — and made me 

 feel at ease. To make my start easier she placed me at a bench 

 in one end of the room where she spent considerable of her time. 



My first work was that of assisting a girl who had been mak- 

 ing shoes at that bench for five years, a very sweet girl of about 

 nineteen who had been compelled to leave school, she told me 

 later, when her father died, because her older sisters were all 

 married and could not help her mother. She saw nothing espe- 

 cially praiseworthy in this self-imposed duty ; but to me she 

 seemed a heroine, especially so since her sacrifice was long con- 

 tinued and unrecognized. We need a new gospel of work, which 

 will exalt the worker's task and see heroism in the common- 

 place. Such heroes work in every factory, and I count it not the 

 least valuable of my experiences that I came to know some of 

 these. 



Seated on a stool by the side of this instructor, my lessons be- 

 gan. And here also began a swift change in iny ideas of rubber- 

 shoe making. I never had supposed that a pair of rubbers con- 

 tained so many pieces, but thought in a rather hazy way the 

 rubber was poured into molds. I was, of course, surprised to 

 find all the work done by hand. If consumers knew just how 

 difficult it is to make a rubber shoe, they would not only be 

 much interested in their rubbers but would be more willing to 

 pay the price asked, a price which they now in a vague way be- 

 lieve simply goes to a "trust.'' It might not be practical to give 

 demonstrations in the smaller towns, but at state fairs and in 

 larger towns the showing how rubbers are made does seem to 

 me to be practical. For the smaller stores I am wondering if 

 an exhibit, a small case with glass top in which was arranged 

 crude rubber, prepared rubber, a rubber shoe before assembling 



and a completed shoe, could not with good results be loaned 

 merchant after merchant, for perhaps two weeks' time each. 



My instructor was a good pedagogue, with one essential qual- 

 ity highly developed — patience. She showed me just how it was 



Luc:v C.\SE GowiN. 



done ; it looked easy. But it wasn't. My hands grasped things 

 in the wrong places, my fingers were clumsy, and oh, so slow! 



To many of the readers of The India Rubber World the 

 process of shoemaking is doubtless a very old story, but 

 there may be some to whom it is as new as it was to me, 

 so I will describe briefly my first experiences as a shoemaker. 

 My first work, that on the linings, seemed to be approved, 

 so the forelady soon brought me several queerly shaped 

 tools, said I was to make a real rubber shoe before long, 

 but first to watch my teacher with care. I did so. She first 

 slipped the tan-colored lining over a wooden last shaped like 

 a human foot. An insole was placed under the last, and the 

 lower edges of the lining stretched evenly along the edge of 

 this insole and pressed down with a steel roller. A black 

 tape about an inch wide was then placed around the edge 

 of the shoe, half on the sole and half on the upper part. 

 This was called the "stay." The next step was to scratch 

 the linings in front and behind with a sharp gauge. This 

 was followed by capping the toe with a triangular piece of 

 stiffening; and then came the large and small heel stiffenings. 



The remarkable thing, to nie, about all these pieces was 

 that they stayed just where they were put, requiring only a 

 little rolling to keep them permanently in place. This was 

 due to the adhesive nature of the material, most of it being 

 a sort of rubber cloth. To complete the first division of the 

 work another thin sole was placed on the bottom and rolled. 



All this looked easy under the skilful fingers of my teach- 

 ers. But my first linings became stuck together while slip- 



