192 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1914. 



CONGRESSMAN LINDQUIST'S REMARKABLE BILL. 



""THERE have been at one time or another a great many ex- 

 ■^ traordinary bills introduced into the House of Representa- 

 tives, but few of them have ever surpassed in remarlcable features 

 the bill known as "H. R. 10080," introduced into the House on 

 December 8 last by Representative F. O. Lindquist, of Michigan. 

 The bill is described as follows : "A bill providing for the label- 

 ing, marking and tagging of all fabrics, leather and rubber goods, 

 as hereinafter designated, and providing for the fumigation of 

 same. To be enacted by the Senate and Ilouse of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

 that it shall be unlawful for any person to misrepresent in manu- 

 facturing, selling, trading or exchanging within any territory or 

 the District of Columbia any fabric or article hereinafter named 

 of wool, cotton, silk, linen, fibre, leather or rubber, in whole or 

 in part, which is misbrandcd within the meaning of this act, to 

 wit : Men's, women's and children's clothing . . . boots, 

 shoes, sandals . . . and all articles of rubber footwear ; and 

 any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this sec- 

 tion shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for the first ofifense 

 shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed $2,000, or 

 shall be sentenced to one year's imprisonment, or both such fine 

 and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court ; and for such 

 subsequent conviction thereof shall be fined not to exceed $5,000, 

 or sentenced to one year's imprisonment, or both such fine and 

 imprisonment, in the discretion of the court." The bill then goes 

 on to require "that all articles composed wholly of unadulterated 

 rubber shall be marked, tagged or labeled in plain letters 'un- 

 adulterated rubber' ; and that all articles composed in part of un- 

 adulterated rubber and in part of adulterated rubber, or such 

 other vegetable, animal or mineral substances shall be marked, 

 tagged or labeled in plain letters 'adulterated' or 'substituted 

 rubber,' and the mark, tag, or label shall show all the constitu- 

 ents contained therein : Provided, That it shall not be required to 

 separately mark, tag. or label any textile fabric used in tlie manu- 

 facture of the shoe, and that in all articles or fabrics composed in 

 part of pure wool and shoddy the percentage of these constituents 

 need not be stated." 



Perhaps the features incorporated in Mr. Lindquist's bill, re- 

 markable as they are. are not so interesting as the address he de- 

 livered in support of his measure. A verbatim report of his 

 speech contains the following paragraph : 



"You will also note that my bill includes rubber footwear. I 

 think that it is extremely important that the manufacturers of 

 rubbers should place a label upon their products, because the 

 greater percentage of rubber shoes that are manufactured today 

 are made from old adulterated, cast-ofif rubbers that are picked 

 up in the alleys back of hospitals and pest houses, and find their 

 way back to the manufacturer, and again are remelted and re- 

 manufactured, and again sold over the counter to the consuming 

 public under the pretense of their being made from genuine new 

 rubber." 



Just why there should be a great accumulation of cast-off rub- 

 bers back of hospitals and pest houses is not quite clear. The 

 natural inference must be that all those unfortunate people who 

 are taken to hospitals and pest houses enter not only wearing a 

 pair of rubbers, but carrying several extra pairs with them, all 

 of which are forthwith hurled from the back windows into the 

 waiting alley. Possibly this is the custom at these institutions, 

 but if so the Congressman is the first to discover it. He goes on 

 further to dilate on the poor quality of modern rubber footwear. 

 The stenographer reports him as follows : 



"It is hardly possible for me to purchase a pair of rubbers for 

 my little girl or boy that will give service for more than a 

 couple of weeks before they are worn through. This, I am sure, 

 is due entirely to the fact that the product from which the rub- 

 bers are made has been previously gone through the course of 

 manufacture time and time again. I remember well when I was 



a small boy, my parents bought me one pair of rubbers in the 

 fall, and they would invariably last through the winter. It seems 

 almost impossible today to purchase a pair of rubbers for my 

 children of the same wearing quality that my parents bought me 

 thirty years ago. Now, then, if the truth was known, there are 

 perhaps millions of cases of sickness prevailing which 1 have no 

 doubt could be traced back to the very manufacturer who is un- 

 scrupulously misrepresenting his rubber goods." 



It is a somewhat prevalent habit to berate all things modern as 

 compared with the products of an earlier generation, but as a 

 matter of fact, the rubber footwear of today is quite the equal of 

 the rubber footwear of thirty years ago, as there were more com- 

 panies and keener competition in this line at that time than is 

 the case today, to say nothing of the improved methods which 

 obtain today in footwear factories, and the better prices that the 

 manufacturers are receiving. The legislator's statement that "if 

 the truth was known, perhaps millions of cases of sickness could 

 be traced back" to the maker of rubber boots and shoes, is highly 

 interesting, and Congress should be called upon at once to make 

 an adequate appropriation and appoint the necessary committees 

 to trace back these "millions of cases." This is certainly vastly 

 more important than the tarifif or the currency or any other 

 merely commercial question that has yet come before that 

 learned body of men. The congressman's whole speech in ad- 

 vocacy' of his measure was interesting, but there is space here 

 only to quote one other little clause in which he describes what 

 a second is. "A second," he says, "is an article which has been 

 damaged or mutilated in some way or other in the course of 

 construction, and before it is permitted to be placed on sale it 

 has been mended in such a way as to deceive the public." 



Now manufacturers who make shoes of anything except pure 

 rubber will be liable to a fine not to exceed $5,000. or a sentence 

 to one year's imprisonment, or both, unless they label such shoes 

 "adulterated" and give on the label or tag a list of all the "adul- 

 terants." such as litharge, sulphur, carbon black, whiting or other 

 ingredients. 



What will the manufacturers do about it? This reminds the 

 writer of the time when a certain well-known rubber manufac- 

 turer in Connecticut had a contract to supply ponchos to the 

 United States Government. After the award of the contract, and 

 after some goods had been delivered, the inspectors refused to re- 

 ceive the goods, claiming that the waterproofing material should 

 be composed of at least 75 per cent, pure rubber. The manufac- 

 turer asked where the ponchos were going. Some were for the 

 Philippines and others for Alaska, tho most were for army 

 posts in this country. The manufacturer said : "If these were 

 made of 75 per cent, pure rubber, you would have to send four 

 men to hold the corners of each poncho sent to Alaska, so it 

 wouldn't break in pieces like glass. And in the Philippines four 

 men would be needed to hold each poncho flat and separate, for 

 if laid one on another they would melt and stick in one solid 

 mass. The inspector finally passed the ponchos without ascer- 

 taining what percentage of "pure rubber" they contained. 



Mr. Lindquist probably does not know of the early experiments 

 in making all rubber footwear in a Boston factory, rubbers which 

 ran like molasses in summer and were as brittle as glass bottles 

 in winter. He still sighs for pure, unadulterated rubber as the 

 sole ingredient, but he doesn't know how lucky he is to get 

 overshoes which are only partly made of rubber. 



But rubber footwear producers may well keep an eye on this 

 Pure Shoe bill, and at least inform their Congressmen of the 

 foolishness of such a law. 



The Bowling League of the Mechanical Rubber Co., of Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, consists of eight teams, made up from the various 

 departments. According to the printed schedule for the season 

 1913-14, about eight matches a month are played off. The com- 

 mittee is composed of R. Beynon. W. Denker, F. Densler, M. J. 

 Kappler, D. Jones and J. H. Pettersson. 



