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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



[August i, 1910. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



BY A RESIDENT CORRESPONDENT. 



THERE is some indication that an improved condition of 

 business is already felt in the commercial life of the houses 

 engaged in the rubber industry on the coast. Improvement has 

 been slow. However, it is safe to say that most of the houses 

 are doing a regular routine business, though nothing that could 

 be called rushing. The old story about cost of material, com- 

 petition and low prices is still heard on all sides. As this is the 

 season when people are thinking more about their vacations than 

 about new undertakings, or at least, if they think they are not 

 able to go for vacations, when they can talk about other people 

 being away so that it is hard to find anybody to sell goods to, 

 the consequences are that it is a rather quiet season. 



Some houses believe in making a big stir on the theory that 

 it is good policy to appear prosperous during even quiet times, 

 and so they are not holding back at all in the matter os stock and 

 sales force. The outlook is good, and although that too has 

 come to be an old story with the trade, nevertheless it is being 



verified little by little. 



* * * 



An Eastern rubber man who has been studying conditions on 

 the coast makes some remarks not altogether complimentary to 

 San Francisco, but which he believes to be true, and which he 

 thinks ought to be remedied. "I was surprised when I got to 

 looking into conditions here," he said, "to find what a cheap 

 quality of goods is being used on the coast. Everybody in the 

 trade seems to talk cheapness, and cheap goods are scattered 

 everywhere. The rubber merchants cut and undersell until they 

 get things down to apparently low rates. But what is the result ? 

 The result is that they reduce the quality of their goods. They 

 can't and they don't sell high quality goods at their present prices. 



"All of your fine new buildings in San Francisco have been 

 supplied with a very cheap grade of stuff. This is not because 

 they would not have bought the best, but because the dealers are 

 breaking their necks to sell them the cheapest. A merchant 

 came to me and I showed him something for 22 cents. He made 

 an awful fuss. Then I started to tell him that I could make a 

 price of 15 cents. 



" 'Now you are talking,' he interrupted. 



"'Yes,' I said, 'but look at the cheap stuff I have to make for 

 15 cents. We can supply it, but it is no good.' 



"'Well,' he said, 'that is what the people want.' 



"Now there must be something wrong. This is a big, rich 

 territory, and I do not believe that all the people here want cheap 

 stuff. I think the trouble is with the dealers, and I think that 

 they ought to commence to show their best goods and ask the 



right price for them." 



* * * 



Mr. F. S. Minot, secretary of the Goodyear Rubber Co. (New 

 York), passed through San Francisco last week accompanied 

 by his wife, on the way to Japan for a two months' trip. 



Mr. In. II I'ease, of the Goodyear Rubber Co., has returned 

 from a week's automobile trip over the Sierras to Truckee and 

 Lake Tahoe. Today he will start for Portland for a two weeks' 

 trip. He states that the general business is running ahead, both 

 in the San Francisco and Portland stores, and now with season- 

 able weather in the fall they will have an excellent year as they 

 have taken plenty of advance orders. Mr. Runyan, with this firm, 

 has returned from a business and pleasure trip to San Diego and 

 southern California. 



The firms are still talking about the good business on tires, 

 but the rise in price has had the effect of making things a little 

 quiet in that line lately. Just before the rise, however, all of the 

 dealers made a big clean up. 



The Gorham Rubber Co. have opened a branch store at Spo- 

 kane Washington. Here they have placed W. J. Roope in charge. 

 This makes three branches that this firm have started up within 



the past two months, one in Oakland, where Harry Carlton has 

 been placed as manager, and the other in Portland, where J. H. 

 Smith is the manager. The Portland store is under the Seattle 

 store. 



Mr. Phillips, of the fire department of the Seattle branch of 

 the Gorham Rubber Co., was in San Francisco last week on his 

 vacation. Mr. Gorham is at present in Seattle, and from there 



he will make a trip East. 



* * * 



Mr. PI. C. Norton, manager of the American Rubber Manufac- 

 turing Co., has recovered sufficiently from a long attack of 

 fever to be able to make short visits to his office. Soon he ex- 

 pects to be able to take up his regular line of duties. At the 

 factory in Emeryville this company is doing a good business. 

 Mr. A. T. Dunbar, the new selling agent on the coast for the 

 Boston Belting Co., is getting his salesrooms, at No. 55 First 

 street, well filled with a stock of belting, hose, packings, and 

 mechanical goods, and is now in line to commence active opera- 

 tions in his new offices. 



Messrs. Squire & Byrne have opened a brand; store at Los 

 Angeles. This firm has been doing good work in their San 

 Francisco headquarters and have concluded that they can best 

 handle their growing business in the Southern portion of the 

 State by establishing a branch there. The Los Angeles manager 

 is "Dad" Tracy, of San Francisco. 



Mr. J. E. French, the present Pacific coast manager for the 

 Pennsylvania Rubber Co. is preparing to take a trip through 

 the northwestern territory, with the view to opening agencies 

 at Seattle and Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. He 

 states that he has received his first shipment of their new 

 vacuum cup tire, which is taking well with tourists. 



THE NEXT LONDON RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



'THE dates for the International Rubber and Allied Trades 

 *■ Exhibition, to be held in the Royal Agricultural Hall, in 

 London, have been fixed finally for June 24-July 11, 191 1, which 

 dates will avoid conflicts with any other engagements for the use 

 of the same building. The rubber fair will follow the Royal 

 Military Tournament, which hereafter will be held at Agricul- 

 tural Hall, instead of at Olympia, as formerly. 



The British Colonial office has sent an invitation to the gov- 

 ernors of all British colonies in which rubber is grown, sug- 

 gesting that each colony be represented at the Congress. 



German interest in the coming rubber fair has been indicated 

 already in The India Rubber World. The official German com- 

 mittee will include Herr L. Hoff, general director of the Ham- 

 burg-Wien company; Kommerzienrat S. Seligmann, of the Con- 

 tinental-Caoutchouc und Guttapercha Cie, ; Herr E. Spannagel, 

 general director of the Berlin-Frankfurter company, and Dr. 

 Soetbeer, general secretary of the Centralvereins Deutscher 

 Kautschukwaren-Fabriken — together with several gentlemen con- 

 nected, in an important sense, with the German interest in rubber 

 planting. 



Mr. A. Staines Manders, organizing manager for the rubber 



exhibition, in a letter to The India Rubber World, in pointing 



out what he regards as an important representation from other 



countries in prospect, expresses the hope that "the United States 



will follow suit." 



* * * 



The Rubbers Growers' Association, the headquarters of which 

 are in London, have decided to present to the committee of the 

 International Rubber and Allied Trades Exhibition, to be held 

 in June, 1911, the three medals (gold, silver and bronze), to be 

 awarded for the best exhibits of certain kinds of crude rubber, 

 under conditions to be announced later. 



77ii? India-Rubber Journal (London) is offering a silver 

 shield of the value of 100 guineas [$511], for the best sample of 

 plantation Para rubber shown at the exhibition. 



