Mav 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



597 



After a brief shut-down the Converse Rubber Shoe Co., Mai- 

 den, Massachusetts, resumed operations on a five-day week April 

 1, and reports the demand for tennis lines of footwear consid- 

 erably above normal. 



BOSTON NOTES 



The Rubber Proofing and Rubber Clothing Divisions of The 

 Rubber -Association of .America, Inc., composed of representatives 

 of plants throughout the country, held postponed annual business 

 meetings, election of officers and a joint luncheon at the Copley- 

 Plaza Hotel on March 30. In the morning, following a round- 

 table discussion of business conditions, manufacturing and tech- 

 nical problems, the Proofing Division elected A. W. Warren, of 

 the Hodgman Rubber Co., Tuckahoe, New York, as chairman, 

 and J. T. Callahan, of the Archer Rubber Co., Milford, Massa- 

 chusetts, as vice-chairman. At tht meeting of the clothing di- 

 vision in the afternoon, \. Lincoln Greene, of the United States 

 Rubber Co., Boston, was reelected chairman, and William H. 

 Tenney, of the Clifton Manufacturing Co., Boston, as vice-chair- 

 man. 



All of the district managers for the Grow Tire Co., Canton 

 Junction, Massachusetts, in the larger New England cities were 

 recently guests of the company at a dinner in the Copley Square 

 Hotel, Boston, about fifty persons being present. It was given 

 primarily to celebrate the inception of the Grow tire idea five 

 years ago. In his address, George Grow, president of the com- 

 pany, stated his behef that the company's business would be larger 

 this year than last. The factory is now running two shifts, a day 

 and a night force with orders booked to insure operation at ca- 

 pacity for many months. He also announced that the factory 

 will be enlarged immediately to make available some 16,500 feet 

 of floor space for manufacturing purposes. 



GENERAL MANAGER OF THE WILSON RUBBER CO. 



FED J. Wilson, whose long and comprehensive experience in 

 rubber goods manufacture is responsible for the remarkable 

 success of the Wilson Rubber Co., Canton, Ohio, was born in 



Gallon, Ohio, in 1877 and educated 

 in the public schools of Akron, 

 Ohio. 



Mis first employment was with 

 The B. F. Goodrich Co., where 

 he was foreman of the molded 

 goods department for eight years, 

 going in 1903 to the Republic 

 Rubber Co., Youngstown, Ohio, 

 for one year. In 1904 he went as 

 foreman to the Canton Rubber 

 Co., Canton, Ohio, with which 

 firm he remained until July, 1916, 

 e.Ncept for one year with the 

 Faultless Rubber Co., Ashland, 

 Ohio, in charge of molded goods. 

 His return to the Canton Rubber 

 Co. was as superintendent, and 

 in July, 1916, he organized the 

 Wilson Rubber Co., of which he 

 was elected vice-president and general manager, which position 

 he now holds. 



Under Mr. Wilson's management the company has become the 

 largest exclusive rubber glove manufacturing concern in the 

 country, and a large three-story plant extension to increase pro- 

 duction is Hearing completion. 



Mr. Wilson is a member of The Rulibcr Association of 

 America, Inc., the Rotary Club, Adcraft Club and the Canton 

 Transportation Club. 



Fred 1. Wilson 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN OHIO 

 By Our Regular Correspondent 

 AKRON NOTES 



•-pHE SITUATION in the retail tire business was brought out at a 

 ■*■ recent meeting of one of the larger companies in Akron at 

 which discussion of trade and sales methods gradually developed 

 the facts in the new situation. 



The retail sale of tiros has undergone a revolution during the 

 past three years which has placed tires in country blacksmith 

 shops, country drug stores and general stores in addition to the 

 garages and dealers to which the retail trade was confined pre- 

 vious to the war. Men who have sold tires from three to fifteen 

 years, many of them actual pioneers in the business, assert that 

 previous to the war the tire dealers were closely connected with 

 the automotive industry and that tire salesmen seldom met men 

 selling tires on the road. Today, however, it is not unusual for 

 a man to walk into a small town tire dealer's place of business 

 in the afternoon and find that no less than eight or ten men have 

 been in to see the dealer during the early part of the day. Lines 

 as to who shall handle tires have completely broken down. The 

 general storekeeper, the drug store, and in some instances even 

 banks have become tire agencies, and the result has been that the 

 shoddy tire which was formerly kept out of the market because 

 the men who dealt in tires had reputations to work up or main- 

 tain have now become one of the "staple" lines sold in many small 

 communities. 



Many of the small tire companies which were organized pri- 

 marily for stock selling purposes have actually entered production 

 to some extent, and knowing that they do not intend to stay in 

 the business for any length of time have made every effort to sell 

 their inferior product. The old-time dealers, of course, refused 

 to take on the agencies for their product, knowing good tires 

 and the necessity of giving automobile owners the value of their 

 money, and the salesmen of this class of goods worked upon the 

 desire for profits, regardless of service, of many of the merchants 

 of small towns, and succeeded in having them take over the sale 

 of their product. 



The Akron Chamber of Commerce has entered a free balloon, 

 "The City of Akron," in the national balloon races to start from 

 Birmingham, Alabama, May 21. W. T. Van Orman, well-known 

 .\kron flyer, and Willard SeiberHng will be in the cage of the 

 .Akron car. The balloon was built for the national races in 1918 

 when it was flown for the Akron flying club. Every Akron 

 balloon flown in national meets, with the exception of one, has 

 taken either first or third places and the Akron balloon which 

 won the national race in 1914 also won the international race. 

 Ralph Upson, formerly with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 

 flew the international winner. 



W. W. Hall, traflic commissioner of the Chamber of Commerce, 

 recently placed in charge of the Akron bureau of the United 

 States Department of Commerce, is making wide plans to have 

 the smaller Akron manufacturing companies of all lines, includ- 

 ing the rubber factories, represented at the International Foreign 

 Trade Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, May 4 to 7. The larger 

 companies will be represented by their foreign department mana- 

 gers and assistants, but heretofore the smaller companies have 

 paid little attention to export business, feeling that they are able 

 to sell their product in this country. 



The Akron Home Owners' Investment Co., formed by the 

 rubber men and other manufacturers of Akron two years ago to 

 help solve the housing shortage and obtain homes for families 

 who had .saved some money, but were unable to finance their home 

 building desires through banks and building and loan associations, 

 has closed its business after building 450 homes. The company has 

 received several bids for the collection business which alone re- 

 mains and indications arc that before another month the company 

 will be entirely out of business. H. S. Firestone, president of the 



