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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



November 1, 1920 



The increasing population of cities in Ohio has led to consider- 

 able speculation regarding the future food supply of the country, 

 which was one of the principal topics of discussion at the annual 

 meeting of the Federal Highway Council at Akron the latter 

 part of September. 



L. J. Taber, master of the Ohio State Grange, at a dinner given 

 the Council by the Akron Chamber ot Commerce at the Portage 

 Country Club, warned highway builders, automobile and truck 

 men that the time has come when the food supply of the nation 

 is menaced by the fact that the farms are being depleted because 

 of the wages paid by the industries in the cities. He cited 

 Akron as an example and was frankly pleased to learn that men 

 are going from Akron back to their homes on the farm. 



The eight speakers who followed Mr. Tabor dwelt mainly 

 upon the necessity for increased rapidity of transportation from 

 the farm to the cities to overcome the scarcity of help on the 

 farms. Among them were Paul W. Litchfield, factory manager 

 of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. ; F. S. Holbrook, vice-presi- 

 dent and treasurer of the American Railway Express Co.; S. M. 

 Williams, chairman of the Council ; A. R. Kroh, of The Goodyear 

 Tire & Rubber Co. ; Dr. R. S. McEIwee, of the foreign bureau of 

 the Department of Commerce, and David Beecroft, of the Class 

 Journal Co., of New York City. 



Mr. Litchfield asserted that the pneumatic tire will replace the 

 solid tire in truck transportation because it is better able to stand 

 the hard bumps of the road with heavy loads. Multiple-wheel 

 trucks will be the ultimate means of carry^in.a; heavier loads at 

 greater speeds. He said that the Goodyear company employs two 

 men in agriculture to each man employed in the rubber mills. 

 For every pound of cotton grown for tires on the Goodyear plan- 

 tations two pounds of food are raised. 



Dr. McElwce believes that the industries of the country are 

 producing more than the home market can consume and the only 

 hope for keeping the mills of America running at top speed is to 

 enlarge our foreign commerce. The United States, he said, has 

 become the trade center of the world, following the world war, 

 and foreign trade alone will make it possible to take care of our 

 increasing manufacturing plants and industrial population. 



One of the first problems to be taken up by the Council is an 

 adequate supply of water for home and industrial consumption. 



Horseback riding in the home of the automobile tire promises 

 to be revived through the formation of a group of cavalry as one 

 unit of the Ohio National guard stationed at Akron. The troop 

 is being organized by Major Joseph Johnston, son of W. A. 

 Johnston, president of the Rubber Products Co., Barberton, Ohio. 

 It will consist of thirty saddles. Several years ago when auto- 

 mobiles were not as popular as now. Battery B of the national 

 guard made Sunday riding popular. The fact that H. S. Fire- 

 stone, president of the Firestone Tire & .Rubber Co., established 

 a riding school at his home last winter that may be repeated this 

 year lends additional support to the belief that riding horses will 

 again become popular here. 



Much speculation has resulted from a visit to Akron by Henry 

 Ford, head of the Ford Motor Co., of Detroit, and his son 

 Edsel, active head of the company. They spent two days late in 

 September with H. S. Firestone, president of the Firestone Tire 

 & Rubber Co. Coming directly after the announcement of de- 

 creased prices for Ford automobiles his visit was for a time 

 looked upon as a step to lower the price of automobile tires. 

 Mr. Ford was quoted in Canton and Cleveland newspapers to 

 the effect that he intended building his own tire factory, but Mr. 

 Ford denied having given out such an interview. 



The agreement reached with the mine operators, railroads and 

 dealers by the transportation department of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce before the Interstate Commerce Commission has resulted 

 in more than 16,000 loads of coal being distributed in Akron 

 during the past month. According to W. W. Hall, traffic com- 



missioner of the Chamber, conditions will not be serious this 

 winter unless strikes prevent the mining or moving of coal. 



Ralph H. Upson, holder of the Gordon Bennett International 

 balloon race trophy, Akron's best-known aircraft man, has re- 

 signed from his position as head of the aeronautical department 

 .if The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to develop a commercial 

 "lighter-than-air" transportation company. Mr. Upson has main- 

 tained for several years that the rigid type of lighter-than-air 

 craft is the ultimate solution of the lighter than air problems and 

 this is the type of machine his new company will develop. 



According to factory heads the educational literature sent out 

 by Akron tire companies regarding the preservation and care of 

 lires to get maximum mileage has resulted in an increase of more 

 than 20 per cent in the service given by tires, and this as a con- 

 sequence has decreased the sale of tires to some extent. This 

 lampaign will be enlarged during the next few years, it is said. 



The first temporary grade separation on Miller avenue, the 

 main artery to the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and The B. F. 

 Goodrich Co., has been opened by the city of Akron and the 

 railroads. For many years the traffic to these two plants has 

 been held up by railroad traffic. The city and railroads will 

 spend $3,000,000 in building other separations over railroad tracks 

 during the next few years. This will remove one of the worst 

 handicaps to transportation in the city. 



W. R. Ridge, president of the Rubber Engineering Co., Akron, 

 has resigned his position as president of the Andes Tire & Rubber 

 Co., Toledo, Ohio, to which he was elected some time ago, in 

 order to devote his entire time to rubber engineering and other 

 business interests. 



VV. H. Barkwill, Akron, has purchased the mold manufacturing 

 department of The Die Sinking & Machine Co. of the same city, 

 and will continue the business under the same name. He expects 

 to incorporate and build a larger plant. 



J. W. Jordan, for ten years in the accounting department of 

 The B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co., and for the past few years 

 assistant auditor, has been made auditor of the company to suc- 

 ceed W. Murra.v, who recently resigned. 



John R. Gammeter, head of the experimental department of 

 The B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co., advised Akron business men to 

 prepare to do business on a pre-war basis at a dinner given by 

 the Akron Builders' Exchange recently. 



J. C. Clinefelter has been promoted from the position of pro- 

 duction superintendent to that of sales manager of The .\krou 

 Standard Mold Co., Akron, manufacturer of rubber inolds and 

 machinery. He was formerly chief engineer of The Portage 

 Rubber Co., Barberton, Ohio, and previous to that was assistant 

 chief engineer for the Republic Rubber Corporation. Youngstown, 

 Ohio. 



More than 8,500 employes of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 

 voted in tlie second annual election of the company's industrial 

 republic held recently. More than 1,000 women went to the polls. 



Si.x of the ten present members of the Goodyear senate 

 seeking reelection were defeated in their senatorial dis- 

 tricts in the factory. Of twenty-three members of the house of 

 representatives, running for second terms, only ten were re- 

 elected. Senator E. J. Hard, first president of the Goodyear 

 senate, was defeated by twenty-two votes for reelection by Fred 

 Arbogast. J. B. Long, speaker of the lower house, was re- 

 elected. 



Both houses of the industrial assembly will convene early in 

 November to elect presiding officers for the year. P. W. Litch- 

 field, vice-president and factory manager, who conceived and 

 established the Goodyear industrial republic, will continue to 

 sit in the same relation to the industrial legislators as the Presi- 

 dent of the United States to Congress. 



In such capacity during the first year of the republic's operation 



