396 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



March 1, 1921 



IX)\ver 37 ]H."r cent. To the farmer the motor car has 

 been a decided boon. By replacing men with machines, 

 in most of which rubber must be used, the American 

 farmer produces four times as much food per human unit 

 as the European, and realizes relatively that much more 

 in profits. 



RUBBER ROSES IN SIGHT 



Til. XT the rubber bloom of the future will not be the 

 ■'excess sulphur'' of the present, but a bloom that 

 will rival in beauty the fairest garden product, was fore- 

 shadowed recently at a banquet, where side by side with 

 choice cut flowers were dainty bouquets made of rubber 

 that could scarcely be distinguished from their natural 

 models. 



Some may ask, "Why, then, are they not marketed?" 

 The answer is, that the market has not yet "arrived." It 

 mav be even several years before woman will be edu- 

 cated to adorn her millinery with rubber roses, but when 

 the time comes the far-sighted manufacturers will be 

 found ready to meet the demand. Yet this is but one of 

 many instances of the vision shown by the practical 

 prophets of the rubber industry. There is even reason to 

 believe that through the ceaseless experimenting in the 

 great rubber laboratories many novel and important uses 

 for rubber will soon be found that will go part of the way 

 toward answering the question, "What shall become of 

 the Enormous output of the growing plantations in the 

 Far East?" 



MAKING MACHINERY DO IT 



THE favorite contention of the radical agitator is that 

 the sole concern employers have for their workers 

 is to force them, in utter disregard of their health, com- 

 fort, future, etc., to produce the maximum output at the 

 minimum cost in order to swell extortionate profits — 

 the agitators always like to picture as excessive even 

 moderate returns on capital. Yet the truth is that the 

 humane, considerate, enlightened employer is far from 

 being a rarity nowadays. Indeed, many of the great 

 captains of industry are keener .students of social condi- 

 tions and are striving more actively and intelligently to 

 promote the welfare of workers than the men who thrive 

 only by fomenting labor unrest. Hard workers them- 

 selves, many of them through real merit rising from the 

 lowest rung of the ladder, such industrial leaders well 

 appreciate the view-point of the toilers and they are mak- 

 ing a constant, practical effort to lighten the lot of labor. 

 Nor is such effort less earnest because it may not quite 

 coincide with the radical and impractical changes hur- 

 riedly urged by the professional trouble-breeder. It is 

 gratifying to note, too, that many of such real leaders 

 of labor, whose counsel is much sought and whose meth- 

 ods are widely emulated, rank as high executives in the 

 rubber industry. 



Advanced thinkers discard the old notion that labor is 

 but a mere commodity to be bought in the cheapest mar- 

 ket to produce goods to be sold in the dearest. They also 

 challenge the claim that modern machinery has reduced 

 workers and shirkers to one dead level, killed personality, 

 and made each operative but a mere automaton. In refu-. 

 tation, they cite the fact that since the introduction of 

 modern labor-saving machinery the worker earns more 

 and works less, his strength is not overtaxed, his chances 

 of promotion are as good as ever, he has infinitely more 

 sanitary and comfortable working conditions, and has 

 far more time for pleasure or self-improvement. Of 

 especial benefit to him is the practice nowadays, and very 

 generally in the rubber industry, to speed up the labor- 

 saving apparatus rather than the man and thus avert 

 undue strain on the latter. "Sweat the machine, not the 

 operator," is the modern shop slogan. 



Industrial managers are finding out also that w-ith 

 shorter shifts for the men and longer shifts for the ma- 

 chines, output can be actually increased, and that workers 

 do react favorably to efficient, drudgery-saving devices. 



Their factory clinics tell them, too, that most of the 

 accidents to workers on long shifts occur shortly before 

 quitting time, when caution relaxes with ebbing energy. 



BUILDING MEN TO BUILD RUBBER GOODS 



ANEW DEiWRTURE in the rubber industry, that will 

 doubtless be emulated by many other branches of 

 trade, and which has already proved very helpful, is the 

 training of foremen in executive work, assuming responsi- 

 bility, and developing energy, talent, and possibilities of 

 the men in their departments. At industrial schools in big 

 shop plants as many as fifteen courses of study are pur- 

 sued, taking in the sources of crude rubber, the problem 

 of labor turnover, the viewpoint of the operative, the 

 question of utmost efficiency, the getting of supplies, time 

 and rate fixing, etc. Foremen are urged to raise not only 

 their own ideals and standards, but to also develop man- 

 hood and character, with skill and speed, in those commit- 

 ted to their charge. In other words, they are being edu- 

 cated to build the men who build the tires, belting, shoes, 

 and so on. For foremen in smaller industries an excellent 

 correspondence course is provided. 



It w.^s a generous and far-sighted act on the part 

 of Frederic C. Hood to step into the breach and rescue 

 the Boston Belting Co. from the morass of mismanage- 

 ment into which it had fallen. As a posthumous favor 

 to James Bennett Forsyth, to whom the pioneer .Ameri- 

 can company was dearer than life, it is unexcelled. 



It is well for tire users that there are no "speed 

 cops" in factories to check the swiftness of examinations, 

 else how could they, with the present high cost of labor, 

 ever hope to pay for the "over 600 rigid inspections" 

 one tire-making concern says it gives every casing? 



