172 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1912. 



contents of the firebox over the floor. The engineer had barely 



enough time to get out of the room before it was ablaze. The 



flames were extinguished before the arrival of the city apparatus. 



* * * 



Col. Samuel P. Colt, president of the United States Rubber 

 Co., president of the National India Rubber Co., of Bristol, 

 Rhode Island,' and chairman of the board of directors of the 

 Industrial Trust Co., of this city, will be the storm center at 

 the annual meeting of the latter corporation here on January 16. 



Colonel Colt is the founder and principal stockholder of the 

 Industrial Trust Co., the largest banking institution in Rhode 

 Island, its assets, according to its report December 4, benig 

 $51,159,664.52. While ill during January, 1908, Mr. Colt was in- 

 duced to resign as president of the company, with the under- 

 standing that his position as chairman of the board of directors 

 would be fully recognized upon his recovery. Since then, he 

 says, his position has not been recognized in the manner in 

 which it is in other corporations and that harmony does not 

 prevail between himself and other officers. 



Under date of November 20, Col. Colt sent out a circular re- 

 quest for proxies to be used at the annual meeting. The re- 

 quest was on paper headed "Industrial Trust Company," and in 

 the request Col. Colt was named as attorney. Two days later 

 stockholders received a printed circular from the executive com- 

 mittee advising them to wait for the usual notice and the regu- 

 lar form of proxy, and stating that Col. Colt's request was made 

 without authority. This letter was signed by Cyrus P. Brown. 

 Richard A. Robertson, William H. Perry, H. Martin Brown, C. 

 C. Harrington, Otis Everett and Arthur L. Kelley. The latter 

 is president of the Mechanical Fabric Co. 



Col. Colt replied a few days later with a letter in which he 

 explained that the "Industrial Trust Company" had been his 

 post office address for many years and called attention to the 

 fact that the letters were signed by him personally, with no ref- 

 erence to his official position. He said that he would be pleased 

 to return proxies to any who had been mislead. 



In his home town, Bristol, Col. Colt has already secured 1,912 

 shares out of a total of 1,991, and has many proxies from other 

 places. He says that he wishes to restore harmony. As Col. 

 Colt was the organizer of the company 24 years ago, and has 

 been largely instrumental in bringing it to its present high 

 standing in the banking world, it is believed that his influence 

 will be potent at the coming annual meeting, if he does not 

 actually control it. 



In his letter to the stockholders he had this to say ; "I firmly 

 believe that it is in the interest of all stockholders to send me 

 their proxies, that there may be a restoration of harmony in 

 the management of the company, which has been, and is, so dear 

 to me, that there may be no abatement of that energy which, 

 with the co-operation of many loyal men, brought the company 

 from the foot of the ladder in 1887 to be one of the leading bank- 

 ing institutions in New England, and that I may again find pleas- 

 ure in influencing whatever business I can in the company's 

 favor." 



* * * 



The publication of Bulletin No. 36 of the Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor in a Providence newspaper in which the 

 director of the Bureau of the Census gave the total capitalization 

 of Rhode Island's rubber manufactories as $11,794,533, the total 

 number of persons employed as 991 and the amount of wages 

 paid as $416,642, excited much comment among rubber men here. 



The manufacturers immediately replied by pointing to the 

 Rhode Island State Census of 1905, in which the total number of 

 employes in the State in the boot and shoe branch of the trade 

 was given as 2,590 and in the rubber works as 1,528, the total 

 in the business being 4,118 at that time. They also named seven 

 of the largest establishments, the Woonsocket Rubber Co., Woon- 

 socket ; National India Rubber Co. and Consumers' Rubber Co., 



Bristol, and the Davol Rubber Co., Mechanical Fabric Co. and 

 Bourn Rubber Co., all of Providence, and the Revere Rubber 

 Co., the Providence plant of the United States Tire Co. 



Any one of these concerns, it was stated by a prominent official, 

 would equal the Government figures for the total, and this man 

 also pointed out the presence of other smaller concerns in the 

 state. 



The director heard of the criticism of tlie rubber manufacturers 

 of the state and sent an explanation to a Providence newspaper 

 in which he stated that table No. 16 of Bulletin No. 36 did not 

 include the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes. He said 

 that these were under a separate classification. They were, but 

 they were merged with other industries, so that it was impossible 

 to get any information concerning them. This, he explained, 

 was because "the law controlling the work of the Bureau of the 

 Census provides that no pul)lication shall be made whereby the 

 operations of the individual establishments can be identified, 

 and, therefore, in presenting the statistics for Rhode Island 

 the data for the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes were 

 included with all other industries." 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN CHICAGO. 



(By a Resident Correspondent.) 



BESIDES being one of the most successful business women 

 of the West, Mrs. E. V. Laughton, of Racine, Wisconsin, 

 treasurer of the Chicago Rubber Clothing Company, was one of 

 the pioneers of the rubber industry in the Middle West. For more 



than thirty years 

 she has been the 

 moving spirit in 

 the company, and 

 it was largely due 

 to her energy and 

 financial ability 

 that the business 

 grew from a small 

 beginning into the 

 flourishing con- 

 cern it now is. 



In 1879 George 

 H. Laughton, her 

 husband, formed 

 Laughton & Co., 

 the first rubber 

 m a n u f a c t u r- 

 i n g concern in 

 Chicago. Mrs. 

 Laughton was the 

 "& Co.," and even 

 then was the main- 

 Mrs. E. V. Laughton. stay of the finan- 



cial end of the business. In 1882 the concern, which had hith- 

 erto purchased its gossamer cloth from the East, was incor- 

 porated as the Chicago Rubber Clothing Company, and the first 

 factory in the West for the manufacture of the old, sun-cured gos- 

 samer cloth was built at Grand Crossing, a suburb to the south 

 of Chicago, 



The establishment was moved in 1887 to Racine, where the 

 main factory is now located. There were several reasons for the 

 move. First, the factory at that time employed about 200 girls 

 and help was plentiful in the northern town. Second, the change 

 ofifered freedom from labor troubles. Another reason was the 

 fact that Racine was then offering inducements to growing con- 

 cerns. 



At the time of her husband's death in the summer of 1893, 

 Mrs. Laughton was secretary of the company. Immediately fol- 

 lowing his death she was elected general manager of the com- 



